I Corinthians 2:1-16 (NRSV)
Read I Corinthians 2:1-16 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 2When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. Verse 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Verse 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Verse 4My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, Verse 5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Verse 6Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. Verse 7But we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Verse 8None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Verse 9But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"- Verse 10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Verse 11For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God. Verse 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. Verse 13And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Verse 14Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Verse 15Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny. Verse 16"For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Devotion
One of the problems pestering the Corinthian community was the tendency of some to practice spiritual one-upmanship with their fellow believers, proudly boasting of their spiritual wisdom, insight and gifts. The religious game of “I art more holy than thou art holy” was, however, both inconsistent with the humble and undistinguished origin of that community (see 1:26-28) and counter to how God in Christ comes to us. Not even Paul dared come to Corinth with eloquence and wisdom. He knew that the wisdom of God—like the salvation of God—is not something we stir up through human sophistry, but solely and ever by God’s revelation by testimony of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. This is not, of course, a summons to anti-intellectualism or cerebral laziness. But Paul does say that we cannot rationalize our way into a relationship with God; a relationship with God is revealed through the Spirit of God, and that ever by grace. That same Spirit makes us understand the free gifts of God’s Spirit, to the point we are even privy to the purposes of Christ (v. 16).
Prayer
Spirit of God, make me wise in the mystery of your loving presence in all those I encounter this day. Amen.