1 Corinthians 2:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The ability to steer is, of course, excellent. But when it promises too much, it becomes foolishness. So it is with every knowledge that does not remain within its own limits. External wisdom likewise would have been wisdom if it had received the Spirit. But since it claimed everything for itself and thought it had no need of higher help, it became foolishness, though it seemed to be wisdom.

Therefore Paul, after first exposing it by the facts themselves, then called it foolishness. He first called the wisdom of God foolishness, in accordance with the opinion of the pagans. Then he proves that it is true wisdom. After proofs, it is very easy to shame the opponents, and he says: we speak wisdom among the perfect.

If I, who am considered foolish and a preacher of foolishness, have conquered the wise, then the wisdom that conquered is not foolishness. It is the most perfect wisdom, and surpasses external wisdom so much that the latter seems foolishness.

Having first named it as the pagans then called it, and having proved its superiority by the facts themselves, and having exposed them in extreme foolishness, he then calls it by its proper name and says: “Wisdom we preach among the perfect.” By wisdom he means the preaching and the manner of salvation through the Cross. By perfect he means believers.

Truly perfect are those who know that everything human is very weak, who despise all this and are convinced that it serves them for nothing. Such are the believers. “But wisdom not of this age.” Of what use, indeed, is external wisdom, which is limited to this world and does not extend beyond it, and which even here can bring no benefit to those who possess it?

By authorities of the age he does not here mean demons, as some think, but men clothed with distinctions and authority, who consider it something very important. He means philosophers, rhetoricians, and writers, who also often possessed authority and were leaders of the people. He calls them authorities of this age because their authority does not extend beyond the present age. Therefore he adds: passing away. In this way he proves the nothingness of external wisdom both by its own nature and by the nature of those who possess it. Having proved that it is false and foolish, that it cannot reveal anything, and that it is powerless, he now shows that it is also short-lived.

“But we preach the wisdom of God, hidden in mystery.” What mystery? Christ said: “What you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops” (Mt 10:27). Why, then, does Paul call it a mystery? Because neither angel nor archangel nor any other created power knew it before it was revealed. Therefore the Apostle also says: “That now through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavens” (Eph. 3:10). God so honored us that they too heard it together with us. We also consider it a sign of friendship toward friends when we reveal a secret to no one before them.

Let those pay attention who boast in preaching, who indiscriminately offer the pearls of doctrine to all, and cast what is holy to dogs and swine, and do this with excessive speculations. A mystery does not admit embellishments. It is proclaimed exactly as it is. It will no longer be a divine and uncorrupted mystery if you add anything of your own to it.

It is called a mystery also because in it we contemplate not what we see. We see one thing and believe another. Such is the nature of our mysteries. I look at them in one way, and the unbeliever in another.

I hear that Christ was crucified, and I marvel at His love for mankind. The unbeliever hears and considers it weakness. I hear that Christ became a servant, and I marvel at His providence. The unbeliever hears and considers it dishonor. I hear that Christ died, and I am amazed at His power, that after undergoing death He was not held by it, but even destroyed death. The unbeliever hears and attributes it to His weakness.

Hearing of the Resurrection, he calls it a fable. But I, being assured of it by the events themselves, worship the divine economy of God. Hearing of baptism, he imagines only water. I see not only what is visible, but also the invisible cleansing of the soul accomplished by the Spirit. He thinks that only my body has been washed. I believe that the soul too has become pure and holy. I set before myself the tomb, the Resurrection, sanctification, justification, redemption, adoption, inheritance, the Kingdom of heaven, and the gift of the Spirit. For I look upon the visible not by simple sight, but with spiritual eyes.

When there is speech of the body of Christ, I understand what is said in one way, and the unbeliever in another.

“Among the perfect.” No one knows this wisdom preached by us except those who follow sound and uncorrupted reasoning. Their understanding is not darkened by sinful inclinations, but renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and disposed to receive the holy faith.

“But wisdom not of this age.” In his preaching, the Apostle Paul distinguishes the wisdom of the mysteries of God from natural wisdom and from political or civic wisdom. He presents this in the following sense: I preach to you, Corinthians, not the wisdom of this age, which consists in the knowledge of natural hidden things.

“Nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away.” That is, I do not instill in you civic wisdom, which belongs to authorities and leaders in governing civil and public affairs. For both zealous students of natural philosophy and sharp-sighted politicians, without the saving knowledge of the Gospel faith, remain in perdition with all their wisdom.

The explanation of the difficulties that arise is contained in the following propositions.

23. The Apostle declares that only the perfect possess wisdom: “Wisdom we speak among the perfect.” The same teacher of the nations assures us that in this age no one can be perfect, and therefore we all understand only a little. “We know in part” (1 Cor. 13:9).

Explanation. The Apostolic saying refers to the perfection of God-pleasing Christian life. That is, only that man attains perfect knowledge of God and of His beloved Son Jesus Christ in whom Jesus Christ works all things. His whole will is surrendered to the will of Christ. His thoughts are conformed to Christ. His whole understanding consists in Christ, according to the Apostle Paul’s teaching: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). His words and speeches are directed to Jesus Christ alone.

The knowledge of each thing comes from the answers, actions, feelings, and works of truth. Whoever wishes truly to know God and His beloved Son Jesus Christ must learn by actual experience that God is one grace and love.

If anyone does not unite the fruits of Gospel love with knowledge of God according to Jesus Christ, and does not have the humility, meekness, and patience of Christ, such a man does not know Christ. He does not understand the power of His Gospel. In this knowledge consists true wisdom, which constitutes the perfection of the confessors of Christ.

This man is a true and genuine Christian, not by title and name, but by deeds and truth. Truly he is a true child of God, born of God and Christ, renewed in Jesus Christ, and made alive by faith.

Although the weakness of our nature does not allow us to bring ourselves to such perfection that our whole life would be the life of Christ, or that, having completely put fleshly life to death, we would begin a spiritual and heavenly life, our duty nevertheless consists in this. We must direct all our powers toward a God-pleasing and God-imitating life. We must attain the perfection of the Gospel virtues, sigh for this, and desire it from the heart, so that Jesus Christ, dwelling in our hearts, may reign over us.

In this will consist the whole struggle of our faith in Christ, our piety, and our Christ-imitating life. As we advance in the perfection of the knowledge of Christ, we must daily put the old man to death by repentance. We must crucify our flesh with its passions and desires (Gal. 5:24), and daily grow in the perfections of reason and will, until in the coming age we all attain “to the measure of the stature of the perfect man” (Eph. 4:13). Then we shall reach that most blessed state in which our reason will be enlightened by the light of perfect wisdom, and our will will no longer be subject to weaknesses.

24. The Apostle preaches that the wisdom of God is revealed only to the perfect, that is, to enlightened people skilled in Scripture: “Wisdom we speak among the perfect.” Should one conclude from these Apostolic words that the preaching of the mysteries of faith does not belong to unenlightened people who have not practiced the sciences?

Explanation. By the name of perfect people, the holy Apostle does not mean such members of the Church of Christ as, being honored with a high degree of service, know all the mysteries of our God essentially and in detail. For a man cannot attain such perfection in knowledge in this life. “We know in part and we prophesy in part,” the same teacher of the nations testifies (1 Cor. 13:9).

Rather, the Apostle calls perfect those who, having been instructed in the members of the Christian faith, strive in mysterious matters to take their reason captive in obedience to faith (cf. 2 Cor. 10:5). Such confessors of the God-worshiping faith differ entirely from those free-thinkers who set their reason as the rule of faith. They consider all mysteries that exceed the power of human reasoning to be the work of human thought, accustomed to flatter itself with various imaginings.

Therefore, once the meaning of the Apostolic words is known, one cannot doubt that not only those can be called perfect who, having a pious life, have advanced in the knowledge of divine and human things. Those also can be called perfect who, though they have not enlightened their reason by learning, nevertheless conduct their life according to the will of the holy God and hunger every hour for the word of God.

Others refer "perfect" to the persons to whom it was preached. By the perfect they understand believers in general, in contrast to the unbelieving world, or only those perfect in faith, in comparison with infants in understanding (1 Cor 14:20). Among pagans, the perfect were those initiated into the most hidden mysteries of religion. The Apostle could have used this expression to show the Corinthians why he did not from the beginning reveal to them that lofty wisdom which surpasses all human wisdom. He says that they were not yet perfect then, and that he reveals this wisdom fully only to the perfect.

"By the rulers of the age, the Apostle means sophists, poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians, as those who acquired fame in the present life by eloquence" (Theodoret, Chrysostom). He could also have meant the rulers of the Jewish synagogue, but not demons, who are sometimes called rulers of this world, because to them there is and was no preaching.

"Passing away" means transitory. This expression may refer both to the rulers and to the wisdom, which is called empty because of the changeable and destructive character of the things that form its content. In this sense it is opposed to eternal wisdom.

This wisdom, "which none of the rulers of this age knew, for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory... God has revealed to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." He does this as easily as the human spirit knows its own inward actions and states (1 Cor 2:11).

All this, the Apostle adds, "which has been given to us by God... we also proclaim," with unshaken hope of success, "not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

In all this, the Apostle’s rebuking thought is heard. Perhaps the Corinthians still chase after outward signs of verbal wisdom and are disturbed over their various teachers and preachers because they themselves are still far from the Christian way of relating to Gospel preaching. Perhaps they cannot stand among those perfect ones among whom Christian wisdom is successfully preached by comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

The Apostle’s saying about "comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor 2:13) needs a special explanation, which Saint Chrysostom offers in this sense. The Apostles took the subjects needed on various occasions for explaining their speech from the same spiritual and sacred biblical realm, for example from types and prophecies, and by inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

"For example, I say that Christ rose," the holy Father reasons in the person of the Apostle Paul, "that He was born of a virgin, and for explanation I bring testimonies and prefigurations: Jonah’s stay inside the whale and his subsequent deliverance from there; the childbearing of barren women, Sarah, Rebecca, and others; the growth of trees in paradise when seeds had not yet been cast, rain had not yet fallen, and furrows had not yet been drawn. For future events were traced and prefigured, as in a shadow, by earlier events, so that they might be believed when they came to pass. Thus I explain spiritual things by spiritual things and nowhere have recourse to external wisdom."

"By the rulers of this age," says Saint John Chrysostom, "he means not demons, as some think, but men clothed with distinctions and authority who consider it something important. He means philosophers, rhetoricians, and writers, who often possessed authority and were rulers of the people. He calls them rulers of this age because their authority does not extend beyond the present age."

The chief power acting upon the hearts of believers was the content of the apostolic preaching itself. The Apostles proclaimed what none of the most eminent philosophers had ever taught. More than this, this teaching, which consisted in the preaching of salvation through the sufferings of Jesus Christ for us, had long ago been revealed as the greatest mystery of the Wisdom of God. Yet the wise men of this world did not know this mystery and did not accept it as revealed.

Pointing to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a striking proof that this mystery was not understood, the Apostle speaks first of all, of course, about the rulers and leaders of the Jewish people. At the same time, he partly speaks also about the Greeks and Romans, who had their representative in the trial of Jesus Christ, namely Pilate.

According to Saint John Chrysostom’s explanation, "The Wisdom of God preached by the Apostle is called a mystery because in it we contemplate not what we see. We see one thing and believe another. Such is the property of our mysteries. I look upon them one way, the unbeliever another. When he hears of baptism, he imagines only water. But I see not only the visible thing, but also the invisible: the cleansing of the soul accomplished by the Spirit."

Hearing this, anyone might think that Christianity surely contains nothing nourishing for the mind, that it is poor in content, and that its wisdom is not great. Against this the Apostle says that the foolishness of preaching, and all its humble setting, were adopted by the Lord’s arrangement only so that the sons of wisdom might reveal themselves by themselves. When such people are converted by the action of simple preaching, they are then enriched with a wisdom beyond the reach of the sons of the age.

What wisdom do they hear? The fullest disclosure of how salvation was accomplished by the Lord through death on the Cross, and how this salvation is appropriated by those who turn to the Lord through faith. Then it reveals the sources from which the ordering of this manner of salvation proceeded, and what its fruits are within the whole realm of creatures. The Apostle discloses all this in various places in his epistles, especially in Ephesians and Colossians. They are introduced gradually into the understanding of relations to God by the grace of the Spirit, under the condition of moral perfection.

Here the spiritual and divine realm is disclosed, and there is no end to this disclosure. Our interpreters speak of this wisdom as follows: “By wisdom the Apostle means the preaching of the Gospel and the manner of salvation through the Cross” (St. Chrysostom). “The preaching formerly called foolishness is truly, and is called, wisdom for those who have received true and perfect faith” (Theodoret). “He calls wisdom the preaching and the manner of salvation, how men are saved through the Cross” (St. John of Damascus), “how the whole world is saved by the Cross” (Oecumenius). “For to abolish death by death is the work of the greatest wisdom” (Theophylact).

Whom does the Apostle mean by the perfect? This is understood in different ways. If these perfect Christians are opposed to catechumens, who are only preparing to become Christians, then by them one must understand all believers who have been baptized, have received the Spirit of grace through the laying on of hands, that is, chrismation, and partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ. These divine mysteries were called perfecting, because they perfected the Christian. One who received them was considered a perfect Christian. After this, his concern was no longer how to become a Christian, but how to live and act as a Christian, preserving the grace given.

Others oppose these perfect ones to infants in Christ, who have only just become Christians. They understand by them those who have advanced in the Christian life and reached its higher degrees: dispassion, the active manifestation of the grace of the Holy Spirit, or tangible sanctification.

It seems that the latter meaning is more appropriate here. Yet one must take into account that in the first times those who turned to the Lord approached Him with burning faith, with complete self-denial, and with steadfast readiness for whatever might be required to please Him. Therefore the grace of God, descending into them through the mysteries, found the vessel of their heart ready to receive it. It manifested its action in them without shortening its hand. Spiritual perfections shone forth in them suddenly, and this change was evident to all.

Judging by this, the perfect Christians of Apostolic times cannot be removed so far from the beginning of their Christianity as is done today. Our interpreters proceed more cautiously, understanding by the perfect true Christians, believers, the faithful. Thus St. Chrysostom and others.

St. Chrysostom says: “He calls believers perfect. For truly perfect are those who know that everything human is very weak, who despise all this and are convinced that it serves them for nothing. Such are the believers.” St. Chrysostom means that these are believers who, leaving everything temporal and earthly, have desired with mind and heart the heavenly, eternal, spiritual, and divine. They live not in the interests of this age, but with a view to that age.

Others write likewise: “He calls the faithful perfect, those who, having despised everything, soar toward heavenly things” (Theophylact), and “give themselves over to God” (Oecumenius).

But wisdom not of this age. This is the earthly manner of thought, which in knowledge does not pass beyond the limits of the visible, and in life is limited to knowing how to manage affairs so as to live in peace and abundance. St. Chrysostom understands by this “external wisdom, which is limited to this world and does not extend beyond it, and which even here can bring no benefit to those who possess it.”

Nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. These are not only persons with authority, but generally the managers and guardians of the orders established in this age, the leaders of the world. “By rulers of this age,” says Chrysostom, “he does not here mean demons, as some think, but men clothed with distinctions and authority, who consider it something very important. He means philosophers, rhetoricians, and writers, who often possessed authority and were leaders of the people. He calls them rulers of this age because their authority does not extend beyond the present age. Therefore he adds, passing away. In this way he proves the nothingness of external wisdom both from its own nature and from the nature of those who possess it. Having proved that it is false and foolish, that it cannot reveal anything, and that it is powerless, he now shows that it is also short-lived.”