ONE of the most remarkable statements to be found in any of St. Paul's epistles is that in which he says to the Corinthians, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." He was addressing a people who had in many instances accepted Christianity readily, but who still wished to adhere to their old belief in worldly pleasures, and to judge the truth itself by mere intellectual standards. The apostle admits that the preaching of "Christ crucified" was to the Greeks "foolishness," yet he went on with this preaching and the attendant demonstration of spiritual power, because, as he tells us, "the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." He tells us that he did not come to them (as he might so easily have done) with eloquence or enticing words, but instead declared to them the things of Spirit, although he was fully aware that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . . because they are spiritually discerned."
It may be well to ask here what Paul meant in saying that he determined not to know anything "save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." In the early days of Jesus' ministry the learned and the rich had listened to his teachings, although they were ashamed to admit that they were his disciples. Among these was Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus at night, for fear of public opinion; also Joseph of Arimathea. These men doubtless followed with interest the career of the great Teacher up to its culmination on Calvary, but so far as we can learn they did not declare for his teaching until the crucifixion decided for them, as it did for the Roman centurion, that "this was the Son of God."
Here we must remember that they did not wait for the resurrection to assure them of the complete triumph of Truth's representative, but when the cause of Truth seemed committed to ignominy, Joseph, the "rich man," the "honorable counselor," came boldly to Pilate and declared his fealty to the one who for his devotion to Truth had been condemned to death. Nicodemus, too, came forward, bringing costly spices, worth a king's ransom, that he might do honor to the one who had told him that only as a man is born of Spirit can he enter the kingdom of God.
