1 Corinthians 2:6—16

Some Have God’s Wisdom, Some Don’t

The mature, or in this context, the perfect, really must refer to all Christians who cherish the message of the cross, over/against the world that rejects the message of the cross. All Christians are “mature” in the core sense that they have come to terms with the message of the cross, while all others, by definition, have not. The message of Christ crucified is the fundamental dividing line in the human race.

Those who accept God’s message of wisdom do not belong to this age. The “rulers of this age” are those who rule the outlook and values of any age, i.e. the “wise man,” the “scholar,” and the “philosopher.” They are the best the world can advance, yet oppose the message of the cross.

The Wisdom of the Cross In Contrast To the Wisdom of the World

This is wisdom in a mystery (2:7). It is wisdom “that has been hidden” for a long time, but that has now been revealed. Romans 16:25–27.

Believing the Old Testament Scriptures are true is not enough. Prior to his conversion, the apostle Paul passionately believed the validity of the Old Testament. But that did not ensure that he found or recognized there the message of the crucified Messiah. Not until he met the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road did he reexamine the entire structure of his beliefs.

The point is that however much the Old Testament points to Jesus, much of this prophecy is in veiled terms. There are types and shadows and structures of thought— a wisdom that was in large measure hidden for long ages, until the Messiah was crucified.

The most astonishing folly for the Corinthians was to adopt the positions espoused by the esteemed authorities of a culture that did not know God.

How wretched and foolish it is to honor the siren opinion makers of our day, if they have no real understanding of the cross. God’s immeasurably wise plan of redemption has been revealed, yet people still do not believe. They still do not see that His plan is wise, and central to all. If we the “mature” have come to grasp it, it is because “God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (2:10)

God, through a public act of divine self-disclosure in the crucifixion of His own Son, revealed His wise plan of Redemption. However, there must also be a private work of God, by His Spirit, in the mind and heart of the individual. That is what distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, the mature from the people of this age and the rulers of this age.

The Spirit of God In Contrast to the Spirit of the World (2:10b–13)

Those who receive God’s wisdom, the message of the cross, are distinguished from “this age” by the Spirit of God, who reveals this wisdom to them. Not only is God much greater than we are, but also we are so rebellious that we distort much of the information about Him that He has graciously provided.

Paul’s point is that the possibility of knowing God and of understanding his ways does not belong to any human being as an essential component of his or her being. The distance is too great; our self-centeredness is too deep.

Nothing in “the wisdom of this age” (v. 6) can help us. What is required is revelation. The agent who brings such revelation to us is the Spirit of God.

No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (v. 11) That means that if we are to understand God, think His thoughts after Him, and truly “know” Him, we must receive the Spirit of God. We simply cannot find Him by ourselves.

The spirit of the world cannot make sense of the Cross. It is the Spirit of God who enables those who have this Spirit, to understand it.

The “Natural” Person and the “Spiritual” Person (2:14–16)

Paul wants to make sure that his readers fully grasp their utter dependence on the Holy Spirit. In fact, nothing else will so quickly humble their endless pretensions to greatness, and all the divisiveness and self-centeredness that follows from arrogance.

First, Paul is not insisting that human beings without the Spirit are unable to grasp spiritual things. Yet observation reveals they most often do not. One does not hurry to embrace what one finds or believes to be foolish. Paul insists that human beings cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

In the context, the “spiritual man” is the Christian, not a member of an elite group of Christians. This is simply those whose lives are invaded by the Spirit of God.

What it means to be “spiritual” is profoundly tied to the cross, and to nothing else. More precisely, to be spiritual, in this passage, is to enjoy the gift of the Holy Spirit, and this means understanding and appropriating the message of the cross.

Paul’s point is that truly grasping the truth of the cross and being transformed cannot be separated.

Both are utterly dependent on the work of the Spirit.