Monday, April 6, 2015

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Commentary
Vs. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 

The Apostle Paul in refuting the wisdom of this world, does not say that with the Gospel there is no wisdom. Since the Gospel personifies the Wisdom of God in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work at Calvary. For it is through Christ's crucifixion death that God has not only made atonement for everyone, but also by His resurrection from the dead that Jesus has conquered death for everyone, so that God can now impart everlasting life in us by His Holy Spirit the moment we believe in Him (Eph. 1:13-14). And what could be wiser than that to make salvation accessible to one and to all. Therefore the Apostle Paul does not speak the "wisdom" of this age that denies God and our sin against Him, and thus our need to be reconciled to Him. No this world's "wisdom" does not reckon that we must all stand before Christ and give an accounting of ourselves, and thus is no wisdom at all (Prov. 9:10; Heb. 9:27). Neither does the Apostle Paul preach the "wisdom" of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. For it is those same rulers who conspired together to Crucify Christ, and or were complacent about it all. And so they (and all like them) are coming to nothing, because instead of receiving the Lord of glory and giving Him His Rightful honor, they only set themselves against Him. Yet all wisdom, glory, and honor must and will be given to the Lord Jesus Christ when He is exalted and glorified in us all who believe in Him forever (John 5:22-23; 2 Thess. 1:5-10).
And so it is that the Apostle speaks the wisdom of God to those who are mature, that is those who by reason of use have their senses to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14), and thus are not being caught up in the moral and spiritual degradation that is the "wisdom" of this age.

Vs. 7-9 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

And so the Apostle Paul says of his preaching that he speaks the wisdom of God in a mystery (vs.7). 
A mystery which God ordained before the ages began for our glory, that through Christ we would become partakers of the Divine Nature, and joint heirs together with His Son (Rom 8:17, 30; 2 Peter 2:2-4). And so it is that none of the rulers of this age knew this (whose own nature and glory is a fading flower) for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (vs. 8). 
 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Quoting from Isaiah 64:4 the Apostle Paul sees God's grand plan of salvation unfolding just as it was foretold in the Scripture. Hidden from the "wise" and the "prudent", and the rulers of this age, yet so clearly revealed, understood, and received by us all who believe. Who could have imagined that God would've done such things for us, and is doing such things for us all who love Him. Saving us from wrath and judgment, while transforming us by His Holy Spirit, so that He might prepare us for an eternity with Himself. When Isaiah prophesied he saw our need to be saved, and that it was God alone who was the Source of meeting our greatest need. And so the Apostle Paul in seeing and experiencing salvation through the death and ressurection of Christ, cannot help but rejoice in the understanding God has give him, and the future He has prepared for him, and us all who love Him, love Him because He first loved us and has reconciled us to Himself (1 John 4:10). 

Vs. 10-11 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 

Therefore though God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent (Matt. 11:25), yet He has revealed them to us all who believe in His Son, by His Spirit (vs. 10). "For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." That is the Holy Spirit of God who indwells each and every believer, is not only the One who searches the deep things of God, but it is He who reveals them to the children of God. Verse eleven then is simply the Apostle Paul reasoning that just as a person within their own spirit only knows their own thoughts, so it is with God, that no one knows the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God, who reveals the mind of God that is for us.

Vs. 12 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

Here the Apostle Paul makes a marked distinction between the "spirit of the world" by whom the unbelieving world lies under the sway of the evil one (see Eph. 2:2; 1 John 5:19), and the Spirit who is from God who indwells each and every believer, who makes known to us who believe in Christ the things that have been freely given to us by God. Thus the spirit of this world by which those of it lie sway to Satan's influence and lies is not the Spirit that has been given to the children of God. For it is the the Holy Spirit from God by which the children of God are enlightened to the things of God, being instructed by Him (1 John 2:27).

Vs. 13 "These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 

Thus the Apostle Paul speaks the truths of God revealed to him by the Spirit of God. For it is the Spirit of God alone who searches and reveals the deep things of God (vs. 10). Now Paul did this not with words which man's wisdom teaches, (that is by intellectual prowess or doctrine acquired by "advanced" learning), but with words which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (vs. 13). Thus as with us all who believe, the Holy Spirit was Paul's Instructor, who not only instructed him in God's then unfolding revelation for the church, but also gave him the words to speak and teach to us all who believe. And so it is, as the Spirit taught Paul the Spiritual truths and realities which again were given him for us all, he also compared those spiritual truths and realities with the spiritual truths and realities that were given the other Apostles, and are often within the whole of Scripture, which the Spirit of God also gave through holy men down through the centuries (2 Peter 1:21). Therefore we are wise when we are given any revelation or illumination to not only test the spirit by which it came (1 John 4:1), but also to compare it with the finished revelation of God within the whole canon of Scripture. For the faith has now been delivered once and all to the saints, thus any person or spirit which would seek to alter or amend it is not from God (Jude 3). 

Vs. 14  "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

And so it is that the natural man (that is the person not born-again by the Spirit of God) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That is they lack the Spirit of God to both discern anything that comes from God as well as receive anything that is truly from Spirit from God. And so having no connection with God whatever things they hear of the Spirit of God are only foolish to them. 

Vs. 15 "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." 

In contrast then to the natural person who does not have, nor can they receive the things of the Spirit of God, is the person who is spiritual, who is a born of the Spirit of God, and thus not only receives the things of the Spirit of God, but also judges all things that come from the Spirit of God. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one (vs. 15). And so just as they wrongly judged Jesus, so they also wrongly judge His own, not able to see all that God has placed in us, and has given us, by His Spirit.  

Vs. 16 "
For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ."

The Apostles question here is not looking for an answer. Rather it is a reaffirmation of God's wisdom in how He brought about salvation, and how He chooses to reveal it to us all who believe, and so it is having believed and been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God, we have the mind of Christ by which we know God's Will for us, and understand the truths of God's Word revealed to us. 



Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Additional Resources Consulted
Vs. 7-9 Wiersbe, Warren W. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1992.


MacDonald, William. Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. Edited by Arthur Farstad. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995.

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