The Corinthians are Achaeans; and these likewise heard the word of truth from the apostles, and were subverted in manifold ways by false apostles. Some were led astray by the wordy eloquence of philosophy, others by the sect of the Jewish law. These the Apostle recalls to true evangelical wisdom, writing to them from Ephesus. Corinth is the metropolis, and therefore what he writes to them he writes to all Achaia. CHAPTER ONE. 'Paul.' It is a name of authority. 'Called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.' Called on the way, that he might be an apostle. 'Through the will of God.' By the will of God called and enlightened, he believed. 'And Sosthenes a brother.' Not an apostle, but one who was knowledgeable from among themselves. 'To the church of God which is at Corinth.' It is a church, yet not of God. 'To them that are sanctified'—through baptism.
'In Christ Jesus.' By His grace, through which we are saved. 'Called to be saints, with all.' He shows what the Church of God is, which has been washed by the saving laver. He reproves the saints, that these may convict the rest, since not even they are without sin; as the Saviour, because of the Pharisees, says to His disciples, 'See and beware of all covetousness,' though they had nothing. 'Who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and ours.' To call upon (invocare) is to call within (intus vocare), which, though it is permitted to all, yet most of all it pertains to priests to call upon; as there: 'Thus you shall bless the children of Israel, invoking My name.' And David says: 'And Samuel among them that call upon His name.'
For he was a priest, who both succeeded a priest and offered sacrifices, and of whom it was said according to the history: 'I will raise up for myself a faithful priest.' 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' It is to be noted that he always sets grace before peace. 'I give thanks to my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus.' I give thanks indeed that you have knowledge, but I wish you to know what that knowledge is which agrees in all things with the catholic faith. As is his custom, he first exhorts them. 'That in all things you were made rich in him.' In all the teachings that are the gift of God through wisdom, which appointed the prophets and the friends of God. 'In all utterance and in all knowledge.'
As well of the Old Testament as of the New. 'Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.' The testimony of Christ, which he spoke: 'Every scribe instructed is like a householder who brings forth from his treasure things new and old.' 'So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace.' As Solomon says: 'All things came to me together with her'—that is, with wisdom. 'Awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Who now, as though absent, is not seen. 'Who will also confirm you unto the end, without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' As the Prophet says: 'Confirm me in your words'; and that: 'Much peace to them that love your name, and there is no stumbling-block to them.' 'God is faithful, by whom you are called.'
Because the faithful God has confirmed them. 'Unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' John shows this fellowship, saying: 'Because God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all: if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie.' And Paul: 'If we die together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together'—if we have been partners of his manner of life and of his sufferings, we shall be partners also in glory. 'And I beseech you, brethren.' Thus far the preface with praise; from here he now pursues the cause of the dissension. 'By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' In which name you shall see signs done. 'That you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you.' That you may be of one mind, or make the same confession. 'And be per[fect].'
'...joined in the same mind and in the same judgment.' If you both think and utter one and the same thing, then you will be able to be perfect. 'For it has been signified to me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.' How did the Apostle give credence concerning those absent, when it is written, 'Do not believe an idle report,' and much else? But he had this grace, that he knew what the absent were doing, as he says to the Colossians: 'Though absent in body, yet present in spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order.' 'Now this I say, that every one of you says: I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas.'
Under the person of the apostles he was speaking this of the false apostles, who had circumvented them through the wisdom of the world, because each one said he belonged to him whose teaching he loved, though they held diverse teachings; if therefore this is not to be said even of the true apostles, how much more of those who were nothing! 'But I am of Christ.' 'Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?' Few were saying what all ought to have said. The body is divided when the members disagree. It can be said to those who, by Christ's example, wish to imitate Abraham: Was Abraham crucified for you? And that saying of the Lord, in which he teaches that we ought not to ask what he will command another disciple: for he says to Peter, 'What is that to you? Follow me.'
'Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?' These indeed had the sacrament of baptism, but through contention and zeal they were turning it into schism, and by thinking carnally they believed otherwise concerning God, since by their carnal sense they were fashioning for themselves a God such as they wished, and thus believed him to be as far different from what God is as vanity differs from truth: because 'the natural man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God.' Of such he says: 'And they are carried about with every wind of doctrine.' 'I give thanks to my God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,' lest anyone say that you were baptized in my name. 'And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.'
'For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.' Which came about so, that I baptized none of you; for perhaps you would have said that I baptized in my own name. 'Not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ be made void.' They make void the power of the cross who glory in human wisdom, which the cross condemned. For the word of the cross is the preaching of the Gospel. 'Of Christ crucified.' 'To them indeed that perish it is foolishness.' To the unbelieving and to those who understand not the power of God, it seems foolishness to call the Son of God crucified; but the faithful understand it to be the power of God, since he overcame both the devil and death. 'But to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God.' By pouring in faith he saved them.
For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and reject the prudence of the prudent.' This was fulfilled at the coming of Christ. 'Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?' By choosing fishermen, he rejected the philosophers. 'Where is the searcher of this age?' Who with his own wisdom, together with others, investigates hidden things, as concerning secret matters and the natures of individual things. Whence is this wisdom which God rejects, since all wisdom is from the Lord God? But such wisdom, being secular, does not descend from above, but is worldly; therefore it is refuted as foolish by the Lord, because it thinks itself to be something, and to know through its own wisdom the secret things of God: but this wisdom is natural and devilish.
Of such wise men God says: 'Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent.' 'Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased God.' He made all things in wisdom, in which he who had made them ought himself to be known, who had also given wisdom to men themselves for knowing him. 'To save them that believe by the foolishness of preaching'—which was held to be foolishness among them. 'For the Jews also require signs'—after the custom of the prophets; and though they ought to have known even without signs, yet seeing they did not believe. 'And the Greeks seek after wisdom'—the reasoning of human wisdom. 'But we preach Christ crucified.'
He shows how greatly their wisdom differs from his own teaching. 'Unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block.' It is a stumbling-block to the Jews if we preach that he is the very Christ whom they crucified: it is a scandal to them to hear that Christ died, as they were saying, 'We have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever.' 'But unto the Gentiles foolishness'—since they do not understand that it is the mercy of God, which was believed to be foolishness. 'For unless you believe' (says the Prophet), 'you shall not understand.' 'But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.' Which one truly does not believe while he knows it not; but when he has believed, what he had thought weakness he understands to be power, because they understand it to be the mystery of godliness when they believe.
If Christ is the power of God, then he is everlasting. Christ therefore is everlasting, because it is said elsewhere: 'His everlasting power also, and divinity, and wisdom.' Not understanding this, the heretics blaspheme by making the Father imperfect, when they say that the Father was once without the Son; therefore he was without power, without word, without wisdom, without justice—which, how foolishly they say, let them acknowledge the power of God on account of the signs, and the wisdom of God on account of the teaching. 'For that which is foolish of God is wiser than men.' Because what seems foolish in the sight of God is wiser than all men: for they could not be saved by their own wisdom, who were set free through the cross of the Lord.
As if you should say: the rustic speech of an advocate is wiser than the speech of the most learned peasant. It was judged foolish of God when they heard that God had suffered; but this was wiser. 'And the weak thing of God is stronger than men.' Death, which not even the giants could escape, a man crucified, taken up into God, overcame. 'For behold your calling, brethren.' Prove in yourselves what I say. 'That there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.' For few of the wise believed: for through the pride of secular wisdom, many were unwilling to be made subject to the wisdom of God. 'But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may confound the wise.'
'God has chosen the weak things of the world, that he may confound the strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, God has chosen, and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are.' That is, God has chosen the people of the Gentiles, who were not the people of God, that he might destroy the people of the Jews, who gloried that they were of God. The boasting of those three things is always reproved, as it is written: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches.' The Lord himself also fulfilled in himself, for our example, what he had spoken through the prophet. Thus, in being born of a poor mother, he rejects riches; in not learning letters, he refutes the wisdom of the world.
In being betrayed, he does not resist—he who could overturn the whole world with a single word—yet he showed human strength to be nothing. Hence let them humble themselves before God, if they too wish to be chosen with the rest. But he said all this against those who claimed to be of the priestly line and skilled in the law and better than the apostles, and who were seducing them into many errors of doctrine: just as it can be said against the Pelagians, who say they were saved by their own wisdom. 'That no flesh should glory in his sight.' They are carnal who glory in their own merits: but they will quickly fall, like the flower of the grass. 'But of him are you in Christ Jesus.' If therefore you are of him, do not admire those whom he did not choose.
'Who is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice.' That he might make us wise, and just, and holy. This passage tells against the Arians, who say that the Father was once without the Son, who is Wisdom. 'And sanctification and redemption.' The redemption of our body at the resurrection. 'That, as it is written: He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.' Not in this world, nor in one's own merits, as do many who believe themselves Christians and are deceived by the Pelagian error. CHAPTER II. 'And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ: for I judged not myself to know anything among you.'
Because he had shown that they ought not to admire human wisdom, he repeats his own example: that he himself had not preached through human wisdom. 'Save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Which among men seems foolishness. 'And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.' Not in boasting. 'And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit and of power.' Because these Corinthians were great disputants, he feared lest they should resist, or lest this too should seem to them some philosophy, and they should not believe: therefore he displayed rather power. 'That your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.' Human wisdom pleases for a short time:
because it is temporal, like man himself: but the power of God is eternal, even as God is. Therefore that faith endures which has been conferred upon man through the power of God. 'We speak wisdom among the perfect.' We too have divine wisdom, but you could not receive it: because you are still fed with milk, and are proved to be little in faith. 'Yet wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world'—whether of kings, or of philosophers, or indeed of the princes of the Jews, or of the adverse power. 'Who are brought to nought'—with their wisdom and doctrine, at the coming of the grace of Christ. 'But we speak the wisdom of God'—which is understood to be Christ, who was also predestined, as he says to the Romans.
'In a mystery which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory.' Whether in present reality, or in the thing before the times; or because many prophets desired to see, and though they knew particular things, yet no one fully knew it. 'Which none of the princes of this world knew.' Pilate and Caiaphas, or indeed all the chief priests. 'For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.' 'But, as it is written: That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love him.' The Lord of majesty was made Lord of every creature both by merit and by nature, and Jesus the man, in whom God could in a certain manner be crucified:
on account of which God also exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name—by reason of the unity of the person; and God is said to be crucified, and the Son of Man to be in heaven, though when the Lord said these things he was bodily on earth. Since therefore Christ is true man and true God, one person from a double substance, both man and God, the same King of glory and Lord of hosts, he was not crucified as to his inviolable divinity, yet was crucified in his manhood, by reason of the unity of the person: thus in a wondrous and inconceivable manner God suffered, and yet the Godhead did not suffer. 'But to us God has revealed it by his Spirit.'
Not by our merit did he reveal it to us, but by his grace, we who through faith in him received the Holy Spirit, who shows us the will of God. 'For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So too the things that are of God no one knows, but the Spirit of God.' Do not doubt him to be God, who is said to know not only human things, but even the secret things of God. 'Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God.' He who thinks on worldly things—that is, who stains and entangles himself with worldly things—has the spirit of the world, and has not the Holy Spirit. 'That we may know the things that are given us by God—which also we speak.'
Through his coming, passion, and resurrection, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we also announce to you. Hear 'the things given,' and be silent about merits. 'Not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit.' Taught not by philosophers, but by the Spirit of God. 'Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.' Affirming spiritual things to the spiritual, who are able to grasp them. 'But the natural man perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God.' He who has not the Spirit of God is natural, because he lives after the manner of animals, thinking there is nothing after death, but that he must do this which the animals do—that is, eat, and indulge in luxury, and die. 'For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined.'
It seems foolishness to him: first, that God was born, suffered, rose again; secondly, to despise the things that are yours, to offer the cheek, and the rest. 'But the spiritual man judges all things.' He judges such a man to be empty, tests him, examines him, and himself is understood by no carnal man—nor by what spirit each one acts. 'And he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?' Now he fears lest they say: The mind of God has all this which you have told us; that is, the mind of God is not lacking in me, but in you the power of hearing. 'But we have the mind of Christ.' We who receive the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER III. 'And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal.'
For they, being already reborn through faith, are called carnal in a certain measure, not in the way of those who were still sold under sin: as if he said, you could not, as spiritual men, but only as carnal, grasp what I was speaking. 'For the natural man'—that is, he who is wise according to man (for he is called 'natural' [animalis] from the soul [anima], 'carnal' from the flesh, because the whole man consists of soul and flesh)—'perceives not the things that are of the Spirit of God,' that is, what grace the cross of Christ confers on believers. 'As to little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not yet able,' and indeed not even now are you able, 'for you are still carnal.' Not in carnal age but in faith he shows Christ making them advance.
[making them advance], that in time they might be able, because in them the grace born spiritually had already been begun: they were therefore already vessels made unto honor, to whom it might still rightly be said, 'O man, who are you that you should answer God?' And if such is rightly said to these, much more rightly to those who are either not yet so regenerated, or even made unto dishonor. Let only this be held: that there is no iniquity with God; who, whether he gives freely or exacts what is due, neither can he from whom he exacts rightly complain of iniquity in him, nor ought he to whom he gives glory in his own merits. The one will render nothing but what is due; and the other has nothing but what he received. 'For whereas there is among you envying and contention,' blessed Peter says: 'Laying aside—'
'—all malice and guile, and as newborn infants desire the reasonable milk without deceit.' If therefore those are called little ones who have laid aside all malice, who have not yet done good works, what shall we think of ourselves, in whom all malice reigns? 'Are you not carnal, and walk according to man?' It must be considered on what account they are called carnal: which surely is not that they act carnally, but that it comes from the sense of the flesh. 'For when one says, I indeed am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men?' He who has nothing greater than other men walks according to man. That is, he who loves only the one who loves him, and so on.
But in this place, because of the defense of individual men, they are called 'men'; he plainly shows that he wills us to be more than men. When he reproaches them for being men, because he knew they had contentions, he wills us to surpass human nature, when he thus reproaches: 'What then is Apollos? What indeed is Paul? Ministers of him in whom you believed.' If we are nothing, how much more are certain ones truly nothing—but feigned apostles. 'And to every one as the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered.' This very thing is not from us, but is the gift of God, who works in you, because he also gave us grace, that I should do signs, through which you might believe;
and that Apollos might confirm you by his teaching, because just as one who plants in a drought, so all teaching grows only if it be bedewed with the grace of God: if therefore both the plant is God's and the fountain, why do you ascribe it to us, as though anything were our own? In saying this, he commends grace. 'But God gave the increase.' See him commending grace; and yet men now dare to utter blasphemies, and to ascribe to themselves the things that are God's, when, if he does not give the increase, every man labors in vain. 'Therefore neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he that plants and he that waters are one.'
We are hired laborers; we work with tools that are not our own; nothing is owed to us but the wage of our labor, because we work with the talent we have received. 'But every one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.' Against Jovinian, who says the reward of all is one. 'For we are God's helpers; you are God's tillage.' Helpers in word, not in power: God's field and God's harvest. 'You are God's building.' The building of God's temple. 'According to the grace of God which is given to me.' Not according to my own strength. 'As a wise architect.' It belongs to a wise architect to lay a foundation. The Apostle therefore, first instilling faith into the Corinthians, laid Christ as the foundation by the grace of God:
And if he himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians say that man begins and He completes? 'I have laid the foundation, but another builds thereon.' If Christ himself is the foundation, how do the Pelagians blaspheme, saying that they came to the faith of Christ by their own merits? 'But let every man take heed how he builds thereon.' That the wall may rise straight and strong: lest through evil conduct, like badly cemented stones, you fall from the building of God. 'For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.'
No one can preach to you another Christ, besides Jesus, in whom, believing with your whole faith, stand firm. If Christ is the foundation, where are they who say that any good can be had without Christ, and who arrogantly presume to attribute to themselves the faith by which one believes in Christ, and give no thanks to God, from whom it is known to have been poured into them? 'But if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire.' There are three kinds of good things in the Church—that is, good, better, best—and three kinds contrary to these—that is, bad, worse, worst—which are compared to wood, hay, and stubble.
Others understand this passage thus: that he builds gold, silver, and precious stones who, having given away or forsaken his possessions, either seeks a monastery, or lives withdrawn from the affairs of the world, or so lives amid his possessions as one not possessing, as though he possessed things lent to him as another's, and is ready to lose them for Christ's sake: so that if persecution should come for God's sake, he is found unencumbered and ready. But contrariwise, they build wood, hay, and stubble who are indeed Christians and faithful, and use their goods well, but are entangled by too great a love of their own things:
and when either persecution comes, or a decree that Christians should be deprived of their goods unless they deny Christ, these do not value their possessions more than Christ: but because they loved them more than was fitting, when they lose them, they lose them not without grief and tribulation, and therefore they are saved 'as by fire,' that is, through tribulation. 'And the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is: if any man's work abide, which he has built thereon, he shall receive a reward.' That is, the examination of judgment, or the present tribulation, which is very frequently compared to fire. For gold and silver are made brighter in the fire, but wood and hay and stubble will burn. 'If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss.'
If anyone teach negligently, either by example or by word, he loses his labor, because he makes a weak work. 'But he himself shall be saved.' In his own righteousness. 'Yet so as by fire.' The word 'as' holds a truth, as in that place: 'As of the only-begotten of the Father.' If he who is just shall be saved by fire, why was he not careful that what he built should be strong and stable? What then of those who build by word and destroy by example? 'Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' Do you not know whose temple you are? 'But if any man violate the temple of God'—whether in individuals, or in the whole Church. Note that here he called the Holy Spirit God, whose temple we are:
because we are the temple of him who dwells in us, whom he confesses to be God. 'God shall destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.' Whether by sinning against his own body, or by seducing the people of the Church to depraved doctrine, or indeed by destroying it by his own example. This the Novatians put forward, to exclude penance. To whom it must be answered: If the Corinthians, being already baptized, had sinned, and if penance is not admitted, to what purpose does he write to them and say, 'That you may have the second grace'? Saint Jerome said on Galatians: 'This one thing I know, that whoever fornicates after the faith of Christ violates the temple of God.' 'Let no man deceive himself: if any man among you seem'—Let no one flatter himself, deceived by his own vanity.
'To be wise in this world.' Unto rendering evil for evil. 'Let him become a fool, that he may be wise.' He is judged a fool in this world who fulfills the Gospel by not rendering evil for evil. But he becomes a fool by will, not by nature. 'For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Nothing is more foolish than that he should wish to avenge himself who cannot, and who does not reserve his injury for God—which even he ought to do who is able to avenge himself in this world, or when he demands a reason for what he is bidden to believe. 'For it is written: I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.' The craftiness of men avails nothing, whereby to escape the hand of God: the rich man seems wise to himself, but the poor man of understanding reproves him. And again: