1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 2
The Preaching of the Cross. 1 Cor. 2, 1—16.
Paul's preaching not in man's wisdom: V. 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. V. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul has praised the preaching of the wisdom of the Cross. He now shows what interest he, in his own person and in his office, has in this message: And I also, brethren, when I came to you, came not according to excellency of speech or wisdom.
As it was with the Corinthian Christians, to whom Paul had conveyed the call of the Lord, so it was with Paul himself; they were not wise or influential according to the standard of this world, and therewith agreed that he, too, came without wisdom or strength, having in mind nothing but their spiritual welfare and the glory and praise of the Lord.
When he came to Corinth, he did not make his entrance before them in accordance with the expectation which men of the world might have had concerning him, heralded as a man of singular accomplishments in oratory and wisdom and relying upon them for a brilliant success in the great metropolis. Never for a moment was he unconscious of the fact that he was proclaiming to the Corinthians the testimony of God. That was the subject-matter, that was the content of his testimony and message; and this excluded, by its very nature, a show of eloquence and wisdom. The testimony concerning Christ and His salvation is supremely excellent only as it is communicated in all simplicity.
And therefore Paul announces as his motto: For I resolved not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified; or: I did not judge it to be right and proper for me to give any evidence of wisdom among you but only that which concerned Jesus Christ in the climax of His vicarious work, as a condemned criminal on Calvary.
Paul might well have taken the results of his studies, his learning in the realm of history, in natural theology, in philosophical systems, in order to parade it before the Corinthians. But all this he cast aside as improper and not apt to serve the Gospel. One fact only he wanted to hold before the eyes of the Corinthians: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as all men's Substitute.
"What manner of boasting is this, that he writes of knowing nothing but the crucified Christ? It is a matter such as no reason or human wisdom can comprehend, nor even those that have already studied and learned the Gospel; for it is a wisdom which is powerful, secret, and hidden, and appears like nothing, because He was crucified and gave up all might and power of the Godhead, hangs there like a miserable, forsaken man, and it seems as though God would not help Him; of Him alone I know to say and to preach, says St. Paul" (Luther, 11, 685).
Jesus Christ, the crucified Savior, is the one subject which cannot be exhausted in gospel-preaching.