07 What Paul Means by ‘God’s Hidden Wisdom’ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16)

Krisan Marotta: Good morning, I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is the Wednesday in the Word podcast. This is the seventh talk in our series on the book of 1 Corinthians. Today we're gonna be covering 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 6 through 16. And if you're jogging or driving or listening with your hands busy, you don't have to remember everything. You can find lecture notes with everything in today's talk on the link below the podcast, or you can find them on the website. Just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 Corinthians 7. Thanks so much for listening. As always, we're gonna start with a bit of review and context for those of you who maybe missed a podcast or are jumping into the middle of the series. Paul wrote this letter to Corinth in response to a letter that they had sent him asking him questions and in response to a verbal report he received about the situation in Corinth. And the section we're looking at today is the middle of a discussion that runs from chapter one through the end of chapter four. Paul started out the letter after his initial greeting writing about the divisions in the church in Corinth and how he wants them to unify around the truth of the gospel. But the divisions are a symptom of a deeper issue that he has in mind, and that deeper issue is the fact that the Corinthians have rejected the gospel message because they want a gospel that is more appealing to their sophisticated intellectual town, and they have rejected Paul's authority as an apostle because they want a more eloquent teacher like Apollo's. And Paul ended chapter one contrasting the wisdom of the gospel with the wisdom of the world. A number of folks in the Corinthian church find Paul inadequate as a teacher because he lacks this quality that they would call wisdom. And Paul responded that the gospel is an offensive message because the cross is offensive. The cross and a crucified Messiah appears to be a foolish message to the world, but in fact it is truth and wisdom. And Paul is not going to change his message to make it less offensive because then it wouldn't be the gospel at all. In chapter two he turns directly to the issue of how he spoke when he was with them. His first point in the first five verses of the chapter was that when he was in Corinth, he taught them the complete and accurate gospel, and that God confirmed his authority as an apostle with miraculous signs, so that they would have confidence that the message he taught was truly from God and not something made up by men. So essentially in two one through five he says, I didn't come to you to impress you with my worldly wisdom, I came to teach you wisdom from God. And in the section we're going to tackle today, chapter two, verses six through sixteen, we're going to see there's an interpretive choice, and that choice makes a lot of difference in how we understand the Christian life. Now as we go through the passage, I'm going to attempt to explain the issues involved, and at the end I'm going to put it together as to why this is a significant choice. To this point in the letter, Paul has been using the word wisdom the way the Corinthians would have used it. The Corinthians were looking for a certain kind of wisdom and eloquence and articulation. They were looking for a particular kind of rhetorical flair that was popular among debaters in their day, and Paul has renounced that idea. He says, I am not interested in that kind of wisdom. At this point in his argument, he's going to tell them what true wisdom is. So after rejecting wisdom as they have defined it, he now embraces the word wisdom and he redefines it. He tells them this is what true wisdom is, and he's going to claim he does in fact speak wisdom, but he means something very different than the Corinthians mean. So he's reclaiming the word wisdom for himself in this section. Let me read it. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which not have entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him. In two six Paul says, Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, and we want to ask who is the we and this is the interpretive choice I was mentioning at the beginning. Very often Paul uses we to mean himself. Sometimes he means he himself alone, sometimes he means he himself and the other apostles as opposed to we Christians in general. So we apostles is often his meaning, as opposed to all believers. Sometimes he means we Jews as opposed to Gentiles, and in my experience only rarely does he mean we as in all believers. Now frequently we can figure out who he means by we by looking at the context to see if there is a you or them or a people being contrasted with the we. So we're looking to the context to see who are the two groups being talked about, who is the we and and them or the we and and you. And in our text, notice that Paul's speech and the way he spoke has been the subject of the discussion up to this point. He has been talking about himself in the first person in the first four verses of the chapter. Then in two five he speaks of you, the Corinthians, and now in two six he's talking about we. But even though the pronouns changed, the topic of the discussion has not changed. The topic of his discussion is still Paul and Paul's authority as an apostle and how Paul spoke when he was with them. So whose speech has he been talking about up to this point? His own. Now all of a sudden he says, But we do speak wisdom, and he doesn't appear to have changed the topic of discussion. So I think in verse six, the we is Paul and Paul alone. I think he already used we to mean himself back in chapter one in verses twenty two to twenty-three, and he's doing it again here, and I would argue as we read this section, we should think I Paul when it says we. Now that decision doesn't make a lot of difference here in this verse in two six, but it is going to make more of a difference later in the section. Paul's basic assertion is I'm not interested in the kind of wisdom that you Corinthians are interested in. I'm not interested in the kind of wisdom that will make the movers and shakers of the world take notice with awe and excitement. But I do in fact speak wisdom among the mature. What is wisdom? I think he means the gospel, the gospel itself, the truth about Christ crucified that God has revealed, that's the true wisdom from God. So he's saying the gospel that I preach is true wisdom from God, and the spiritually mature are my intended audience. The mature are going to see the gospel for the wisdom that it is. So who are the mature? I think in the context the mature are those who have humbled themselves before God, in contrast to the rulers of this age who have rejected God and are passing away. So the mature have eyes to see and the ears to hear. The mature are those who have come to understand and accept the truth about who Jesus is, that He is the Messiah. They have come to understand the things of faith, and their faith has been tested and shown through those tests to be genuine. So Paul is contrasting, I'm not seeking acceptance from the rulers of the age, as he calls them, and I think he means the movers, the shakers, the elite social class the Corinthians want Paul to appeal to. He says they aren't my intended audience. I intend my message to be seen as wisdom by those who are mature. The rulers of the age, on the other hand, are being made nothing. They're being shown to be foolish. He describes them as the rulers of this age who are passing away. His point seems to be what good is it to seek their approval and gain their favor when they aren't even going to be around in eternity to approve anything? Why are you seeking their approval? They're just a puff of smoke in the grand scheme of things. They're temporal and passing away. The one you want to be approved by is God. He's eternal. God and his children are not going to pass away, but the people of the world are. What they believe is wise will be shown to be foolish, whereas the gospel will be revealed as true wisdom. Let me read six, seven, and eight again. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predested before the ages for our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Paul's saying here, I know you Corinthians are embarrassed by the fact that I don't speak in such a way that the powerful and the elite and the rulers of this age find what I say attractive. But you want to know how much value there is in their wisdom? I preach Christ crucified. Who do you think it was that crucified Jesus? Look what happened during Jesus' earthly ministry. The smart, powerful people didn't get it. Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin. These are the folks who were rich and powerful, the social elite, the top of the social ladder, and how did they respond when Jesus came? They looked at Jesus and they saw a threat, and they crucified him. They said, This is a man we have to get rid of. Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, rather than recognizing him as such, they said, He's a threat, we have to kill him. He was the Christ, he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior mankind has been waiting for, and what did the rulers do? Well in their wisdom they executed him. If they had understood, if they had been truly wise, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. That's I think his point. If they had been truly wise, they wouldn't have rejected him. The premier scholars of Jesus' day didn't put the pieces together to figure out that Jesus was the Messiah. That's how quote wise they are. They're not wise at all. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not seen as wisdom by the elite social class, but in fact it is wisdom. That's the new point he's making. His message is in fact wisdom, even if the powerful people reject it. And it is wisdom because it is a revelation straight from God Himself. Look at two seven again. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. So he calls the gospel that he preaches the wisdom of God in a mystery or the hidden wisdom, and we want to figure out what that means. We tend to think that if something is a mystery, it is hard to understand, but that's not what Paul means here. What makes something a mystery is not that it's hard to understand, rather that it used to be a secret. A mystery is something that was hidden but has now been revealed. In this particular instance, a mystery is something that God knows, and we will only know it if He tells it to us. It is a mystery because it is not something we could reason out on our own or learn from our own experience, and worldly wisdom is the kind of wisdom you can figure out through experience, education, and deductive reasoning. But truth from God is a hidden wisdom. It is something only God can reveal, and God has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ, and Christ revealed Himself to Paul. And Paul is saying the gospel is wisdom that only God knows. It's the wisdom that God hinted at and foreshadowed through the Old Testament prophets. The gospel is wisdom that only God could tell us, and He told us through Jesus. And that's the message I am preaching and proclaim to you. It is the true wisdom, but it looks foolish to the world. Essentially Paul's saying, look, if you want to know what God is up to, if you want to know what the creator of the world is doing, listen to me. He told me. That's true wisdom. Paul is a bringer of revelation. He's a bringer of what God has revealed, and that's the point he's driving home. God determined from the foundations of the world that salvation would come through his Messiah and that his Messiah would die on the cross. And that was a secret, that was hidden, that was a mystery. It was not something spelled out in the Old Testament. Before the cross, we wouldn't have been able to figure out that the Messiah was going to die. Yes, we have Isaiah 53, and in retrospect we can go back and see it in the Old Testament. We can look back and see, oh yeah, the cross was foreshadowed there, but it wasn't plain, it wasn't spelled out. It was a mystery, it was hidden, but now it's been revealed. It's kind of like if you do a jigsaw puzzle when you don't know what the final picture looks like. Have you ever done a puzzle where you're not looking at the box or the picture? And you have an idea what the picture's gonna be, but it's kind of fuzzy and unclear, and you're kind of guessing, and then you find that one piece of the puzzle, and suddenly everything starts fitting together, and you can finish the puzzle and you know what it's gonna look like. I think that's the kind of thing Paul's saying here. The cross was that missing puzzle piece. After the cross, we can see that piece and we can figure out, oh yeah, it was there all along. But the folks in the Old Testament didn't have that piece and they couldn't put the pieces together without it. So we have seen the cross, we've seen the resurrection, and now it all makes sense, but without seeing that, without that puzzle piece, we don't even imagine that that piece would be there. Nobody would have put it together until Jesus came and taught and spoke and lived and died and was resurrected. Now we can look back and see it. The mystery that was formerly hidden has now been revealed. And then we have verse nine, but just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love him. Now the New American Standard presents verse nine as if it is a verbatim quote from the Old Testament. The problem is there's no such passage in Scripture, at least nothing directly worded like that. There's nothing in the Hebrew or the Septuagint text. The closest passage that Paul could be quoting is either Isaiah sixty four four or sixty five seventeen, but the context of those verses is nothing like the point he's making here. The Isaiah passage does contain similar wording, but it has a very different theme. So it's really difficult to know what's going on here, but here's my best guess. Rather than quoting a specific verse, I think Paul is summarizing an idea that is clearly contained in Scripture. And we do this today. So today I might say the Bible says if you want to be saved, you have to trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. Now to my knowledge, that statement is not a direct quote of anything contained in Scripture. You won't find that exact language, at least I tried to come up with one that I didn't think you could find exactly. So my quote was if you want to be saved, you have to trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. Now I think that statement is faithful to the ideas contained in Scripture, and it is, you might say, a digestion of or a summary of a theme that frequently appears in Scripture and is clearly taught, but you won't find that verbatim language. And I think that's what Paul is doing here. He's not quoting a particular passage, but he's expressing an idea that is found in the Old Testament. So what's his point? Well, he's just been talking about the things that we would not know unless God revealed them to us. So the things which we can't figure out through science or deductive reasoning or experience or observing the world. If we're going to know it, God's going to have to tell it to us. And specifically, I think what he has in mind is the gospel, the gospel of Christ crucified, as he's been calling it. The fact that God will send his son, the Messiah, and that Messiah is going to die on the cross in our place. That is something we wouldn't have come up with in part because kings don't establish their rule by dying. That's not something we would figure out on our own. Kings don't usually typically volunteer to die for their people in our experience, and when they die, they are ending their reign, they're not beginning their reign, and yet that's exactly what Jesus did. So I think his point is nobody would have come up with that idea given all the philosophy and all the theology classes in the world. That which no one figured out is the cross. No one saw that coming. The thought didn't even enter into our minds, but God had prepared it beforehand. God prepared the cross and a way of escape for those who love him. No one would have anticipated what God was going to do to make it possible for those who love him to receive mercy, and no one on their own would have figured out that the Messiah was going to die for his people. And see how he goes on, look at ten through thirteen. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. Now again, I think the us and the we here is Paul, and in this section Paul is defending his point that he received the gospel as a message from God, that it is a revelation that God revealed to him, and that no one would have figured it out on his own, it is wisdom straight from God. So he's just said that the gospel of Christ crucified is not a message we can figure out on our own. It is a message that if we are to understand it, it must be revealed to us by God, and the Holy Spirit must teach it, and he taught it to Paul, who is teaching it to us. Now in twelve and thirteen, which things we also speak, not words taught by human wisdom, but those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. This is where it starts getting important who you think the we is referring to. And as modern readers, we usually initially start out with the assumption that when we see we, it means all Christians, and that Paul is talking about us, because after all, we receive the Spirit too. But remember the issue in the context is Paul's speech and whether his speech is wise or inadequate. He has been arguing this since the beginning of the chapter. In the context of the argument, Paul has been talking about himself. You could make a case that he's talking about the apostles in general, but in particular he himself as an apostle. Now in a few verses coming up, he's going to talk about the spirit at work in the people who listen to him, but right now he's defending his message and how he got it. The issue is whether Paul is right or wrong, whether God revealed his message to Paul and Paul is proclaiming it and it is wisdom, or whether Paul should be adapting or changing his message to make it more eloquent and rhetorical and articulate. It such that the movers and the shakers would like it. So he has been defending his understanding and his authority. And I would argue that the we in this section is Paul. And Paul is saying, Look, you Corinthians judge me because the movers and shakers think I'm boring and offensive, but you don't get it. My message comes straight from God. It was revealed to me and taught to me by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't get any wiser than that. So I think he's talking about the specific work of the Holy Spirit and giving Paul his apostolic understanding. So God gave Paul understanding, and Paul is speaking out of that understanding, and that is how the Corinthians ought to view his wisdom. His wisdom is not deficient because he lacks rhetorical flair or sophistry or eloquence. His wisdom is wisdom because it is a revelation from God Himself through His Spirit to Paul, and that's why the Corinthians ought to listen to him. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now by far the most common work of the Spirit in Scripture is the Spirit as agent of revelation, the Spirit that comes on a prophet and gives the prophet the word of God. The vast majority of references to the Holy Spirit in Scripture are places where we see the Holy Spirit making God's message known to God's messengers. So we see the Spirit of God giving David his Psalms, we see the Spirit giving Moses his understanding, and I think that's what we've got going on here. The Spirit gave Paul his apostolic understanding of the gospel, and that's the point he's making. The Spirit of God has made known to him this message, and Paul is passing on that message to the Corinthians, and they should view it as that kind of wisdom. So here in True Eleven, how are we to understand this contrast between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of men? Well, spirit literally means breath or wind. This is true in both Hebrew and Greek. The the Hebrew word and the Greek word for spirit both literally mean breath or wind. And if you've seen a dead body, you would immediately see the connection between spirit and breath. A dead body has no breath. You see it and you know something is missing. The lack of breath instantly clues you in that no one's home. Now people who are alive but in a coma, they have breath, but when breath leaves the body, the body is no longer alive. So this natural association comes about between breathing and living. You can see how equating the inner person, the animating life force or spirit came to be associated with breath because when breath is absent, the body is no longer alive. The inner invisible thing that makes the body alive keeps the breath moving, and that's the spirit. So spirit and breath are naturally associated. With people that makes a lot of sense, but God doesn't have a visible body, so why talk about the spirit of God? Well, I think the association comes about because we have a visible world where the invisible spirit of God is at work. So like breath animates a body, the invisible hand of God accomplishes his purposes in the world. So like breath tells me there is life in the body, the spirit of God is revealed by the changes in people, the eyes being opened, understanding dawning, mysteries revealed, and God's purposes coming about. Virtually always the Spirit of God is mentioned in connection with some work God is doing in the world. He is the invisible hand of God, but we see God at work through his actions. So we experience the invisible God in visible ways through the changes his spirit brings about in our world. So like breath reveals the body is alive and at work, the changes we see in the world reveal the breath or the spirit of God at work. Now he's saying here, each of us have our own private thoughts that are known only to our inner selves, and the only way you can know my private thoughts is if I tell them to you. And the same is true of God. If we are to know what God thinks and what God values, God's Spirit has to communicate to that to us. And that's what the Spirit has done. He told Paul and the apostles, and they told us. Now nobody knows what you're thinking because it's in your head. No one knows what God is thinking or doing either unless he communicates it, and that is what he's done. He's communicated through his Son, Jesus Christ, and His Spirit has revealed God's thoughts to his prophets and his messengers. So God's Spirit spoke to Paul so that Paul had an understanding of the gospel that wasn't revealed until now, and he is proclaiming that to us, and that is true wisdom. That's the claim Paul's making. So we have this progression. Paul received the Spirit of God, which caused Paul to know and understand the message of God, and Paul is then speaking out of that understanding to proclaim that message to us. At the end of 213, he adds this interesting phrase, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. That phrase is really hard to translate and to understand. And if you have a New American standard, you'll notice that the word thoughts and the word words are grayed out. That means that the words thoughts and words are not in the text. Literally, all we have here is a verb that means combining and then spirituals, spirituals. So combining spiritual spirituals. And that leaves us with the question, well, combining what? Some kind of spiritual things, and the New American Standard has chosen thoughts and words. The New International Version has explaining spiritual realities with spirit taught words. And the English Standard Version has interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Those are three different translations and they are all valid. So how do we decide what's going on? How do we decide between them? And the answer, of course, is context. Up till now, Paul has been talking about the work of the Spirit, imparting spiritual truths to him as an apostle, but now he's about to change the subject slightly. He's been talking about himself and his message, and he is about to talk about his listeners, those who hear and understand him. So he's about to contrast the natural versus the spiritual man and to focus on who receives the message. Basically, there are two kinds of receivers, the natural and the spiritual, and they're going to respond differently. And as I understand it, verse 13 is the transition between these two thoughts. Given that, as much as I love the New American Standard Translation, the original one, I think the ESV has the best translation here, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual, or interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. Essentially, I think what he's saying is it's my job to tell the thoughts of God to those who are prepared by the Spirit of God to hear them and understand them. So Paul's job as an apostle is to take the things God has made known to him and explain it to those to whom God gives understanding. And we need to realize that these are two different works of the Spirit. One work is the particular understanding the Spirit has given to Paul and the other apostles, and the second work is the understanding of Paul's message that the Spirit gives to his listeners, Paul's listeners. In the first, the Spirit is making known the thoughts of God to God's chosen messengers who then speak out of their inspired understanding to the rest of us. In the second, the Spirit is granting understanding to those who are hearing, so he's softening our hearts, opening our ears, so that we receive the truth with humility and understanding. And that second action of opening our hearts and ears and giving us understanding is what he's going to go on to talk about in verses fourteen through sixteen. Let's read those. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. Okay, let's define some terms as Paul is using them in this context. So we want to look at who's the natural man, who's the spiritual man, who's he contrasting here. I would argue that the natural man is everything we are apart from God, so everything we are before God does any work in our lives. The natural man is who we are by nature, right out of the box, so to speak. And by nature, we would all reject the message of the apostles and the prophets. Apart from God granting us understanding through his spirit, we would all scoff and mock and reject the wisdom of God as foolishness. By nature, we are not the sort of people who embrace the good news of the gospel. The spiritual man, on the other hand, is the one who does embrace the gospel because the Spirit of God has been at work in him to give him understanding. So the spiritual man gets it because the Spirit of God has given him understanding. The spiritual man is the one who sees the wisdom and truth of the gospel and recognizes the wisdom and truth of the gospel. So why is the spiritual man receptive to the truth? Because God has granted him understanding through his spirit. Not because he's smarter or quicker or more intellectual, because by nature we are all rebels at heart. All of us know someone who rejects the truth no matter what. In all belief there's an element of will. We believe what we want to believe, and if we don't want to believe something, we will find a way to reject it. Because we are rebels at heart. The gospel is rational and logical and persuasive, but we don't want to believe it. And apart from the work of God in our lives, all of us would reject the truth. The natural person cannot judge rightly. I think that's what he means by all this spiritual appraising and appraising by no one. So the natural person can't judge rightly and will scoff at the wisdom of God. On the other hand, the spiritual person will recognize the truth of the message, will recognize sin for sin and their need of a savior, and respond to the truth of the gospel with joy and humility and acceptance. In two fifteen he says, But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. It's a little cryptic phrase, but I think what he's saying is the person in whom the Spirit of God is at work can see and understand things rightly, yet the n world around him, the natural men around him will not understand him. So I think by no one there he means the natural person, people in whom God's spirit has not at work. So the one in whom God's spirit has at is at work will see and understand and judge rightly, but the world around him will not judge rightly. Now it could be that Paul is thinking of himself here, thinking something like you Corinthians judged me wrongly. The world sees the gospel as folly and they're gonna think you're crazy to believe it, and there's a sense in which I understand the world, but the world will never understand me. The person in whom the spirit is at work can understand the things of God and therefore judges rightly, at least in theory, but conversely the world will not judge the spiritual person accurately. They just won't get it. Now you Corinthians dismissed me as foolish, and in doing that you're thinking like the world, not like the spiritual man. And then he sums it up in two sixteen, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. This last statement in two sixteen wraps up this section. Who has true wisdom? Who has understood the thoughts of God? Those to whom God has revealed his thoughts by his spirit. That's true wisdom. That's the person you should believe. You should believe his apostles, and I, Paul, am one of those apostles. He quotes this verse from Isaiah to make clear that we should humble ourselves before God because who among us is in a position to judge him and say, Oh wait, I know exactly what God's up to. I know how God ought to proceed. Who can advise God? None of us. And I think Paul quotes that verse to emphasize the unique and powerful claim he is making about himself as an apostle. Who knows the mind of the Lord, those to whom God has communicated his mind, and that is his Son Jesus Christ and his prophets and his apostles, and Paul is one of those apostles. I would understand the we here, we have the mind of Christ to be the apostles. We apostles are the ones to whom God has revealed his message, and we apostles are the ones you should listen to. Paul is trustworthy, not because he's so smart or intellectual or he has such rhetoric and style and flair, but because God chose to reveal himself to Paul. The thoughts of God that are not knowable to mankind, that we could never figure out on our own, have been made known to the apostles, and Paul is one of those apostles. And I think what Paul's saying is when you read my letters, or when you read what I tell you in my letters, I am speaking for Jesus, and I can speak for him because he has chosen me and told me and revealed his thoughts to me. I, Paul, as an apostle, have the mind of Christ. I think it is a profound misunderstanding of this verse to think that it teaches that all Christians in general carry the mind of Christ around, and we have all the wisdom we'll ever need, we just lack the faith to appropriate it. And I've heard it taught that way. I would argue that the we is Paul, and it would include the other apostles, but it does not include all Christians. Paul is arguing for the wisdom of his message as an apostle. If you understand this verse, this we have the mind of Christ as all Christians, I've heard some people take this to mean that God operates by planting thoughts directly in the minds of Christians. So if I want to know what job to take, or I want to know who to marry or how many kids to have or whether to buy this house or that house, well, I have the mind of Christ, God will put the exact right thoughts in my mind. And I've heard people teach that, maybe not in that direct a language, but as an implication of this verse, and I think that is a misunderstanding and a misapplication of this verse. It's crucial to understand the difference between revelation and understanding. We talked about this earlier, about the two works of the Spirit, how the Spirit reveals to Paul and the apostles an understanding of truth and wisdom, and then in his their listeners, the Spirit grants understanding to us. That's a revelation and understanding, and that's a very different thing, those two things. Somehow Christians today have gotten the idea that we live by personal revelation and that we have this direct one-to-one calm link to God in our minds. We just have to figure out how to isolate it and listen to it. And there are Christians who would say, Well, yes, of course, the Bible's the Word of God and we ought to live by it, but in practice they ignore it and they put this one-to-one calm link kind of direct speech or revelation in its place. And it's easy to see why. Bible study takes work, it takes time and effort, I have to figure out how to apply it to whatever situation I'm in. And it's much easier to have God talk to me about me in the first place. But again, this is where we have to understand the difference between revelation and understanding. And I would argue that God gives his prophets and apostles revelation. He reveals his words and his thoughts to particular individuals, and he gives them the responsibility and the role of telling that message to the rest of us. To the rest of us, he gives understanding. Revelation is something no one has understood up until the time God chooses to reveal it to the messenger. Understanding is the receptivity to receive and embrace and recognize that message as wisdom. And I think it's a misunderstanding to think that this verse means that we Christians in general carry the mind of Christ around such that we get direct revelation and we have all the wisdom we ever need. We just have to have the faith to appropriate it. But somehow, especially in American Christianity, we have gotten this widespread idea that God speaks directly to us because we have the mind of Christ and He reveals personal plans and thoughts to us, and I think that's a profound misunderstanding and misapplication of this verse. I would argue that the we is Paul and the Apostles, not all Christians, and that God revealed his wisdom to his messengers, that is, his apostles and his prophets, and that's how we are to learn it. Our job is to listen to the Word of God as revealed in His Word and learn from it and gain wisdom from it and apply that wisdom to our lives. Now Bible study takes work. It's not quick, it's not easy, and why bother with that? Because that's the way the world works. That's the way God designed things. Now it is true that the Holy Spirit plays a large role in Bible study. He is the one who opens our eyes and gives us understanding as we study the Bible, but he doesn't do it in a vacuum. He teaches us through our study and our thoughts and our meditating and our work. So as I read and study and meditate on the Word of God, the Holy Spirit works on my hard heart and my stubborn will and grants me wisdom and understanding. That's why we study Paul's letters. That's why we read and study the Old Testament and the New Testament. Because Paul and the prophets and the biblical authors claimed they had revelation from God. They had the words of life, that they are the ones to whom God has revealed his purposes and his ways. The world around us is blind to that wisdom, and the only place to find true wisdom is in the words of life, and there are certain people to whom God has revealed the words of life, and they wrote it down in this book. That's just what Paul's been arguing. There are things and thoughts of God that we will only know if he reveals them to us. They are not the kinds of things we can figure out on our own through our experience and our deductive reasoning. If we're going to know them, God has to tell them to us, and he has told them to his chosen apostles and prophets. And those are the people we ought to listen to. So, you Corinthians, when you look at my words, you are judging them wrongly. You're judging them on their sophistry and their eloquence, but you need to understand these are the words of life. Yes, the Holy Spirit does work on all of us. He worked on his prophets and apostles, and he works on us, but he works in different ways. He gives us both understanding, but I would argue it's different. To his chosen messengers, God gives revelation. They learn it either directly from God or directly from speaking to the incarnate Christ or by a direct revelation of the Spirit. And the rest of us don't. We learn by the understanding God has given his messengers. We hear the message he gave to them, and the Spirit works on us to open our eyes so that we see and understand it and believe it. So if you want to know what God thinks, you have to look at the things he has communicated to his apostles and prophets and what they wrote down. It will only be in our heads to the extent that we have read and studied and understood. So I would argue God gives his messengers revelation, he gives the rest of us understanding. Revelation is something no one has understood up until the time God chose to reveal it to the messenger. Understanding, on the other hand, is the receptivity to receive and embrace and see God's message as wisdom. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. My mission is to apply serious Bible study to real life and help you learn how to study the Bible. If you've been blessed by this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a positive rating or review on your favorite podcast platform? It really does help people find the podcast, and please tell your friends about it. It's very easy to subscribe, just go to Wednesdayintheword.com and click on subscribe to this podcast. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend Reggie Coates. You'll find more of his music on heartfeltmusic.org. He has some wonderful CDs available. Thank you for listening today. I'm Kristan Morata, and I hope you'll join me next week for Wednesday in the Word.