Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin (continued)
John Calvin understand him to mean, that when he pondered the magnitude of the office that he sustained, it was tremblingly, and not without great anxiety, that he occupied himself in it; or that, being encompassed with many dangers, he was in constant alarm and incessant anxiety. Either meaning suits the context sufficiently well. The second, however, is, in my opinion, the more simple. Such a spirit of modesty, indeed, becomes the servants of the Lord, that, conscious of their own weakness, and looking, on the other hand, at once to the difficulty and the excellence of so arduous an office, they should enter on the discharge of it with reverence and fear For those that intrude themselves confidently, and in a spirit much elated, or who discharge the ministry of the word with an easy mind, as though they were fully equal to the task, are ignorant at once of themselves and of the task. 108
As, however, Paul here connects fear with weakness, and as the term weakness denotes everything that was fitted to render him contemptible, it follows necessarily that this fear must relate to dangers and difficulties. It is certain, however, that this fear was of such a nature as did not prevent Paul from engaging in the Lord's work, as facts bear witness. The Lord's servants are neither so senseless as not to perceive impending dangers, nor so devoid of feeling as not to be moved by them. Nay more, it is necessary for them to be seriously afraid on two accounts chiefly — first, that, abased in their own eyes, they may learn wholly to lean and rest upon God alone, and secondly, that they may be trained to a thorough renunciation of self. Paul, therefore, was not devoid of the influence of fear, but that fear he controlled in such a manner as to go forward, notwithstanding, with intrepidity through the midst of dangers, so as to encounter with undaunted firmness and fortitude all the assaults of Satan and of the world; and, in fine, so as to struggle through every impediment.
4. And my preaching was not in the persuasive words. By the persuasive words of man's wisdom he means that exquisite oratory which aims and strives rather by artifice than by truth, and also an appearance of refinement, that allures the minds of men. It is not without good reason, too, that he ascribes persuasiveness ({τό} {πιθάνον}) 109 to human wisdom. For the word of the Lord constrains us by its majesty, as if by a violent impulse, to yield obedience to it. Human wisdom, on the other hand, has her allurements, by which she insinuates herself 110 and her blandishments, as it were, by 108"Ne cognoissent ni eux ni la chose qu'ils ont entre mains;" — "They know not either themselves or the thing that they have in hand."
109This passage has largely exercised the ingenuity of critics, from the circumstance that the adjective {πειθοῖς}, occurring nowhere else in the New Testament, or in any of the writings of classical authors, it is supposed that there has been some corruption of the reading. Some suppose it to be a contraction or corruption of {πείθανοις} or {πίθαςοις}, and Chrysostom, in one or two instances, when quoting the passage, uses the adjective {πίθανοις}, while in other cases he has {πειθοῖς} It is perhaps in allusion to those instances in which Chrysostom makes use of the adjective {πίθαςοις}, that Calvin employs the phrase {το} {πίθανον} (persuasiveness.) Semler, after adducing various authorities, suggests the following reading: --- {ἐν} {πειθοῖ} {σοφαις} taking {πειθοῖ}; as the dative of {ἡ} {πειθω}, (persuasion.) Bloomfield considers {πειθοῖ}, to be a highly probable reading, but prefers to retain {πειθοῖς}. --- Ed
110"Secrettement et doucement;" — "Secretly and softly."