I Corinthians 2:9

First Corinthians 2:9

In First Corinthians 2:9-10 the Bible says, "But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by His spirit: for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." Whenever the New Testament says, "It is written," it is quoting the Old Testament. In the New Testament many times the Old Testament is quoted. That is because the New Testament is like a commentary on the Old Testament. If you study the New Testament, you will also be studying the Old Testament, and you will be able to better understand the Old Testament.

In First Corinthians chapter 1 and First Corinthians chapter 2 Paul has been explaining the difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. Now Paul is going to address the issue of how one comes to know the wisdom of God. The way that someone comes to know the wisdom of God has remained the same for thousands of years. 2,000 years ago Paul quoted from Isaiah chapter 64 which was written over 500 years before his day, and it said, "Eye has not seen, ear had not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him."

If you want to know the wisdom of God, where will you go to learn it? Will you find the best books and look through them and study them? No, because "eye has not seen." Will you find the best speaker and go listen to their teaching in order to obtain the wisdom of God? No, because "ear has not heard." Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. You might be able to take Einstein’s advice concerning scientific endeavors, but will you be able to rely upon your imagination in order to acquire the wisdom of God? No, because "neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared."

If you are going to learn the wisdom of God, you will not obtain it primarily from what you see or from what you hear or from your imagination or intellect. That is why someone who is blind or someone who is deaf or someone who cannot read or write can still acquire the wisdom of God, because God’s wisdom does not come by those means. Paul tells us in verse 10 how the wisdom of God is communicated to a human being. He said, "But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit..." The deep things of God, the spiritual mysteries of God can be known, but they can only be known by the Holy Spirit, the Great Spirit, the Spirit of God.

This is the same teaching that Jesus gave many times in the gospels. Jesus said, "God is a spirit and they that worship God, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Jesus also said that you must be born of the spirit or you cannot see the kingdom of God. And then Jesus told the disciples that the Spirit would guide them into all truth.

Never forget the importance of the Spirit of God in your life. Jesus said that the Spirit was so important that to blaspheme the Spirit was the only sin that could not be forgiven. In other epistles Paul emphasized the importance of the spirit because he said to believers, "Quench not the Spirit," and in another place "Grieve not the Spirit." Without the leading of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit, we cannot do the work of God. The Bible says that Jesus was led by the Spirit, and it says that the Spirit was not given by measure unto Him. Be very careful to make sure that you are sensitive to the Spirit, and that you go the way that the Spirit would lead you.

In this passage Paul is emphasizing the importance of the Spirit in understanding and acquiring the wisdom of God. The word "spirit" or "spiritual" is mentioned 10 times in verses 10-14 of First Corinthians chapter 2. In First Corinthians 2:11 the Bible says, "For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God."

Jesus said, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Human beings cannot communicate with God without the Spirit. Human beings cannot understand certain things about God without the Spirit. There is the Spirit of God and there is the spirit of man. When the spirit of man comes into contact with the Spirit of God, there is communication that is deep and life changing. That is why Jesus said, "You must be born again." It is the only way. There is no other way to receive the wisdom of God, than to have the spiritual birth that Jesus talked about.

In First Corinthians 2:12 the Bible says, "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 by God." This passage has mentioned three different spirits: the Spirit of God, the spirit of man, and the spirit of the world. The primary dictionary definition for the word "spirit" is: “the vital principle or animating force” of something. Of course, we know that the Spirit of God is a person, but using the above definition, the Spirit of God is the vital principle or the animating force of God. The spirit of man is the vital principle or the animating force of a man. The spirit of the world is the vital principle or the animating force of the world.

What are some of the characteristics of the spirit of the world? How about selfishness and self-centeredness? How about the burning desire for material possessions? How about the pursuit of pleasure? These things and others are the characteristics of the spirit of the world. The effects of the spirit of the world can be seen all around you. You will be influenced by it and perhaps overcome by it. You have one hope of not being dominated by the spirit of the world, and that one hope is in the spirit of God. Paul said, "we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." What will happen to your spirit? The choice is yours. It depends upon which spirit you receive. If you receive the spirit of the world, you will become like the rest of the world, and you will manifest its characteristics in your spirit, and you will share its unfortunate destiny.

But if you receive the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ, you will manifest some other characteristics that those of the world cannot experience: not the least of which will be what you know and what you are capable of knowing. Look at some of the things that First Corinthians chapter 2 says that we will know that the world will not know. In verse two it points out that we know Jesus Christ, because Paul said that he determined not to know anything among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ. Everything else that we know about spiritual things is only possible because we first came to know Jesus. Remember that Paul said in First Corinthians 1:30 that Jesus is our wisdom. Because we have the Spirit of God we know what Paul called the hidden wisdom of God which the princes of this world do not know, according to First Corinthians 2:7. We also know things that eyes have never seen and ears have never heard: wonderful things, but they have been revealed to us by His Spirit.

And there are even more things yet to know. There is no end to the things that can be revealed to those who have the Spirit of God to enlighten them. Paul said in First Corinthians 2:10 that the Spirit can also make known to us the deep things of God. You can always go deeper into the mysteries of God and the wisdom of God. Do not ever think that you have arrived. There is always a closer walk and a greater knowledge that is possible. In First Corinthians 2:9 Paul said that the Spirit will reveal to us the things that He has prepared for those that love God. And in First Corinthians 2:12 we are told that by the Spirit of God we will know the things that are freely given to us by God.

There is certainly a lot to know and to learn and to experience. For the believers it is all possible because of the Spirit of God that is within them. In First Corinthians 2:13 Paul gives one more ingredient that is very important in acquiring this wisdom and knowledge from God. The Bible says, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." Paul said that he spoke the "words" that the Holy Spirit teaches. In order to know spiritual truth you must be connected to God and Jesus Christ by the Spirit, and you also must hear and know the right words. The words are very important and God has given the words. They are recorded for us in the Bible. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." If you do not have the spiritual knowledge that you need to have, maybe it is because you do not know the Word of God well enough or maybe it is because you do not think about the word of God often enough. The truth about God is concrete and definite and knowable, because it has been written down with words.

In First Corinthians 2:14 the Bible says, "But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." If the great mysteries about God are knowable, then why do not more people know them? The answer is here in First Corinthians 2:14: "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God...neither can he know them." That is the reason that someone who has not had the new birth through faith in Christ cannot understand the Bible. If someone wants to learn the Bible, should they take the Bible and start reading and studying it in order to learn it? Until someone is touched and enlightened by the Spirit of God, they will not be able to really understand it. First they must be born again through faith in Christ. Then when they read and study the Bible, the Spirit of God will help them to understand it. The Bible is a spiritual book because it was given by the Spirit of God, and you can only understand its true nature and meaning when you are in touch with God’s Spirit. That’s why many false cults use the Bible and yet they are still a cult. If you use the Bible without the enlightenment that only the Spirit of God can give, then you will misinterpret what it says.

According to First Corinthians chapter 2 there is a natural man, and there is a spiritual man. When you are born into the world, you are born as a natural man, made of flesh and blood. That is what Jesus was talking about when He said, "That which is born of flesh is flesh." What is one of the characteristics of the natural man: they do not understand the things of the Spirit of God. One of the sources of the many problems in the world is the fact that the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. What will happen when the natural man studies the natural world? Will they come to the same conclusions and interpretations about the world as the spiritual man? Not likely. That is why having arguments or debates with people of the world about spiritual things often accomplishes nothing. The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. We do not argue the truth. We declare it. And if someone turns from their sins and turns to Christ, then and only then will they have the Spirit of God and the capacity to understand spiritual things.

In First Corinthians 2:15-16 the Bible says, "But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." In this context the word that is translated "judges" or "judged" really means discernment. A believer who is in fellowship with God has a capacity to understand and interpret life that far exceeds the lost people of the world. One of the important things in life is simply to be able to understand your way, to be able to discern the right or the wrong of a matter, or to be able to recognize the best course of action. What is vitally important is to do what is right, but you cannot do what is right if you do not have the ability to properly judge a matter. Judgment is not wrong when you are talking about discernment. Remember that Jesus advised the disciples to judge righteous judgment.

We have the capacity through God’s Spirit to make the right judgment or discernment, but we ourselves are judged of no man. There is something about a believer that cannot be discerned or understand by the natural man. "Except two agree, they cannot walk together." That verse is talking about the spiritual difference between a believer and a nonbeliever. If you claim to be a believer in Jesus, hopefully there will be something about you that is different from the people of the world. Something about what you love and what you do not love, and something about what you do and what you will not do that is different from the people of the world who are not believers. The Bible says that sometimes unbelievers will notice this difference and they will ask about it, and we should always be ready to give an answer.

When you give an answer hopefully you will not say that the difference is your church, or you will not say that the difference is your family, or you will not say that the difference is your own fine moral character: but that you will say that the difference is Jesus. Paul said, "Who has known the mind of the Lord..., but we have the mind of Christ." Jesus Christ is the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man. If there is anything about a believer that is good or true or praiseworthy, then the explanation is due to Jesus Christ and His grace that He gives to those that believe in Him.

Are there things that you do not know that you need to know? Of course there are, because who has known the mind of the infinite Creator of the universe? You can be on a path where you learn more and more from now to eternity about God, because you can have the mind of Christ. All that it takes is to turn from sin and from yourself and turn to Jesus.

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