1 Corinthians 2:6-16--Wisdom from the Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:6-16
English Standard Version

Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as 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”--

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 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. 12 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. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

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In yesterday's passage, Paul discussed how the gospel is not from the wisdom of the world but that God uses the things that the world would consider "base" and "foolish" to confound the wise.  So then what does the wisdom of God look like as opposed to the wisdom of the world?  That's what Paul will be addressing here.

Paul says that spiritual wisdom comes with spiritual maturity (and that is not necessarily something that has anything to do with the age of the person or how long they have been a Christian).  Paul says this is something completely separate from the wisdom of this age that people believe to be imparted to their rulers and authorities--all of whom will pass away and their "wisdom" along with them, but the wisdom of God will never pass away as His wisdom and His kingdom are forever.  The wisdom of God that Paul says God declared in secret before the ages for our glory is the gospel.  This is the master plan of God from the beginning and the thing that ties everything from creation to consummation together.

Paul says that if the world had understood this, they would not have crucified Christ, as they would have understood that they were just advancing God's plan all the more.  Paul then quotes a poem to say that the plans that God has made are something that no mere human has seen or heard or can understand.  Only the one who has come from heaven--the Son of God--knows and understands these things, and that is one of the reasons that God the Son came--so that He could tell us plainly about God and God's plan and actively participate in the plan by giving His own life as a penal substitutionary atonement for those that have been chosen by God from before the beginning of time called "the elect."

Just as Christ came to reveal these things to those who lived at the the time that He lived here on earth, so Christ sent the Holy Spirit to us to reveal and lead us in all truth after He returned to heaven and said that even greater things would be done through the Spirit of God in and through the Church.  The Spirit knows and reveals the depths of nature of God as no one knows someone better than they know themselves (other than God who sees and knows all about everything and everyone), but only God can reveal Himself to others.  So the Spirit of God is the only one who can reveal the truth of God and the wisdom of God to the people of God, because He is God--part of what we call the Trinity (The Godhead being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are co-equal in nature and power, yet different in function so that the Son will glorify the Father, and the Holy Spirit will glorify the Son, until one day when the Father will give the throne and the kingdom and the Church (which are currently in the care of the Spirit) to the Son as His inheritance).

Since the words we speak are not our own, but even the Scripture has been given to us by God the Holy Spirit and the understanding of the Scripture as well as the prophecy (forthtelling) of the Scripture comes by the Spirit as do the gifts of administration, teaching, preaching, evangelism, healing, miracles and other signs, discernment and testing of the spirits, tongues and the interpretation of tongues and more (we'll study "spiritual gifts" in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and some other places as we continue our studies of the Old Testament and New Testament).  The main thing Paul talks about here though is that the Spirit freely gives wisdom, knowledge, understanding and interpretation to all those who are "spiritual" men (born again), but not to the "natural" men (those who are living in the flesh and according to the flesh and still part of the kingdom of darkness).

​The natural man does not accept the things of God--I think one of the most obvious examples of this is all the things the world makes up to believe that they call Evolution in order to believe in a Creator God that has authority over them.  If God made all things then He would certainly have authority over all things, including them, but they want to rebel against God, His authority, and His Law, so they have knowingly exchanged the truth of God for a lie and God has given them over to a depraved mind so that they believe the lies that they tell themselves (Romans 1).  The "spiritual" man--the one who has been born by and lives by the Spirit of God--judges all things by the knowledge and wisdom and power of God, but no one from this earthly plan has the power or authority to judge us.  Only God Himself is able to do that, and God has already rendered His verdict to say that we are "holy and blameless" in His sight.  "For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  (Romans 8:1).

Since we have the mind of Christ, which is the mind of God, who has the right or ability to instruct God?  If so, then who has the ability or right to try to tell the Church any of the wisdom of the world?  I don't think Paul is discounting education per se, but everything that we NEED to know is found in the Scripture and is revealed to us by the Spirit.  This is not saying that everyone who becomes a Christian will understand astrophysics or differential equations, or microbiology without the need to study because we know everything that God knows.  No, it's saying that we understand God's general purpose in everything He has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do.  What else do we need to know?  Remember that Paul even said that he had committed to know nothing else other than Christ and Christ crucified when he was among the Corinthians.

I think this hymn (I Know Whom I Have Believed) captures some of what Paul is trying to say (except that I think we actually DO have some answers to these questions through the Spirt of God and Ephesians 1:9).


Ephesians 1:9
New International Version9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,