1 Corinthians 2

Alrighty... Chapter 2!!!

This chapter is actually on the shorter side - at just 16 verses, but I'm sure we'll discover it isn't any less meaningful than the last chapter we went over.

If you remember from chapter 1, Paul had asserted that he did not come "with wisdom of words" (1:17). This chapter begins with Paul doing just about the same thing in his usual, what I am tempted to say, overly humble state. He simply came to them "declaring the testimony of God" (2:1). The first few verses outline, I think, how we are supposed to act as witnesses for Christ. We need not know every argument for the existence of God. Paul said he knew "nothing...except Christ Jesus and Him crucified" (2:2). We as witnesses are responsible for knowing nothing but the facts of what we believe and what Christ has done in our lives. This message is powerful, because it then becomes not our smooth speech or persuasive logic that connects people to God, but God Himself working in them! (2:4,5) Paul understood what it meant to be a witness of Christ. I want to have the confidence that he had, not needing to know every facet of physical evidence for God in order to validate my faith. A man with experience trumps the man with evidence.

For the rest of the chapter (vv.6-16) Paul speaks about spiritual wisdom, how we as believers can come about it, and why non-believers can't have it.

...I must take a break from the path this chapter follows and go to a different subject. Hopefully I won't do this often, because as I explained yesterday, if I went through every facet of the large amount of scripture I plan to truck through, I would be stuck here forever (that would be nice - dont get me wrong, but then what chance would I have to apply my learnings to my life. After all that is the point isnt it?) and we cant have that. I realized upon reviewing this chapter that many of the most profound sayings in Scripture - the ones that seem to hold the most truth and that dive deepest into the heart of God - are the ones that we miss because they seem to be said "in passing." For example, verse 6 reads as follows: "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing." Now, yes, that is an good verse on wisdom. That probably seems like the maint point of the verse, and you'd probably be correct in saying so.

But take a look at this: "the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing" (v.6). !_! Wow. Those are some strong words, and looking at this chapter as a whole, we would miss the implications of such a phrase. I just thought I'd alert you that both views of scripture are necessary - the general, basic, fundamental truths as a foundation, and then those details that seem so obscure but have endlessly wonderful implications such as this one. (I just wrote 2 paragraphs because of 10 words that i read). I'll leave you to explore those. Perhaps I should just make a section at the end of each blog with phrases that caught my attention...

Back to verses 6-16. Spiritual Wisdom. Paul reiterates in verse 7 that some things taught in scripture are a "mystery." They cannot be understood without the Holy Spirit in us! (v.10) That is the one difference between Christians and non-Christians isn't it? We have the Spirit in us. And He is the only one qualified to teach us these things - Paul makes an analogy: "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God" (v.11). Only Evan can tell you for sure what is going on inside Evan - doctors might be able to tell that I'm dreaming (by looking at the movement of my eyeballs when im asleep), or that I'm thinking(by checking out my brain waves), but to tell what I'm thinking is impossible for them. Only I can tell you what I'm thinking, and you will then have to trust me to be telling the truth. In the same way, only the Spirit of God can tell you what the mind of God is like! Therefore, those who do not have the Spirit of God cannot know the mind of God.

Paul then gives us one of the reasons we have the Holy Spirit in us: "that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God"(v.12). Again asserting that the Holy Spirit teaches us (or better understood: helps us to understand) (v.13) and that spiritual things are foolishness to the "natural man" (v.14).

Verse 15: Too intruiging for me to attempt to explain: "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one."

Paul ends in verse 16 assuring believers than we can know the mind of God because we actually have the mind of Christ! amazing...

Well, that will have to do for today. I hope this is helping those who read to think more about spiritual matters and that it might be encouraging to all. Tomorrow is 1 Cor. 3!