NOTES for Co1 1:30-31

Paul describes Christian life as the fullness of righteousness in its traditional understanding. In Yahwism, and later in Judaism, righteousness became firmly connected with the image of poverty and of the poor person, which first appeared in the preaching of Isaiah of Jerusalem. And the Savior Himself connects the blessedness of the poor, the destitute, with Himself and with the coming of the Kingdom. This connection is not accidental. The issue, of course, is not material poverty, since the same Isaiah, for example, who considered himself poor, was by no means poor, but poverty as a spiritual state that was inseparable from traditional ideas of righteousness.

Indeed, righteousness is not inherent in a person by nature; it cannot belong to him as an inborn or acquired quality or property of his nature. Righteousness is a state in which a person may abide, but which he may just as easily lose. God brings a person into the state of righteousness, and the person himself can do nothing in order to acquire it. What depends on the person is only readiness to enter this state and remain in it. But such readiness by itself changes nothing in essence: whatever it may be, if God does not intervene, it is useless. A person turns out to be destitute, having nothing and able to do nothing in what concerns his spiritual life, his relationships with God.

He can do much in order to become righteous and not come one iota closer to the goal without God's direct intervention in his life. And everything a person can do and has in this world means and is worth nothing when the main task is being resolved. A person feels himself destitute, poor, while being in this world a rich man and court aristocrat, as that same Isaiah was, for example. This is what Paul speaks about when he mentions wisdom, strength, and noble birth as things having no significance for the spiritual path of a Christian.

The Christian's path is still the same path of righteousness, but the path of righteousness with Christ, who from the point of view of this world was a complete and absolute failure, whose mission ended with the cross, and therefore with complete collapse. But for the apostle the Savior's "failure" is akin to the same "failures" of those seeking righteous life, who refuse to rely on everything the world can offer them in order to let God into their life. So too Christians are ready to let the "failure" Christ into their life and follow Him in spite of all the arguments this world can bring them. Because the "failure" whom they are ready to follow has one argument, but the most weighty one: the Kingdom that He brought into the world.

Paul does not flatter the people to whom he writes... Would you enjoy reading words such as these: just look at yourselves—you are neither wise nor powerful... It is disheartening. But objective. Paul describes the real situation rather than singing their praises.

The Lord also looks at us in the same way—objectively. However much He loves each of us, He will not claim that we possess gifts and good qualities that we do not actually have. What He does is far better, although it does not greatly flatter our self-esteem. He takes what is there—and acts Himself. He gives us gifts that were not naturally inherent in us. What is required of us is to receive His gifts, use them for His glory, and never forget from Whom they come.

Thus the crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks”... Could the Almighty Lord really not have found some option that would neither cause offense nor seem foolish? He could have. But He did not look for one. For He did not and never does set Himself the goal of being convenient and comfortable... Yes, He loves humankind, but that does not mean that He ceases to be Himself. He acts within His own laws. And even if it seems that He “is not behaving like God,” in reality He is simply not trying to conform to our notions of what God should be like.

Continuing the conversation about disputes and about what causes them, Paul, of course not by accident, turns to the theme of human wisdom and its limits. For him it is obvious that this wisdom is unable to understand the mystery of the Savior's earthly ministry and His death on the cross (vv. 18-21). Here the apostle remains faithful to the tradition of the "poor," which had taken shape already in the time of the pre-exilic prophets. Judging by the Book of Psalms, even then it had become clear to those seeking full spiritual life and deep relationship with God that human effort alone was not enough to attain righteousness, and that a person who wanted to follow God had to give up the thought of relying only on himself. The seeker could reach what he desired only by surrendering himself completely to God's will. It is no accident that these people began to call themselves "the poor": they understood that before God they were like beggars even when, by the standards of this world, they could be considered wise and rich. They were the ones who awaited the coming of the Messiah and the arrival of the messianic Kingdom more than others; it is precisely such people whom Jesus calls blessed when proclaiming its arrival. But both in the time of the ancient prophets and in the time of Jesus there were people who preferred their own wisdom to the Kingdom. And Paul says directly that trying to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom by human effort alone is useless.

It would seem that there is no need for this, since Jesus Himself revealed them to everyone who wanted to see and hear, to everyone ready to trust Him and follow Him. But only the one who had experienced what the "poor" experienced could do this: the understanding, despite all his wisdom and knowledge, of his complete helplessness in everything concerning the Kingdom, which no one can understand and into which no one can enter unless he is brought in by the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. It is precisely human wisdom that demands signs and proofs even where everything is obvious (vv. 21-24), for such signs and proofs are needed not in order to be convinced of the authenticity of the reality that has opened, but in order to "fit" it into the framework of human logic, coordinating and connecting it with earthly wisdom, which is powerless here. And only to those who have given up such attempts is the path into the Kingdom opened (vv. 26-31). And together with this, the complete meaninglessness of the disputes that divide people in this world becomes clear to them.