1 Corinthians 2:1-16 - Wisdom from the Mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 

Christ Crucified

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Spiritual Wisdom

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.

We have God-given wisdom in the mind of Christ through the Spirit of God who lives in every regenerated believer of Jesus Christ.  This is not our own intellectual or reasoning ability but a supernatural understanding given to all who are reborn by the word of God (1 Peter 1:23, 25) into repentance by this gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) in the work of Christ on the cross to buy us back from the just penalty of sin.  Paul approached the believers in the metropolis of Corinth with sincerity according to this knowledge and understanding and not with his own learning apart from God in him.  He therefore kept his message to the point of truth which is the divine person of Jesus Christ and the fact that He was crucified for us to believe and be raised from death to life (John 5:24) along with Him on the day of judgment.  He dared not trust in his own abilities just as we are given the reminder by his example stated here, but instead approaching others with the gospel in the wisdom of the Spirit living in us.  The learned apostle came to them “in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling” as we should also, not with inflated self-confidence or assertiveness as modern philosophy that invades the churches seems to require by humanist methods of thinking.  The faith of hearers must find the foundation on the work of God’s power in raising Christ from the dead and not in our feeble wisdom or efforts apart from His enabling work in and through us as prepared for us (Ephe 2:10) to do.  Faith must be not in the one proclaiming the gospel but in the person and work of the gospel who is God’s Son.  These things are not easy for neophytes of the faith to immediately grasp as Paul makes that clear while addressing the more mature who have had time to wrestle with the scriptures to reach the depths of these truths.  He explained that he spoke mysteries of hidden truths buried in the scriptures but now brought to light in Christ through His words and work on the cross to glory in.  This mystery he later spoke about in Colossians 1:27 as Christ in we who have believed and received Him by opened eyes of faith in His mercy and grace.  He explained how his own people would not have crucified (or wanted to crucify) Christ if they knew these things, yet they did according to God’s plan of redemption which required Him to die as a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins.  Yes, God reveals His glory in the hearts those He chose out of love for us in unheard of ways never seen or imagined ever before!  He has done this through the working of His Spirit who convicts the wold of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11) by revealing what is in God’s mind to our minds once residing in us.  What a miraculous and wonderful gift is this!  We therefore who speak and give the understanding of the gospel our of scripture do so by Spirit-taught wisdom as we compare scripture with scripture in God’s intended context for correct interpretation and instruction.  Those who have been given supernatural ears to hear will heed and learn while those who are still natural fallen in sin will scoff and turn away from sound doctrine.  The truths of God in Christ are foolishness to the world but are the essence and essentials of life to those with God-given understanding.  We who are His through this new birth (John 3:3, 7-8, Galatians 2:20) have the mind of Christ and hold all we learn from Him to be our most valuable and essential possessions for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), wisdom from the mind of Christ!