The Wisdom of God

We live in a world that loves to be entertained. Movies, theatre, TV boxsets, music, talent shows. And it was no different in Corinth. The people loved to be entertained. One of the things they loved was to be entertained by was public speaking. They loved it. People would come and speak and the people would judge how good or bad they were. I suppose it was a bit like X-Factor. It was presentation and style over the message. It was said, ‘The essence of flattery was to discover what the crowd wanted and then give it to them.’7 They wanted to se the brilliance of the speaker. They wanted to be entertained.

So, when it came to Paul, they found him disappointing, even though he had led them faith in Christ.

It’s not that Paul couldn’t match the skill of speaking. He deliberately chose not to use that way. We read it in 1 Corinthians 2:1-3…

Paul didn’t come speaking as the Sophists did, the expert speakers, so that when people came to faith in Christ, it was the power of God at work in them, not because of any cleaver rhetoric of Paul.

The danger was that the Corinthians would think Paul rejected any kind of wisdom. So, Paul in the rest of chapter 2, corrects that and addresses that issue.

He says in 1 Corinthians 2:6… ‘We 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.’ The message of the cross that Paul preached is a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age. It’s a wisdom to the mature. Not for the elite, but for those whose faith is in Christ and are growing in Him; that’s who the mature refers too.

And this wisdom is God’s wisdom. It’s a wisdom that was hidden, but now revealed. Verse 7… This mystery was God’s plan of salvation for the world. It takes us back to the O.T., that spoke of a plan and purpose of God to bring salvation. The mystery, the thing that was hidden, was how. That which was hidden has been revealed, in Christ. God knew, before the world began, the cost He would bear to fulfil His plan of Salvation, in Christ Jesus. His plan would lead to the cross. In God’s wisdom, the cross was the destination of His plan.

The religious leaders and Roman authorities thought they were getting rid of a troublemaker. But in fact, it was God’s plan (v8).

Psalm 24:10… ‘Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – he is the King of glory.’

The King of glory hung on a cross and died to save all who would repent and believe. That is God’s wisdom, that is God’s plan.

But how do we know? How does Paul know that? Who told you this plan, Paul?

Verse 10… ‘…it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.’

It was revealed by God, by His Spirit. John 16:13-15 says, ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’

The Spirit was promised by Christ, to come and teach His disciples. There are three things we see that Spirit doing in these verses…

The Spirit reveals… v11-12

I wonder if you can tell me what I am thinking about? You couldn’t. You would only know that I am thinking, I hope Arsenal win today , if I tell you. And I don’t know what you are thinking about unless you tell me.

Verse 11-12… ‘No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.’

Only God knows His own mind. The only way we can know is if He reveals it to us. And that is what He has done, by His Spirit, so that we can know the wonderful things God has freely given. The ‘we’ Paul refers to are the Apostles, who first received the revelation of the gospel.

God has freely given us the truth we need to know about Christ and Him crucified. We are not given understanding about everything there is to know.

So often, people will say truth is relative. If you want to believe that 2 + 2 is 5, that’s ok for you. In this post-modern world knowledge is relative, especially when it comes to religion. It’s just guess-work; we can’t know if there is a God or not.

Yet Paul says no! We can know, because God has revealed it. He has revealed it by His Spirit.

By...

The Spirit Inspires… v13…

Through His Word. Through the Scriptures we hold in our hands.

Paul believed that – 2 Timothy 3:16… ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’

Peter believed that – 2 Peter 1:21… ‘For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’

Verse 13 in our passage, ‘When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.’

God’s truth needs God’s words to communicate clearly what God wants us to know and believe. It was revealed to the Apostle and written down for us in the Bible. Here, in this book, we have Words taught by the Spirit.

This is not simply a human book, written by people. It is a book that was written by people who God spoke through, ensuring that they said exactly what He wanted them to say. The Bible was written by human hands, but its author is God. It is the Holy Spirit who is the divine author of the Bible and so, if we want to live by then Spirit, we must listen to its message.

That is why we can trust our Bible. There are so many in our world today who look beyond this book. They may say that it is a 2000-year-old book, that has little relevance in today’s work. Some may say things like, ‘I know the Bible teaches this…, but I believe the Spirit is telling us this…’ That cannot be right! It cannot be right because the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible, will no contradict Himself. If you want to hear God speak and be led by the Spirit, we must be people of the Word.

It also means that we must be people of pray as we read the Bible, asking God’s Spirit to help us understand what it says and to live it out. Yes, there are so many good resources available to us to help us understand what God is saying to us in His Word – books, commentaries, teachers etc. But we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand. We study hard, and pray hard.

And...

The Spirit Illuminates – v14

It is possible to read the Bible and not understand it. It can be seen as nonsense. We see that in chapter 1:23.

Verse 14… ‘But people who aren’t spiritual*can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.’

It can sound foolish to people. Have you ever been in that situation, where you have been speaking about faith, or something about the Bible, and those people you are speaking with, non-Christian friends maybe, just don’t get it! Maybe you look back to before you were a Christian, and it was the same for you. You read it, in school maybe, but it didn't make sense.

Don’t be surprised! Because we need the Spirit to give understanding.

Martin Luther said, “The Bible cannot be understood simply by study or talent; you must count only on the influence of the Holy Spirit.”

John Calvin wrote: “The testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For … these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.”[1]

Don’t be surprised by the response of unbelievers, instead be motivated to pray. If what is needed is the Spirit to shine light into darkness, to bring about new life, by revealing the truth about Christ and His death on a cross, then let us pray.

Be in pray often for your unbelieving friends and family. May is Thy Kingdom Come. A time when we pray for 5 people to come to know Jesus as Saviour and King. Maybe that is something you could join in with this year.

God’s wisdom can be known. Verse 16 says, ‘“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” Quoting from Isaiah 40, with the expected answer, no-one!

The verse continues, ‘But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.’

Isn’t that amazing! Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Humbly, we can say, ‘We do!’ Because we have the mind of Christ.

What does that mean practically?

It impacts how we live…

What would Jesus think? In this situation?

How would Jesus respond? To this particular issue?

What would Jesus say? To that person who I struggle with?

What would Jesus’ attitude be?

What decision would Jesus come to?

What a privileged people we are as Christians, that we are not left wondering how we are to live. He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible, by the Holy Spirit, who is at work in us. Who are the wise? Who are the mature? It is those who know Christ because it has been revealed to them, written down for them and illuminated for them, in the Bible, by the Holy Spirit. How amazing is our God!

* 2:14 Or who don’t have the Spirit; or who have only physical life. [1]MacArthur, J.F., Jr., 1984. 1 Corinthians, Chicago: Moody Press.