Who You Were, Who Christ is-1 Cor 1:26-31

Do you insist on how right you are or do you acknowledge what you lack? Do you highlight your weaknesses or do you emphasize your strengths?

Do you know what you were before becoming a Christian? What if you were born in a Christian home and going to church from birth? But no one is born a Christian (Jn 1:13); one needs to be “born again” (Jn 3:3,5). There should be a before and after difference. Being born in a non-Christian home it was literally a night and day overnight change when I became a Christian in 1980. I did not plan for this. I wasn’t expecting it. But it happened. I know that I didn’t choose God, but God chose me (Jn 15:16) and began His good work in me (Phil 1:5). It wasn’t something I planned or did. I call it my magical mystical conversion.

• God’s folly–a crucified Messiah (1:18-25).
• God’s folly–the Corinthian believers (1:26-31).

Boasting. The gospel Paul preached not only directly contradicts human expectations about God [appearing foolish], but also to the Corinthians themselves as believers. They were not from the world’s “beautiful people,” but from the lower classes, the “nobodies.” God choose them to make up his new people. Thus they themselves give evidence to God’s foolishness that confounds the wise. Paul does this to demolish their “boasting” in mere men–the new theme picked up here–not only because they were doing so by their quarrels over their leaders, but also because it is the main theme of the text from Jer 9:23-24 that serves the framework for the argument.

Paul spotlights the Corinthians. Paul opens by reminding them of their humbler origins (1 Cor 1:26). God choosing people like them has the same design as the cross–to save them and also to “shame” and “nullify” the very values they were boasting about (1 Cor 1:27-28). God’s ultimate intent in election of such people (1 Cor 1:29) is to obliterate completely all human grounds for “boasting”–for self-sufficiency–and thereby to cast one completely to trust in God alone (1 Cor 1:31), made possible through the work of Christ, whom God made to become the true “wisdom” for us by effecting redemtion for us, thereby making us right with God (1 Cor 1:30).

Diversity. A few church members had relative affluence, but on the whole they’re not a gathering of the elite. “Not many” of them were highly educated or wealthy or powerful. Yet, they’ve called by God as God’s own covenant people, which Paul reminds them of (1 Cor 1:26, 2, 24). God didn’t call Caesar or senators to represent the gospel in the world; instead, he calls this motley assembly of freedmen, tradespeople, slaves—along with a few of higher standing (“not many,” rather than “none”). The mixed socioeconomic status was a most striking feature of the early church. Then, as now, voluntary societies tend to be socially homogeneous. The early church bringing together people of diverse rank and background who acknowledged one another as “brothers and sisters” (1 Cor 1:26) was distinctive. (Yet, precisely this socioeconomic diversity may have been a cause of trouble in the Corinthian church.)

God’s mysterious election of this unlikely group of people symbolizes the pattern of eschatological reversal, and also characterizes the message and ministry of Jesus. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:27–28). God’s action corresponds closely to Hannah’s prayer (1 Sam 2:1–10) and Mary’s song of praise (Lk 1:46–55). God “raises up the poor from the dust,” and he has “brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” In terms of Jesus’ own vision, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of those who appear to be respectable and religious (Mt 21:31).

Paul’s understanding of the cross. If God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5), expect the church to be a mixed lot, as in Corinth. In Paul’s view, the relatively low status of most of the Corinthian Christians is a sign of what God did in the cross and in the world: overturning expectations. God is creating his new community out of unimpressive material to exemplify the power of his own unmerited grace. The social composition of the church is an outward and visible sign of God’s paradoxical election.What‘s the purpose? Clearly emphatically: “so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:29). It’s axiomatic/self-evident in the OT that no human flesh (word Paul uses in 1 Cor 1:29) can stand before the awesome holiness of God or contribute anything that God needs. All self–assertion must melt away before the flame of God’s presence. God elected to shame the wise and powerful of the world by creating an eschatological community made up of people whom the world scorns. This is God’s apocalyptic action of abolishing “the things that are” and bringing a new creation into being ex nihilo (“out of nothing,” 1 Cor 1:28). God is the source of the very existence of the Corinthian community; they’re brought into being by God in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:30).

Source of wisdom and everything important. Christ Jesus “became for us wisdom (sophia) from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” He is saying, “You want wisdom? All right, here’s the wisdom God has provided us: Christ Jesus, i.e., Christ Jesus crucified!” which Paul has already said (1 Cor 1:23–24). Connecting Christ with wisdom cannot be separated from the specific event of the cross, which ironically deconstructs all human wisdom.

“Wisdom christology” is where much theological discussion in our time has gone seriously astray. It celebrates Jesus as a teacher of wise aphorisms and an affirmer of human potential, which is entirely separated from the cross. It’s not at all what Paul means when he equates Christ with wisdom. His whole point: the crucified Christ is the wisdom of God. He also adds 3 explanatory appositives [side by side]: he became wisdom for us—and also righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All 3 words connect Jesus with the story of God’s redemption of Israel to be a holy people in covenant with him. There’s no such thing as wisdom apart from:

• covenant relationship with God (righteousness) that leads to
• holy living (sanctification) made possible by
• God’s act of delivering us from slavery (redemption) through the cross.

Do you live in this reality? Paul is addressing those who revel in their possession of the divine sophia, who embrace wisdom christology as an alternative to a christology focused on the cross is to repeat the Corinthian mistake.

No human wisdom clinches Paul’s argument. Paul’s 2nd Scripture quotation articulates his whole argument: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31). This emphatically precludes any possibility of glorying in human wisdom. It is God who is the source of salvation, God who deserves all the glory. There is no room for human self–assertion. “The Lord” with characteristic Pauline usage, refers to Christ (Gal 6:14).

Where does this Scripture come from? The usual view is that it’s Jer 9:24–a judgment against Israel, “because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them” (Jer. 9:13–14). The immediate context of the Jeremiah citation resonates not just with 1 Cor 1:31 but with the whole foregoing passage: “Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise man [ho sophos] boast in his wisdom [sophia], do not let the strong man boast in his strength, do not let the wealthy man boast in his wealth; but let the one who boasts boast in this, to understand and know that I am the Lord; I act with mercy and justice and righteousness upon the earth, for in these things is my will, says the Lord (Jer. 9:22–23).

When this whole passage is called up in memory, its appropriateness to Paul’s argument is evident: it looks as though Jeremiah has provided not only the clincher quote against boasting but also the pattern for Paul’s 3 fold dismissal of the wise, the powerful, and the well-born (1 Cor 1:26–28). Even the reference to Christ as becoming “righteousness” in v. 30 might be heard as an echo of the last part of Jer 9:24.

There is, however, another equally possible source for the quotation. The Septuagint version of Hannah’s prayer has a long conclusion that is lacking in the Hebrew text of 1 Sam 2:10: Do not let the wise man (ho phronimos) boast in his understanding [phronImagessei), And do not let the powerful man boast in his power, And do not let the wealthy man boast in his wealth, But let the the one who boasts boast in this, To understand and know the Lord And to do justice and righteousness in the midst of the earth. (1 Kgdms. 2:10 LXX)

The wording is nearly identical to Jer 9:24, but the context is different: whereas Jeremiah pronounces judgment, Hannah’s song celebrates God’s gracious blessing and, most significantly, highlights the theme of reversal of status, a theme that dominates Paul’s whole discussion of wisdom and folly, strength and weakness, in 1:18–31. The passage in 1 Kingdoms 2:10 LXX, however, lacks the key link-words sophos and sophia, which are present in Jeremiah. Does Paul’s brief citation in 1:31 allude distinctly to one or the other of these passages? It’s difficult to say; possibly we hear echoes of both. It’s clear, however, that Paul’s disparagement of wisdom, power, and privilege draws upon the OT. The God with whom the Corinthians must learn to deal is the God of Jeremiah and Hannah, a God who acts surprisingly for the salvation of his people, demands humility from them in response, and leaves no room for human pride.

Reference:

1. Richard B. Hays. First Corinthians. Interpretation. A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 1997.
2. Gordon D. Fee. First Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the NT. 1987.

Sermon Divisions:

1. Always Thank God (1:1-10) [1 Cor 1:4].  Cosmic Epic Calling [1 Cor 1:2].
2. The Devil Divides, God Unites (1:10-17) [1 Cor 1:10]. All Agree. No Divisions. Perfect Unity.
3. God‘s Way Appears Foolish (1:17-25). The Cross is Moronic and Kinda Dumb [1 Cor 1:18]. The Cross Stumbles. The Cross is like a Cop Out. Foolish Cross.
4. What You Were, Who Christ Is (1:26-31) [1 Cor 1:26]. No Boasting  [1 Cor 1:31].
5. Christ Crucified (2:1-5) [1 Cor 2:2]. Nothing but Christ.
6. Mature Wisdom (2:6-16) [1 Cor 2:6].
7. Field Laborers (3:1-9) [1 Cor 3:5].
8. Construction Workers (3:10-15) [1 Cor 3:10-11].
9. God’s Temple (3:16-22) [1 Cor 3:16].
10. True Self (4:1-5) [1 Cor 4:4].
11. Become Scum (4:6-13) [1 Cor 4:13].
12. Final Warning (4:14-21) [1 Cor 4:19].