The saints at Corinth, though richly endowed with knowledge, and though the gifts of the Spirit were exercised abundantly among them, had become "carnal." They were indulging their human mind and tastes. One liked the natural boldness of a certain class of teachers, another admired the softer eloquence of others; they had allowed their natural minds to direct their thoughts and to use their tongues. One was saying, "I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos." All this was "walking as men" and glorying in the flesh. The apostle accordingly exposes the unprofitableness of the flesh and its worthlessness by several witnesses. First, by the Scripture, which says of all its wisdom, "Where is the wise, where is the scribe?" Second, by the Cross of Christ, which when apprehended aright shows the end of the flesh. Third, by the Gospel, which he had preached among them, which showed that the wisdom of the flesh had been proved "foolishness with God." Fourth, by the materials of which God had formed the Church at Corinth--"not many wise, not many noble," of the earth had been called. All this these Grecians, with their natural love of learning, had forgotten. The apostle as a preacher had not come among them after this manner. He had not gratified their fleshly tastes either in the matter or the manner of his ministry among them. His message had been "Christ crucified," which is the end of the flesh. His ministry was not in fleshly wisdom, but in the power of the Spirit of God. For this reason men--the princes of the world,--men in their highest refinement and civilisation, had not received the message. All their "glorying in the flesh" was therefore inconsistent with all that they had heard from him as their "father in Christ." They were indulging the spirit of kings in the earth,. while he who had begotten them through the Gospel was an outcast, and encountering the opposition of those who had the mind in which they were glorying. In all this they had proved that they were indulging their natural tastes and were "walking as men." They needed to be rebuked and restored to a renewed energy of spiritual life from which they had slipped away. They had become morally relaxed also. If the intellectual part of their nature had been indulged, so their moral sense had been relaxed, as chapter 5 informs us. They were resting at ease while sin was in their camp. Achan was there, but no Joshua had wept. They were allowing evil with no Phinehas to act for God in purifying the congregation. All this was evil: it betrayed a low spiritual state and lack of zeal for God's honour among them. In 1 Cor. 6 they manifest how little they were exercising their functions in the Lord and their faculties in the Spirit, in the judgment of their brethren, though in prospect they were called to judge men and angels. In 1 Cor. 7 they had proposed questions which savoured of an inquisitive and intellectual rather than a spiritual people, which the apostle answers in a manner which tells how little they were conducting themselves as a heavenly people living above the level of the world. He reminds them that "the time is short," and that "the fashion of the, world passeth away." In 1 Cor. 8 - 10 the, apostle charges them with a lack of consideration of others, acting in their own right as people speak, and not according to the principles of grace. They were indulging themselves in what their knowledge allowed, without being sufficiently concerned of the claims of love. This was further evidence of a relaxed condition of soul. Knowledge rather than love formed their ways, and this is always a witness of selfish ease and fleshly indulgence, so contrary to the energy of a life in the Spirit. And so in the midst of a solemn exhortation of this subject (1 Cor. 9 - 10) he uses the words, "Wherefore let him that thinketh. he standeth, take heed lest he fall." He calls them to renewed watchfulness and energy in the race, by reminding them that though all run, one receiveth the prize," and charges them to "so run" that they may "obtain" and not be "disapproved" through failure in self-discipline. In chapter 1 Cor. 11 the apostle deals with their way of observing the Lord's Supper. Here again they had become relaxed and self-indulgent, walking according to nature, not waiting for each other, but each eating his own supper, one being hungry another drunken; failing to consider what was due unto the Lord. 1 Cor. 12 - 14 tell how, as a Grecian and intellectual people, another matter had become a snare into which they had fallen. Spiritual gifts had become valued according to their measure of attractiveness rather than for their value for edification. They had been using them for a mere display of power and an occasion of rivalry, thus allowing the enemy to pervert their use. "Tongues" were exercised without regard to their real value for godly edifying. All this was evil, it savoured of the flesh, not of the Spirit. In 1 Cor. 15 they are charged with making the mystery of Resurrection a matter for speculative philosophy. Relaxation of soul and indulgence of liberty of the carnal mind evidence themselves in all this, and call forth the rebuke of the apostle and his arousing exhortation to "awake to righteousness" and return to the better knowledge of God, leaving those evil communications which were corrupting them.
In 1 Cor. 16 he calls them to "quit themselves like men" and act in the energy and graciousness of a better mind according to the law of love. And if Grecian superciliousness tempt them to despise Timothy because of his youth and lack of classic teaching, such as they naturally valued, they are warned not to despise him, for he had higher credentials as one who had been diligent in "the work of the Lord" after the apostle's own example. With marked approval he names the "house of Stephanas," whose members had "addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints" in true energy,--a bright exception to the general relaxed condition of the saints at Corinth.
The Epistle as a whole is most valuable, not only in giving us guidance in conditions that may still arise among saints, but as generally showing how jealous the Spirit is that we walk on in spiritual diligence, not according to the flesh or after the way of the world, but as sanctified ones in Christ, in the confession of His Name as Saviour and Lord.
