INTRODUCTION
I
|
N MY LIFE AS A
CHRISTIAN, I have encountered many born again, spirit filled believers who
often misquote or misapply scriptures without consideration to the context of
the scripture. I believe the reason for this is that for majority of us Christians,
most of the things we know or the understandings we have of God are usually
things we have heard through various preaching or read from a book. We easily
run with every hint of revelation and do not make time to verify what we hear
or read. We don’t have the
attitude of the Bereans in Acts 17:10-11.
- And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
One of the most
misquoted or misapplied scripture in my opinion is 1 Corinthians 2:9.
- But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor Ear Heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Some Christians quote
this scripture; they shout, scream and get all excited about it. I suspect this
excitement hinges on the fact that they believe they don’t know what God has
prepared for them yet and it is some mystery
that is not “in the now.”
Whenever I hear this
scripture been quoted, especially by believers, I become anxious and keep
telling myself: “read on…please read on” but unfortunately it always ends with
verse 9 leaving out all the important passages that surrounds verse 9.
Through this book, I
want to share some of the insights I had about this scripture and hopefully get
the Christians who still think 1 Corinthians 2:9 means they don’t know now what God has prepared for them to
start re-examining their belief and come to an understanding that they as
Christians—Spirit filled Christians can know what God has prepared for them.
I will want to appeal
to you as you read, have a readiness of mind and verify anything I write: especially
those things that will appear new to you. I am sharing these insights with you,
with the hope that as you read, you will be inspired to make time to pray and
study the word of God for the Holy Spirit to show you the things God has prepared
for you. As a matter of fact, it is the right of every Christian to hear from
God—our father. Hearing from God should not be the preserve of a few. Spend
time with God and you will hear from Him. Be challenged and desire to know God
and hear from Him. God still speaks. You might have heard a lot about Him. But
I believe it is time to hear from Him yourself.
The Samaritan woman who
Jesus encountered at Jacobs well in John 4, preached Jesus to the Samarians.
But later on, hear what they said in John 4:42.
- Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Chapter
One
1
CORINTHIANS 2
1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of
God. 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ,
and him crucified. 3. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling. 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 .That your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are
perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world,
that come to nought: 7.But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew:
for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9. But as
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10
.But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. 12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God. 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. 14. But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. 15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
judged of no man. 16 .For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
I
|
N THE INTRODUCTION, I
mentioned that 1 Corinthians 2:9 in my opinion, is one scripture that has been
misquoted or misapplied by many Christians without consideration to its context,
creating the impression that we (Christians) don’t know what God has prepared
for us yet. In this book I will want to advance an argument from a Biblical
perspective to let us know that as Christians, we can know what God has
prepared for them that love Him.
I
have purposely quoted the whole of 1 Corinthians 2 so I will get the background
to speak on vs 9 in detail. 1 Corinthians 2 contains all the truth by which vs
9 can be interpreted. From vs 1 through to vs 8; the Apostle Paul has been
speaking about the wisdom of God.
Note
also that Paul mentions the wisdom of man, the natural man, the
spiritual man, the spirit of the
world and the spirit of God. These
phrases are very important and we need to keep them in mind whilst reading. The wisdom of God, described as a hidden
wisdom in summary is the redemption plans God had towards mankind. “…by
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). Redemption means:
- “buy back” or “ransom”. In ancient times, one could buy back a person who was sold into slavery. In the same way, Christ through his death bought us from our slavery to sin. Radmacher, Allen, et al.1
BACKGROUND
OF THE LETTERS TO THE CHURCH IN CORINTH
Bible
scholars have indicated that the Corinthian church was situated in a very
complex society characterized by immorality and abundance of human
philosophies—old wives’ fables (1 Timothy 4:7), Jewish Fables (Titus 1:14) and
cunningly devised Fables (1 Peter 1:16).
John
Drane, in his book, Introducing the New
Testament, wrote about the challenges of the Corinthian church.
- One of the things that characterized the city of Corinth was the varied nature of its society. Its position as an important sea port on one of the busiest routes in the Mediterranean ensured this. In the streets of Corinth, military men from Rome, mystics from the east and Jews from Palestine continually rubbed shoulders with the philosophers of Greece. When Paul had preached the good news about Jesus in this city, it was a cross-section of this cosmopolitan society that responded and formed the Christian church in Corinth. Not surprisingly, men and women from such different spiritual and intellectual backgrounds brought with them into the church some very different concepts and ideas.2
I studied classical civilization
as part of my combination for my first degree and I can confidently say that,
second to the Gospel of Christ, Greek civilization and philosophies have influenced
the thinking of the world so much. Aristotle, Socrates, Archimedes, Aesop,
Odyssey, Zeus, Aphrodite are all Greek influences that shaped the world at a
certain point.
The Bible records the
extent to which Greek Philosophy had influence on society.
- Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) (Acts 17:18-21).
It is on the background
of such arguments and propounding of philosophical debates and human wisdom
that Paul wrote to the church of Corinth. 1 Corinthians 2 was a letter to set
the records straight. It was a letter to address the human wisdom that was been
imported into the Church. And I believe this letter to the Corinthians has a
message for the church today.
I believe as
Christians, we have to start re-examining closely our beliefs, whether we have
not diluted it with human wisdom. Knowledge is good— but when the world’s way
of doing things is wholly imported into the church without any system of filtration, then we are in
trouble!
THE
NATURAL MIND AND THE WISDOM OF GOD
Redemption
is a whole package. In this package we have predestination, justification,
sanctification and glorification (Ephesians 1:5, Romans 8:29-30, Hebrews 10:10,
1 Corinthians 1:2). The redemption package—the hidden wisdom of God, is a
mystery to the natural man. Please note that the use of man here is generic and
applies to both male and female.
A natural man is one who has not got the
Spirit of God living in them. The person who has not come to the saving
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is a natural man. The things of God are foolishness to the
natural man. Why? Because the wisdom of God defies logic and common sense:
- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
- For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (1 Corinthians 1:18-21).
It does not make sense to
the natural mind that God—the creator of the heavens and the earth—takes the
form of a human being and is conceived by a virgin. It does not make sense to
the natural mind that through one man’s sin, every human being is declared a
sinner (Romans 5:12). Where is the logic in the fact that another man’s death
on a cross brought salvation to all who will believe in his name (Galatians
2:20)? Can you imagine? They are sited in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, far
above principalities and all power (Ephesians 1:21; 2:6), another of their dumb
talk. A natural man will exclaim. By the beatings a man received, they claim
they are healed (Isaiah 53:5)—another goof. They will drink poison it will not
harm them, they will pick up snakes it will not hurt them (Mark 16:18).
What group of people
are these, who sound so unrealistic and believe weird things? That is what the
natural man will say. The fact of the matter though is: this is the wisdom of
God and they (the natural man) will not understand it.
And without controversy
great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory (1Timothy 3:16).
THE
WISDOM OF MAN
I have tried to explain
the wisdom of God and I will want to throw some light on the wisdom of man. Let
us go back to our scripture again and read from verse 1-5.
And I, brethren, when I
came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I
determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God.
In the vs 1, Paul made
us understand that he doesn’t declare the message of the gospel via excellency
of speech or human wisdom. What he
is saying is: “Listen, when I speak to
you about the gospel, I don’t use human wisdom and human reasoning. I speak to
you by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.”
Excellency of speech
means good presentation: it is a well planned message, a message that excites people
without any power. Look at vs 4: “…My speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man’s wisdom.”
Enticing words of man’s
wisdom is to dazzle people with oratory and eloquence. It is a message full of
human ideologies and arguments. It is to make people feel good— it is a message
that throws out the Holy Spirit and load people with humanism. Excellency of
speech and enticing words of man’s wisdom is the philosophy of this world—the
philosophy of self. Excellency of speech is reasoning— intellectual, logical
and stimulating arguments. Paul says when I am speaking to you, I don’t do
these things.
A.W Tozer said: “If you have to be reasoned into
Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it!”3
No comments:
Post a Comment