1 Corinthians 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Wisdom From the Spirit
6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"[b]— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[c] 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.
Footnotes:
[a] 1 Corinthians 2:1 Some manuscripts as I proclaimed to you God's mystery
[b] 1 Corinthians 2:9 Isaiah 64:4
[c] 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual men
[d] 1 Corinthians 2:16 Isaiah 40:13
3 comments:
Father God,
We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you that we have your Spirit in us so that we can begin to comprehend your glory.
Guys, I thought this chapter was amazingly powerful. Are you tired of hearing that yet. I'm not. The Lord, creator of all things, has allowed us to be filled with His spirit. AMAZING! Even though we are allowed to comprehend, that is hard to comprehend. What else strikes me here is that Paul tells us that non-Christians are going to have a hard time understanding what we believe until the Holy Spirit moves them. I don not for a minute think this excuses us for witnessing, but I do believe it should help us be patient in the process of trying to shepherd potential new believers.
Finally, the ting that is most amazing is the last sentence of verse 16:
16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?"[d] But we have the mind of Christ.
Father, Thank you for your Son and your grace.
In Christ,
cas
13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[c] 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
These three verses jump out at me for two individual things. First of all verse 13 seems to speak to the apologetics as we should be thinking, speaking, and living according to the Spirit, even when its foolishness to others.
Verse 15: Should we be judging at all? It seems as though we should leave the judging to God, and simply act on faith and according to His word.
Lord, I thank you for the "mind of Christ", and ask that you fill me each day with the Holy Spirit, and I act according to your Truth, and guide me in my life even when it can seem like foolishness,
Amen
In Christ,
crb
Great chapter again! I agree with you, cas.
Vs. 1-5: Stand as a reminder to me in what I am to trust, or more specifically in whom I am to trust...the Living God, the God of Power, not the God of Rhetoric and Philosophy.
The irony of vs. 6-16 between Wisdom of God vs. Wisdom of this World. I am inspired by the fact that the "wisdom of this age" and "the rulers of this age" are "coming to nothing." That is definitely not what my eyes tell me as I peruse the terrain of television each evening. It seems to be the same frustration that Malachi dealt with in Malachi 3:14-18. The Lord points to the judgement day as the time that the clear distinction will be made between true and false wisdom, might, and power.
crb, I, too, am amazed that He has so graciously bestowed the mind of Christ upon us. We must continue to pray that the Spirit of God would move in the lives of our loved ones who do not know Christ and in the lives of all people. For apart from a Holy Spirit movement, our efforts will meet with little effect.
Father God, I ask that you will open our minds to your wisdom alone, that we would walk in your ways and not the world's ways, that our eyes would see clearly in a time of delusion what true beauty, success, and power really are. Father, we need you today, this hour, this minute, this moment. Search our hearts and reveal our areas of defiance to your reign so that we can submit it all to you.
In Christ's gracious name we pray. A-men.
Blessings, brothers.
ER
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