Sent: December 11, 2005 08:23
Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] 1 Corinthians
2:14-16
My, my Lance, you've just run right off here into
another subject entirely - Let's stick with the one at hand and see
what
God has to say about it ... Those prophets are
messing with your head.
1 Cor 2:14 Juxtaposes the two kinds of
wisdom - which are natural/worldly and spiritual or
that from above.
1 Cor 1:20 "For since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through
the (incarnation)? ... foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe"
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body
(1 Cor 15:44-46)
There is wisdom from above and there is wisdom that
is earthly, sensual and demonic (James 3:15)
There are people who are spiritually minded and those
who are worldly minded and devoid of the Spirit (Jude 19)
Unless and until they repent the world can not
receive the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17)
God makes foolish the wisdom of the world (1 Cor
1:18-20)
So lets stay on track and see what leads up
to 1 Cor 2:14 ...... Paul writes:
1 Cor 2:6 The wisdom we speak is not of this age nor
of the rulers of this age who are passing away....
1 Cor 2:7 We speak God's wisdom in a mystery
.....
1 Cor 2:8 The wisdom which none of the rulers of this
age has understood ...
1 Cor 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the
Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of
God....
1 Cor 2:11 Who knows the thought 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
1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the
world but the Spirit who is from God that we might know.....
1 Cor 2:13 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
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural (or worldly) 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 discerned.
So how did "merely human" get into the
conversation and where does the drug of sophistry come from? Paul is
discussing two kinds of wisdom here
- this is not about who the people think they are or
mature/immature.
'Someone who is merely
human doesn't accept the things of God's Spirit. They are foolishness
to such people, you see, and they can't understand them because they need to
be discerned spiitually.' But spiritual people discern everything , while
nobody else can discern the truth about them! For. 'Who has known the mind
of the Lord, so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of the
Messiah'
Paul is now bringing his discussion of wisdom
and folly, and spiritual maturity and immaturity, right down to where the
Corinthians themselves are. They have been using
the 'drug' of sophistry. supposing it makes them more 'spiritual';
and Paul declares that it has made them all the more human.
The more they take the drug, the more immature
they show themselves to be; and the proof of it all is -- their in-fighting
about different Christian teachers!
That is the main point Paul is making here, and
it bears reflection in today's church as we so easily lapse from serious
issues to personality clashes, and from personalities to mere gossip, while
all the time pretending we are still dealing with important
matters.
Paul draws a distinction between 'spiritual'
people (vs 13) and merely 'human people', those living on the ordinary
level.The former are ones in whom God's Spirit has come to dwell, opening
them up to new depths and dimensions of truth and experience. The latter may
think themselves 'sophisticated' but they are 'merely human'. ('soul-ish')
Such a person (the latter) simply can't understand what's going on when talk
turns to the deeper things of the spirit. They become LIKE A TONE-DEAF
PERSON AT AN OPERA: IT'S ALL NONSENSE TO THEM. Imagine being the only
muscial person listening to a wonderful string quartet in a large room full
of tone-deaf people. That is rather like Paul's picture of being a
'spiritual' person in a world of 'merely human' people.
Those who have the spirit have the MESSIAH'S
MIND
THE CORINITHIANS AREN'T READY FOR IT. Paul is
drawing out the difference (2:6) between those who were ready for serious
teaching and those who were still at the infancy stage. Paul declares (3:2)
You are still babies. You are driven by all-too-human impulses.
LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR,
HEAR!
What is this passage NOT about? What IS it
concerning? One ought not employ God's Word without spiritual discernment.
Might it be the case that those who buttress their comments with many
biblical citations occasionally display immaturity? Might it also be the
case that one's maturity/discernment can itself be DISCERNED even in the
absence of such citations?
FWIW, I've found this to be the case quite in
reading "G" But, let not this aside detract from the
above.
judyt
He that says "I know Him" and doesn't keep His
Commandments
is a liar (1 John 2:4)
