1 Corinthian (Class Version)

Chapter 2

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

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,

5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Paul uses himself as an example as he continues to teach on this subject – what does he admit about himself? He admits that he is weak, fearful, even cowardly – which means that the impact that he made on them was not because of his own strength, but because of the power of the Spirit within him. He wants them to know that he had nothing to do with it – it was God speaking through him

Why is this so important for the Corinthians to understand?

Because they were putting their faith in men (Paul, Apollos, Peter, ect.), saying, "this man is so wise, I will follow him." But Paul is telling them to get their focus off the man and understand that it is God's power working through that man

6 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.

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. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

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.

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.

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.

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.

15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul does make it clear that his message is full of wisdom, but where does that wisdom come from? What is the emphasis of this segment? Paul continues to contrast the wisdom of the world and God's wisdom – the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit and the wisdom that He gives to the Believer (The Spirit is mentioned 7x in seven verses)

According to v10-12, why has God given us the Holy Spirit?

To reveal the deep things of God to us.

What is Paul's illustration to help us better understand this?

As a man knows himself better than anyone else knows him, so too God knows Himself better than anyone else knows Him – so the third person of the Trinity has come to live inside of us to reveal the deep things of God to us

What about the man that doesn't have the Spirit?

He cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit. This does not mean that he cannot understand the gospel message enough to believe it and be saved, but in his lost state he will not accept and apply the wisdom of God to his life.

Notice v.15 – does this mean that the natural man cannot criticize the spiritual man (believer)?

I think that the quote in v.16 makes it more clearly – seems to be referring to instructions concerning spiritual things. In other words, the natural man cannot instruct the spiritual man concerning spiritual things because he does not have the Spirit of God but the believer has the mind of Christ

Does this mean that we will understand everything about God? Why or why not?

No, we won't understand everything about God but we can understand what he has revealed to us. God is revealed in Christ and it is through Him that we understand who our God is. God is revealed through His word, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is also discerned by the Holy Spirit (v.14)