For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 1:17 Go To 1 Corinthians 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. Preaching and the administration of the Sacraments are the two duties of Pastors, but especially the former. And therefore the chief work of Bishops, Archbishops, and Primates is to preach the Gospel: and this they are bound to do themselves, unless lawfully hindered (Council of Trent, Sess. v. c2 , and Sess. iv. c4). But they may with Paul intrust the administration of Baptism and the other Sacraments to Parish Priests and their assistants.
Not with wisdom of words. I.e, with eloquence and rhetorical adornment, not according to the Gospel. The Greek word for wisdom gives us Sophists, the Greek orators who particularly pleaded in the law courts. Of this are modern innovators in religion, who rightly style themselves "ministers of the word." Not so did Paul, "lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect," i.e, should become emptied of its force, by men supposing that they had obtained salvation, and their belief in the faith through human eloquence, instead of by the power of the Passion of Christ. This was the origin of the schism of those who said, "I am of Paul," "I of Apollos," because the eloquence of Apollos was pleasing to some of the more fastidious Corinthians, and to those who loved eloquence; while on the other, Paul pleased those who sought for the spirit rather than the words, inasmuch as he was unskilled indeed in rhetoric but not in knowledge. And thence it is that S. Paul here and in the next three chapters attacks and abases in different ways eloquence and worldly wisdom. The "wisdom of words" can be taken for natural philosophy, of the wisdom of human reason; for it is opposed to the Cross in ver18; and again, in verses19 , 20-27 , he explains it as philosophy and human reason and prudence. (Maldonatus.)
