Talk 5 God’s Superior Wisdom
Today we’re continuing our study of 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16.
Last time we discovered nine problems with human wisdom:
- It is foolishness to God
- It does not recognise God
- It rejects the message of the cross
- It rejects Christ who is God’s Wisdom personified
- It is totally different from and inferior to God’s Wisdom
- It is useless as a means of winning others for Christ
- It is an insecure basis for our faith in Christ
- It gets you nowhere! It leads only to death
- It crucified the Lord of glory
Today we’ll be considering God’s superior Wisdom
One of the causes of division in the Corinthian church seems to have sprung from a human and worldly wisdom which was totally contrary to the wisdom of God.
These two kinds of wisdom (God’s and man’s) are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16
But first it will be helpful to mention some other NT verses which refer to God’s wisdom.
Romans 11:33
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Romans 16:25-27
25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him –
27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Ephesians 1:7-10
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ
Ephesians 3:8-11
8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord
Colossians 2:2-3
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
1 Timothy 1:17
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen
Jude 25
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy–
25 to the only wise God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
From these passages we learn that:
- Only God, who is eternal, is truly wise
- God’s wisdom is beyond our understanding
- God’s wisdom is a mystery
- The mystery is the message of Christ crucified – the gospel
- God’s wisdom is manifested in his church
With this in mind we can now turn to today’s passage and see what more we can learn about God’s wisdom.
The ‘foolishness’ of the gospel is described in 1:18-2:5.
However, in 2:6-16 it is seen as God’s revealed wisdom.
This is the passage we’ll be looking at today, but, as I am not attempting a verse by verse commentary in these talks, for those who are interested there are additional notes on 1:18-2-5 at the end of the notes on today’s talk.
We now turn to Chapter 2. Please have your Bible open there.
In the previous section Paul has been talking largely about human wisdom. Now he turns his attention to the wisdom of God. This is true wisdom.
The main point of this section is that those who are still ‘of this age’, who do not have the Spirit, do not understand the wisdom of God in Christ crucified.
Paul’s concern is to get the Corinthians to stop acting like non-Spirit people and understand who they are in terms of the cross.
v6 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.
Although man’s wisdom cannot lead him to God, God’s wisdom can lead man to him. The very message that is foolishness to the unbeliever is wisdom in God’s eyes.
Mature here means spiritually adult. The Corinthians were showing their immaturity by boasting in a wisdom that was not the wisdom of the cross.
v7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
In this verse Paul sees God’s wisdom as eternal
It was ordained before the world began but is hidden from the wisdom of man.
It is (literally) in a mystery, a secret once hidden but now revealed in the gospel.
v8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
None of the political rulers of the day had possessed this divine wisdom or they would not have crucified Christ. It was by their so-called wisdom that he was put to death.
The Lord of glory – Another example of a title clearly applied to Jesus but which in the OT was applied uniquely to Jehovah (Ps. 24:7-10).
v9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”
Human wisdom is based on the observation of the senses (Cf. modern Logical Positivism).
v10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Divine wisdom is not perceived with the senses but is revealed by the Spirit.
It’s possible that some of the Corinthians were being influenced by an early form of Gnosticism.
They supposed that they could by searching plumb the depths of God’s being.
But only the Spirit of God can know the thoughts of God. See next verse:
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The key to understanding God’s wisdom lies with the Spirit.
How can we really know the thoughts of another?
A man can only know his own thoughts.
Similarly, only the Spirit of God can know the mind of God.
True wisdom comes to us by revelation from the Holy Spirit
12 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.
We have received God’s Spirit so that we may understand…
We have not received the spirit of the world (Satan, the god of this age 2 Cor.4:4).
Any suggestion that a Christian could receive any spirit other than that which comes from God would be totally foreign to Paul’s thinking.
13 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.
The revelation of the Spirit is what enables Christians to understand God’s wisdom.
It is also what enables us to preach it! This is what we speak…
Expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words
The gospel is a spiritual truth and must be proclaimed with spiritual words – words taught by the Spirit (not with human wisdom)
There could even be a reference to spiritual gifts here (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1 pneumatika).
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Note that the ‘man without the spirit’ (psuchikos – natural) does not accept the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to him because he cannot understand them.
15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
By contrast, ‘the spiritual man’ (pneumatikos) can make judgments about all things because he has the Spirit.
16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Mind here = spirit. ‘In the Greek Bible that Paul cites the word “mind” translates the Heb. ruah, which ordinarily means “spirit”’ (Fee pp 119-120).
Note again that Christ is identified with Jehovah (cf. Isaiah 40:13).
Finally, note the connection between the Spirit and the cross in this passage.
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom 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: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit
God’s wisdom is revealed in the cross
God’s wisdom is revealed by the Spirit
The things of the Spirit may be discerned by their relationship to the cross
It is only by preaching the message of the cross with the power and wisdom given by the Spirit that we can hope to bring others to Christ who is the Wisdom of God.
Additional notes on 1:18-2:5
- a) God’s ‘foolishness’ – the cross (1:18-25)
In v17 Paul reminds the Corinthians that the Gospel had not been preached to them with human wisdom lest it should detract from the cross of Christ
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
v18 but to us who are being saved
There are only two groups of people in the world as far as God is concerned, not Jew and Gentile but those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
Note the continuous tense here. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are on their way to destruction, but it is the power of God to those who are on their way to salvation.
v19 I will destroy
Man’s wisdom has been destroyed by the cross. Any wisdom that man may seem to have is rendered meaningless by Calvary.
v20 age……world
The terms are used synonymously here. The emphasis is that the world is passing, transient.
scholar
Fee (p 71) rightly points out that this should be translated expert in the law.
v21 The world though its wisdom did not know him
Paul rejects the claim that man can know God through wisdom (cf. Romans 1:18-31).
The foolishness of what was preached
It is not the act of preaching but the content that is referred to here (as NIV makes clear – cf. AV ‘the foolishness of preaching’). It is through the apparently foolish message of Christ crucified that God is pleased to save those who believe.
v22 Jews……Greeks
Both Jews and Gentiles are looking in the wrong direction unless they look to Christ.
The answer is not in miraculous signs, nor in human wisdom.
The search for these is an expression of man’s rebellion against God.
The answer is the message of the cross.
Power and wisdom are still the two basic idolatries of our fallen world.
v23 but we preach Christ crucified
Christ crucified, by human standards, is the very opposite of what each group is looking for. Indeed a crucified Messiah is a contradiction in terms – ‘fried ice’!
The verb crucified is in the Perfect Tense which speaks of a past act the effects of which are still felt in the present. Christ’s atoning death is still efficacious.
v24 to us who are called
Salvation is rooted in a divine, not a human decision – but this does not deny the necessity of a human response.
power….. wisdom
Note the different effects the preaching of the Gospel has.
Power contrasts with stumbling-block, wisdom with foolishness.
The cross was a stumbling block to the Jew because of Deuteronomy 21:23 – Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (cf. Galatians 3:13).
v25 the foolishness of God
Of course Paul is not ascribing foolishness to God. He is saying that God’s truth which seems foolishness to the unbeliever is wiser than the unbeliever’s wisdom. He uses the neuter of the adjective – to moron – instead of the noun – moria – here (literally the foolish thing instead of foolishness). This points to a particular act of God’s foolishness (the cross). Compare weakness where again the neuter of the adjective is used.
‘Had God consulted us for wisdom we could have given him a more workable plan, something that would attract the sign-seeker and the lover of wisdom. As it is, in his own wisdom he left us out of the consultation’ (Fee, p 77).
- b) God’s ‘foolishness’ – the Corinthian believers (1:26-31)
v26 think of what you were when you were called
This verse has been much used as evidence of the sociological structure of early Christianity. See Fee pp 80ff for a brief discussion. However,
‘The truly unique feature of early Christianity was its nonhomogeneous character, that it cut across all sociological lines and accepted as “brothers” slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female” (Fee, p 81).
vv27-28 foolish…… weak…….lowly
It is the things which the world considers foolish, weak, and lowly that God has chosen to nullify or render inoperative the things considered to be wise, strong and noble. The purpose of this is in verse 29 – that no-one may boast before him. In Christ God has already set the future in motion, whereby the present age is on its way out.
v30 righteousness …… holiness….. redemption
NIV gets the translation right here (AV is misleading). Righteousness, holiness and redemption are three different aspects of God’s wisdom. They’re all central to Paul’s theology and result from the cross.
v31 he who boasts…. let him boast in the Lord
The verse clearly refers to Jesus, but it is a quote from Jeremiah 9:23-24 where it is Jehovah who is referred to (cf notes on 1:2 and 1:8.
Boast here has the sense of trust.
- c) God’s ‘foolishness’ – Paul’s preaching (2:1-5)
v1 I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom
When Paul came to Corinth he did not try to persuade them with human philosophy. He simply preached Christ crucified (v2). The cross cannot be rationalised.
The testimony about God
Testimony or mystery? Texts differ (marturion or musterion). Barrett prefers testimony because (a) mystery is in the context and could have affected a copyist subconsciously, and (b) testimony is more suited to the initial proclamation of the Gospel.
v2 I resolved
Paul’s determination here is probably not because of his apparent failure at Athens (Acts 17). ‘He is not contrasting his evangelistic method with that which he employed elsewhere, but with that which others employed in Corinth’ (Barrett). Cf Fee, p. 92.
v3 weakness, fear …… much trembling
See note on Acts 18:1. The weakness may refer to some observable physical condition. Astheneia normally means sickness and this is by no means impossible – cf Galatians 4:13-14.
v4 not with wise and persuasive words but with ……. the Spirit’s power
Having contrasted human wisdom with the cross in vv 1-2 he now contrasts it with the Spirit’s power. This does not necessarily refer to signs and wonders here – note the absence of reference to miracles in Acts 18. Fee, p. 95, believes it refers to their actual conversion with the accompanying gift of the Spirit which was probably evidenced by spiritual gifts, especially tongues.