FRAMEWORKS:
1 Corinthians 2
In
this ‘Framework' we use our usual text PLUS comment style to enable
you, as simply as possible, to catch the sense of his writing.
FRAMEWORKS:
1 Corinthians 2: Weakness and Wisdom in the Spirit
v.1-5
Paul's example of weakness when he came
v.6-10
God's Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
v.11-16
Living by the Spirit means a different approach to life
[Chapter
Synopsis: Flowing
on from the previous chapter, Paul continues on from the ‘gospel
of weakness' to remind them how he had come to them in weakness
and yet with the power of the Spirit. This ‘foolish wisdom' from
God, decided in heaven even before Creation, has now been revealed
by the Holy Spirit so that we are now people whose knowledge,
understanding etc. is that which comes to us by the Spirit, different
from what the world knows and which cannot be received by the
unbelieving world until the Spirit brings conviction and salvation
and when there is a response to that conviction.]
v.1-5
Paul's example of weakness when he came
v.1
(they might remember
that this is how Paul had come to them) 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. [Some manuscripts ‘proclaimed
to you God's mystery']
v.2
(for
his starting and finishing place has been the Cross) For
I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified.
v.3
(he
had come feeling very weak in himself ) I
came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.
v.4,5
(and it hadn't been with
clever words but simply the power of the Spirit through him that
had convicted them) My message
and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but
with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith
might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
[Passage
Synopsis: What he
said about weakness in the first chapter was born out in the way
he had come to them, relying utterly on the Spirit.]
v.6-10
God's Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
v.6
(it
is a ‘wise' message but not seen as that by the world) 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.
v.7
(no,
this wisdom is a mystery planned from before the beginning of
the world) No, we declare God's
wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for
our glory before time began.
v.8
(the religious and secular
leaders didn't understand this otherwise they wouldn't have crucified
Christ) None of the rulers of
this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory.
v.9,10
(but Isaiah had prophesied
it would remain a mystery until the redeemed would ‘see' it)
However, as it is written: “What
no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human
mind has conceived” [Isa
64:4] — the
things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the
things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
[Passage
Synopsis: The amazing
thing, Paul writes, is that this mystery of the way God's wisdom
would appear in and through Christ, had been decided on by the
godhead before the beginning of the world, and is only now being
understood as it is revealed in salvation of people.]
v.11-16
Living by the Spirit means a different approach to life
v.11
(it is only the Spirit
of God who conveys these plans of God, this wisdom of God)
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.
v.12
(it's only through God's
Holy Spirit that these things come to us) 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.
v.13
(so what we teach is
not human wisdom but wisdom the Spirit has brought) 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.[Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths
to those who are spiritual ]
v.14
(those who don't have
the Spirit can't understand this) 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.
v.15,16
(those who have the Spirit
have a different source for decision making – God Himself.)
The person with the Spirit makes
judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to
merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so
as to instruct him?” [Isa 40:13]
[Passage
Synopsis: The life
we now life is one that is Spirit-enabled, that gives us understanding
which cannot be received by unbelievers.]
Continue
to Chapter 3