The Mysterious Mind of God

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; (1 Corinthians 2:6-8 NASB)

I think this chapter of 1 Corinthians sort of falls into two halves, perhaps not evenly, but somewhat topically.  I see the two pieces form around the concepts of 'mysterious wisdom' and 'spiritual depths'.  These pieces have a role in the rest of the letter, but here Paul says some pretty amazing things for believers to hold on to.  When truly processed and internalized, these elements can be tremendously empowering.

The first piece, 'mysterious wisdom' is in contrast to Paul's claim that he did not bring the good news of Jesus to the Corinthians with 'persuasive words of wisdom', but rather with 'fear and much trembling' which somehow relates into 'demonstration of the Spirit and of power'.  Yet Paul claims that he did speak wisdom, just not to everyone.  Such a claim would really irritate those to whom Paul writes.

So the content of this mysterious wisdom is a crucified Jesus Christ.  This mysterious wisdom was so well hidden that the 'rulers of this age' didn't even know it.  Had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.  Think about that for a moment.  Let it roll around in your head.  Let it connect to other stuff you have read in Scripture where it can. 

Essentially, Satan was duped, tricked, snookered, check-mated, out foxed, and hoodwinked.  Or, you could say he was too dumb to see what his Maker was doing right in front of him, and dumb enough to actually participate in his own destruction.  We don't normally think of the enemy that way.  Perhaps we give him too much credit, and God not nearly enough.  Sure, the devil is smarter than us and tricks and deceives us, yet he's no match for God.  So, why fear him?  Just step over him and move on.  Easier said than done, because to do so, we need the second piece.

The second piece is where Paul discusses the 'role' of the Holy Spirit, using the 'role' of the spirit of people.  So, if the spirit of a man knows the depths of his mind, it stands to reason that the Spirit of God knows the depths of the mind of God.  If/since we have been given the Spirit of God as a 'seal' of redemption, it therefore stands to reason that the One knowing the very Mind of God lives within us.  So, therefore, we have the mind of God.  Let that roll around in your head for  awhile.

So, all the stuff we can't figure out, the problems we think are so overwhelming, and dangers we face we face with the mind of God.  It sounds pretty cool really, but how many of us really think we have the Mind of God?  So why can't we figure out the universe?  Why all the debate over scientific detail when we have the mind of God?  Shouldn't we just know the answers?  Shouldn't we just know why people die as/when they do?  Why the rampant evil in the world if God is so loving?  If we have the 'mind of God' shouldn't these problems be solved already?

Yet, how many of us really spend time with the Holy Spirit?  He lives within, yet we ignore Him.  He's there 24/7, yet we don't spend two minutes with Him.  He scares us, yet He's the comforter.  He is mysterious, yet He is One revealing the depths of the heart of God.  He is unknown, yet within us.  He seems so far away, yet lives so close.  We have the mind of God, yet we attempt to think for ourselves, abhorred at the suggestion we let someone else think for us; even when that 'Someone else' is the One who formed us, and the rest of the universe.

The enemy, Satan, would love to have us let him think for us, but he's also just fine with us thinking for ourselves.  He can fool us, hoodwink us, trick, deceive, check-mate, and out fox us at every turn.  Of course he would love for us to think for ourselves.  But if the One making a fool of Him were to think for us...well, that wouldn't be as convenient for him. 

So, I suppose the question is, 'who do we support with our thoughts?'  I know I'm supposed to support my Master, thinking with His mind revealed through His Spirit.  I also know that I'm naturally inclined to resist such an influence.  So I guess the answer is that I need to 'change my mind'; a phrase now more pregnant with meaning than it ever has been for me.

Fear, Trembling, and Proof of Spirit and Power: Sharing the Good News of Jesus

And 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. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NASB)

Of all the problems, or rather excuses I have used for not sharing the good news of Jesus, the one that seems to get at the heart of all the others is how I think any such discussion will be perceived.  So, in other words, I fear what others will think of me.  This is something I struggle with in other areas of my life, but that it touches here too means that I 'opt out' of some of the things (and the resulting blessings) my Master has for me.

Paul seemed to have no such problem.  He was not trying to impress anyone, but says that he brought the good news of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and ascension with 'fear and trembling'.  But with that, he also says that the content was not 'persuasive words' but 'of demonstration of the Spirit and of power.'  This is very different than I see the good news going out today.

Considering these two elements, 'fear and trembling' and 'demonstration of the Spirit and power'; what would that look like in our day?  When I think of demonstrating the Spirit and power, I have thought of the 'charismatic movement', but not favorably.  When I think of fear and trembling, I think of weakness easily marginalized and ignored; more of a nuisance.  I don't think this is what Paul refers to in either element.

First off, I believe that 'fear and trembling' really refers to Paul conviction that what he presents is of immense importance.  His trembling is from the source and content of the message, not how it will be perceived.  The word for 'fear' is the general Greek word, 'phobos' where we get various 'phobias' from.  The word 'trembling' is also a general Greek word for 'shaking' either from fear or even cold.  But the context of the 5 places it's used in the Christian Scriptures lends a contextual meaning of 'anxiety of one who distrusts his ability to completely meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfill his duty' (Strong's Concordance).  My question is whether the Corinthian believers understood it that way in Paul's use of it here.

There's much that I can't really understand looking back 2000+ years to try and understand about what was meant, and how it was understood then.  Having said that, I also know my Master's Spirit Who inspired these words, also works in me to understand them.  So, while I don't know for sure, here's what I suspect Paul is doing, and how I think it was understood:  1) I think Paul is using an intentional contrast between prominent speakers, speaking venues, and events and his own presentation of the good news of Jesus; but I believe he's using a degree of hyperbole to make his point.  I suspect his presentations did not all include shaking in fear on his part, nor did that make up the whole of his 'style' whatever that may have been.  So, some, at points, especially when speaking of the mighty acts of God on our behalf, sure, shaking in awe; but not all the time as he spoke.  2) Paul is beginning to make a case that, as the message preached is not about him or how he is perceived, just as the life lived in Jesus is not about them or what others think of them.  In other words, just as he was not afraid to show his consternation over the magnitude of what he preached, so they should not be afraid to live out the 'foolishness' of what has been done for them by their Creator.

Second, I believe the 'demonstration of the Spirit and of power' refers to miraculous things done among them through Paul.  Considering the context of other things he says in this letter, I think that's a fair assessment.  I don't think that everything was 'miraculous' in the same way, so just healing, or just raising dead, or just casting out demons', but I do believe that some of each of those was demonstrated among them.  Such things are not mentioned occurring in Corinth in Acts, but I don't really consider that a problem.  I lean that way because partly I believe Luke, as he wrote Acts, really considers those sorts of things to be commonly associated with Paul.  In fact I suspect, for him, they are such a regular occurrence that he stops mentioning every occurrence of them in Acts.

So, I'm left with a completely absent foundation for my fear.  It doesn't matter what others think of me as I speak of my Master Jesus.  What matters is that I speak of my Master.  And I do not need to wait until I have some sort of 'second blessing' of His Spirit because I believe that will come in the course of my obedience, the consequence of which will be increased boldness to speak.  So, while I know what I'm afraid of, I need to 'man-up', 'stand up' and go forth in spite of my fear.  What I should fear is the 'Sender' of the message, not the receivers.  That I don't is pretty dumb really.  So, the core of my problem is a lack of faith.  Well, that comes from my Master too, so that's no excuse either.  Better get up and get on out there!

The Corinthian Paradigm Shift

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB)

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24 NASB)

There are themes, intentions, and designs in this letter to the church in Corinth woven through the words of Paul.  One of the foundational is a theme of 'unity'; the age-old question, 'Why can't we all just get along?'  But unity without a focus, without a center, and without a core is temporary and often destructive.  Without a core of our Creator, unity becomes selfish and often cruel.  It's not enough to be unified.

So, Paul, calling on the battling factions within Corinth; people who seem to only agree that Paul, the founder of their church, is weak and foolish compared to where they have arrived now; provides a different core.  The core of unity for Paul is Jesus.  The Spirit of God unifies, but He unifies His people around Jesus; the whole story of his death, burial, resurrection and ascension.   But this story, and this Person, is at odds with the prevailing wisdom of the day; kind of like today.

Paul says in this chapter that he was not called or chosen by Jesus to baptize (verse 17), but to proclaim the good news of Jesus.  Jesus' 'Great Commission' includes baptism, but it also includes 'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.'  And perhaps these two things are best understood within a larger context of 'make disciples of all the nations,' because this seems to be the method of Paul.  He brings the good news, and with it, makes disciples; who then make up a church.

In Corinth, things had gone very wrong after he left.  As often happens, people new to a way of life integrate the way they used to be and think into the new one.  We often 'enculturate' Jesus into our culture, adding elements of our society's perspective into worship and other things.  But when we 'replace' the story of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and ascension with our familiar comfortable acceptable cultural things; we have then left following Jesus.  It happens when a dying, rising, and ascending God seems at odds with the prevailing wisdom of our world, the paths of science, the philosophy of the current crop of scholars; so we prune the account to be more acceptable and fit better with conventional wisdom.

This is what has happened in Corinth; the underlying way of thinking though has also undermined their acceptance of Paul as an apostle of God, and therefore as an authority in their lives.  This gets at a personal problem I struggle with in my relationship with my Master.  Part of the problem is that I 'filter' authority in my life.  I say 'part' of the problem because, in a sense, we are supposed to filter authority.  The thing is, my filter is often has a 'tighter mesh' than it should be.

What happens is this, I know that I am to filter according to what my Master has preserved in Scriptures.  But then I also filter according to my particular reading, then according to my particular view, and then according to my favorite passages, and then according to my comfort level, and then...I have a very self-centered view, and I'm the authority, not the person my Master has placed in my life.  I can't really live that way, but I try.  I set aside even my Master in favor of my authority.  The world around me constantly tells me that is is not only okay, but right, my right!  But it's wrong.

It's subtle though.  I don't share the good news of my Master with my neighbors, and I come up with good 'reasons' (also known as 'excuses').  And the result is that it becomes easier to make the next compromise.  My 'light' no longer sits on the window sill, but hides under a basket.  And in the darkness of that basket, I'm free to set aside all sorts of other commands of my Master.  I make a thin pretense of following my Master when in reality I'm not sold out to Him at all.  My family sees it, perhaps close friends, but eventually I don't even see it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing myself to others.  The real easy problem here is to look at what I do, where I'm at, and then look around me and say, "What? I'm not that bad."  When what I need to do is to look at my Master, listen to His voice, and repent (agree with His assessment of me).  And then I receive the grace He offers in restoration of our relationship, restoration of where our relationship was, not that I had lost it, or had no relationship. 

That's probably where the most dangerous lie of my enemy stems from.  I'm not out of relationship with my Master, I'm just not completely invested in it.  I can continue on in a cold heart and wonder away, but that's not likely with me.  I'm more likely to find a comfortable, lukewarm, place in the sun and relax.  I'm in relationship, just not the sort my Master is calling me into.  I know Him, but I'm not exactly available.  I have a desire for Him, just not strong enough to overcome my fears.  I love Him, but not more than myself, and my comfort.  From one perspective, I have been saved, but from another, He is not my 'Lord'.  I believe in the resurrection, but do not permit the power of the resurrection to bring life to my soul.  From one perspective I am saved, from another, perhaps not.

I believe I am saved, in that my Master is able to work in my life, bring these sorts of things to my mind, and use me to further His kingdom to an extent.  But there is more than I have been experiencing.  And it's my fault I'm not experiencing it already.  I suppose, that is really the core of my lesson from this passage.  I too, like the Corinthians, have brought the wisdom of this world into my relationship with my Master, and replaced His commands with more comfortable recommendations.  So this is not just some millennia-old letter from some grumpy religious philosopher to an ancient group of people about archaic beliefs. It is a letter from my Master to me.