God's Message of Wisdom
1 Corinthians 2:6-16 God’s Wisdom and the Spirit of God
Title: God’s Message of Wisdom 1. Is for the Mature 2. Is Contrary to the World 3. Is Mystery
In this passage, (vv.6-8) Paul continues with his contrast of human and divine wisdom that began in 1:18, and what a contrast it is! Remember, the human wisdom that Paul is opposed to is a well-defined system of wisdom. A well-constructed systematic worldview that seeks to answer every question and problem humanity has by looking inward; it looks no further than humanity. Thus it is mostly characterized by pride and arrogance. It is a style of life, a general way of assessing life that is self-centered. The end result of such human wisdom is twofold. First, such wisdom leads to a kind of human self-sufficiency and self-glorification. It is mans’ best answers to man’s worst problems. It says we don’t need God to figure anything out. Second, it puts man in the place of judge and gives him power to decide and evaluate activity. If you can explain life, you remain in control of it. Divine wisdom is in sharp contrast to this. Read Proverbs 2:1-8. Notice how fundamentally opposed divine and human wisdom is. God says if you desire wisdom, look outside of yourselves and ask God for it, “for the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov.2:6). Human wisdom, the world’s wisdom says look inside you! God says if you need direction, insight and understanding you must store up Scripture in your life, accept God’s word, and turn your ear to wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1:30 teaches Christ is that wisdom from God! So divine wisdom is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ and the story of redemption! Divine wisdom is wrapped up in God’s activity through his son Jesus Christ and exalts self-emptying, suffering, and humiliation. Christ said “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Worldly wisdom exalts status, pride, self-exaltation, comfort and ease, elitism. Worldly wisdom seeks its own advantage no matter how much it hurts others. Divine wisdom serves others with no regard to personal cost. What a difference!
I need to say something here that should go without saying but I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. In all of this talk about God’s wisdom and Human wisdom, the discussion is centered on their ability to lead us to God and Redemption. None of this bad talk about human wisdom is to say the world has nothing to offer us by way of practicality or knowledge or wisdom. We enjoy many benefits of the world’s wisdom each day, such as refrigeration, in home plumbing, plastics, disease fighting medicine, but none of us is going to go to heaven because we own a microwave or discovered DNA! IT is to say that in comparison to the wisdom of God, it is unimpressive. It cannot lead us to God. The world, with all of its great philosophy, man made religions, scholars, power, strength and wise men cannot reason or force or impress its way to God. If it could God would be guilty of some of the worse prejudice imaginable. There is only one way to God, and that is the wisdom found in the crucified Lord of Glory.
It is no wonder then that to the world the wisdom of God is weak and pathetic, that the message of the cross is a stumbling block and foolishness. Does that mean we should adopt our message to something else? Should we change it to be up with our times? Should we stop talking about this Christ as the one and only way? That’s the temptation isn’t it? It didn’t stop Paul though did it! No! God tells us he has purposely chosen the foolish things of things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He has chosen the lowly things, the despised things, and the things are not, to nullify the things that are so no one may boast before him! Christ is the wisdom and power of God. There is nothing greater than that!
In 2:1-5, Paul says in light of this fact, I want my ministry to match my message so when I proclaim the message of the cross, I do not do it with mere human eloquence or superior wisdom or with manipulation so you can say I believe because of how awesome Paul is. No, he says, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ crucified so you can see a demonstration of God’s power, so when you see me, you see Jesus Christ, not Paul. As we talked about these verses it became clear that by human standards, Paul should have failed and fallen flat on his face but God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached, Jesus Christ, to demonstrate his awesome power despite such great human weakness. So we learn from this passage that our ministry, our church is not made great by having a minister who can speak with great rhetoric and sophisticated speech, or by having music that is out of this world awesome, or by having state of the art technology so we can wow and pizzazz everyone who comes through these doors. Those things are not necessary for successful ministry. Our ministry is made great by God’s great power and that is demonstrated most fully through those who have learned that in our weakness God is the greatest, that we must wholly depend upon him for everything and do all things in his strength. The goal of our ministry is to maximize God’s glory, not our own.
You may well say if the message of the cross is such folly to the world, how will anyone be saved? How will they ever understand the message of the cross? Paul seeks to answer this question in vv. 6-16. We believe, we understand it because “it has been revealed to us by his Spirit” (2:10). Before we can get there however, Paul wants us to understand there is a wisdom for the mature, his entire message is not nonsense, and he wants to make sure we understand how absolutely opposed, divergent, conflicting incompatible antithetical the wisdom of God and the world is.
For the Mature
“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature…
He has just concluded in verse 5 saying he conducts his ministry in such a manner “so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” This is not to say however that everything he says is sheer madness or folly! We are not to think God puts a premium on ignorance and rejects all wisdom. No, there is a message of wisdom taught by the spirit to the mature. What is the wisdom he preaches? It is nothing other than the message of the cross, that is, Christ Crucified. The only wisdom he preaches is the wisdom of God revealed in the cross. It is the same wisdom he speaks to all concerning God’s redemptive purposes revealed in the cross. He speaks this message of wisdom to the mature.
Who are the mature? Much debate has raged over the identification of the “mature.” Many want to say the “mature” or the “perfect” as the KJV renders it, are the gifted few, an upper echelon of believers who have attained the pinnacle of wisdom. That Paul does make reference to spiritually mature and immature believers in other passages of Scripture cannot be doubted. Indeed, in 3:1 he will talk about the spiritually immature who argue and fight and debate over mere human leaders. In Colossians 4:12 we read of Epaphras who is “always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” In Ephesians 4:11-14 we read that it was Christ who, “gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” However, that being said, that is not the case here when we read, “mature” or “perfect.” The “mature” here referenced are those “who love God” (1 Cor. 2:9), who possess the spirit (2:10) and the mind of Christ (2:16). To argue otherwise, would make Paul be guilty of some of the worse contradiction imaginable. He has just labored and labored to get the point across that God does not cater to genius’s and intellectuals and the powerful and the wise and the cool and the beautiful. So for the message to only be wisdom to a select few mature believers would be the heights of contradiction! The mature are those who have recognized and embraced God’s foolishness as wisdom and the world’s wisdom as foolishness.
Is Contrary to the World
This wisdom that is spoken to the mature, those who love God and possess the Spirit, is contrary to the wisdom of the world. Paul says, we 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.
Paul certainly does not speak the wisdom of this age because it considers the message of Jesus Christ as foolishness and as a stumbling block. What’s more, the wisdom of this age is destroyed and frustrated in Jesus Christ. Even with human wisdom at its best, the foolishness of God is much wiser. Indeed, as we read in 1:21, “for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him.” All of the world’s greatest scholars, philosophers, wise men can join together and never would they discover the wisdom of God because as we will see in the following verses, it is hidden and mysterious and revealed only to those who have the spirit and the mind of Christ.
Paul certainly does not speak the wisdom of the rulers of this age because they in their human wisdom ended up crucifying the Lord of glory! Which, incidentally, is a great reference to Christ as God in the flesh. They completely misunderstood the wisdom of God in Christ Jesus and this misunderstanding led to the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. The rulers of the age did not understand the wisdom of God; and because they were ignorant, they did what human wisdom demanded – they crucified the one who for them was one more messianic pretender. Human wisdom at its best in the rulers of this world crucified the Christ. Thus the divine irony: The very ones who were trying to do away with Jesus by crucifying him were in fact carrying out God’s prior will – “destined for our glory before time began.” Instead of crucifying a messianic pretender, they killed the “Lord of glory” himself, the very one who, as Lord of all ages, is therefore Lord of the final glory that is both his and his people’s ultimate destiny. Acts 2:22-24 says, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him on the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Again we read in Acts 3:15, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” Of course Paul does not speak the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age because they in their best wisdom murdered the Christ!
Additionally, Paul does not speak the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age because they are coming to nothing. That phrase, “coming to nothing,” can also be translated,“ being dethroned” or “being abolished,” and means, “to render inoperative, ineffective, powerless.” God’s wisdom as found in Jesus Christ then is rendering powerless the wisdom of the world. No matter how powerful, and intimidating, and gigantic the evil forces of this world appear, God is dethroning them slowly and steadfastly through his people, his church.
Make no mistake about it; the wisdom of the world is malicious. It opposes God, and it crucified Christ. God’s wisdom and human wisdom are diametrically opposed. There can be no melding together of the two. You cannot abide by both. It is one or the other, the broad or the narrow.
Notice then the absurdity of it all when the Corinthians church is on the brink of division because it is seeking after the wisdom of the world. They are seeking status, fame, and honor through the church leaders. They are being swayed by the preachers golden tongue rather than the substance. They are emphasizing form over content and too easily swayed from the wisdom in Christ. It is so easy to fall into this trap and rely on our human strength and wisdom, but in reality, as the mature, we know better. God’s power and wisdom is demonstrated differently.
Is Mystery
In Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God…” and in verse seven it seems as though God gives us a glimpse into his secret eternal counsel and plan and it is beautiful and mysterious and profound. At the same time I am not going to lie to you and say this is an easy section of Scripture to understand. We are only getting a glimpse into the secret things of God, so there will be more questions than answers.
Verse seven begins with a strong adversative, NO, we do not speak a message of wisdom like that just explained in verse 6, and expounded earlier in 1:18-2:5. We speak of God’s wisdom, which he immediately qualifies in four ways: Mystery, Hidden, determined, misunderstood.
First, Paul says we speak of God’s secret wisdom. If you have the KJV or NASB in front of you, it has translated this phrase more accurately with “mystery.” It literally reads in the Greek, “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery.” By “mystery” or “secret” wisdom we are not to understand it as something mysterious or a truth humans cannot fathom. It is not saying God’s wisdom is a “mysterious wisdom.” It does not imply that God’s wisdom is imparted in cryptic, obscure, impenetrable words that only an elite few can grasp and is thus kept from the immature. Rather, it is a truth or fact which human understanding cannot discover by itself, but which one can adequately understand once God has revealed it to his people by the Spirit. We are not to understand “mystery” or “secret” here in the sense of God’s wisdom being inaccessible and spoken only in secret. “Mystery” or “secret” here refers to something formerly hidden in God from all human eyes but now revealed in history through Christ and made understandable to his people through the spirit. This mystery is the message of a crucified Christ, which up until now had been hidden to human inquiry. In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul declares one of his duties as an apostle is to “make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God,” and again in Colossians 1:26 Paul says he was commissioned by God “to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.”
Second, Paul says we speak “a wisdom that has been hidden.” The wisdom of God in Christ is hidden because it can only be known through God’s revelation. Wisely has Garland said, “It is now an open secret: open because God has revealed it, and a secret because the revelation both reveals the mystery and obscures it at the same time.” It remains veiled only to those who are perishing in their rebellion and unbelief as it says in 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 – “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Only the mature who love God and who receive the Spirit can recognize it as divine wisdom.
The overall point of these first two qualities of divine wisdom, that is a mystery and hidden, is that human cannot unravel the mystery of God’s wisdom in Christ for themselves; it can only be given to them by God. This wisdom can only be discerned by those who love God and possess the spirit, who are saved by the foolishness of a crucified Messiah. This is why Paul did not come into their midst with spectacular wisdom and sophisticated speech and seek to win them over by his golden tongue. There is no divine power in that. That is human strength, and anything built on the wisdom and strength of man alone is a faulty foundation and will fall. This is why it is sheer folly for the Corinthians to have fallen into this constant bickering and fighting over mere human leaders, trying to gain worldly and human status, saying I follow Peter, I follow Apollos, I follow Paul. That is the world’s wisdom. That is antithetical to the cross. There is no boasting in mere men, we boast in God, for it is because of him that we are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Third, God’s secret wisdom, long hidden – and still hidden to those without the Spirit – was “destined” by God himself “for our glory before time began.” “Destined” of course means, “deciding upon beforehand,” therefore to predestine. This is the expression of God’s prior will. This is intensified with the phrase “before time began.” Do you see the emphasis? God destined, planned beforehand these things, before time began. That is, before we or anything else for that matter even existed. You see how this is a glimpse into God’s secret counsels! In this verse, we are shown how God determined before there was time a plan, a course of events. What has been predestined, planned before time began, is God’s wisdom, God’s gracious activity in Christ, whereby through the crucifixion he determined eternal salvation for his people. God has not said, “I think this is what will happen” or “I hope this is what will happen.” God determined that this is going to happen and it can be no other way! It was not a mistake. This is not plan B or C or D. God is not in the heavens wringing his hands full of anxiety thinking to himself, Gee I hope this works out like I planned it. God has determined it to be so! It will be so! If God had not planned it so, we would never believe in God, for it is by the spirit of God that we believe.
Notice with me also the focus of this determined plan, us! It was for our glory. Paul sweeps across the range of God’s plan for human redemption through Christ, moving from “before the ages” to the end of the ages with his reference to “our glory.” It says in Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” This points to our resurrection. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:41-44, “The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory…. This also points to our participation in God’s end-time salvation. 1 Peter 1:3-5 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” God has determined this to be! He has determined we will be saved! There can be no doubt about it!
Could there be any greater demonstration of love, of power, of majesty, of wisdom, of glory than God’s majestic plan of redemption! It was determined before time began that the son of God, the Messiah would be put to death by nailing him to a cross. But God did not leave his only begotten son there, his plan continued and in his great power he rose Jesus from the dead. God did not abandon his son to the grave, he did not let his body did not see decay. God raised Jesus to life, exalted him to the right hand of God, and gave him the name that is above every name. God’s glory and our good are inextricably bound together. Read Romans 8:28-35! There’s no “if,” “maybe” or “might” is there! God has destined his people for glory, not shame. Though in this world you will face trial, tribulations, suffering, pain, weakness, mocking, hardships, hatred, abuse, these are momentary and light afflictions compared to the eternal weight of glory before us!
So cling to the wisdom of God found in the message of Christ Jesus. Turn from you sin, turn from worldly foolishness, incline your ear to understanding. God has determined a plan, he has included all those who love him in it, and he’s doing it in the most unlikely of ways, through the foolishness of crucified Messiah. What a God! Boast in Him! Give your praise to him!