Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He gives thanks to God for the grace given to the Corinthians, and pledges that God will confirm them in it. Then, in verse 10, he attacks their schism, by which one would say: I am of Paul; another: I am of Apollos; whereas all are of Christ.
Third, in verse 17, he cuts off the root of the schism, by teaching that the Corinthians ought not to look to the eloquence of Apollos or of any other preacher; but to the thing preached, namely the cross, which though to the Jews it is a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness, yet to the faithful is the power and wisdom of God.
Hence fourth, in verse 26, he consequently teaches that God did not call to the preaching and faith of the cross and salvation the wise, powerful, and noble of the world, but the foolish, weak, and ignoble Apostles, and the other first believers, and this so that no one might glory in himself, but only in God.
Vulgate Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-31
1. Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother, 2. To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours. 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4. I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus: 5. that in all things you are made rich in Him, in all utterance and in all knowledge: 6. just as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you; 7. so that nothing is lacking to you in any grace, while you await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8. who shall also confirm you to the end without crime, on the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, by whom you have been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you: but be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11. For it has been signified to me concerning you, my brethren, by those who are of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now I say this, that each one of you says: I indeed am of Paul: but I am of Apollos: I am of Cephas: but I of Christ. 13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14. I give thanks to God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius: 15. lest any should say that you were baptized in my name. 16. I baptized also the household of Stephanas: but I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize: not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. 18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who perish: but to those who are saved, that is to us, it is the power of God. For it is written: 19. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. 20. Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21. For because the world by its wisdom did not know God in God's wisdom, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. 22. For both the Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom: 23. but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God: 25. because what is foolish of God is wiser than men; and what is weak of God is stronger than men. 26. For consider your calling, brethren, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble: 27. but God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that He may confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world, that He may confound the strong things; 28. and God has chosen the ignoble things of the world, and the despised, and those that are not, that He might destroy those that are: 29. that no flesh might glory in His sight. 30. But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has been made for us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption: 31. that, as it is written: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
Verse 1: Sosthenes
1. Sosthenes. — He was the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, converted to Christ by Paul, severely beaten before Gallio the proconsul on account of the faith, Acts 18:17, and after death numbered among the Saints, on November 28.
Verse 2: To the Church of God at Corinth
2. To the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints (supply: Paul writes and gives greeting, by praying): Grace to you and peace from God. — For "called saints," the Syriac translates "called and saints." For in Greek there is not always the participle legomenos or keklemenos, that is, called, said, named; but kletois, a noun, as if to say: Called of holiness, or called to holiness, summoned to sanctity.
Note first that Paul throughout this whole chapter and everywhere else admires this benefit of vocation. Secondly, that he ascribes this and all other things humbly and piously to the divine benevolence and power. On humility Chrysostom has a notable passage here, in the moral of his first homily.
Thirdly, hence it is clear against Pelagius that we have been called to the faith and grace of Christ not by our merits, but by the mere grace of God. Thus Chrysostom and Augustine throughout. Again, hence all Christians of old were called Saints, not by act, but by calling, by profession, by obligation.
Fourth, he calls these Saints "in Christ," that is, sanctified through the merits of Christ, namely in baptism and thereafter.
Fifth, "the Church" and "those called saints" are the same. For it is an apposition or explanation of "the Church"; so that if you ask, what is the Church? I shall reply from St. Paul here: They are the called Saints; or it is the congregation and assembly of the faithful, who are called to holiness.
Whence sixth, hence it is clear that the Church is visible. For Paul writes these things not to an abstract idea, but to the Church which is at Corinth, which could read and see his letters, as is plain.
Seventh, from this passage it is clear that the Church is everywhere the same, of which the Church of the Corinthians was a part. Whence he says: "With all who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and of ours," that is, all Christians wherever they may be; whether with me in this place of ours, or in any other place of theirs. "Theirs," therefore, namely of the Corinthians, "and ours," namely mine and Sosthenes'. He adds this, lest anyone should think that when he said, "of our Lord Jesus Christ," he meant Christ to be Lord of Paul and Sosthenes alone. Thus Chrysostom: "And by this," he says, "Paul tacitly intimates that the Corinthians, putting aside contentions, ought to be in concord, as members of the same Church and of the head Christ." Then he intimates that he writes this epistle properly indeed to the Corinthians, yet desires it to be circular to all Christians, just as the epistles of the other Apostles and Bishops in those first ages were circular. For what Cajetan interprets by "ours," as if to say: Our jurisdiction extends to Corinth and to the Corinthians, so that the city and place of Corinth is both theirs and ours, is forced. Lastly, why it is called "Ecclesia," or evocation, or assembly of those called to the faith, which formerly was called synagogue, that is, congregation, and what it is, of what kind, what its marks, see Bellarmine, On the Church, book I, chapters 1, 2 et seq., who treats this solidly and learnedly.
Verse 4: I Give Thanks to My God Always for You
4. I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus. — "In grace," the Syriac al tabuta, in Greek epi tē chariti, that is, on account of the grace of God, "which has been given to you in Christ," that is, through Christ. See Canon 25. "The origin," says St. Bernard, sermon 13 on the Canticles, "of Graces, the sea is of all springs and rivers: but the origin of virtues and sciences is the Lord Jesus Christ: continence of flesh, diligence of heart, rectitude of will flow from that fountain; let the heavenly outflow be returned (through thanksgiving) to its source, by which it may further be poured back upon the earth: 'My glory I will not give to another,' says God," Isaiah 48:11.
Verse 5: That in All Things You Are Made Rich in Him
5. That in all things you are made rich in Him (through Him, Christ) in all utterance (of the preaching of the Gospel) and in all knowledge, — that is, in spiritual understanding of Him; as if to say: I give thanks to God, because He had shown you abundantly through me and Apollos the preaching and doctrine of the Gospel, and its sense and understanding.
Verse 6: As the Testimony of Christ Was Confirmed in You
6. Just as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you, — that is, by which, as by two testimonies, the Christian faith has been founded and established in you. For the Greeks interpret the Greek kathōs, that is, "just as," by enallage, di' hōn, "by which," namely word and knowledge. Others explain "just as the testimony," etc., thus, as if to say: By which things, namely the preaching of the Gospel and its knowledge, as by a certain testimony, you are known to be faithful and disciples of Christ.
Verse 7: Awaiting the Revelation of Our Lord Jesus Christ
7. While you await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, — in His second coming, when you shall receive the abundance and consummation of all graces from Christ in heavenly glory.
Verse 8: Who Will Also Confirm You Unto the End Without Crime
8. Who will also confirm you (so far as is from His part, that is, He will give grace by which He can confirm you and will actually confirm you, if you are willing to receive it, to use it, and to confirm yourselves in the faith and charity of Christ, concerning which again in verse 9: "He will confirm," I say, to this end, that you may be and persist) unto the end (of life) without crime, — in Greek anenklētous, that is blameless, whom no one can blame or accuse, as though you had committed some crime against the faith and charity of Christ; for that "without crime" refers to "will confirm" is clear from the Greek bebaiōsei anenklētous, that is, He will confirm them blameless or uncensurable, namely that they may be such and may persevere. The Apostle speaks to the whole Church, in which most were holy and blameless, even though a few sowed schisms, whom He soon refutes and blames in the following verse.
On the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. — There is an ellipsis frequent in the Apostle; for it must be supplied, that you may be and appear without crime on that day of the coming and judgment of Christ: unless you prefer that en hēmera be put for eis hēmeran, "on the day" for "unto the day" (for the Apostle often confuses en and eis), so that he may explain "unto the end" by "on the day of Christ's coming": for this will be our last and the end of all things.
Verse 9: God Is Faithful, by Whom You Have Been Called
9. God is faithful, by whom you have been called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ. — Note: "Faithful" for St. Paul is the same as constant, truthful, as I shall show on 1 Timothy 1:15, not as Calvin would have it, that God saves only those whom He has efficaciously called by Himself, and that He commands and effects each of them to believe with firm faith that he will be saved. For why otherwise, in the very next verse, anxious about the salvation of the Corinthians, does He charge them with their schisms? Had not the Corinthians believed? And yet, having fallen into schisms, they had incurred the danger of damnation, and therefore Paul strives to turn this away from them. Therefore the faithful can fall into sins and be damned.
Thus God is called "faithful" because not without cause will He withdraw from you, O Corinthians, His aid, which He has begun to give, and which He has promised hereafter to give, that you may persist and be confirmed in the faith and fellowship of Jesus; nor will He forsake you, unless He is first forsaken by you, as the Council of Trent (from St. Augustine) teaches, session VI, chapters 11 and 13, where it teaches three things, the same as the Apostle here:
First, that God gives to all the justified the grace of Christ, by which they can persevere in justice, if they will. Secondly, that they can by their own will fall away from it. Thirdly, that no one knows whether he will persevere, or whether he is of the number of the elect, unless he has a special revelation about this from God.
Note secondly: by "fellowship of the Son" Paul here means the communion of the faith, grace, and glory of Christ, which is had in the Church of Christ; or Christianity itself, in which we have the fellowship of sonship, of inheritance, of the Sacraments, and of all the goods of Christ, as if to say: You have been called to be sons of God, fellows, members, brothers, and co-heirs of Christ. Thus Anselm, Ambrose, Theophylact, Chrysostom, whom see. Thus St. John says, 1 John 1:3: "That you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."
Where note: Although, as the Apostle says, all faithful Christians are of the fellowship of Christ, yet some are of this fellowship more than others; namely, those who participate more in the life and grace of Christ, and who follow not only the precepts but also the counsels of Christ: just as the Apostles were more of the fellowship of Christ than other Christians.
Insipidly do the heretics cavil: Paul says that all Christians have been called into the fellowship of the Son of God: therefore the Jesuits wrongly arrogate to themselves alone the name Society of Jesus. For by like reasoning they would infer: All Christians worship the Most Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, the angels: therefore the Church wrongly institutes Orders and Sodalities under the name of the Most Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, etc. For these Sodalities do not exclude others from the worship of these, but appropriate to themselves a name common to others, that thereby they may be roused to greater and singular piety toward the Most Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and that they may rouse others also to the same.
Let them know, however, that this name was not assumed by the Jesuits themselves, but by the Roman Supreme Pontiffs and by the founder himself, St. Ignatius, who out of humility and to avoid glory, did not wish his men to be called Ignatians, but Of the Society of Jesus, and this on account of a certain vision, in which, while treating of the Society to be founded, he saw Jesus carrying the cross and saying to him: "I will be propitious to you at Rome," when he was so divinely enlightened that he did not doubt this to be God's will, that this name of Jesus should be given to this Society. Let them hear Ribadeneira, in book II of the Life of St. Ignatius, chapter 11: "He wished it to be called the Society of Jesus, that those who were called to it might recognize themselves as enrolled not in any Order of Ignatius, but as called into the Society of the Son of God, Jesus Christ Our Lord: that they might serve under that Supreme Commander; follow His standards, eagerly take up their cross, and look to the author and consummator of faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. And lest they grow weary, fainting in mind, let them be certain and persuaded that their leader stands ready for them: let them hope that He will be always propitious not to Ignatius alone and to his companions, as we have seen hitherto, but to themselves also." And Pius V, Pontiff, in the Bull of the Society, page 74: "Who, as they have assumed the name of Companions of Jesus, so by work, doctrine, and examples strive to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow His footsteps." As therefore St. Paul exhorts Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:3, to labor and contend, "as a good soldier of Christ Jesus," so the "Society of Jesus" is admonished and roused by its very name to labor for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, "as a militia, or legion, or cohort of soldiers consecrated under the leader Jesus." See more in Julius Nigrenius on this title, and in Jacobus Gretser, Franciscus Montanus, and others who have written apologies for this Society.
Verse 10: I Beseech You, Brethren, by the Name of Our Lord
10. I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (into whose one and same society, family, household and Church we all have been called, whoever we are who are faithful and Christian), that you all say the same thing — namely, as full brethren, in words and voice, may you agree, and all together say: "I am of Christ;" not that one say here: "I am of Paul," another: "I am of Apollos." Again, you should agree not only in voice, but also in mind; for otherwise your verbal confession of mouth would be feigned and simulated. Whence he adds, declaring as it were the root of concord:
Be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment. — Some read in the Greek gnōsei, that is, in knowledge, and so the Plantinian Latin reads; but it must be corrected to gnōmē, that is, in judgment, and so the Roman Latin reads. For "perfect," the Greek is katērtismenoi, that is, as Theophylact says, "Be joined together," or "perfectly compacted in the same mind and in the same judgment," that you may think the same thing and agree among yourselves in Christ, that you may aptly cohere with one another in one mind and sense in Christ; for katartizein means to compose and join something together so aptly and congruently that the parts agree with one another and with the whole; and because a thing is then perfect and complete when it is gracefully and congruently composed in this way, hence this word also signifies to perfect, as in Psalm 8:3: "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected (in Greek katērtisō) praise." 2 Corinthians, last chapter, verse 11: "For the rest, brethren, rejoice, be perfect," that is, agree mutually with one another and with your head. For this is what the Greek katartizesthe means. Psalm 39:7: "But ears You have perfected for me," in Greek katērtisō moi.
Verse 11: It Has Been Signified to Me by Those of Chloe
11. For it has been signified to me by those who are of Chloe. — Some think Chloe to be the name of a place: but this place is nowhere else read; nor does the Greek sufficiently allow Chloe to be a place. Whence more truly Chrysostom and the Syriac think this is the name of a family or of a woman, as if to say: I hear from the family of Chloe. By a similar Graecism it is said in Romans 16:10: "Greet those who are of Aristobulus, of Narcissus," namely of his house and family.
Verse 12: That Each One of You Says, I Am of Paul
12. That each one of you (that is, anyone of those who contend among you and foster some part of the schism; for there were among the Corinthians many others sensible and peaceful, alien to schism and consequently to the words that follow) says (in turn, alternately, or respectively: for not everyone was saying it): I indeed am of Paul, I of Apollos, but I of Cephas, — but in turn, when one said: "I am of Paul," another said: "I of Apollos," another: "But I of Cephas." Therefore in the word "each one" there is a distributive and disjunctive acceptation familiar to the Hebrews; for each one was saying ambitiously and contentiously: "I am of Paul;" or: "I of Apollos, but I of Cephas." "I am of Paul," namely a disciple, a catechumen; "I of Cephas," namely instructed or baptized by Blessed Peter the Pontiff, at Antioch, Rome, or elsewhere. For thus far Peter had not been at Corinth, as is gathered from chapter 4:15. Whence Baronius will have these words to be those of those who declined the schisms which had properly arisen on account of Paul and Apollos, as is clear from chapter 3:4; and to avoid them, while others vaunted their own teachers, they themselves kept saying that they were disciples neither of Paul nor of Apollos, but of Peter, the President of the Church; as if they were to say: This man says and boasts that he is a disciple of Paul, that one of Apollos; but I say that I am of Cephas, that is, that I am a disciple of Peter, who is the head of the Church and vicar of Christ: for to him I adhere, in him I glory; he converted and baptized me through Paul or Apollos, or through someone else. Whence another, rising still higher, said: "I am of Christ;" who, namely, is the supreme Prince of the Apostles and of the Church, whose vicar is Peter, whose ministers are Paul and Apollos.
It must be noted that what He adds: "But I am of Christ," is the speech not of those who speak ill, but of those who speak rightly, if contention and contempt for the Apostles and vicars of Christ are absent, as the Anabaptists nowadays despise Prelates; for it was fitting for all to say: We are of Christ, that is, Christians. He therefore reproves the Corinthians, of whom not all, as was fitting, but only some said they were Christians, while others called themselves disciples either of Paul, or of Apollos, or of Cephas. So Ambrose, Theophylact, St. Thomas. The occasion of the schism seems to have been that Apollos, who was eloquent, sharp, and mighty in the Scriptures, was then teaching at Corinth, Acts 18:27, so that in respect of him Paul seemed to some colder and drier, inasmuch as he, in zeal of speech, under the Supreme Pontiff, in one Church; but also in this, that not in a lay or ecclesiastical state, but in Religion they all live together. For Religious Orders constitute as it were one legion in the Church, and that the strongest. As, therefore, the members of one body are united among themselves, and as the soldiers of one legion are more united among themselves than with another legion; so altogether are the Religious who strive for the summit of perfection and are bound to God by the closer bond of religion and vow, also more closely bound to one another.
If, therefore, anyone among them detracts from, envies, or impedes another Order, his religion is vain; he is not a Religious, indeed not a Christian, but a profane person; he is moved not by the Spirit of God, but by the devil.
For the true Religious will say with St. Bernard in his Apology: "One Order I hold by work, the others by charity." I am a Franciscan by Order, but a Dominican by charity. An Augustinian, a Benedictine, etc., all are Christians, not followers of Paul or of Apollos. So therefore I am a Religious of all Orders and Religions, by the work of one and by the charity of the rest; wherefore I rejoice in the goods of all Orders, I rejoice in the prosperous success of all, I envy none; for all are mine, and I am of all. "Is Christ divided" in the various Orders of Religious? Far be it. For the same Christ is the founder, author, and ruler of all Religions, and that for their greater union among themselves. What ought to be a cause of greater union, therefore, should not be a cause of most shameful division, hateful to God; lest we hear that saying: "Why is there zeal and contention among you, are you not carnal?" and that other: "Is your eye evil because I am good?" If it has pleased God to add some Orders to others, to send new ones in aid of the old, to give them new grace and spirit, who would carp at God? Who would envy the new? Who would defraud the Church of such workmen? Let them bear away the palm: I shall rejoice that God is honored through them and that more souls are saved, and so I shall become a partaker of their labors; for I seek not my own, but God's glory.
Hence Jerome, on Titus I, thinks that the Bishop was made superior to the presbyters in jurisdiction, so that these schisms might be removed, since before, he says, the Churches were governed by the common counsel of the presbyters: which words of Jerome on Titus must be explained.
Verse 13: Were You Baptized in the Name of Paul?
Verse 13. Were you baptized in the name of Paul? — As if to say: There is one Christ, in whose name you have all alike been baptized for us: therefore in vain do you contend over the preeminence of the ministers of baptism.
Hence Theologians teach that baptism and the Sacraments do not avail, nor work, from the work of the worker, or of the minister; but from the work performed.
Where note: To be baptized "in the name of Christ" is the same as to be baptized into the invocation, profession, power, merit, and baptism of Christ, and consequently to be inscribed into the name of Christ, that we may from Christ be called Christians, not followers of Paul, or of Apollos. So the Greeks. See concerning the power of excellence which Christ has in baptism and the other Sacraments, in St. Thomas.
Secondly, hence St. Thomas and others, and indeed the history of the Greeks teaches, that the Greeks received this form of baptism of theirs, that they should not say: I baptize thee; but: "Let the servant of Christ be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;" lest anyone should say: I am of Paul, I am of Apollos.
Thirdly, ineptly hence Erasmus, Faber, and the Novellists infer from a parallel: Therefore wrongly does one here say: I am of Scotus; another: I am of St. Thomas; this one: I am of Francis; that one: I am the pupil and disciple of Dominic; because the Apostle only attacks the contentions about preeminence and the schisms by which some Corinthians were proud, and were rending the Church into the studies of partisanship, as if they attributed the power and excellence of faith and baptism to the minister himself, Paul or Apollos, and not to Christ. By no means, however, does he carp at monastic institutions, or the schools and academies of Philosophers or Theologians: which, although they differ in exercises, rites, and opinions, are nevertheless joined in the same faith of Christ, in Christian charity and humility. If anyone does otherwise, he will be vain, and we will refer his vanity and contention along with Paul to these Corinthians; this is the vice of a man, not of an Order: as this was the vice of certain Corinthians, not of the Church. Far more truly and aptly may you turn these things against the schisms of the Novellists; for they themselves say, I am of Calvin, I am of Luther, I am of Menno, and that in matters of faith and religion: for Calvin introduces one faith, Luther another, Menno another.
For this variety of Religions and Orders has been introduced for the greater adornment, strength, and union of the Church: for thus armies divided into their legions are more adorned, strong, and united. For if they lacked this distribution, there would be great confusion in them. Religious of various Orders are united, not only under one head,
Verse 16: I Baptized the Household of Stephanas
16. I baptized the household of Stephanas. — Stephanas, says Theophylact, was a famous man at Corinth, whom therefore Paul praises for his faith and charity in chapter xvi, 17.
Verse 17: Christ Did Not Send Me to Baptize, but to Evangelize
17. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize. — These are the two offices of Pastors, namely the preaching and the administration of the Sacraments; but the former is the more principal. Whence the chief duty of Bishops, Archbishops, and Primates is the preaching of the Gospel; which they ought to exercise themselves, unless they are lawfully impeded, says the Council of Trent, session V, chapter II, and session XXIV, chapter IV. They can however commit Baptism and the other Sacraments to the Parish priests and their assistants, along with Paul.
Not in the wisdom of speech (that is, with eloquence and the adornment of speech that is not Evangelical. For in Greek it is σοφία, whence orators are called Sophists, especially those of the forum, says Plutarch in his Themistocles. Such was Libanius the sophist, and such are also our Novellists, the seed-pickers, who rightly call themselves ministers of the word. Not so Paul; and that) lest the cross of Christ be made void, — that is, rendered empty, when men think that they have attained salvation, and that faith is persuaded in them by the force of human eloquence, not by the force of Christ's passion. This was the origin of the schism of those saying: I am of Paul, I of Apollos; namely, indeed, that the eloquent Apollos pleased some delicate Corinthians who were studious of eloquence; but to others, who sought spirit more than words, Paul pleased, who was indeed unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge. Whence Paul here, and through the three following chapters, attacks and depresses worldly eloquence and wisdom many times. Hence secondly, "wisdom of speech," in Greek σοφία λόγου, can be taken as natural philosophy, as if to say: Rational wisdom; for he opposes this to the cross, verse 18; then, in verses 19, 20, 27, he explains it to be philosophy, and human reason and prudence. So Maldonatus in his Notes.
Verse 18: The Word of the Cross Is Folly to Those Who Perish
18. The word of the cross to those who are perishing is folly. — As if to say: The discourse about the saving cross, that is, that we have been redeemed through the cross and passion of Christ, appears as folly to unbelieving and perverse men, and therefore to those who are perishing. And this is what Isaiah, in chapter VIII, says in the person of Christ: "Behold I and my children whom the Lord has given me for a sign and a wonder in Israel," concerning which I shall say more on Hebrews II, 13.
It is the power of God. — "Power," in Greek δύναμις, that is, strength, vigor, fortitude, concerning which more in verse 24.
Verse 19: For It Is Written
19. For it is written. — Isaiah XXIX, 14, where it says thus: "Wisdom shall perish from its wise, and the understanding of its prudent shall be hidden," passively. But the Septuagint, whom Paul follows, translate actively, ἀπολῶ τὴν σοφίαν τῶν σοφῶν, καὶ τὴν σύνεσιν τῶν συνετῶν κρύψω, I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I shall hide the prudence of the prudent. For which Paul has ἀθετήσω, I shall reprove; and, as Tertullian translates, I shall make void; and the meaning is the same: for wisdom shall perish, because God will destroy and cast it away. Perhaps also the Septuagint, for אבדה abeda, that is, shall perish, read אבדה abbeda for אבדה agbieda, that is, I shall destroy, by crasis in the future Piel.
Note, Paul refers to the universal kind of secular wisdom that which the Prophet said properly of the wisdom of the Jews, which was Pharisaic: For the reasoning, with respect to this, of both — indeed of all secular wisdom — is equal, as if to say: I shall make it so that all do not wish to use secular wisdom for salvation, but the Gospel and cross of Christ.
Verse 20: Where Is the Wise Man? Where the Scribe?
20. Where is the wise man (that is, the philosopher of the Gentiles)? Where is the scribe? — that is, the teacher of the Jews. Paul cites Isaiah XXXIII, 18: "Where, he says, is the literate man? where is he who weighs the words of the law (that is, the scribe)? where is the teacher of children?" who in fact "is the inquirer of the world."
Note: Just as the Greeks called their wise men Philosophers, and the Chaldeans Magi; so the Jews called their teachers Sopharim: which the Septuagint translates γραμματεῖς, and our [Latin] version Scribes; from ספר sepher, that is, letter or writing: as you might say, lettered men or scribes, because they occupied themselves with sacred Letters. For their office was to preserve sacred Scripture uncorrupted, to watch over its corrected transcription, to interpret it both in writing and by voice, and from this to compose or expound responses. So Epiphanius, heresy 16. Whence sopher can also be derived from ספר saphar, that is, to recount, to enumerate, so that sopher is the same as expounder and explainer of the law. But our [Latin] version and the Septuagint look to sepher. So in old times those were called Grammarians who occupied themselves with letters and writings, and explained the doubtful opinions of the Poets. For the entire study of the Jews was in sacred Letters, and they hardly knew anything else. So Jansenius, Toletus, Maldonatus, and others on the Gospels, where there is frequent mention of the Scribes.
Where is the inquirer of the world? — The natural philosopher, who curiously investigates the secrets of nature and the world, as if to say: The Philosophers and Scribes have been cast down, and all the wise of the world have been depressed and confounded, through the preaching of the Apostles and the glory of the Gospel. So Chrysostom.
Paul notes here and in what follows both the old and the new Philosophers; not Christians, as the Anabaptists wish: for such were Dionysius the Areopagite, Hierotheus, Paul, Clement of Rome, Nathanael, Gamaliel, Apollos; but Pagans, who at this same time, as if rivals of the Apostles, were going around the world, and under the appearance of piety, wisdom, and eloquence were attempting to draw peoples away from Christ and the Apostles to themselves, as though they alone taught true wisdom and the way to virtue, justice, and salvation. Such was Musonius, Dio, Epictetus, Damis, Diogenes the Younger, Apollonius of Tyana, who at this same time was so admired by the Greeks for his magic that at Ephesus he was given a statue and reckoned among the gods; witness Philostratus, book IV: see Baronius, in the year of Christ 75, page 777.
Elegantly and forcefully, according to his manner, Tertullian, in his book On Idolatry, chapter IX: "After the Gospel, he says, you nowhere find either sophists, or enchanters, or diviners, or magicians, except those plainly punished. Where is the wise man? where the man of letters? where the inquirer of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this age? You know nothing, mathematician, if you did not know you would be a Christian: but if you did know, this too you should have known, that nothing would be yours with that profession. She herself would have instructed you about her own danger, who forewarned of the climacteric of others. There is no portion or lot for you in that calculation. He cannot hope for the kingdom of heaven whose finger or pointer abuses heaven."
Verse 21: Because in the Wisdom of God the World Knew Not God
21. Because in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom: it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. — Note the phrase "in the wisdom of God," which, namely, He showed in the most wise and so stupendous fabric and government of the world, says St. Thomas; as if to say: The foolish world did not know God in this wise fabric practically, as the author of salvation and the leader to a good and blessed life; nor even speculatively, because the Philosophers also imagined God to be powerless to create, and they thought He acted necessarily, lacked providence, etc.
For thus in creation God showed foolish that axiom of the Philosophers, by which they said: "From nothing nothing comes," and therefore they thought the world to be uncreated and eternal. So in the incarnation He showed foolish that saying of theirs: "God cannot be enclosed in body, place, time." In the passion that one: "God cannot suffer and die." So in the Eucharist, God showed foolish these things of the same men, as also the principles of our Novellists: "An accident cannot be without a subject; a body cannot be in a point; two bodies cannot be in the same place." For although these things are impossible to nature, they are not impossible to God (who is omnipotent and transcends every nature).
Citing this passage of Paul, St. Paulinus, in epistle 27 to Aper, who had been converted from being an advocate to the monastic life, and therefore exposed to the mockeries of men, thus confirms him in his purpose and teaches him to despise the laughter and jeers of men: "I rejoice, he says, that you have rejected that wisdom reprobated by God, and have preferred to have fellowship with the little ones of Christ rather than with the wise of the world. Hence already you also deserve this grace from the Lord, that men should hate you; which would not happen, unless you had begun to be a true imitator of Christ." And below, demonstrating the fruit and dignity of that purpose: "Rejoice, he says, and exult, for behold your reward is great in heaven; for they hate not you, but Him who has begun to be in you, whose work is in you, and the humility which they despise, and the chastity which they detest: in which good thing rejoice to acknowledge that you are a sharer with the Prophets and Apostles. From the beginning of the ages Christ suffers and triumphs in His own; in Abel, He was killed by his brother; in Noah, mocked by his son; in Abraham, wandered as a pilgrim; in Isaac, offered up; in Jacob, served; in Joseph, sold; in Moses, exposed and put to flight; in the Prophets, stoned and chosen; in the Apostles, tossed about by land and sea; in the Martyrs, so often and so variously slain. He Himself also suffers reproaches in you, and this world hates Him in you: but thanks to Him, that He conquers when He is judged, and triumphs in us." Then praising and admiring the change of his life: "Where, he says, are you now, you who were once a fearful advocate and judge? Who would give me wings, that I might fly to you, seeing you, not you, and seeing a calf instead of a lion: seeing Christ in the boar, now with the role of ferocity and virtue reversed, a boar to the world, a lamb to God? for you are a boar not from the forest but from the harvest field, who are fattened with the good fruits of disciplines, and have fed yourself in the harvest of virtues."
Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? — "He made foolish," that is, He showed it to be foolish: the real verb is put for the mental or verbal, according to Canon 36. "Foolish," I say, in the knowledge of the cross and of Christ and of salvation: for this faith is needed, not sharpness. So Chrysostom. It is clear from what follows. See Baruch III, 22. "The knowledge of the fishermen, says Ambrose, made foolish the knowledge of the Philosophers," namely when it overstepped its own and nature's limits.
Hence God, through a thing that seems foolish to the world, namely through the cross, revealed Himself and true salvation to the world, that He might accommodate Himself to the foolish and as it were become foolish with them, as a teacher becomes a child again with children and lisps. So Christ, because He was not understood as God, revealed Himself to men as man and passible: but this is great wisdom. So St. Thomas, Anselm, and others.
Excellently St. Leo, sermon 5 On the Nativity, having cited the Apostle's words: "To the world therefore, he says, that is to the prudent of the world, its wisdom became blindness; nor could they know God through it, to whose knowledge one is not approached except in His wisdom. And therefore, because the world was proud of the vanity of its dogmas, the Lord established the faith of those to be saved on that which seemed both unworthy and foolish, so that, all presumptions of opinions also failing, the grace of God alone might reveal what human intelligence was not able to comprehend."
Verse 22: For the Jews Seek Signs, but We Preach Christ Crucified
22. For both the Jews seek signs (miracles): but we preach Christ crucified. — That Theban, when asked what he thought of the Romans, replied: "The Romans glory in lances, the Greeks in eloquence, the Thebans in virtues." But the Apostle says that he and Christians glory in Christ crucified: this is our lance, this our eloquence, this our virtue.
Verse 23: We Preach Christ Crucified, to the Jews a Stumbling Block
23. But we preach Christ crucified: to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness. — He seems to allude to a Hebrew paronomasia, as if to say: The cross of Christ or of the Messiah to the Jews is מכשל michschal, that is, a stumbling-block; to the Gentiles מסכל miscal, that is, foolishness. "But to those called" to the faith it is שכל sechel, that is, industry, wisdom, and virtue, or power (for in Greek it is δύναμις) of God. Hence the author of the Lexicon of the Complutensian Bibles, on the root שכל sachal, teaches that משכל mascal, both in the language of the Chaldeans and of the Indian Christians of St. Thomas (who, since they receive their Bishop from the Babylonians, also use their language, namely Chaldean, which is a dialect of Hebrew, in their sacred rites), signifies a cross; and he reports that a certain Indian Christian, who always carried a cross in his hand, when asked by what name he called it in his own language, replied משכל mascal, as if you would say, wisdom, industry; and from this Paul gathered, I Cor. I, 24, alluded to it, when he says: "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Since indeed this word, with only the symbolic letters and points changed, signifies cross, stumbling-block, foolishness, and wisdom.
Note with Chrysostom, homily 6 on the moral here, and above on verse 17: The power of the cross shone forth not only in itself, but also in the preaching of itself. First, in that the Apostles, few, fishermen, poor, illiterate, obscure, Jews, hated by the whole world, nevertheless subjected the world to the cross. Second, in that they overcame the most hostile enemies — the demons, sin, death, hell, kings, princes, philosophers, orators, Greeks, Barbarians, laws, judgments, the most ancient religions and the antiquity of time. Third, in that they persuaded not by arms, not by wisdom, not by eloquence, but by simple preaching. Fourth, in that in so short a time they spread the faith of Christ through the whole world. Fifth, in that most freely and most strongly they overcame the threats, scourgings, deaths, and torments of tyrants — things intolerable to the powers of nature — through the grace of Christ. Sixth, in that they persuaded a doctrine not of a glorious God, but of a crucified one, and to believe in and adore Him as Savior, and to follow the law of Christ, which is not pleasing but repugnant to nature and to the flesh. Wherefore beautifully and aptly Tertullian, in his book Against the Jews, thus compares and prefers the kingdom of Christ to the kingdoms of all kings and peoples: "Solomon, he says, reigned, but in the borders of Judah only, from Dan to Beersheba. Darius reigned over the Babylonians and Parthians, not beyond; Pharaoh over the Egyptians, but over them only. Nebuchadnezzar had the limit of his kingdom from India to Ethiopia. Alexander of Macedon never held all of Asia and the other regions after he had conquered them. So the Germans, Britons, Moors, Romans have the limits of their empire. But the name and kingdom of Christ is extended everywhere, is believed everywhere, is worshipped by all peoples, reigns everywhere, is adored everywhere; He is equal to all, King to all, Judge to all, God and Lord to all."
Further, wisely Arnobius, in book I Against the Gentiles, by the example of Pythagoras, Socrates, and others unjustly killed, teaches that the cross brought to Christ not infamy, but glory: "No innocent man, he says, ever wickedly slain is infamous, nor is he stained with the mark of any disgrace, who does not suffer grievous penalties by his own merit, but the savagery of his tormentor; and yet, O you, who laugh at us for worshipping a man who died an ignominious death, do you not also slaughter Liber as your father, dismembered by the Titans, by the consecration of shrines? Did you not name Aesculapius, the inventor of medicines, after his punishment and the torment of the thunderbolt, the guardian and overseer of health, well-being, and welfare? Do you not invite Hercules the great with sacrifices, victims, and burnt incense, whom you yourselves report to have burned alive after his sufferings, and to have been consumed on funeral pyres? Do you not testify by the loud cry of the Galli that that Phrygian Attis, cut off and robbed of his manhood, is a propitious god, a holy god in the inner sanctuaries of the Great Mother? Do you not say that Romulus himself the father, torn to pieces by the hands of a hundred senators, is also Quirinus the Martian, and honor him with priests and sacred couches, and adore him in the most ample shrines, and swear that after all things he ascended to heaven? Either, then, you also are to be laughed at, who think that men slain with the most grievous tortures are gods, and worship them; or if there is a sure reason why you think this should be done by you, allow us also to know by what causes and reasons we do this."
Verse 25: What Is Foolish of God Is Wiser Than Men
25. Because what is foolish of God is wiser than men; and what is weak of God is stronger than men. — That is, the foolishness and weakness of God, namely that which in God and in Christ born and suffering they think foolish and weak, namely the humanity, mortality, passion, and cross of God, was that by which Christ most wisely and most strongly, as if conquered, conquered men, Satan, and the whole world, says Ambrose and Anselm; as if to say: In this is plain the marvelous wisdom and power of God, that through a foolish and weak thing, namely the cross, He overcame all wisdom and fortitude. Whence that of Habakkuk III: "Horns are in His hands," St. Jerome and Augustine expound thus: The strength and arms with which, as with horns, Christ transfixed His enemies, were the arms of the cross, to which the hands of Christ were affixed.
Hence also to Constantine the Great about to fight against Maxentius, the cross was shown from heaven, with this inscription: "In this sign you will conquer," as Eusebius testifies, book I of the Life of Constantine, chapter XXII.
Literally and morally note: the strength and even more the wisdom of the cross, as St. Thomas teaches, III part, Question XLVI, articles 3 and 4, and St. Augustine, book XIII On the Trinity, chapter XII, is plain first, because the most high God in the cross showed us His love, that by this art He might draw us to Himself: for God, compelled by no necessity, lured by no hope of His own utility, descended to the cross spontaneously by our love alone, yet so wisely that through this He took nothing from the loftiness and glory of His deity. For the deity in itself suffered nothing, but sustained every suffering in the humanity which it had assumed. Secondly, because on the cross He redeemed man, not through the power of the deity, but through the justice and humility of the passion, as St. Augustine says. Thirdly, because on the cross He set forth for us to imitate the most perfect exemplar of obedience, constancy, penitence, patience, fortitude, mortification of vices, and of all virtues. Fourthly, because on the cross He confuted the wisdom and pride of the world, and gave to fallen man, through pride and delights, the mirror of life, namely the manner of repairing himself through humility and the cross.
Wherefore St. Bernard, to the Knights of the Temple, XI: "No less, he says, did the weakness of Christ profit than His majesty: for although by the power of His deity He removed the yoke of sin by commanding it, yet by the weakness of the flesh He shook the laws of death by dying. Whence beautifully says the Apostle: What is weak of God is stronger than men. But also that foolishness of His, by which it pleased Him to save the world, that He might confute the wisdom of the world, confound the wise: that namely when He was in the form of God, equal to God, He emptied Himself taking the form of a servant; that when He was rich, He became needy for us, small from great, lowly from lofty, weak from powerful; that He hungered, that He thirsted, that He was wearied on the journey, and the other things which He suffered by will, not by necessity: was not this His foolishness for us the way of prudence, the form of justice, the example of sanctity? On this account also the Apostle: What is foolish of God, he says, is wiser than men. Death therefore freed from death, life from error, grace from sin. And indeed death accomplished its victory through its own justice: for the just one, in paying back what he did not seize, by all right received what he had lost."
Hence Simeon Salus, Francis, and the greatest Saints sought to be held foolish by the world, that they might please God more; and indeed certain Religious Orders prescribe this peak as the very peak of Christian perfection and wisdom for their members, that they should as much love, desire, embrace their own contempt, mockeries, opprobria, and injuries, indeed wish to be considered foolish, as worldly people pursue the fame of wisdom, honor, and celebrity of name. And that first, for this reason, that thus they may perfectly despise the world. Secondly, that they may humble themselves to the utmost and extirpate the innate appetite for glory, praise, honor, and loftiness. Thirdly, that they may be more conformed to Christ and clothed in His garments and insignia, who for our sake, and to give us an example of virtue and perfection, chose these very things, wished to be considered foolish, became the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. They say therefore with Paul: "Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."
All these things the cross of Christ teaches, if you often contemplate it; for the cross is the fountain of wisdom. Bonaventure, when asked from where he had drawn so great wisdom, showed his Crucifix nearly worn out with kisses. Blessed Jacopone, a nobleman and a learned man, when he had learned from the cross of Christ to become foolish to the world, when asked by Christ appearing to him in a friendly and familiar manner, why he so loved this foolishness, replied with pious wit, as was his custom: "Because You were more foolish than I, Lord."
Finally, the virtue and praises of the cross St. Chrysostom thus encompasses in few words, homily 4 On the Cross and the Thief: "If you desire to know the power of the cross, and as much as I can say in its praise, hear: The cross is the hope of Christians, the resurrection of the dead, the way of the despairing, the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the restraint of the rich, the destruction of the proud, the punishment of those living wickedly, the triumph against demons, the conquering of the devil, the pedagogue of youths, the sustenance of the poor, the hope of the despairing, the helmsman of those sailing, the harbor of those in danger, the wall of the besieged, the father of orphans, the defender of widows, the counselor of the just, the rest of the troubled, the guardian of the little ones, the head of the living, the end of the old, the light of those sitting in darkness, the magnificence of kings, perpetual shield, wisdom of the senseless, freedom of slaves, philosophy of Emperors, law of the impious, glorying of martyrs, abstinence of monks, chastity of virgins, joy of priests, foundation of the Church, destruction of temples, repulsion of idols, scandal of the Jews, perdition of the impious, virtue of the weak, physician of the sick, bread of the hungry, fountain of the thirsty, protection of the naked."
Verse 26: See Your Calling, Brethren
26. For see your calling, brethren, because not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful. — Note: "For" gives the cause of what precedes, and this is another proof of what He said in verse 23: "It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe;" for he proves the same thing by two arguments: First, in verse 23, from the object of preaching, because, namely, it pleased God to save us through the cross, but this seems foolishness to the world. Secondly, he proves the same thing here from the very ministers of preaching, because, namely, the Apostles themselves who preached the cross and salvation were vile, rude, abject, and foolish men in the eyes of the world.
Again, this "for" aptly connects this verse with the immediately preceding verse 25; for there the Apostle had said: "What is foolish of God is wiser than men; and what is weak of God is stronger than men." Which indefinite and general statement is true both in the cross itself and in the preachers of the cross themselves, as Athanasius teaches, Question CXXIX to Antiochus.
And so "for" here signifies the apt fittingness of the preachers with the cross itself, as if to say: God willed to use the foolishness and weakness of the cross, and by it to overcome and subdue to Himself the wisdom and power of all men, and this is plain not only in the cross itself and in the victory of the cross, but also in the Apostles preaching the cross; for God did not choose the wise and powerful of the world, but the poor, idiots, and foolish in the eyes of the world to be Apostles, who would carry the trophy of the cross through the whole world, and who would persuade the faith of the cross to the whole world, so that all men would believe and hope that through the cross of Christ they would obtain justice and salvation.
It is a reasoning from a similitude, or from analogy; for such as the cross was, namely vile, abject, and foolish to the world, such ought also the heralds of the cross to be. For God adapted all things so fittingly to the cross to be preached by His marvelous wisdom, that both the preachers and even the believers themselves should also fit the cross: for the first to believe and to be called to the faith were plebeian men, vile, obscure, sinners, publicans, and harlots.
See your calling, — that is, the reason and manner of your calling: because the Apostles who called you are not wise according to the flesh, that is, by carnal, earthly, worldly wisdom, which knows not the spiritual and divine. So St. Thomas; for he speaks chiefly of the calling Apostles. Secondly however, Chrysostom rightly takes it from verse 2 also of the called and the converted; for many unlearned were converted to Christ, fewer learned and noble, inasmuch as they were proud, so that "See your calling" is the same as: see the callers and the called, of what sort they are, see Canons 21 and 30.
Note: Some wise and powerful men were called, such as Dionysius the Areopagite, the Proconsul Paulus, Nicodemus, this our Paul, but few; and the Apostle speaks chiefly of the Apostles, who were called first, since they were poor and abject. Whence Ambrose, book V on Luke, on that of chapter VI, Why God chose twelve of them: "Mark, he says, the heavenly counsel: not some wise men, not the rich, not kings, not the noble, but fishermen and publicans whom He might direct, He chose, lest He should seem to have led some to His grace through prudence, or to have bought them by riches, or to have drawn them by the authority of power and nobility, so that the reasoning of truth, not the favor of disputation, might prevail." And St. Augustine, On the Words of the Lord, sermon 59, volume X: "Great, he says, is the mercy of the craftsman; for He knew that, if He chose a senator, the senator would say: My dignity has been chosen; if He chose a rich man, the rich man would say: My wealth has been chosen; if a king, the king would say: My power; if an orator: My eloquence; if a philosopher: My wisdom has been chosen. Meanwhile, says the Lord, those proud ones are deferred, they are much swollen: give Me first that fisherman; come you, poor man: you have nothing, you know nothing, follow Me: an empty vessel must be brought to so generous a fountain: the fisherman left his nets, received grace, and became a divine orator: now the words of fishermen are read, and the necks of orators are bowed." Vain therefore seems what some fable concerning the nobility and the purple of St. Bartholomew the apostle.
Verse 27: God Has Chosen the Foolish Things of the World
27. But God chose the foolish things of the world, that He might confound the wise. — (Note: Paul calls the foolish, weak, ignoble things of the world, by amplification, the very faithful called to Christ, or rather the very callers, namely the Apostles; for these, because rude, poor, ignoble, and therefore foolish in the eyes of the world, and the mockeries of the world, He opposes to the wise, strong, and powerful of the world; the same He calls) those things which are not (that is, the abject, which are reckoned for nothing, as if to say: God chose the abject Apostles, who were reckoned for nothing), that those things which are (that is, those things which are held in price, namely the wise and powerful of the world) He might destroy, — and as it were annihilate.
Where note: The three things which the world is wont to admire, namely wisdom, power, and nobility, were neglected by God in the calling of men to faith, justice, and salvation; and on the contrary, three things contrary to these were chosen by Him, namely unwisdom, weakness, and ignobility. For the first calling Apostles, equally as the first called, both Jews and Gentiles, were according to the world unwise, weak, ignoble. And this God did to show that this is a divine work, and that this calling is to be ascribed to the grace of God, and not to human excellence. So in the second century after the Apostles He chose Agnes, a little maiden of thirteen years, who by her admirable fortitude was to stupefy and confound Governors and all the Gentiles. Whence rightly in her Collect the Church prays: "Omnipotent eternal God, who choose the weak things of the world to confound all that is strong: grant propitiously, that we who celebrate the solemnities of Blessed Agnes, your virgin and martyr, may experience her patronage with you." Such also were St. Agatha, Lucy, Dorothy, Barbara, and six hundred others, whom God seems to have raised up for this, that in their weakness He might show the power of His grace, and that divine virtue is perfected in human weakness. Wherefore in their Collect the Church prays: "God who among the other miracles of your power have conferred the victory of martyrdom even on the fragile sex: grant propitiously, that we who celebrate the natal day of Blessed N., your virgin and martyr, may walk to you through her examples."
Verse 29: That No Flesh May Glory
29. That no flesh may glory. — "No flesh," that is, no one; it is a Hebraism. Again, "flesh," that is, man: it is a synecdoche, as if to say: For this reason God chose and called to Christ not the wise, the noble, the powerful; but the rude, the ignoble, and the weak, that no man may glory that he was called to Christianity on account of his wisdom, wealth, nobility, fortitude, or merits; but may know that he was called from the mere grace of God. So Anselm.
Verse 30: But From Him You Are in Christ Jesus
30. But from Him you are in Christ Jesus. — "From Him," that is, by His, namely God's, gift, through His grace, you also have been called to the faith of Christ, and you believe in Him. So Anselm. For to be in Christ is to be incorporated into Christ in baptism, or to be in the Church of Christ and in Christianity, according to Canon 37.
Who (Christ) is made for us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption. — "Justice," imputative, the Novellists say; because, namely, not through a true and inherent justice, but only through an external justice of Christ imputed to us must be conformed to justice, as if Paul were saying: "Christ has been made to us justice," that is, the exemplar and mirror of justice.
Thirdly, efficiently, because Christ effects this justice and produces it through His Sacraments, and because there is faith; therefore there is also justice: for in the same way the Apostle says that Christ has been made for us justice and wisdom.
Fourthly, finally, because Christ Himself and the glory of Christ is the end of our justice and sanctity.
Symbolically, St. Bernard, in his 22nd sermon on the Canticles, applies these four — "wisdom, justice, sanctification, redemption" — first to the four works of Christ: "Christ, he says, has been made to us wisdom in His preaching, justice in the absolution of sins, sanctification in His conversation with sinners, redemption in the Passion which He endured for sinners." And further on: "Christ has been made to us by God wisdom, teaching prudence; and justice, by forgiving sins; and sanctification, as an example of temperance, living continently; and redemption, as an example of patience, dying bravely. Where, I ask, is there true prudence except in Christ's teaching? Whence comes true justice, save from Christ's mercy? Where is true temperance, except in Christ's life? Where true fortitude, except in Christ's Passion?" Secondly, St. Bernard then applies these four to the four cardinal virtues — prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude — which Christ communicates to us, when he adds: "Only those, then, who are imbued with His teaching are to be called prudent; only those just, who through His mercy have obtained pardon of their sins; only those temperate, who endeavour to imitate His life; only those brave, who hold fast to the example of His patience in adversity. In vain, therefore, does anyone labour to acquire virtues, if he thinks they are to be hoped for from anywhere else than from the Lord of virtues; whose teaching is the seedbed of prudence; whose mercy is the work of justice; whose life is the mirror of temperance; whose death is the badge of fortitude."
I say therefore, from Canon 21, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm, Ambrose, and St. Thomas, that the meaning of this passage is this: Christ has been made for us the author and cause of true and Christian wisdom, redemption, sanctity and justice: First, satisfactorily and meritoriously — and this is what the Apostle has chiefly in view; because Christ, by the most just price of His blood, made satisfaction for the human debt, and merited for us justice, wisdom and sanctity, and so was made for us justice, because the justice — that is, the satisfaction — of Christ is ours, just as if we had ourselves made satisfaction to God. Hence, as theologians teach, in justification through the Sacraments, prior in nature as it were, Christ's satisfaction is applied to us; so that afterwards, posterior in nature, on account of it, sins are remitted and grace is infused. The error of Peter Abelard is therefore here condemned, an error which the Socinians now follow, teaching that Christ was the teacher of the world, not its Redeemer — namely that He was sent by the Father to give men an example of perfect virtue, but not to free them from sin and redeem them. Pursuing them, St. Bernard, in epistle 190 to Pope Innocent, says: "'The end of the law is Christ, unto salvation to every one that believeth,' Romans X. Finally, He, says he, has been made for us justice from God the Father. Whose, then, is the justice made for me, if it is not mine? If my fault was imputed to Him, why should not His justice be granted to me? And indeed it is safer for me as a gift than as a thing born in me. For the latter has glory, but not before God. The former, however, since it is effective for salvation, has no matter for boasting except in the Lord. For 'even if I shall be just, I will not lift up my head,' says Job, ch. X, lest he should hear the response: 'What hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?' This is the justice of man in the blood of the Redeemer, which the son of perdition (Abelard), scoffing and mocking, attempts so to empty out, that the whole of what the Lord of glory accomplished in emptying Himself, etc., what He suffered unworthy things, etc., he supposes and argues should be reduced to this alone, that He handed over to men a pattern of life by living and teaching, but in suffering and dying set the goal of charity," etc. Abelard's reasoning was deceitful and frivolous: "The devil," he says, "had no right over man: therefore man did not need a liberator." For the antecedent is true of legitimate right, not of usurped right, by which sinful man had voluntarily subjected himself to the devil, to sin and to hell.
Secondly, exemplarily, because Christ's justice is the most perfect exemplar, to which all our justice must be conformed, as Paul says: "Christ has been made our justice," that is, the exemplar and mirror of justice.
Verse 31: That He Who Glories May Glory in the Lord
31. That he that glorieth, may glory in the Lord. — He cites not the words but the sense of Jeremiah IX, 23. So Ambrose, Theophylact, Anselm, and St. Thomas. Jeremiah has it thus: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, to understand and know me": and this is "to glory in the Lord."
Note: Jeremiah is speaking of deliverance from the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the slaughter of the Chaldeans threatening Judaea — as if to say: the Jews glory in the counsels of their wise men, in the strength of their soldiers, in the wealth of Jerusalem, as if by these they would be safe from the Chaldeans; but they err: for true glorying is to know and understand God, that is, God's providence; and that He Himself is the One who shows mercy, and mercifully delivers whom He will, but not the wise, rich, or strong man; and that He alone inflicts just punishment on whomever He wills, from which no wise, strong, or rich man can deliver; just as He will inflict it on you, O Jews, and will cause death — that is, the Chaldean enemy, bringing death — to climb up through the windows, so that, penetrating through them into the houses, it may slaughter the little ones and all alike.
The Apostle rightly here adapts this to those calling and to those called to Christianity, that no one should attribute the grace of his Christian work to himself, to his own strength, or to natural gifts, but to the grace of Christ; and consequently He tacitly infers, as if to say: Therefore, O Corinthians, glory not in yourselves, not in Paul, or Apollos, your teachers, but in the Lord: for this Paul proposed to prove from the beginning, and to this all things must be referred.
"He," says Anselm, "glories in the Lord alone, who recognizes that not what is his own, but what is God's, exists — not only that it exists, but also that it is only well with it from Him from whom it has its being." Again, he who, having something whereby he may please God, does not credit it to his own wisdom, power, works, talent, or merits, but counts it as received from the grace of God alone. Thirdly, he who in all that he does seeks not his own, but the Lord's glory. St. Bernard wrote a notable sermon on these words of the Apostle, De Triplici Gloria (On Threefold Glory). The same, in his 25th sermon on the Canticles: "For this reason, he says, all the glory of the Saints is within, not without — that is, not in the flower of grass, or in the mouth of the crowd, but in the Lord: because God alone is the judge of conscience, whom alone they desire to please, and to please whom is the sole true and highest glory." And in his 13th sermon on the Canticles: "Brothers, let none of you wish to be praised in this life; because whatever favour you snatch here, which you do not refer to God, you steal from Him. For you, putrid dust, whence glory to you, whence?" And in the Sentences: "The Apostle had known that proper glory belongs to the Creator, not to the creature; but he considered that the rational creature so affects glory that it can scarcely or never be restrained from this desire, inasmuch as it has been made in the image of the Creator. Therefore he devised this most healthful counsel, saying: Since we cannot be persuaded not to glory, at least let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord." Let us therefore say continually with the Psalmist: "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." And with the twenty-four elders casting their crowns before the throne: "To Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever. Amen," Apocalypse ch. IV, v. 11, and ch. V, v. 13 and 14.