GOD’S HIDDEN WISDOM – 1 Corinthians 2:6-10a
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 3, 2018 under 2018 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; June 3, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 2:6-10a
Thee: As believers, we operate under a wisdom from God that is hidden from this world.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
We continue our study this morning of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. And specifically, we come to a passage that has great bearing and importance to our daily life as Christians in the midst of a non-believing world.
In fact, if you have ever been frustrated by the feeling that your faith in Jesus just doesn’t fit in with the standard view-point of this world—as if you are deeply aligned with something that this world just doesn’t ‘get’—then this morning’s passage is for you. Because as it shows, it indeed is something that the world truly can’t ‘get’.
As Jesus’ followers, we have been ‘let in’ on—and are called to live according to—a wisdom from God that is truly ‘hidden’ from this world.
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Now; let’s get up to speed with where we have been in our study of 1 Corinthians. Paul had been writing to the believers in the ancient city of Corinth because they had been dividing from one another over human teachers and preachers that they were measuring by the standards of the man-made ‘wisdom’ from this world. They were overly-impressed with speakers who followed the accepted forms and standards of ‘human wisdom’ that dominated the unbelieving Corinthian culture.
Paul was seeking to cure them of this very bad and very divisive problem. And he does so—as we have most recently seen in our study—by reminding them that when he first came to them as a missionary with the gospel of Jesus Christ, he deliberately avoided following after those patterns and standards of human wisdom. He told them in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5;
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
Notice some of the things he said. He told them that he didn’t come to them “with excellence of speech or of wisdom” when he came to them with the gospel of Jesus. That was appropriate; because as he told them back in chapter 1, the message of the cross is “foolishness” to the people of this world who are perishing. The message of the cross cannot be made to conform to the patterns and standards of fallen human wisdom.
When we first began studying this section of 1 Corinthians, I stressed to you that—as Paul is presenting things in this passage—there are two ‘wisdoms’ in operation. One, of course, is the so-called wisdom of this world; the man-made, God-rejecting “wisdom of this age”. It is a form of ‘wisdom’ in name only. It is built on the assumption that human beings can know all that there is to know on their own power; and that they can arrive at ultimate truth apart from God. It’s a form of wisdom that you and I are all too familiar with in the world in which we live. The other ‘wisdom’, however, is true wisdom—the wisdom that is from God and that can only be had through a relationship with Him by grace. It is a wisdom that is built upon the assumption that ultimate truth is a Person … and that Person is Jesus Christ. It’s the wisdom from God that is displayed most perfectly to the world by the mighty act God did in sending His Son Jesus into the world to redeem fallen humanity. It is the wisdom that is expressed to us in the message that Paul preached—Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul was urging these Corinthian believers to stop trying to evaluate things and dealing with life on the basis of mere, fallen, unbelieving ‘human wisdom’—a practice which was causing them to lose sight of Christ, and was resulting in their being divided from one another. And that was why he told them that he was careful to preach in the way he did. It was so “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
But in reminding them that he did not come to them in outward displays of human wisdom, did Paul mean that he was not concerned about wisdom at all? Did he mean that we were to shun true learning and true reason and true expressions of ‘wisdom’ altogether? Some people think so. The world around us, in fact, believes that because we do not fit in with ‘the wisdom of this age’, we must not care about true wisdom at all. But that’s not the case. Paul then goes on to say in verse 6-10—in the passage I ask you to consider with me this morning;
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit (vv. 6-10a).
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And I believe, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that our passage this morning presents us with a choice that we must make. As we live and work and interact with the people of this world, we must make a decision as to which form of wisdom it is by which we will operate.
You can look at it this way: to live ‘wisely’ is to live in accord with truth. But ‘a universe in which the God of the Bible does not exist’ is not truth. It’s a fantasy. It isn’t reality. And so, to live after a version of ‘wisdom’ that is based on anything other than the truth that God has revealed about Himself to us in the Bible—the truth of His existence, and of His character, and of His works—is not wisdom at all; because it is not to live in accord with the truth. It’s a form of ‘wisdom’ based on a lie. It is the form of wisdom that goes all the way back to the deception that the serpent tried to pawn-off on Eve in the garden—the greatest of all lies.
So; to live ‘wisely’ is to live in accord with the truth. God has revealed truth to us. And the truth is most perfectly expressed to us in a Person—Jesus Christ—who is ‘the word of God made flesh’. That is the wisdom that Paul is speaking of. It is not a wisdom that the unbelieving world can ever discover or grasp. It seems like utter foolishness to them.
I have often thought of it this way: If you and I were to go to the river and stand on the bank, we might watch as people were enjoying a sunny day of rafting down the river on little inflatable rafts. But suppose you had just discovered something that they didn’t know. Suppose from where you were standing, you could see the danger signs that were posted along the bank. Suppose that those leisurely rafters were all—without realizing it—floating toward a deadly waterfall. We would have a better grasp of reality than they did; and we would be shouting to them, “You’re all heading for danger! Get off the rafts! Get to the river bank!” But they’d laugh at us; because from their standpoint, the river is just fine. In fact, they would consider us to be backward and out of step ol’ sticks in the mud; because from their perspective, we’re standing still … or even moving backward … while they were obviously progressing forward.
That’s how I tend to think of these two ‘wisdoms’ in interaction with one another. And Paul was urging that those Corinthian Christians not to allow themselves to operate on the basis of the human-based wisdom that is heading for destruction.
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Paul is showing us in this passage that, as believers, we operate under a wisdom from God that is hidden from this world. Look closer at his words with me and see first …
1. WHO GOD’S HIDDEN WISDOM IS FOR.
He had told these Corinthians that when he and the others first came as missionaries to them, he did not come “with persuasive words of human wisdom”. And in verse 6, he goes on to explain, “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature …” We know from what he goes on to say that this ‘wisdom’ is not the wisdom of this age, but rather the wisdom from God.
But who are the “mature” ones among whom this wisdom is spoken? In the original language, the word that is used is one that is often translated “perfected” or “completed”. But who among us could ever have that said of us? If God’s hidden wisdom is only spoken to those who are perfect, then we’ll never hear it! It would truly be ‘hidden’—even from us!
I think it helps to look at what Paul says in the next chapter. He tells his Corinthian readers how he wanted to speak to them further about this ‘wisdom’. He wanted to speak to them as ‘spiritual’ people. He wrote;
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? (3:1-4).
The way they were embracing the ‘wisdom of this world’ was causing them to be divided from one another. They were behaving ‘carnally’ or ‘fleshly’; that is, as if God did not exist and had not spoken; and that the only reality that is is that of their own fleshly body and the visible world with which it interacts. And that was why they were not yet ready to process true wisdom from God.
To be “mature” or “perfect” in the sense that Paul meant, then, was to be rightly oriented to the truth that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. These Corinthians were Christians, of course. He called them ‘babes in Christ’. But they were not yet rightly oriented to the truth of Christ. Getting people rightly oriented toward Christ was what Paul’s ministry was all about. In Colossians 1:28 he wrote;
Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:28).
And so; one lesson this passage teaches us is something that comes from who it is that God’s hidden wisdom is intended for. It is meant for those who are “mature”—not “perfect” in the sense of having no faults (because that won’t happen for us until we’re in glory with Jesus); but “perfect” in the sense of maturity in our right orientation toward Jesus – like Paul says in Philippians 3:13-15;
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind … (Philippians 3:13-15).
So; if you want to truly embrace the wisdom of God, you must be ‘mature’. You must make a conscious decision to separate yourself from the false ‘wisdom’ of this world and seek to grow and make progress in your relationship with Jesus Christ—who is, Himself, truth!
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Next, let’s go on in this passage to consider …
2. WHAT GOD’S HIDDEN WISDOM IS LIKE.
In the verses that follow, Paul further establishes the differentiation between the wisdom of this world and the ‘hidden’ wisdom from God. He shows us first that it is not like the human-based wisdom of this world. Paul says in verse 6 that he speaks wisdom to those who are mature; “yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”
The Corinthian believers were becoming overly-impressed by the outward styles of the wisdom of this world that was personified in “the rulers of this age”. Some have suggested that this speaks of those Jewish rulers and leaders who crucified our Lord. He certainly seems to speak of them later in this passage. But I believe that he means more than just them alone. I believe he means the so-called ‘great’ and ‘wise’ and ‘impressive’ people of this world who embody this world’s fallen version of wisdom. He spoke of them back in 1:20 when he asked, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” He spoke further of them in verse 28 when he wrote about how God chose the weak and foolish and base things of this world—“the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are …”
The wisdom of God is not like the wisdom of this world. The wisdom of this world—because it bases itself on that which is not true; and because sets itself up in opposition to Him who is Truth—is destined to fail. That wisdom—and more specifically, the rulers of this world who operate on that wisdom—is coming to ‘nothing’. Why should we align ourselves with that?
Then, Paul further shows what God’s ‘hidden wisdom’ is like by showing us that it comes in the form of a ‘mystery’ to the human mind. In verse 7, Paul says that he and his fellow apostles did not speak the wisdom of this world that is coming to nothing; “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery … “
When Paul speaks of ‘a mystery’ here, he’s not speaking of something like a ‘who-done-it’ story by Agatha Christie. A ‘mystery’ in the Bible is a term that is used to describe a truth from God that cannot be known by human effort or reasoning. It is something that has always been true throughout the ages—something that was in the divine plan and purpose of God from before time—but that can only be known by God graciously, at the right time in history, revealing it to mankind.
Paul was very grateful to be given the privilege of declaring the mystery. He wrote in Colossians 1:24-27;
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:24-27).
So then; this ‘hidden’ wisdom from God is—by nature—a ‘mystery’ to fallen and unbelieving human beings. It cannot be known to them unless God graciously chooses to reveal it to them.
And that leads us to the next point that Paul makes about it. Because this wisdom is a ‘mystery’, it is hidden from some. Paul calls it “the hidden wisdom” in verse 7.
That’s a hard thing to hear, isn’t it? God deliberately ‘hides’ this wisdom; so that some cannot find it. But that is very much what our Lord Jesus once said. When asked about why it was that He spoke to the general public in parables, He told His disciples
“it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. … But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear …” (Matthew 13:11-17).
That’s why the ‘rulers of this age’—so aligned as they are with the wisdom of this age—cannot understand it or grasp the mystery of God’s wisdom. That’s why it seems like such foolishness to them that God would save anyone by a Man dying on the cross. It’s because God’s wisdom has been hidden from them. We shouldn’t question God’s choice in this matter or accuse Him of being unfair. Instead, if we believe on Jesus, we should rejoice that God has shown us the grace of having His ‘hidden’ wisdom revealed to us!
Paul goes on to explain the nature of God’s ‘hidden wisdom’ by showing that it is wisdom that is older than humanity itself. Paul describes it as a mystery wisdom—a hidden wisdom—“which God ordained before the ages for our glory …” The wisdom of God shown in our salvation through the cross of Jesus is a wisdom that humankind could develop on its own because it predates humanity. It was for the purpose of God before humanity ever was. The Bible tells us, in Revelation 13:8, that Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
But it wasn’t just Jesus’ cross that God ordained before the ages. It was also that we would be glorified in Him by what He accomplished on the cross for us! This is a hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages “for our glory”! In Ephesians 1, Paul wrote;
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood … (Ephesians 1:3-7a).
How much greater than anything in this world this ‘hidden wisdom’ from God is! And that helps explain further the nature of this wisdom—that it is completely unknowable to even the greatest powers of ‘human wisdom’. Paul speaks in verse 8 of this wisdom that was ordained by God from before the ages; “which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
That’s what the so-called ‘wise ones’ of this world did! In their own fallen ‘wisdom’, they crucified the Lord of glory! If I may say so, how utterly stupid a thing to have done! And yet, it was by that very same stupid act of so-called human ‘wisdom’, God did perform the greatest feat of wisdom in all the universe: He redeemed fallen sinners like you and me, and brought us into full adoption as His own sons and daughters; so that now, we are heirs together with Jesus Christ and are destined to enter forever into the full inheritance that the Father gives to Him!
No wonder this hidden wisdom from God is unlike even the greatest so-called ‘wisdom’ of this age! How we ought to long to be aligned with God’s hidden wisdom—expressed so wonderfully in the message of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”!
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So that’s the wisdom that God has hidden from the so-called ‘wise-ones’ of this age. But that leads us to a final point …
3. HOW GOD’S HIDDEN WISDOM IS KNOWN.
Paul first tells us how it cannot be known. It cannot be known by human investigation or discovery.
Paul appears to be quoting from Isaiah 64:4—although he seems to put things in his own words—when he says in verse 9;
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (v. 9).
Bible teachers sometimes treat this verse in a ‘sentimental’ sort of way; as if Paul were saying, “O, how wonderful the glories of heaven will be! They will exceed our imagination! We just can’t imagine what it will be like!” And I agree that that’s true. But I don’t believe that’s what Paul is saying. I believe he is quoting this passage (or phrasing it the way he does) in order to make the point that it is impossible for fallen humanity to grasp—or in any way to philosophically ‘think-through’ and ‘reason’ itself to—the hidden wisdom of God. The truth from God utterly inaccessible to the powers of the human mind alone.
Perhaps you know that some noteworthy thinkers in the history of human philosophy have made the attempt. Some have sought to begin with whatever they may know to be an absolute certainty and that could not be doubted—“I think, therefore I am” for example—and from there, to develop a philosophy of truth about God and the nature of reality. But all such attempts have failed miserably. As human beings, we are fallen in Adam. Our thinking is fundamentally broken. We cannot arrive at truth in our own power. We cannot come up with God’s ‘hidden wisdom’ by our own powers of reasoning.
And that’s when Paul tells us how God’s ‘hidden wisdom’ can be known. How do we know the things God has prepared for those who love Him? In verse 10, he says, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.”
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As Paul then goes on to show us, this revelation from the Spirit is put into words for us in the pages of Scripture. And God willing, we will go on to consider Paul’s words about that written revelation in our next time together.
But for now, let’s consider the choice that our passage this morning has set before us. There are two kinds of ‘wisdom’ at operation in this world. One is the false wisdom of this age. It is built on the false premise that fallen humanity can arrive at ‘truth’ and fully grasp ‘reality’ without God. The other is the ‘hidden’ wisdom of God—a wisdom given by God to those who are in Christ—a wisdom that is unacceptable to fallen humanity—a wisdom that is known only by God’s gracious revelation—a wisdom that is perfectly expressed to us in the gospel message “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. God’s ‘hidden wisdom’ is a wisdom that will always be thought of as foolishness by those who embrace ‘the wisdom of this age’.
So; the choice we must make is to allow ourselves to be thought of as foolish by this world, and to embrace—and to operate under—the ‘hidden wisdom’ of God revealed in the gospel. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3:18-19;
“If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:18b-19a).
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