1 Corinthians 2:1-16
“Do it God’s
way”. Has there ever been a time in your
life that you knew that something had
to be done your way? I used to have a
job working at a nursery doing a variety of different things. One of the things I did was to do the regular
maintenance on the tractors. I grew up
being able to drive a tractor and work on tractors some. Over the years I learned quite a bit more
about mechanic work. My boss told me to
jack up the tractor when I greased the king-pin joint in the front in. He didn’t tell me why. I thought he was telling me to lift up the
tractor so I could get underneath the tractor better. But when I did the first maintenance on the
tractor I didn’t jack it up. I didn’t
need to lift it up because I could slide underneath it pretty easily.
After I
finished the work, my boss asked me if I had remembered to jack it up. I said
that I didn’t because I could reach the joint without having to lift it
up. At that point he told me that it
needed to be lifted up not so that I could reach the joint easier but so that
the pressure would be lifted off of the front wheels, allowing the grease to
penetrate all parts of the joint better.
I didn’t follow his directions because I didn’t think he knew the best
way of doing it. This nursery had been
in the family for a 100 years and he had been doing nursery work since he was a
little kid. And he had been working on
tractors for no telling how long. But
for some reason, I thought I knew best.
In the same
way, we can think that we are doing things the best way, from an intellectual
perspective, even though God may say to do things differently. Some of the things that God tells us to do
doesn’t seem logical. It really comes
down to trust. Do we believe that God’s
word has power all on its own? Or do we
feel like we need to dress it up, apologize for it or alter it in order for God
to use it? Paul said,
When I came to you, brothers, I did
not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony
about God. For I resolved to
know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and
with much trembling. My message
and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not
rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. –1 Corinthians 2:1-5
In Paul’s
day, philosophy was a pervasive thread through that culture. The effectiveness of his ministry wasn’t
based on his ability, it was based on the power of the Holy Spirit. If that was true for Paul, then that is
pretty encouraging for us as Christians today.
Did you know that God can use you no matter what kind of personality
type you have? Did you know that He can
accomplish His work through you no matter what your stage of life is right
now? Did you know that He can use you no
matter if you feel confident or not?
Your confidence or even your self-esteem is not a barometer of how much
God can use you. What was it that gave
the messenger (Paul) the qualifications to share the message? It was the presence of the Holy Spirit, and
Paul believed that God’s Word worked. He
believed that the words inspired by the Holy Spirit which we have in the Bible
today were enough to change someone’s life.
Even though the world or Paul’s flesh may have thought that they knew
how to do things better, Paul trusted God.
Maybe since God was the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the
universe, then maybe He knew something that Paul didn’t. So, here’s probably
one of the main points of the chapter: Paul just says it like is. He didn’t need to dress up God’s word. It has enough power on its own to change
lives. Paul was just the messenger, just
like we are just the messengers.
As we move
on in 1 Corinthians 2 we see that God reveals certain parts of His will at the
right time, in the right place, to the right people.
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. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a
wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time
began. None of the rulers of
this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory. However, 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"— 1 Corinthians 2:6-9
God kept
some of His plans as a secret. He didn’t
reveal exactly who the Messiah would be or some of the other fine details about
His life or about the new covenant in the gospel. Matter of fact, the prophets in the Old
Testament, who wrote about the Messiah, didn’t fully understand everything they
were writing about:
Concerning this salvation, the
prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and
with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which
the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of
Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were
not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now
been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit
sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. –1 Peter 1:10-12
Now that we
have the New Testament, we have a better idea of what God was planning. But the people at the time of Jesus didn’t
have this laid out for them. Maybe from
an initial glance it may look unfair for God to do something like that-- how
can He expect someone to understand something that He hadn’t fully revealed? It seems like God would want to build a track
record of being trustworthy before He asked someone to have faith in Him. However, that’s exactly what He did. Think about what God has used in order to
show evidence of His existence and His trustworthiness:
He uses
creation:
For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse. –Romans 1:20
He uses an
instinctive universal law of morality that interacts with every person’s
conscience:
(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not
have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show
that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences
also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending
them.) –Romans 2:14-15
He also uses
miracles:
Believe me when I say that I am in
the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the
miracles themselves. –John 14:11
In 1
Corinthians chapter 2, Paul said that the rulers didn’t understand God’s secret
wisdom…”for if they had, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory.”
God knows who will believe and who will not believe the gospel, and for
some people it doesn’t matter how much information you give them about the
reliability of the Bible. They’re just
going to argue because they’ve already made up their mind that they’re not
going to surrender their life to God, even though they know in their hearts
that He exists, just like the verses I just went over. Now, some people are genuinely interested in
finding out if the Bible is historically, scientifically and prophetically
accurate. For those people, the Bible
says that we need to “Always be prepared
to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) The word “answer” comes from the Greek word apologia which means a “defense”. It’s where we get the English word
“apologetics.” This means that
Christians are giving solid reasons or answers for why they believe in God or
believe the gospel.
But there
seems to be a prerequisite for someone being able to believe the gospel. I think that prerequisite is a willingness to
obey God (whether or not they believe at that particular time that He exists or
doesn’t exist). This is essentially what
Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do
God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I
speak on my own.” (John 17:17) In
other words, if a person is willing to obey God, then Jesus will reveal Himself
to them. They will come to know that the
words that Jesus spoke in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not just words on a
page just like any other book. This is
God speaking to them.
So, how
could the people know that God was revealing something new to them? How could they know that God was instituting
a New Covenant? Paul said,
…but God has revealed it to us by his
Spirit. The Spirit searches all things,
even the deep things of God. For 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. We 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. This 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. –1
Corinthians 2:10-13
God was
breaking the silence by using prophets like Paul and Peter. The Holy Spirit was inspiring them to write
down new thoughts from God. No one can
know the thoughts of a man unless they have that man’s spirit or mind. In the same way, no one can know God’s
thoughts unless they have God’s Spirit.
So, the only way that Paul could speak God’s thoughts was to have God’s
Spirit. He was claiming that God had given
him the Holy Spirit and that He was inspiring Paul to write down the thoughts
of God. But how could the people know
that the Holy Spirit lived inside of Paul and that He was inspiring him to
write down the words that we have in the Bible today? This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5,
“My message and my preaching were not
with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s
power.” God was performing miracles
through Paul, and the other prophets like Peter, James and John. God was also changing people’s lives. Corrupt people were becoming honest
people. Hateful people were becoming
loving people. Selfish people were
becoming generous people. Anyone could
claim that they were speaking from God, but only a few could back it up by the
demonstration of the power of God.
So, what was
it that the people needed in order to believe the message that Paul was
speaking? Paul goes on to say,
The man without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The
spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject
to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that we may
instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. --1 Corinthians 2:14-16
A person
cannot accept or understand the message of the gospel unless the Spirit of God
is explaining it to them. At a certain
point in time, the message just finally “clicks” with somebody just like it did
with me. When I stopped wanting to argue
with God about my sin then the door opened for me to accept and understand the
gospel. I would read certain passages in
the Bible over and over but couldn’t understand them. But once I became a Christian then I started
understanding the Bible. God was at work
in me, behind the scenes, helping me to understand and accept what He was
written in the Bible.
There are
still some things I don’t understand in the Bible today, even though I’ve been
a Christian for quite a few years. But
I’ve had experiences where God’s words have come alive. They went from being just words on a page to
words that were living and active.
What about
you? Has there been a time when the
Bible went from just being words on a page to actually alive? Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any
double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
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