Tuesday,
July 7 –
It is
Tuesday and we continue our reading thru the New Testament (in a year) with 1
Corinthians 2:1 – 16. Read the scripture
first and then come back as we begin to understand some of the tensions that
had developed in Corinth that caused Paul to write this letter to them.
As an evangelical Pastor, I’ve served in four churches for over 48 years. The beginning years were exciting as
everything was new. I was given a sort
of “we’ll trust you when we can see that you know what you’re doing” approach. The problem was that I knew how to put on a
good face while having to learn everything from the bottom up. I am not the Apostle Paul, but I do
understand his opening in chapter 2:3 “And
I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling”. Paul entered Corinth fresh off his encounter
with the philosophers in Athens where they called him a “babbler”. Paul was not stupid. He had learned under the tutelage of a great
Jewish Rabbi, Gamaliel. He was fluent in
at least 4 languages. Yet Paul was not
fluent in the world wisdom of the Greek and Roman paganism. They touted their wisdom as the greatest
wisdom the world had ever known and looked down their noses at any other
worldview, or value system, that did not agree with Roman/Greek culture.
Paul
had called the so-called “wisdom” of the Greeks (Romans) “foolish” because it
was devoid of redemptive understanding.
Paul knew that God’s wisdom was based on his creation and covenant. In creation, God made humans in His “own
image”. That gave human beings both
dignity and honor. God also made a Covenant
to redeem his Creation after the Fall. The
contrast is clear between what the Romans saw as Wisdom and what Paul knew the
Scriptures taught about “Wisdom”. The
root word, “Sophos or Sophia” occurs twenty times in the first two chapters of
the Corinthian letter. In 1:17, Paul
said of wisdom, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the
gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be
emptied of its power.” Now,
in the opening part of chapter 2, he continues to make that case: “...when I came to you, brothers, I did
not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not
rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (2:1-5).
God’s wisdom was His Son hanging on the Cross! The Greeks thought it was scandalous to think
of a god being killed by humans, but they had no concept of sin and
redemption. In modern or post-modern
western culture, nothing has changed.
The
wisdom of God is repeatedly a work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates and makes
God known. This is why Paul did not try
to compete on the level of eloquence or try to argue the Cross
philosophically. Paul said that it was
the power of the Spirit that made the message of Christ known, (2:4), and when
a person received the truth of the Cross, it was not because of eloquent
arguments that appealed to God-devoid philosophies but found their proof in
God’s power to change lives. The Spirit
of God is the means, and the mystery (2:7) – “a secret and hidden wisdom of
God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory”. No human being could have devised a plan of
redemption in a God-incarnate birth, a rejected Messiah, a crucified Savior, a
resurrected and ascended King. “None
of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory” (2:8).
As a
pastor/teacher nothing is more important than the declaration of the Gospel and
the teachings of the Scripture as the inspired word of God. Lofty words, eloquent ideas, prosperity
teaching, approaching the word of God as something to be “used” to fit an
agenda – none of that fits Paul’s concept or should fit our approach for both
teaching and listening to the word of God.
The Apostles as a whole –as we will see – taught that the truths of
Scripture came directly from God. The
Scriptures were how Christians first came to faith in Christ (Justification)
and then grew in their faith (Sanctification) so that they might walk out the
plan and purposes of God in their own lives.
In the first five verses of chapter 2, Paul was still using the first
person singular pronoun – “I”. In verse
six and through the rest of chapter 2, he switches to the first person plural
pronoun – “We”. What does he have in
mind? The wisdom of God is embraced by
“all those” who see the truth of the Gospel.
While the Greeks/Romans rejected Christianity – as many philosophical
non-believing schools did – Paul saw Scripture’s wisdom as “God’s wisdom”
(2:7), “the thoughts (mind) of God” (2:11), “the things of the Spirit” (2:14),
and the mind of Christ” (2:16).
It is
the Spirit of God’s work in guiding his people to the truth of God’s
revelation. The Spirit of God indwells
believers and leads, directs, guides us to see, and do his will. The words he writes in verses 9-13 are filled
with what the Spirit of God means to the life of a believer:
“...it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of
man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things
God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything,
even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the
spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts
of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of
the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things
freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human
wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are
spiritual” (2:9-13).
Who gets it? Only those who receive the
word of God as it is – the wisdom of God that leads to life, Spiritual life,
and maturity.
The contrast
could not be more clear – for the unbeliever devoid of the Spirit – this
understanding of the work of God in the Cross, i.e., what God has done and can
do is not possible to understand or receive.
The “natural man” is anyone who will not receive the wisdom of God and
relies on the wisdom of the world – to that person, the things of God coming
from his revelation in Scripture is “foolishness” (2:14). When Paul says in verse 14 that “...he is
not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned”, he
makes it clear, they will never understand the value of it. My real-life
analogy is about antiques. I have no
understanding of the value of something antique. I probably see most antiques as junk (forgive
me antique treasurers), but the fact is that they are often valuable. Why don’t I see it? Because the value of an antique has to be “discerned”
– the word Paul used means these Spiritual realities have to be “appraised”. Who can appraise them? With antiques, it has to do with how we learn
to see the valuable from the not valuable.
With the Spiritual truths of the Gospel, it has to do with the Spirit of
God who makes truths valuable to the believer.
To put it bluntly, unbelievers tend to reject outright any of the
valuable teachings coming from Scripture – especially when it runs contrary to
acceptable cultural norms. When a
lifestyle, or world-view, or value system is based on what is culturally
acceptable, but not based in the word of God, the believer has to see the
difference – all of Spiritual maturity depends upon this.
What is
at stake is growth – maturity – that is not based on “look how smart and good I
am”, but is based on knowledge coming from Christ: “For who has understood
the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ”
(2:16). We do not understand this
to mean that believers are always right in their understanding, but we do see that
the object of our Spiritual growth is to learn from God’s word. Reading the New Testament is a good
beginning. If you’ve regularly read the
Scriptures to learn from God’s word, his ways, his truth, great – keep doing
it. The Scriptures give us an undergirding
that is protective over the whole of life. It is that wisdom Proverbs spoke
of: “Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in
your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing
to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”
(Proverbs 3:5-8).
Peace
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