1 Corinthians 2 - How Can We Know What God Thinks About?

1 Corinthians 2 - NIV

Enduring Word Commentary

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Paul becomes very vulnerable in this passage. He is basically admitting that he is not a great speaker, but what he does say is by the Spirit's power. In fact, Paul almost seems to be glad he is not a brilliant and eloquent speaker, which might cause people to be drawn to him and not Jesus. Paul kept his message very simple. It was about Jesus and him crucified. 

Corinth was a place where many worldly philosophies were abounding. Like any cosmopolitan city, Corinth had a smorgasbord of different gods and mystical sects. The Gnostic heresy abounded in Corinth, which is a mystical religion that claims one can obtain secret knowledge. But Paul stuck to the simple gospel and allowed the Holy Spirit to convict people of its truth and power. 

"Paul knew it is the preacher’s job to preach and it is the Holy Spirit’s job to demonstrate. Paul’s preaching may not have been impressive or persuasive on a human level, but on a spiritual level it had power." - Guzik

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

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. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 

The wisdom of this age is referring to the mystery religions that espoused "secret knowledge of God". But Christianity is not a mystery religion. God's mystery was revealed in Jesus Christ. Before the beginning of time God had chosen to reveal Jesus at the proper time to take away the sins of the world. But those in authority did not understand the wisdom of God in sending Jesus, but instead crucified him in their ignorance. 

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

Though the mystery of God has been revealed through the coming of His Son, Jesus, there is still more to come. And what is to come is so great that we cannot even imagine what it will be like. Just as we could not have conceived of God's plan to send His own Son, who died on a cross, we cannot conceive of what heaven is like.  

But this is not what Paul is referring to because He says, "These are things God HAS revealed to us by His Spirit."  He is speaking in the past tense. 

These words have been applied to the state of glory in a future world; but certainly they belong to the present state, and express merely the wondrous light, life, and liberty which the Gospel communicates to them that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that way which the Gospel itself requires.” (Clarke)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[c] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

Notice how much emphasis Paul puts on the person of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that reveals to us the deep things of God. Just like our human spirit knows things deep in our hearts, so the Spirit reveals the secret things about God. What was previously unknowable can now be known through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. When you think about this is quite amazing. The Holy Spirit reveals to us what God thinks about. 

How often do you pause to recognize that the Holy Spirit lives in You? God lives in you! Jesus lives in you! 

Not only does the Holy Spirit help us to understand the deep mysteries of God, but the Spirit helps us to communicate and speak them forth. Paul says we are taught words by the Spirit which communicate the truth about God. But the problem is that there are people who are still living by the spirit of the world, the spirit of the anti-Christ, who blinds them from the truth. 

Spiritual truths cannot be understood by an unspiritual mind. The Holy Spirit helps us to discern between right and wrong. Someone without the Spirit cannot discern these truths. This is why it is so important we pray for those who are lost and headed for a Christ-less eternity. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of their hearts so they can see the truth of the Gospel. 

And since the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, we are talking about developing the same mindset as Jesus. We begin to think like Jesus did. When Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit, we can become the type of person that can think, say, and do the things he would do if he were us. 

This is why it is so important for us to understand the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. With the power of the Spirit we can do all things according the glorious riches we have in Christ. 

 


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