“For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2).
When Paul first entered the Greek city of Corinth, he had just come from nearby Athens and his encounter with its humanistic philosophers at Mars’ Hill (Acts 17:18–18:1). Corinth, like Athens, was saturated with such worldly wisdom and, in addition, as a great seaport and commercial center, was a city of opulent immorality.
The apostle, however, did not yield to the natural temptation to impress the Corinthians with his own wisdom. Neither did he come to Corinth to harangue them about the city’s wickedness. “For Christ sent me,” he said, “to preach the gospel.” Therefore he could say: “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, . . . That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:17; 2:4,5).
The gospel which Paul preached was based on the assumption of creation by Christ (note Colossians 1:16,23), and then centered on the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of that Creator (I Corinthians 15:3,4), in anticipation of its glorious consummation at His return (Colossians 1:20). Though Paul did not speak in terms of the evolutionistic wisdom of the Greek philosophers, he did speak the true wisdom, “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Corinthians 2:8).
Paul's resolution simply to preach Christ—the Lord of all true wisdom and power and glory—and then to tell lost sinners that He had died for them and conquered death for them, is surely a good resolution for every believing Christian to make upon beginning a new year or a new ministry. It is that message—and only that message—that brings salvation and everlasting life. HMM
* Dr. Henry M. Morris (1918-2006) was Founder and President Emeritus of ICR.
