1 Corinthians 2:1-9 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 2:1-9. Let’s go!
1 Corinthians 2:1-9 (NIV)
1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
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 and fear, and with much trembling.
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 men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
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 speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom 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.
9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–
On verses 1-9: Every day you need to make a choice: will you listen to and depend on worldly wisdom, or on God’s wisdom?
As we learned in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, God’s plan to save us was not built on human wisdom, but on God’s higher wisdom. In all our own human wisdom we would have never chosen to be saved the way God chose to save us — by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. If it was up to us, we would probably come up with some kind of performance-based system where you need to earn your way to heaven (which by the way is what every religion, faith and new age philosophy other than Christianity teaches!) But in His far better wisdom, God chose a far better way to save us.
Since God’s salvation was not built on human wisdom but on God’s power, Paul decided that when speaking to his church in Corinth he would not focus on “eloquence or human wisdom” (v1). Rather he would simply focus on “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (v2). Paul would come not pretending to be strong, but revealing his weakness (v3). He would not rely on trying to look smart in front of people, but simply rely on the Holy Spirit’s power when preaching the message of the gospel (v4), so that the faith of his listeners would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power (v5). The wisdom Paul preached would not sound like the wisdom that the world trumpets (v6), but a wisdom given by God. True wisdom from God is to know that Jesus Christ is all we need. (v7)
Because we live in a world that is so fixated on how well or how poorly we ourselves perform, the message that Jesus is all we need is a message that not everyone understands (v8). So when you “get” the message, it’s like a mystery has been explained, a hidden secret has been revealed, straight from God’s Holy Spirit to your heart (v7). It’s a message that no human eye has ever seen, no human ear has ever heard and no human mind has ever conceived (v9), and yet God’s Spirit reveals it to us (v10).
So if you get the message, thank God today that in His undeserved grace He has revealed His wisdom to you: that Jesus Christ His Son is all we need.
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I praise You because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. (Luke 10:21) In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
