Friday after the Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 (NKJV)

2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Devotion

St. Paul continues speaking about God’s wisdom today, wisdom that was hidden, but now revealed. Wisdom that is apparent—logical reasoning, or philosophers’ attempts to explain the world, or even ‘common sense’—was not the content of Paul’s preaching (or Jesus’ preaching). All of these break down at some point when dealing with a God whose thoughts are above ours (Is. 55:8-9). He is as He is in an absolute way since His existence is not contingent on anyone else (Ex. 3:14, Job 38:3-4, Is. 45:20-23). He is absolutely holy, absolutely loving, three, yet one; sacrificing for those who rebelled against Him and who can add nothing to Him: these things fall outside of human wisdom.

If man’s basic instinct is for survival, then that is most wise that causes us to survive. True wisdom is that which endures and which gives us its endurance (St. Matt. 24:35, 1 Pet. 1:23-25). Such wisdom is only found in one theme: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” According to our fallen nature, such a theme seems foolish; to our flesh, denial of self and embracing a crucified Christ seems contrary to our best interest. The world, certainly, opposes doing so. Yet, what the Holy Spirit has taught through the writing of His prophets and apostles—“the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”—the Spirit’s Word is powerful for bringing hearts of stone to life as God first designed it (Rom. 1:16-17, Ezek. 36:26)

Prayer: O Holy Spirit, by Your Words through the apostles, continue to give us the mind of Christ that, as He humbled Himself unto obedience and crucifixion, with humble minds and hearts we may trust at all times that the will of God is good toward us for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.