The following was translated using ChatGPT. I made some modifications.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER ONE
After the customary solemn greeting and thanksgiving (2 Cor 1:1–9), he rebukes their dissensions which had arisen from rivalry (1 Cor 1:10–11). They were forming factions among themselves after the manner of the Gentile philosophers; just as those were called Platonists, Aristotelians, and the like, so the Corinthian Christians were saying that some belonged to Paul, others to Apollos, others to Cephas, and so on (1 Cor 1:12), calling themselves disciples and followers.
He highlights the absurdity of their cliques (1 Cor 1:13-16), and from their vanity he recalls them, showing that in the work of salvation the grace and power of God accomplish everything, whereas the wisdom of other teachers can do little or nothing (1 Cor 1:17–20). To demonstrate this, God chose all the instruments of salvation to be lowly and ignoble: the Cross (1 Cor 1:18, 23), fishermen, and simple apostles—men not eloquent nor swollen with human philosophy (1 Cor 1:21, 26–28)—so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:29).
1 Cor 1:1 PAUL, CALLED AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST. To secure authority, he places his name and the dignity of his office at the head of the Epistle, as the prefects of emperors are accustomed to do when they write to peoples, as when one says: “The Prefect of the Praetorium of Augustus Caesar,” or “The Master of the Militia of Tiberius Caesar,” as Sedulius notes.
BY THE WILL OF GOD. Not by my own will did I thrust myself forward, but the will of the divine good pleasure impelled—or rather compelled—me to the office of the Apostolate.
AND SOSTHENES, A BROTHER. This is he who was recently the ruler of the Jewish synagogue at Corinth, who, as a defender of Paul, was beaten by the Jews before Gallio the proconsul (Acts 18:17), and who was now a disciple of the Apostle, accompanying and assisting him, perhaps even writing this epistle as Paul dictated it. The third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (v. 22) is cited. Haymo believes that Paul was accustomed to dictate his epistles in the presence of his assembled disciples and to grant to each the liberty of adding whatever might be revealed to him by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, according to that saying in 1 Corinthians 14:30: “If something is revealed to another who is seated, let the first be silent.”
1 Cor 1:2 THE CHURCH OF GOD WHICH IS AT CORINTH. Ecclesia, in Latin, signifies a convocation; synagoga denotes a gathering. Hence, because assembling belongs properly to those who use reason, whereas animals are merely gathered together, Augustine says (on Psalm 81) that the Jews are called a synagogue, since like cattle they sought from God the highest goods in carnal and temporal things; but Christians are called the Church, because, as rational beings, they expect from God spiritual and eternal goods.
SANCTIFIED IN CHRIST JESUS. Purified by faith and by the baptism of Christ.
CALLED SAINTS. Called by grace to faith and holiness.
WITH ALL WHO INVOKE THE NAME OF THE LORD. That is, with all universally who practice the Christian religion; for among the acts of the Christian religion, the chief and most universal is invocation, by which we implore the help and grace of Christ. Sedulius and Haymo interpret this of the priests of the Corinthian Church, because it belongs to them to invoke the name of the Lord for the people, as Samuel is numbered among those who invoke His name (Psalm 98); but this interpretation is less satisfactory.
IN EVERY PLACE OF THEIRS. In whatever place or region of the whole world they may dwell.
AND OURS. Which region is also ours, because the jurisdiction of the Apostles extended to all Christians universally; or because the Church throughout the whole world is one under one Head, Christ. We are accustomed to call regions subject to our ruler “ours,” even if we dwell in another part of the kingdom.
1 Cor 1:3 GRACE TO YOU. May it be given and preserved to you.
AND PEACE, which usually arises from sanctifying grace and wards off the schisms which you are practicing.
FROM GOD. Not from your teachers, who cannot give you grace, because “neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters” (1 Corinthians 3:7).
OUR FATHER, whose adopted children we all are through sanctifying grace; hence we ought to preserve peace as brothers.
1 Cor 1:4 I GIVE THANKS TO MY GOD. God, who is common to all, he calls his own out of the abundance of love. And this, Chrysostom says, can truly be said by anyone who, raised above all the things of this world by love of God, prefers Him to all else.
ALWAYS, that is, at all times appointed for prayer, or for every benefit, whether old or new, “I give thanks,” says Chrysostom.
FOR THE GRACE OF GOD, that is, concerning the grace of God, as others translate it; for the matter of thanksgiving is signified.
WHICH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU. Not through Paul or Cephas and the like, but through Christ; for the Father pours no grace upon men except from the fountain of the merits of His Son.
1 Cor 1:5 THAT IN EVERYTHING. In every kind of spiritual grace which the faithful are accustomed to receive from God.
YOU HAVE BEEN ENRICHED. You abound; for the Apostle is accustomed to use “riches” for any abundance, as “the riches of His goodness” (Romans 2:4).
IN HIM. Through Him, Christ.
IN ALL SPEECH. In every discourse by which one ought to speak and reason in the Christian faith and doctrine; and also in the gift of tongues, by which some were miraculously endowed.
AND IN ALL KNOWLEDGE. In the knowledge of divine things, which is “the knowledge of the saints” (Wisdom 10:10). For many have knowledge but not speech, like the unlearned, who cannot fittingly express what they know, as Chrysostom says; but the Corinthians had both gifts from God.
1 Cor 1:6 JUST AS in Greek καθὼς (kathōs), “in the manner in which,” or “by what kind of graces.”
THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST, dwelling by faith,
WAS CONFIRMED IN YOU. Was proved and shown to be in you; for that knowledge and speech by which they spoke of divine things, and the gift of tongues which some had received, bore witness that they had received the true faith of Christ.
1 Cor 1:7 SO THAT YOU LACK NOTHING IN ANY GRACE. In Greek, ἐν μηδενὶ χαρίσματι (en mēdeni charismati), “in no gift of the Holy Spirit”; that is, there was no gift of the Holy Spirit or gratuitous grace—such as the word of wisdom, gifts of healing, prophecy, kinds of tongues, and the like, which are enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12—that some of you had not received. These were signs then commonly given, by which God bore witness that the Churches had embraced the true faith of Christ. Hence in 2 Corinthians 12:12 he says that the signs of his apostleship were wrought among them in signs and wonders, and that they lacked nothing in comparison with other Churches.
Nor do these things contradict chapter 3, verse 2, where he calls them still infants in Christ; for the weak faith of infants can be confirmed by miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Church is a heterogeneous body, in which there are perfect and imperfect; therefore he sometimes praises it on account of the perfect, and at other times reproves it on account of the imperfect.
AS YOU AWAIT THE REVELATION. While you await in hope that Christ, now hidden from mortal eyes, will be revealed and will appear in the clouds as judge of the living and the dead; for he speaks only of the elect, who desire the final coming of Christ.
1 Cor 1:8 UNTO THE END. To which God has confirmed you, the elect, unto the end of this life.
BLAMELESS. Without grave and mortal sin; for the just do not live without venial sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). He does not say when this confirmation begins, but when it ends; for the elect sometimes fall into some grave sin, but before the end of life they always rise again and at last persevere without grave sin unto the end.
ON THE DAY OF THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. When Christ comes in His final coming to the universal judgment; then those will be found without grave sin who have persevered without grave sin until the end of life, because the universal judgment conforms to the particular judgment.
1 Cor 1:9 GOD IS FAITHFUL. For God is truthful and faithfully keeps what He has promised.
BY WHOM YOU WERE CALLED. By a special calling and according to purpose, which belongs only to the predestined.
INTO THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SON. Into the sharing of the inheritance and glory of His Son, so that you may be heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
CONTINUE
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