December 11, 2015 1 Corinthians 1:29 – 2:13
Download discussion questions: 1 Corinthians 1_29-2_13 spirit
Download translations: 1 Corinthians 2_13 Bible Gateway (selected)
Paul started his letter to the Corinthian church with an immediate concern about divisions and factions and loyalties to different teachers (1:1-17). Then he addresses the contrast between the world’s view of wisdom and the seeming foolishness of the Gospel (1:14-31). The tendency seemed to be to boost the attractiveness of the “foolish” Gospel with supernatural signs and philosophical sophistication (1:22). In fact, the different styles of speaking or the various ways of teaching by Paul and Apollos and others may have been a significant part of the factions causing problems in the church. In this passage, Paul gets even more specific, pointing to the shortcomings of his own ministry in Corinth.
Paul had much more to say in this short section about the form of his sharing the Gospel rather than the message itself. The message, the substance was straightforward: “nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (2:2). Paul’s emphasis was on the way that substance was communicated, the form that he had used: not in superiority of speech, in weakness, fear, trembling (remember, Paul had some bad experiences in his last three stops – Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens). He denies using persuasive words as a methodology that might overshadow the testimony of God. Both his message and his preaching (2:4), the substance of the Gospel and the form of his presentation, were demonstrations of the Spirit and of power.
We discussed what a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” might look like. What would cause us to describe a sermon as a demonstration of the Spirit and of power? Suggestions were made about physical healing or other miraculous signs. That certainly may have been the case with Paul’s ministry at Corinth, although no mention is made in this passage. Another member of the group suggested that changed lives are equally dramatic (though less visible) evidence. Perhaps Paul’s words to the Corinthians echo similar words to the church at Thessalonica: “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction… and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” (1 Thessalonians 1:5, 9). Both in Thessalonica and in Corinth the work of the power of God was evident. By his own assessment his ministry in Corinth was less than impressive, yet God was at work in spite of Paul’s weak, fearful, trembling presentation. Paul makes himself the prime example of what he wants the Corinthians to see: Don’t judge the substance based on the form, don’t evaluate the message because you like (or don’t like) the preaching.
Paul takes a slightly different turn in verse 6. He has been deemphasizing the wisdom of men (v. 5), but he beings verse 6 with the contrasting “Yet” (NASB, ESV; “however” in NIV) “we do speak wisdom among those who are mature.” Paul is not dismissing the use of wisdom. He is making two qualifications.
First, he is affirming the wisdom of God (v. 7), which he also describes as a mystery and as hidden. The substance of the Gospel is not intuitive: the Second Person of an eternal Triune God, became a mortal human and was executed by torture. What “ruler of this world” (v. 8) would listen to a story like that? The wisdom Paul promotes is not obvious.
Second, the wisdom Paul uses is for the mature (v. 6b). The substance doesn’t change: Christ crucified. The depth of understanding and the richness of the substance continue to intensify as our maturity increases. The new believer may simply understand “Jesus loves me, this I know” and have no interest in substitutionary atonement or in the penal theory of Christ’s work. But growing maturity will likely cause even such theologically and philosophically weighty topics to take on an increasing beauty. Knowing God and growing in maturity reveals more depth of what God has done through Christ for us. The wisdom Paul proposes is not “one size fits all.” The wisdom he shares is proportional to the development of the hearers.
Someone in our group asked about maturity, what does it look like, how do we get it? Several suggestions were offered, in particular pointing to the quotation Paul uses from Isaiah in verse 9 about those who love God (Isaiah 64:4, “those who wait for Him”). At the beginning of the Christian life, at conversion and for a while after, we are focused on ourselves, on our salvation, on what God has done for us. The longer we grow in a relationship with Him and the more we learn about Him, the more our focus turns toward Him and who He is, and what David called “the beauty (or delightfulness) of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). We grow in our appreciation of God for His own sake, we grow in our love for Him. That might be a good working definition of the maturity Paul is describing, our love for God because of who He is, not just because of what He has done for us. (That is not to minimize His amazing grace to us. But we want to avoid an attitude that sees only His gift and blessings. One author described her perception of Christianity prior to her conversion from atheism: “Believing something irrational on demand to get a prize: that is what the evangelical invitation to ‘come to Jesus and get eternal life!’ sounded like to me.”[1] Certainly maturity means moving away from any kind of such a self-centered focus, less on the gift and more on the Giver.)
Another member pointed out a possible connection to Paul’s other prophetic quotation about “boasting in the Lord” (from Jeremiah 9:23-24). Maturity means, at least in part, seeing more and more of God and His nature, and that growing vision becoming our focus, our point of reference for everything else. Paul says that the genuine wisdom is for those who are mature, those who continue to grow in their awe of who God is. Perhaps that perspective is what is meant by “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10). The more we see of God, the more we “gaze on the delightfulness of the Lord” (David in Psalm 27), the more we are in awe and amazement. Someone commented that wisdom is a measure of maturity. Wisdom, making prudent choices in life, is a direct function of how we perceive God and who He is and how we fit into His story.
In the last third or so of this passage, Paul turns his attention more specifically to the Spirit. He has mentioned the power of God three times in this opening section of his letter (1:18, 24; 2:5). He links that power with God’s Spirit (2:4), and he develops that link more fully at the end of the passage (2:10-13). Paul makes it clear that God’s Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, is the primary agent in showing us more of who God is, the One who drives our maturing vision of God. The mysteries, the hidden things are “freely given” by the Spirit. These are not esoteric obscure interpretations of the Bible that only the “in group” can recognized. (That idea developed more later in the first few centuries of the church: Gnosticism that had more interest in clever enigmas than in Christ and Him crucified.) The hidden things, the mysteries that are freely given are the substance of the Gospel that are, indeed impenetrable by even the wisest rulers (v. 6). Only by the sovereign work of God’s Spirit can the “foolishness” of His plan be revealed as “all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (2:9).
The last phrase of the section (v. 13b) received some attention in our discussion. Paul describes teaching as “combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (NASB). Remember that in the NASB and in some other translations italicized words indicate additions by the translators to help bridge the differences between Greek (or Hebrew) and English. We looked at several other translations (download the second handout, “1 Corinthians 2_13 Bible Gateway (selected)”). Various versions handle the phrase differently. Perhaps the New Living Translation (NLT) is most expressive: “using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” Listening to the Spirits words are absolutely essential to communicating spiritual truths.
Sharing the substance of the Gospel happens most effectively when we listen. We listen to the person we are talking with, and we listen to the Spirit’s prompting. Paul says that both his message (the substance) and his preaching (the form) were a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (2:4). Not every thought that pops into my head in a conversation is what needs to be said at that moment to that person. Concentrating on remembering what I want to say means I am not fully listening to what the other is saying. Thinking of clever responses and persuasive words takes my attention away from what God might be doing in the situation. Listening to the Spirit and only saying those things that seem clearly from Him gives a great freedom to participate in what He might be doing in the conversation, in the other person, and in me.
[1] Holly Ordway, Not God’s Type; A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010), 17.