Monday, April 27, 2009

1 Corinthians 2:6-13

Wisdom From the Spirit
6We 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. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

6Tog spreek ons wysheid onder die volwassenes, maar 'n wysheid nie van hierdie wêreld, of van hierdie wêreld se heersers, wat vergaan nie. 7Maar ons spreek die wysheid van God, wat bestaan in verborgenheid wat bedek was en wat God van ewigheid af voorbeskik het tot ons heerlikheid, 8 wat niemand van die heersers van hierdie wêreld geken het nie--want as hulle dit geken het, sou hulle die Here van die heerlikheid nie gekruisig het nie-- 9 maar soos geskrywe is: Wat die oog nie gesien en die oor nie gehoor en in die hart van 'n mens nie opgekom het nie, wat God berei het vir die wat Hom liefhet. 10 Maar God het dit aan ons deur sy Gees geopenbaar, want die Gees ondersoek alle dinge, ook die dieptes van God.
11 Want wie van die mense weet wat in 'n mens is, behalwe die gees van die mens wat in hom is? So weet ook niemand wat in God is nie, behalwe die Gees van God. 12 Ons het ewenwel nie die gees van die wêreld ontvang nie, maar die Gees wat uit God is, sodat ons kan weet wat God ons uit genade geskenk het. 13 Daarvan spreek ons ook, nie met woorde wat die menslike wysheid leer nie, maar met dié wat die Heilige Gees leer, sodat ons geestelike dinge met geestelike vergelyk.

6 Ke sithetha ubulumko phakathi kwabagqibeleleyo, ubulumko ke obungebubo obeli phakade, nobabaphathi beli phakade ababhangayo. 7 Sithetha ubulumko bukaThixo obusemfihlekweni, obo ke bufihlakeleyo, awathi uThixo ngenxa engaphambili, kwangaphambi kwawo amaphakade, wabumisela uzuko lwethu; 8 ekungabangakho namnye wabaphathi beli phakade ubaziyo (kuba, ukuba babebazi, ngebengayibethelelanga emnqamlezweni iNkosi yozuko), 9 njengoko ke kubhaliweyo, kwathiwa, Izinto ezingabonwanga liso, nezingaviwanga ndlebe, Nezingathanga qatha entliziyweni yomntu, Zizo uThixo awazilungisela abo bamthandayo. 10 UThixo wazityhila kuthi ke ngoMoya wakhe; kuba uMoya uphengulula zonke izinto, neenzulu zikaThixo.
11 Kuba nguwuphi na kubantu ozaziyo izinto zomntu, ingenguwo umoya womntu okuye? Ngokunjalo nezinto zikaThixo akukho namnye uzaziyo, ingenguye uMoya kaThixo. 12 Ke thina asamkelanga moya wehlabathi; samkele uMoya ophuma kuye uThixo, ukuze sizazi izinto esazibabalwa nguThixo; 13 esizithethayo nokuzithetha, kungengamazwi anokufundiswa bubulumko babantu, kungawo anokufundiswa nguMoya oyiNgcwele: izinto ezizezomoya sizilungelelanisa namazwi la angawomoya.

Dig Deeper
When I coached high school basketball, we would begin each season with two weeks of strenuous running and conditioning before we ever got to the actual basketball stuff. The conditioning seemed foolish to many of the players, and many quit as a result. Running and conditioning wasn’t all that there was to our preparation, however. It was the stuff that the players had to really want to get through before we could get the basketball training that was both challenging and fun. There was much for them beyond the early conditioning but they couldn’t get to the purely basketball stuff that they would really enjoy and that would really make them better players until they got their basic conditioning down.

This is something of what Paul is telling the Corinthians here. His message seemed foolish to the Greeks and scandalous to the Jews, but this isn’t all Paul has to offer. He has deep and profound wisdom for them, but it is only for those who have fought through the challenges of faith. It is for the spiritually mature that can handle and appreciate it. It seems, as we will see as this letter progresses, that some were criticizing Paul for shallow and elementary teaching. What they don’t understand is that Paul has teaching about the life of Christ that was deep beyond what they could possibly understand but they were not yet ready for that. God had revealed the deep mysteries of the life of Christ to them but they had to understand the basic principles involved in the resurrection life available in Christ before they could move on to the deeper wisdom that the Spirit has in store for them.

Yet, he wants them to know, this is still not the same kind of wisdom that the sophists and philosophers of the present age offer. The wisdom that Paul is offering comes from the ‘age to come’ not the present age. This is wisdom that will only make sense to people who have already entered the ‘age to come’ during the present age, the people who believe in the resurrected son of God. Trying to give this wisdom to people who have not grasped the power and truth of the Resurrection is like trying to describe what blue is to someone who has been blind from birth.

This introduces one of the main concepts that Paul wants the Corinthians to understand. The world can be divided into two main epochs: the present age and the ‘age to come’. The present age is the current age of the world that is marked by rebellion against God. The ‘age to come’, though, is the time when God’s will shall be done on earth perfectly. It is the time when God will rule his creation definitively and bring an end to all the forces that would oppose him. Paul believes that this ‘age to come’ has broken through into the present age in Jesus. With his death and resurrection, Christians actually have the ‘age to come’ inside of them even though we still live in the present age. Christians, then, live lives of anticipation of this time. We live the life of the age to come which is being stored in heaven, the place of God’s presence where His will is done (cf. Matt. 6:10), until Christ returns bringing the resurrection and the age to come with him (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

Thus, Paul argues that none of the rulers of this age can understand this wisdom because it is a wisdom of the ‘age to come’. It would be like sticking a round peg in a square hole. Wisdom from the ‘age to come’ won’t fit into the understanding of those who only know of the present age. What does Paul mean, though, when he says that rulers of this age proved that they didn’t understand this wisdom or they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus? He is referring to the political powers of Rome, the religious powers of Judaism, and the spiritual powers of the kingdom of Satan. They all combined to work together for what they thought would be a rousing victory, but was actually the very thing that sealed their defeat. This is what happens when forces operating on the wisdom of this present age try to come against the wisdom of God and the ‘age to come’. In killing Jesus, they signed their own death certificates. Paul describes this moment of victory as taking place both at the Cross when it was implemented (Colossians 2:15) and at Jesus’ final appearing when it will be achieved fully (1 Corinthians 15:23-28). Jesus himself had said that “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn. 12:24-25). The life in Christ became available only through the death of Jesus on the Cross. The rulers of this age thought they were brining the worst weapon they had available to them to bear on the Son of God, but all that did was make his greatest victory available to him. He fell to the ground and died but that death brought life to all those who would also be willing to die and enter into that life.

Paul reveals another theme of the letter of Corinthians here as he references the work of the Spirit. God has prepared incredible things for those who love him, an Old Testament way of saying God’s people. He has revealed the wisdom of the ‘age to come’ through the work of his own Holy Spirit, not some lesser being. The Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, is given to all of God’s people in the Messiah.
This doesn’t mean that Christians have all the knowledge about God that is available. What it does mean is that Christians have access to the mind or wisdom of God. The people of God may explore and learn, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God. But, in order to understand and appreciate this, they must have spiritual maturity. They must be ‘spiritual’, a concept that Paul will go on to explain.

This is a wonderful reminder that the Christian life has a veritable potpourri of wealth and knowledge in store for us to explore and uncover. It is far more than a set of beliefs or a study series that we can go through a couple of times and memorize. It is a quest of a lifetime that requires dedication and discipline. So many Christians and non-Christians alike view the life of Christ as some sort of restrictive set of rules that keep them from enjoying life but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The life of Christ is just that, a life. It’s not a set of doctrines, beliefs, or rules. It is a bottomless wealth of understanding, wisdom, peace, joy, and love, waiting to be explored, mined, and embraced.

The second reminder for us in this passage is that this gospel message necessarily challenges the social, religious, and political power of the world. It is not a set of religious beliefs that can be tucked away into a corner of our life, that doesn’t effect any other part of our life. It is the very realization that we are the citizens of a different age and we need to act like it. If we truly embrace and live the resurrection life of Christ it will challenge the rulers o the world. We will stand out as completely different from those who live by the values and principles of the world.

Devotional Thought
Does your Christian life reflect a disciplined and dedicated quest to learn the knowledge of wisdom of the Spirit? Develop a plan that will open up your life to consistently learning from the Spirit. Remember, your holiness will always be limited by your depth of knowledge of God’s word.

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