Spiritual Discernment
1 Corinthians 2
Would you like to know the secret to true wisdom? Would you like to find the keys to deeper living, to higher-level spirituality? From ancient times people have sought some kind of deeper, hidden special knowledge or insight that offers the key to understanding life, the insight that provides happiness and makes sense of the world. The ancient Gnostics were obsessed with this quest. We are on the same search today –the book, The Secret, is still on bestseller lists. From Oprah to Kabala to Scientology, people are driven to find some secret wisdom. Thrillers look to the past for the lost Ark of the Covenant; science fiction looks to higher knowledge from aliens on other planets. More and more people are turning to the supernatural and are intrigued by the mysterious as seen in wildly successful shows such as Lost.
At Christ Fellowship we are in a new series called Spiritual Wisdom in a Foolish World. Come back with me to ancient Corinth in Greece to read a letter written to people also in search of spiritual wisdom in the wrong places who formed elitist groups based on certain teachings. We do the same today. People form groups based on some new spiritual guru’s latest bestseller and seminar seeking with levels of advancement in spirituality. It can get silly.
In Corinth, what they thought was wise, ends up being foolish. Paul takes us back to deep roots of our faith to show us how to live for Christ in a corrupt culture. He urges us to live Christ-like lives by the power of the Spirit as a unified church. We’ve looked at our spiritual identity and spiritual power. Today we embrace spiritual discernment. Paul will show us where to find the true secret wisdom and real spirituality.
In modern Christian circles some groups use buzzwords to express their take on what it means to be mature or really spiritual. Have you ever had someone ask you if you were “full of the Spirit”? Have you got the “second blessing”? Does your church believe in the “full gospel?” The Corinthians had catchwords for their positions. Paul uses their buzzwords and reclaims them by re-defining them in light of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In his using their language but filling it with his own content, Paul refutes them. He uses terms that the Corinthians employed to justify their spiritual elitism (“wisdom,” “mature,” “secret,” “spiritual”) and shows that when these terms are properly understood they include that which is available to all believers, not just the super-spiritual.
The problem in Corinth was not that some Christians did not have the Spirit. It was, rather that though all the Corinthian Christians had the Spirit, they are not living as spiritual persons ought to live. Our problem today is not that we don’t have what we need to live Christ-like lives, but that we are not embracing what has been given. We are instead are misfocused in unfruitful directions.
We are bombarded by claims that the key to a happy, healthy Christianity, is to be found in some new technique of prayer, a new self-help therapy, a certain Christian book, spiritual warfare, a certain style of worship, personal revelation, a prayer tongue and on and on. Similarly, the church has become increasingly populated by single-issue people, analogous to single-issue voters in the political arena. One person constantly clamors for theology to be taught as the cure for all the church’s ills; another repeatedly insists that global missions must overshadow every other commitment. A third is captivated by the writings of a famous Christian celebrity and promotes them as if they never erred. When these so-called “keys” move away from the humbling, central focus on the cross of Christ, they have become elitist, potentially divisive and must be rejected. At Christ Fellowship we are all about Jesus. Our focus is on Jesus Christ. We are not and will not be distracted by secondary agendas. Christ is the center.
Ironically, many deeper life Christian movements have appealed to our text, 1 Corinthians chapter two, to justify their approach when, in fact, that is the opposite of Paul’s intent. Paul’s point is that we should embrace spiritual discernment of God’s wisdom in Christ by the Spirit. When we shift our focus off Christ to some other secondary teaching or emphasis, we have lost our way. When we pursue some “deeper” teaching that only we and our group have seen, we have missed the point that maturity is available to all through Christ by the Spirit. Ironically, the Corinthians thought they were mature and spiritual in their pursuit of wisdom, but in fact they were spiritual infants who missed the true wisdom of God in Christ.
Open your Bible to First Corinthians chapter two, verse six. Paul’s argument in chapter two comes in three parts that I have captured for you in the sermon outline. Your outline also gives you sub-points to help you see the logic of the verses supporting each main point. Verses six to ten show the source of spiritual wisdom, God himself. Then verses eleven and twelve show how we gain an understanding of God’s wisdom. Finally verses thirteen to sixteen explain what we do with that wisdom. For Paul, the Spirit is the key to wisdom in Christ. His contrast is not between classes of Christians, but between those who have the Spirit and those who don’t; in other words between those who are Christians and those who are not.
As we read the text a paragraph at a time, notice Paul’s concern is to get the Corinthians to understand who they are and what God has given them in Christ by the Spirit. In some ways this chapter may offer the deepest roots of our faith. There are no commands in this chapter, no rebukes for the Corinthians. Instead, Paul is calling us to appreciate and ponder what God has given in Christ by the Spirit.
Personally, I find this passage very reassuring and strengthening because Paul helps us see what God has done for us. While the truths are deep, at heart they are very simple. Paul is arguing against the Corinthians trying to find some esoteric exotic deeper wisdom, when all the depth they ever need is found in Christ and the Spirit. On this foundation he is building; in future chapters he will address specific issues, but before we talk about lawsuits, sexuality or marriage, he wants us to grow deep roots of faith.
Last week in our final verse, Paul said in chapter two, verse five that he speaks with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so their faith does not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. Now in verse six, the first verse of our new passage, Paul transforms the concept of wisdom. He does speak with wisdom, but of a different kind. Listen for the deep roots of our faith as we start reading in First Corinthians chapter two, verse six. (Pause to pray for understanding)
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 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. 1 Corinthians 2:6–10 (NIV)
Paul transforms “wisdom” from a philosophical, rhetorical term into a term that describes what God has prepared for us in Christ. Paul’s point in this first paragraph is that we should embrace spiritual discernment because God revealed his spiritual wisdom for our glory.
God revealed his spiritual wisdom for our glory 6-10
The argument of this paragraph is full of bite. The Corinthians, thinking of themselves as “spiritual,” and “mature,” are actually foolish and immature, yet they have all they need from God to become mature in Christ. Paul is unafraid to talk about wisdom, a much wiser wisdom than the world has to offer. Too often the church has played the role of an insecure people threatened by science or intellectual dialogue such as in major universities, as if a person has to commit intellectual suicide to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Just take a blind leap of faith. Far from it. Christianity is more intellectually robust than any other worldview.
Infected by our consumerist, entertainment culture, in too many churches there is a mentality that says, “Entertain me, but don’t make me think and don’t force me to grow.” This creates a situation in which people never get out of spiritual kindergarten. Some churches are anti-intellectual huddles of people scared to engage in the arena of the mind. This is far from Paul’s teaching. Christians should foster full intellectual engagement because we are unafraid of truth. We worship the One from whom all truth comes.
Paul says he speaks this wisdom among the “mature.” The word “mature” was likely a buzzword for the Corinthians with certain groups viewing themselves as more mature. Today certain Christian groups think they are more mature based on a view of the end-times, a focus on Jewish backgrounds, a view of spiritual gifts, the gospel or grace itself.
I think Paul is being deliberately ironic here by playing with the word “mature.” On the one hand, his point is that all Christians are mature in the sense that have the Spirit, so there is no super-mature class of Christians. On the other hand, it is clear from the entire book that the Corinthians are far from mature. They are spiritual babies. The biblical text is calling us to a maturity that comes from embracing God’s wisdom in the cross in which all Christians find solidarity. Spiritual maturity is to follow Christ, becoming like him in the power of the Spirit. There is no secret, deep knowledge of God reserved for the spiritual elite who go to seminary or some special seminar. It is God’s plan for all Christians to move toward maturity in Christ by the Spirit.
Walk with me through the following verses as we see Paul describe this wisdom with several phrases. This is a wisdom which was a hidden mystery. What does he mean that it is a mystery that has been hidden? The word mystery does not mean mysterious, but refers to something previously not revealed. Prior to Christ coming to our world, humanity did not see what God was doing to save the world. Now this wise plan is known.
In contrast Paul says what this divine wisdom is not. This is wisdom is not the wisdom of this world or its rulers who are passing away, who do not understand God’s wisdom, who crucified the Lord of glory. However we identify the rulers of this age, the big point is that the wise and powerful of this world cannot grasp God’s wisdom in Christ crucified. Here Paul takes a swipe at the Corinthians’ confidence in Roman political wisdom and Greek philosophical wisdom. God’s superhuman wisdom prevails over all other wisdom, human or demonic. Ironically, in crucifying the Lord of glory, they signed their own death warrants because the cross affected their ultimate defeat.
By focusing on worldly status and power, the Corinthians risk identifying with the supposedly powerful people who crucified the truly powerful Lord of glory (2:8), and who are coming to nothing. Rather than coming to nothing, in Christ we are destined for glory. This spiritual wisdom revealed by God is that which God destined for our glory before time began.
Which God destined for our glory before time began
Far from a mistake or an accident of history, the cross was God’s plan for us. The phrase for our glory is mysterious. What does that mean? While I cannot say I fully understand, let me give some insights to help us. The hidden mystery which God has marked out in advance is the cross of Jesus Christ. As we grow in wisdom we never move beyond the cross, but into more profound understandings of Christ.
To understand what the phrase “for our glory” means, notice the other use of the word “glory” in the passage. In verse eight Paul says the rulers crucified “the Lord of glory.” Our glory comes in our connection with the Lord of glory. The phrase, “for our glory” points to our resurrection (15:40–42) and participation in Christ’s eternal life (Rom. 2:7). Jesus is already the Lord of glory (Phil. 2:9–11), and we who are in Christ are destined to share in his glory. Christians already experience glory in part today, and will do so in an ever-increasing way until we come to the final glory (Fee 1994: 319). In contrast to the rulers of this age who are “coming to nothing,” God has destined us for glory.
This truth finds confirmation in a Scripture quotation that concludes this first paragraph. God has revealed his wisdom, which Scripture confirms God has prepared for those who love him. Verse nine paraphrases Isaiah 64:3.
9 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.
Every possible earthly source of wisdom is excluded. Kaiser (1981: 313) notes that these things did not come from empirical sources (eye has not seen), traditional knowledge passed on in community (ear has not heard), or intuitive insight (heart has not conceived), nor is it accessible to them. God has prepared things for those who love him that we can only begin to imagine.
To what is Paul referring? Perhaps it is more than we could fully describe or understand. But at least it includes the hidden mystery of Christ and our glory as we are united to the Lord of glory. In this life and in the one to come God has prepared wonderful things for us in Christ. How can we gain insight into these things? How can we know what God has prepared for us? We embrace spiritual discernment in Christ by the Spirit.
The Spirit is the key as we will see in the second paragraph, which begins in verse ten, the transitional verse between the first two paragraphs. These are things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. With the first line of verse ten Paul introduces the Spirit who is the theme of the second paragraph. Follow with me starting in the second half of verse ten as we learn about the Spirit.
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. 1 Corinthians 2:10–12
The Spirit of God knows all the things of God, including the depth of who God is, his thoughts. So the Spirit can and does enable us to know what God has given us. Paul’s point is that God has given us the Sprit to know what he has given us.
God has given us the Spirit to know what he has given us 11-12
What do we know about the Spirit from this text? The Spirit is the one who searches all things even the deep things of God. What are the deep things of God? The word “things” is not in the Greek text but is supplied in translation. The phrase could be translated as the “depths of God.” The Spirit searches the very depths of who God is in his triune self. Just as only the spirit in a person knows a person’s thoughts, so only the Spirit knows the things of God. In God’s amazing graciousness he has revealed his very self to those who love him.
What else do we know about the Spirit? The Spirit is not of this world, but is from God. The spiritual discernment we find in God’s wisdom is not from this world, but from the Spirit who comes from God. It is God the Father with God the Son who together sent the Spirit into the world.
What is amazing is what the Spirit does for us! The Spirit is the one who enables us to know the things God has graciously given us. What are the things that God has freely given us? The word translated in the NIV by “freely given” is the word, Charisthenta, from the word for grace, charis. “Let’s connect this phrase back to other phrases in our text: a mystery hidden that God has destined for our glory, what God has prepared for us that no eye has seen, things revealed to us by the Spirit. Paul is talking about Christ and everything we have in Christ through his cross. We are to embrace the wisdom that is present in Christ crucified. This is true wisdom, which the Spirit enables us to know.
So what do we do with this knowledge? In the third paragraph Paul moves to what we do with this divine wisdom in Christ that we know by the Sprit. We are to discern spiritually and we are to explain spiritual truth to others, all by the power of the Spirit. In the language of our mission at Christ Fellowship – we are to be people who help people find and follow Christ, which we can only do in the power of the Spirit who God has given to us. Follow with me starting in verse thirteen as we read the third and final paragraph.
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. 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?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
Paul’s point in this paragraph is yet another thing God does for us.
The Spirit enables us to discern all things with Christ’s mind 13-16
The Holy Spirit of God enables us to discern wisdom as we evaluate all of life with the mind of Christ. Let’s walk through this text a line a time starting in verse thirteen. We speak spiritual things by the Spirit.
We speak spiritual truths by the Spirit
What is it that we speak? Look back to verse twelve. We speak about the things that God has graciously given us in Christ, which the Spirit enables us to understand.
And now we learn the Spirit also enables us to communicate these spiritual truths. We should communicate spiritual truths to others by the power of the Spirit. We don’t just understand spiritual truths for our own benefit, but so that we can help others to follow Christ. Who could you help to follow Christ by talking about spiritual truths in the Spirit’s power?
In the next verse, verse fourteen, Paul shares that the person without the Spirit does not accept the things of the Spirit or understand them because they are only discerned through the Spirit.
This is not human wisdom of ‘natural’ persons who do not accept the things of the Spirit. They appear foolish and are not understood by them because they are discerned by the Spirit. The Greek phrase here does not describe a weak Christian, but rather a person who does not have the Holy Spirit so they are not a Christian. This is a person who lives on a purely human plane, so following Christ crucified does not make sense to them.
Before you trust in Christ and have the Holy Spirit inside you, following Christ does not make sense. It is like a deaf person trying to listen to music, like trying to get email on a phone that is not smart. If that is how you feel right now as you hear this message, you may not be a Christian. Perhaps you have never personally trusted in Jesus Christ so you do not have the Spirit enabling you to understand spiritual truth. I encourage you to trust in Jesus Christ crucified. If you do so, let me know so I can help you take next steps.
Don’t expect most people to understand or approve of your decision to follow Christ. It all seems so silly to them. Just as a tone-deaf person cannot appreciate fine music fully, the person who has not trusted in Christ cannot understand God’s beautiful message.
What about the objection that a non-Christian can understand the words of the Bible? It is true that non-Christians can read the words and accurately express what they mean. However, the “understanding” described in verse 14b is not primarily cognitive or mental but volitional, a matter of choice. The point is that they do not welcome, receive or embrace the truth but merely cognitively understand it.
The last two verses bring us to the amazing truth that the ‘Spiritual’ person discerns all things. The person with the Spirit of God discerns what is wise and foolish. They can sift out the gold from the junk. The word “discern” can mean to examine in the sense of making a judgment. By the Spirit we can discern and make judgments in line with the way that God would make them.
Paul verifies his final point by referring to the Old Testament just as he concluded the first paragraph with a Scripture quotation. He refers to Isaiah 40:13 asking rhetorically: for Scripture says, who can know God’s mind? Who can instruct God? Of course the answer is that no one can match wits with God; no one knows the mind of the Lord, which makes the final phrase so outrageous. He says we can know God’s mind. He says, but we have the mind of Christ. By the Spirit we have the mind of Christ which is to have the mind of God.
What is the mind of Christ? “The mind of Christ” does not refer to some mystical ecstasy. It refers to believers having their outlook shaped by Christ. The word “mind” in Greek indicates “not an instrument of thought” but “a mode of thought” or “mind-set” (Thiselton). To have ‘the mind of Christ’ is to have a cruciform (shaped by the cross) mind.” It requires putting to death selfish ambitions, humbling oneself, and giving oneself for others. Grindheim (2002: 708) summarizes well Paul’s point: “To be spiritual … is to have apprehended the word of the cross in such a way that it has transformed the entire existence of the believer into its image—to a cruciform life, a life characterized by self-sacrificing love, and where power is manifest through weakness.” The spiritual person is one who lives out Christ crucified, in the “power of the Spirit”.
Since the Corinthians are in Christ and have the Spirit, they should be and could be much more mature. But they are not because they are looking for wisdom in the wrong places. In their spiritual pride they formed separate groups who foolishly think they are more spiritual than everyone else.
Paul says you want wisdom? You want depth? No need to search for some esoteric teaching. It is simple and available to every believer. Look to Christ crucified who the Spirit will help you understand. What if we all did this? What if we all looked to Christ crucified, the hidden mystery revealed by God for our glory, what has been prepared for us that no eye has seen, that the Spirit enables us to understand, everything God has graciously given us in Christ. Then we would become mature in Christ by the Spirit. Then we would communicate spiritual truth by the Spirit’s power. Then we would embrace spiritual discernment of God’s wisdom that we can all have in Christ by the Spirit.
These are truths to ponder, to reflect on, to appreciate. Consider what God has given us in Christ by the Spirit. We don’t have to look to some other source for wisdom. Christ is it. Let’s be all Jesus in the Spirit who gives us the mind of Christ to know God.
Footnotes:
Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987. Pp 100
Witherington III, Ben Conflict & Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI. 1995. Pp 129
Bloomberg, Craig L. The 1 Corinthians NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994. Pp 68-69
Keener, Craig S. 1-2 Corinthians. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 2005. Pp 38
Bailey, Kenneth E. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians. Inter-Varsity Press. Downers Grove, 2011. Pp 110
Bloomberg, Craig L. The 1 Corinthians NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, Pp 65
Bloomberg, Craig L. The 1 Corinthians NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, Pp 70
