1 Corinthians 2:6-16
With you by his Spirit
Through the Holy Spirit, God is with you in the most extraordinary way – he is actually in you. It would be impossible for God to be with you any more fully than he is through his Spirit.
In this passage Paul explains some of the extraordinary benefits of God being with you in this way: ‘Spirit can be known only by spirit – God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit’ (vv.15–16, MSG).
Like the psalmist, the apostle Paul expounds on all the wonderful things that ‘God has prepared for those who love him’ (v.9, see also Psalm 91:14, ‘Because you love me…’).
Paul compares God’s wisdom to the ‘fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so’ (1 Corinthians 2:6, MSG). God’s secret wisdom has been revealed to us (vv.6–10) – the wonder of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The rulers of the world did not understand it. If they had, they would not have crucified Jesus: ‘The Lord of glory’ (v.8).
God’s secret wisdom is amazing. ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ (v.9).
In his book, True Spirituality, Vaughan Roberts notes that there is a four-fold process in which the Holy Spirit reveals God’s wisdom to us.
The Holy Spirit knows
He knows what no human being could otherwise know – the mind and thoughts of God. ‘The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows the thoughts of another human being except that person’s own spirit within? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God’ (vv.10b–11).
The Holy Spirit reveals
The Holy Spirit does not keep his knowledge of the wisdom of God to himself, but he reveals it to those in whom he dwells. ‘We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us’ (v.12). You have received the Spirit who is from God. He is with you. He enables you to understand the secret wisdom of God, though of course we could never fathom the depths of God. As Paul says later in this letter, in this life ‘we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror’, not yet ‘face to face’ (13:12).
The Holy Spirit inspires
Paul was inspired by the Spirit to pass on the wisdom of the gospel to others. ‘This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words’ (2:13). The Spirit similarly teaches you what to say so that you too can express ‘spiritual truths in spiritual words’, generally through the Spirit-inspired words of the apostles recorded in the New Testament. You can share words in line with Scripture that point people to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit illuminates
Without the Holy Spirit, you simply cannot understand spiritual truths: ‘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 spiritually discerned’ (v.14). When God is with you by his Spirit you can actually understand the mind of the Lord. Indeed, you ‘have the mind of Christ’ (v.16).
Lord, thank you for this amazing truth that you are with me by your Spirit. Today, may I have the mind of Christ in all my decisions and conversations. I pray for spiritual words to express spiritual truths.