1 Corinthians 2:10-13
Ps Paul Cheng
Dear Bethelites,
In our previous pastoral chats, we talked about the wisdom of God in contrast to the wisdom of the world. Just as there are two kinds of wisdom, there are also two kinds of people; natural man and spiritual man. The natural man operates in world wisdom and the spiritual man in God’s wisdom.
The word natural man means someone who is merely human, or more precisely, someone who does not have the Holy Spirit, whereas the spiritual man is someone who has the Holy Spirit. Jude 1:18-19, How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual (psuchikos - same word for natural, sometimes translated as worldly), having not the Spirit.
Dear friends, we were once like the natural man who cannot understand the wisdom of God, and the gospel was foolish to us, and the Bible was a hidden book to us, and the thing that changed our situation so radically was, But God hath revealed them (wisdom of God) unto us by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10a). God had quickened, regenerated, saved and made us spiritually alive through His Spirit (Ephesians 2:1-6). Thus, today, the Bible is a precious book to us, the worship of God is extremely vital to us; prayer is a meaningful communion between us and God, and so forth. We are no longer the natural man but the spiritual man!
In 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, the words, spirit, spiritual or Holy Ghost are repeated a total of 12 times. Here, the emphasis is that it was a supernatural work; the only way one could understand God’s wisdom and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, was through divine revelation.
1 Corinthians 2:10, But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Notice the word revealed; the Apostle Paul did not say, “Man is smart and intelligent to discover for themselves the things of God.” Even the world’s best minds, greatest thinkers and brilliant philosophers could not understand the things of God naturally. If God did not reveal His truth, no one would ever understand (c.f. Matthew 16:17).
1 Corinthians 2:11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
No one can ever know what you are thinking, but save the spirit of man which is in him, which means only within him, his spirit or his inner man knows what he is thinking. If a man cannot understand the things of another man, how can he ever understand what God is thinking, or the things of God? The only person who can understand the things of God is the Spirit of God Himself.
In verse 10, Paul said, But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: who is this us? Does that include all the believers; does it include you and me? What kind of revelation is this referring to; general revelation or special revelation? Here Paul was speaking about the Apostles who received the special revelation of God to write the Holy Scriptures. If you remember Paul was speaking to the Corinthian believers and so you can see a difference in the usage of pronouns like you and us. Take a look at verse 5, Paul said, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, that was a reference to the Corinthian believers that their faith should not be based on the wisdom of men. Then in verse 10, Paul said, For unto us, now he was referring to the Apostles whom God had given special revelation to write the Holy Scriptures. And then again in verse 12, he said, Now we have received, referring to the Apostles.
But you may be questioning, “I thought this verse is referring to me, God revealing to us/the believers/including me, does it mean that I do not have the Spirit? ” No, if you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). But this text is just not referring to you. Here is a reference to those people who had written the Scriptures, so that the rest of us can understand God’s wisdom.
1 Corinthians 2:12, Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
The word we was a reference to the apostles who had written the Holy Scriptures. It was the Spirit who revealed God’s truth to the apostles so that they could write the inspired letters, and today, all of us can freely read and understand His given Word. God used the apostolic writers to record the Holy Scriptures by divine inspiration, and then by means of divine preservation, today, we can have this infallible and inerrant perfect Word of God to hold in our hands, read for ourselves and understand the wisdom of God through the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:13, Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The very words which were written and spoken by the apostolic writers were not the wisdom of man but what the Holy Ghost teacheth.
God is no longer revealing special revelation to us today. When the canon of the Bible was completed, God gave a very stern warning in Revelation 22:18-19, For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Please do not believe those preachers who say to you, “God has revealed to me special messages, or He has given to me new revelations.”
But for those who faithfully speak or preach what the Bible says, they would be comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This phrase can mean interpreting spiritual things with spiritual things, or interpreting spiritual things with spiritual people. This is exactly what every preacher must seek to do; he must use scriptures to interpret scriptures (there must be no contradiction), and he must interpret spiritual things from this wonderful book, the Bible, with the spiritual people, the believers.
With love in Christ,
Pastor Paul Cheng
(To be continued in the next pastoral chat)