For I determined to know nothing among you except Christ, and Him crucified1 Corinthians 2:2

It also used to bother me a bit that Paul didn't seem to include the resurrection, but somehow I had missed the most obvious thing that had been staring me right in the face!! "For I determined to know nothing among you except CHRIST, and Him crucified". What is the most obvious? That He was raised from the dead. The Christ that he knew among them was the living Jesus! The point is that Paul had to ADD the second part ("and Him crucified") because it is what defines the living Christ. He is not the Jesus who is connected with the Law and with sin anymore because He died to it!! Done, finished! Paul didn't add that so we wouldn't forget to mourn His death (a typical motivational emphasis of the false church), but that we wouldn't ever be confused as to who this Christ, who is our life, really is. Notice this also:

For I determined to know nothing AMONG YOU except Christ, and Him crucified

"among you" ... this is the main emphasis of the statement. How were they viewing one another? By comparative standards: which teacher they adhered to, their degree of gifting, their level of knowledge. These Corinthian believers were almost as screwed up as ... as ... as ... US! :)

Paul wasn't concerned about what I used to call the basics. I used to think and teach that, too. :) You are not alone! hahaha! But it's not suggesting anything of the sort! Unless you realize that the basics is the very life of Christ, who has separated us from the old life we were born into this world with and has brought us into LIFE itself!

His whole letter to the Corinthians was detailed separating of the mind of the world and the mind of the Spirit. The one doesn't understand or accept the other. The problem was that someone (many of their wonderful teachers) had been convincing them that they could understand the things of God through their intellect (I wonder if they had "new believers" classes?). Paul started the letter off with the simple concept of "Christ, and Him crucified" and reminded these believers that understanding God was the miraculous work of the Spirit, who was IN them. He then went on to throw their screwed up experiences in their faces, NOT TO SHAME THEM, but to drive home the reality of what the wisdom of the world had convinced them of and brought them to. His major questions were, DON'T YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE? ... DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD PRODUCES? ... DON'T YOU KNOW THE TWO WISDOMS CANNOT MIX?.

"AMONG YOU" ... How do you view me? How do you view yourself? One will demand the other. Compare me with yourself or with your group or with your standards and you have evaluated yourself by how well you rate in comparison to me or with those standards! Rate me by how many doctrines I agree with you on and you have automatically rated yourself as the standard by which I am to be judged in the matter. Put me under law and eventually you will have no option but to put yourself under law. It's what the Corinthians were doing ... and it's what you and I also fall into.

View me in the living, risen Christ, the one who has been separated from everything to do with the world ...... OR ......... view me in relation to how well I rate in comparison to your world. There are no other options.

Love,
Jim