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.



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. 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.

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.

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).

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. 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.



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.