We are going to cover the second chapter of First Corinthians today. An older post covered chapter 1, and for some context, Paul had just finished saying that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. When we add to the message of the cross, whether it is eloquent speech, or worldly wisdom, or something else that seems good, we actually empty the cross of it’s real power! Why is that? Paul explains it! Because God chose to use the foolish things to shame the wisdom of the world. God chose to use the weak things to shame the strong. We see God’s grace poured out onto us through weakness. Jesus didn’t seem all that strong when he was being beaten or hung on the cross, but His eternal victory happened there, and he shamed the strong and wise and powerful in that moment. God revealed himself in this way so that nobody had any place to boast. This isn’t just a new concept in the New Testament, by the way. If you remember the Bible studies, God used a few elderly men (Moses and Aaron) to shame Pharaoh. In Judges 7:5 God delivered Israelites in miraculous military victory over the Midianites after sending many of the troops home. God used a shepherd boy and a sling to shame the Giant Goliath. God told Joshua’s army to march around the city walls of Jericho for a week, and trumpets of rams’ horns and shouting made the walls collapse. God tends to reveal Himself in ways so improbable, so miraculous, in order that nobody else can take the credit! When we try to add boast-worthy things to God’s message or bring honor to ourselves, we try to Reveal God in a way that God Himself doesn’t choose to. That misrepresents God and creates a version of God with different characteristics, a God who reveals himself differently from the real God of the Bible. When we preach the message of the cross, We have nothing to boast about because we add nothing to salvation. Going into the transaction, we brought nothing to the table in this transaction of divine grace. we have no characteristics or personalities that make us more lovable, no choices that we’ve made that make us more savable. All we brought was our guilt. And once Jesus died for us, after that work on the cross, we have nothing to add! It’s not by our works. It’s all by faith. Franky preached from Ephesians 2:8 that says the faith doesn’t even come from us, that is a gift from God, and Paul had just said the same thing here. It is because of God that we are in christ Jesus, that we have wisdom from God, In Christ we have salvation from God, in Christ we have justification, and sanctification, all from God. We have reconciliation to God because God chose to save us in Christ.
And we have nothing to boast about.

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.

Paul is saying he didn’t come to Corinth with eloquence or human wisdom. He just proclaimed the testimony about God. Some manuscripts use the word “mystery of God”, instead of testimony of God. But if Paul is proclaiming it, that means it no longer is a mystery. And What is the testimony about God, or what was that mystery? Verse 2. Jesus Crist and him crucified. The testimony about God is That foolish message of the cross, that we are in need of salvation, we are sinful by nature, and because of that nature, we are separated from God. We are objects of God’s wrath because of our sinful nature. But God sent His son to die for us, and take our sin upon himself, paying the penalty or ransom that we deserved to pay. Jesus took upon himself the curse and forsakenness that we’ve earned, and he reconciled us to God. We have a salvation from God that Jesus paid for by His obedience, living a perfect life, and obeying God, even to death on a cross. We have been imputed with Christ’s righteousness, and have been reconciled. Whoever believes in that unearned forgiveness through Christ shall have eternal life with God. To everyone else, it’s foolishness. To us who are being saved, it’s the power of God. It’s the answer to and providing of our most dire and important need. It is so important that Paul resolved to know nothing else while he was with them in Corinth. Did the Corinthians want to discuss the newest and most popular philosophical ideas? That seemed to be the culture over in Athens according to Acts 17:21. I will post that just because it’s kind of funny. 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Did people want to listen to eloquent discourses with beautiful words crafted to entertain? Maybe, some of them did, but Paul resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him Crucified. When Paul writes this, he sounds so resolved, almost stubborn. Very tough- I know nothing but Christ only, and Him Crucified! And I have always read it feeling like he’s adamant and so strong , so bold to keep himself on message. But he admits in the very next verse, verse 3, he came to them in weakness with great fear and trembling. And that seems more in line with how I feel when I am talking about Jesus. I am naturally shy, nervous, fearful, trembling. If you read acts 18, you can learn more about what Paul’s trip to Corinth. I can recap some of acts 18 here, Paul went to Corinth, and he started out reasoning with Jews in the synagogue every sabbath, but eventually they became abusive, and Paul ended up facing such opposition that he shook his clothes and said “your blood be on your own heads, I am innocent, from now I will go onto the Gentiles” I am generally nervous but Paul received persecution and abuse, and his fear and trembling was no secret. So in Corinth, he focused his efforts on preaching to the Gentiles. Interestingly we read that in Acts 18:8, Paul’s preaching and reasoning had led Crispus becoming a believer in Christ. Crispus was the synagogue Leader there. The Jews who opposed Paul had just lost their leader, and his entire household, which was a very significant shift in their power and a noteworthy loss.

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

So He faced Jewish opposition and redirected his efforts to preach to Gentiles. Paul had kept his message and peaching simple, not with wisdom or persuasive language. He said he demonstrated the Spirit’s power. What does it mean to demonstrate the Spirit’s power? The first thing I think is Miracles? I looked in Acts, and saw accounts that Paul had performed many miracles healing sick people and raising a man from the dead in a place called Troas, but those seemed to all happen in Ephesus. I couldn’t find accounts of miracles particularly during his time in Corinth. One miraculous thing happened, in acts 18:9-11 God did speak to Paul saying “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

According to Acts 18, His demonstration of the Spirit’s power, was primarily teaching them the word of God. I am not willing to say he performed no miracles in Corinth, but the primary way he demonstrated the Spirit’s power, and helped the Corinthians have faith in God’s power was teaching. He writes more about the Spirit’s revelation in the last 6 verses, which we will get to shortly.

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

What is the message of wisdom that Paul has? He says his message is God’s wisdom, not worldly wisdom. He describes it as a mystery. Or more correctly, it was a mystery that Has Been Hidden. So it is no longer fully hidden, it is now revealed or being declared by Paul. Paul’s message of God’s wisdom was that God had a plan before time began to bring us into Glory. And if rulers of this age knew it they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of Glory. So there was a mystery that has been hidden, if it was understood, the rulers of this age wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of Glory. Again, the message here is Christ and Him Crucified. Christ is the Lord of Glory, God destined us for Glory before time began, and it was done through the lord of Glory.

9 However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[b]— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

Verse 9 is a quotation from Isaiah 64, which discusses God coming down and making his name known. God comes and helps those who do right, and remember his ways, but we continue to sin against God’s ways, how can we be saved? That all of us are unclean, even our righteous acts are like filthy rags, no one calls on the name of God. Understanding the major theological issues discussed in Isaiah 64, and the fulfillment of Isaiah 64’s prophecy is something Paul describes as “things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.” God reveals these truths, the message of the Cross, the Promises of his Glory, the understanding of sin and need for salvation, reconciliation and forgiveness – all of these deep things are revealed by his Spirit.

10 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

If you are keeping a list of qualities of the Holy Spirit for your own Systematic Theology, or Pneumatology, in particular, here is something big. A quality of The Spirit. It’s a searcher. It searches all things, even the deep things of God. The Spirit is a searcher of intention, a knower of hidden things, the thoughts and mind of God. The spirit is an instructor of Godly things, and gives us enlightenment and discernment. The wisdom of this age can’t compare to the wisdom of God that is taught to us by his Holy Spirit. When you hear that Paul showed a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, you might think that looks a number of different ways. Healings, miracles, speaking in languages you don’t know. And he could have, the Spirit did work in ways like that. But what Paul is saying here, is whenever we understand the Thoughts or intentions of God, whenever we hear or read about His plans for His people through the study of His Word, Whenever we learn the Word of God, the law the prophets, and realize how and why all of that has come to pass – come to completion and fulillment, in Christ. Whenever our minds fathom those deep things of God, this is something that only the Holy spirit can accomplish through its searching, knowing and instructing. Paul elaborates on this.

12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[c]

We understand what God has given us (and look at verse 12, God gives us these things freely, no longer is his message enshrouded in mystery Hebrews 1 says God used to speak through prophets. He now speaks to us through his Son). Whenever we understand, it’s because we received the Spirit who is from God. There was a quote I saw on Facebook, “the Bible is not difficult to understand, it’s simply difficult to accept.” which was attributed to Dr Steve Lawson. I would say, the message is freely given, it is not hidden. But I would counter with a claim that’s even stronger. It’s a simple message to understand, but it’s not just hard to accept. It is impossible to accept or comprehend without the Holy Spirit. And how do we get the Holy Spirit itself? We didn’t take, grasp, or accept God’s spirit, vs 12 here says it was received by us. We speak truth given to us by the spirit, using spirit-taught words, some translations say Paul speaks not in words of human wisdom, but in Words taught by the Spirit. interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

Language is interesting here. Vs 14 The person without the Spirit doesn’t accept things that come from the spirit. So person A, an unbeliever will Not Accept, he can Reject those things from the spirit. But Person B, a believer, does he accept the Spirit or things that come from the spirit?? Vs 12 says we received that spirit. The Bible doesn’t say we accept Spirit itself, nor do we accept the things of the spirit, we receive the spirit, and the spirit reveals things to us. Vs 15 says we make judgements on all things. How are we qualified to make judgements? Because we receive instruction and understanding from God’s Holy Spirit. So people with the Holy Spirit we are called to make judgments about all things. This might sound strange for those of you who are familiar with scripture, The Bible in Matthew 7 says Judge not, lest you be judged. Now here it says we are judging all things.
There are two different Greek words, both have same root of Krino in matthew 7 it is κρινετε Krinete or to Judge, condemn, criticize,

here it is ανακρινει, Anakrinei which is investigate or interrogate or question something. The Anakrinei is more of an investigation, where Krinete is the actual act of making a verdict. The apparent inconsistency goes away when you look at the wording, and the takeaway is , We should be a people who aren’t judgmental of other people, whether it is their intention, their action, assuming their thoughts. We don’t make the final judgement, or condem or criticize. However because we have received God’s Spirit that searches, we should be questioning of all things, interrogating, investigating, especially internally to ourselves, whether it is or our habits, the ways we spend our time, money, thought patterns, . We should question everything else externally, like modern day culture, philosophical teachings, “Christian” teachings, or First John would say we should test Spirits, particularly to see whether those things are in agreement with God’s word, we should question and discern whether any of those things help us run steadfast in our relationship with God, or hinder us in our lives. We have been given the Holy Spirit, or the mind of Christ, so we should have no fear of human judgement, criticism, interrogation, and we should also be confident in God’s ability to instruct us and bring us to a place of Understanding.

Another interesting thing to read at the end of Acts 18, we are introduced to Apollos, who was apparently very gifted in bold speech and he was known to vigorously refute his Jewish opponents in public debate. This gives a bit more context about how some of the Corinthians followed Paul, others followed Apollos, and others followed Cephas or Peter. They all had different gifting and obviously their preaching methods resonated with some groups better than others. But Paul said they all serve the same God, and they all have the same message. He will say it more later, so I won’t go into detail here.