When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Paul came to Corinth to plant Christ's church there, so people would be saved. He didn't want to make followers of himself, or present himself as anything except a servant of God for their benefit.
He wanted their faith to rest on God's Truth, supported by God's power, not anything worldly. So that their faith would be genuine.
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;
The wisdom Paul used in preaching the Gospel to these believers was not from the world at all, but God's wisdom in having planned out His whole program for this Earth before He created it. Those who are mature in their faith are the ones who would be able to accept this wisdom, because they have God's Holy Spirit in them to give them understanding of God's things.
The rulers of this age Paul is talking about were the religious leaders, who demanded Jesus' death, because they didn't understand spiritual things like they thought they did.
But just as it is written:
But God revealed them to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.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 (Isaiah 64:4).
For who among men knows the thoughts of a 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 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.
I am the only one who knows what I'm thinking. You are the only one who knows what you're thinking. The only way we can share what we're thinking with each other is if we can put our thoughts into words.
God's Spirit knows God's thoughts. Because He lives in each of God's children, He is able to make known to us God's thoughts. He is Spirit, so He uses spiritual words.
It's like God wrote His written Word in a code that needs His Spirit to be the key to understanding it.
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? (Isaiah 40:13; Jeremiah 23:18).But we have the mind of Christ.
People who don't have the key cannot unlock the understanding of God's Word, so they dismiss it as gobbledygook, foolishness, they can't make sense of it.
But we who have the key, God's Holy Spirit, can understand how it all fits together, so we can be wise in our choices and decisions to live our lives God's way. We can look back to see how people succeeded or failed, and learn the lessons God had them go through for our benefit. We don't have to re-invent the wheel, we can stand on the shoulders of the giants of the faith who went before us, and continue walking with God on the path on which He has placed our feet.
O my Father, You are so wise! Thank You for giving us the unimaginable gift of Your own Holy Spirit to live in our spirits. Thank you that He teaches us Your things: Your ideas, how You planned it all out ahead of Time, how You designed it all to work together. You have even told us what to expect to happen before it comes to pass, so we can be prepared to face it and respond appropriately.
Thank you for Paul, and for Moses, and for David, and for Abraham. Thank You for Adam and Eve, and for Noah, and for Jonah, too. All these histories were recorded so that we would be able to discern how doing well will turn out well, and making mistakes can cause problems that will multiply over generations of time.
Help us, Father, to learn all the lessons of those who have gone before us to show us the right way to go, and teach us how to use Your wisdom to maneuver all the twists and turns that the World throws at us, so we can take each step confidently on that straight and narrow.
My Father, teach me how to enlarge my narrow boundaries in my neighborhood, to get to know my neighbors and be Your blessing to them in their lives.
Teach me how to do what is needed of me in all the areas of my living; at home, in my neighborhood, in my family, in my church family, in the society You have placed me, in all the realms of my existence.
Let me plant Your good seed everywhere I go, that my presence would be a positive force in others' lives so that they would seek You, Father.
And let all the lost sheep be found, and all the wandering lambs be brought back, that there will be One Fold and One Shepherd.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
