Ponderings on 1 Corinthians Chapters 1 – 4 (15)

Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

    nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  (1 Corinthians 2:6 – 10, ESV).

It is easier to quote verse 9 out of context than to quote it in context. It is much easier to ponder it out of context than to ponder it in context. Out of context, standing alone, it makes a nice little verse to put on a coffee mug or on a calendar. It allows me to read it and go on with life.

But if I continue with verse 10, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit…” then I have a problem and a challenge. Is God revealing what He has prepared to me? Do I “see” this revelation in Scripture? Or is the word on the page dead letter? Is it lifeless? Is it nothing but information and data?

Do I “see” glimpses (or grand vistas!) of what God has prepared for those who love Him in daily life? In my relationships with others? In creation? Am I learning to “hear” life in Christ as a symphony of the words and works of God? Is the Holy Spirit tuning my soul to respond to the Master’s touch and direction?

This is not about speculation designed to puff us up or dazzle others with our pseudo knowledge of the future and the unseen, this is about beholding Christ again and again and again until we truly know “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” as our Temple (Rev. 21:22).

The context of 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 is the “foolishness of God” being wiser than men (1 Cor. 1:25); that our “faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5). The wisdom and philosophy of Greece was not the way of the Gospel, any more than the “works of the Law” of Judaism.

If I read 2:10 then I must ask, “How is the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to me today? As a way of life? Am I seeing Jesus revealed through both the Old and New Testaments? Is the Old Testament pulsating with images of Jesus Christ from Genesis through Malachi? (Luke 24:27, 44 – 45). Are these images building on one another and playing off one another…are they drawing me deeper and deeper into my Lord Jesus?

Am I “seeing” Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27)?

Have we received the Spirit who is from God? Then if we have, let us learn to know the things that are freely given to us from God (1 Cor. 2:12).

What does this look like in our lives? In the lives of our churches?