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§7 Insights on the Operation of Revelation (1 Cor. 2:6–16)

These verses form something of an excursus on the wisdom of God and the spiritual discernment of Christians, although the discussion is symmetrically similar to 1:18–25. In these verses, however, Paul seems to be describing reality from God’s point of view. To avoid misunderstanding Paul’s thought in these lines one must recall that he designated his message “the word of the cross.” Paul would tell about the cross, and he would explicate its meaning. Clearly, Paul interprets the saving significance of the cross throughout his letters by applying the meaning of the cross to the lives of his readers. The cross was not merely something that once happened to Jesus; it was an event that continues to give new shape and meaning to those who hear and believe the gospel. Paul declares that by the mysterious grace of God the cross transforms the lives of Christians. Thus, it is not that Paul had a special teaching for some, but that he could explain more of the significance of Christ’s cross to the more spiritually mature than to the less spiritually mature. That there are different levels of comprehension on the part of believers was the basis for Paul’s distinction between the mature and the spiritual person on the one hand and the one without the Spirit or the “unspiritual” person on the other.

Paul taught that God’s wisdom is not simply available to inquiring minds. The depths of God’s will and work are apparent to humanity only as God chooses to reveal such things through the working of the Spirit. One sees here that Paul explained the necessity of divine revelation through an argument on the principle of “like by like”—saying that a person is the only one who knows the inner secrets of him- or herself. It is likewise with God. Paul states that an unspiritual human is unable to receive the things of the Spirit of God because these things are discernible only by the Spirit. Yet by contrast Paul boldly declares that Christians have the Spirit who is from God and the mind of Christ, so that they experienced the gift of God’s wisdom as the Spirit imparted it to them.

2:6 / Paul’s language both ties the verses of this section to what had preceded and signals a turn in his direction. This development is indicated by the word however (this word de is often translated as “but”). Having denied that he came to the Corinthians with an eloquent and polished message, he now states that he did preach a message of wisdom among the mature. Some interpreters accuse Paul of inconsistency and elitism, suggesting that he had a special message for a privileged group among the larger body of believers. However, that interpretation badly distorts what Paul wrote here. Paul’s message was his proclamation of “Christ and him crucified” (2:2), “the message of the cross” (1:18); and the wisdom he taught was “the wisdom of God” (1:21), “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:24). As Paul states in a negative form, this message of wisdom was not … of this age. Those whose lives still manifest elements of this age, even if they are Christians, are “mere infants in Christ” (3:1), not the mature whose lives are “enriched” by God (1:5) and among whom Paul can proclaim “the deep things of God” (2:10) “destined for [the Christians’] glory before time began” (2:7). Paul writes that among Christians of developed religious sensibilities he was able to explicate in fuller detail the significance of the saving power of the cross of Christ.

In referring to this age, Paul sounds an eschatological note concerning God’s transformation of the ages (see 10:11) through the cross of Christ. The effect of God’s work is that the rulers of this age are now coming to nothing. Paul is thinking of God’s eschatological judgment, but it is not immediately clear who the rulers of this age are. Three interpretations are most often given: Either (1) the rulers of this age are super-human demonic forces that are set in opposition to God, or (2) they are the human political and religious authorities who are working in this world under the influence of the demonic powers, or (3) they are simply human political and religious leaders. Paul’s cosmology is complex, and he often personifies evil (Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 11:14; 12:7) and sin (Rom. 5:12; 7:8–9, 11); but in this context the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing, are those who “crucified the Lord of glory” (2:8). Linguistically and conceptually there is no reason to understand these rulers to be anyone other than human political and religious authorities.

2:7 / In this verse Paul describes positively the nature of his “message of wisdom” that he preached “among the mature.” The No of the NIV translates Paul’s word alla, so that he is again drawing a contrast to the immediately preceding remarks. He explains that his message of wisdom is God’s, that it is secret, that it had been hidden, that God destined this wisdom for the Christians’ glory, and that God did this before time began. Thus, Paul explains that the message of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ was God’s eternal purpose, predestined for humanity, and available to humans not through nature or reason but only as disclosed by God in the reality of the cross of Christ. Implicit in this description are the crucial theological notions of the providence and sovereignty of God.

2:8 / Paul has already stated that the message of God’s wisdom was not openly available to humanity prior to the manifestation of that wisdom as reality in the cross of Christ. God’s wisdom, not of this age, effectively brought the rulers of this age to nothing. Because they did not possess God’s wisdom, the rulers acted without understanding, even to the point that they crucified the Lord of glory. Indeed, the wisdom of this age, with which the Corinthians were unduly and ill-advisedly concerned, proved itself not only inadequate but even evil in what it produced: the crucifixion of Christ. Paul’s comment registers negatively the power of God’s work in Christ, and it expresses a deep irony. Acting in ignorance, the rulers crucified Christ, who as the crucified Christ was the powerful wisdom of God. Opposition in ignorance produced results that ultimately brought the undoing of evil and the salvation of humanity.

2:9–10a / The word however (again alla) connects and creates a contrast to the previous remarks. The sense of the beginning of this verse is, “Nevertheless, as it is written …” Then Paul cites Scripture as the precedent for his teaching, although it is impossible to identify with precision the passage he has in mind. This “quotation” seems, in the main, to be from the LXX of Isaiah 64:4 and 65:16; although it may also be a pastiche of lines from Psalm 31:20; Isaiah 52:15; Jeremiah 3:16; Sirach 1:10. One encounters the same statement in the same form in Ascension of Isaiah 11:34, so that it is likely that Paul is not freely paraphrasing, but that he is drawing the lines from the same otherwise unknown source used by the author of Ascension of Isaiah.

The NIV translation ignores elements of the Greek and rearranges the sense and the logic of Paul’s quotation. More literally the citation says,

Things which	an eye did not see
	and an ear did not hear
	and on a human heart did not come up—
things which	God prepared for the ones loving him.

Viewed in this more literal form and wording, the sense of Paul’s statement is more intelligible. By mentioning the eye, ear, and heart Paul registers that humans (in “this age”) did not and could not perceive God’s will and work. All of these are things that God has prepared for those who love him. Thus, the human senses could not apprehend what God has prepared. What God prepared for those who love him was Christ-crucified, the power of God for salvation (2:6–8).

Verse 10a completes and articulates the central point toward which Paul has been pressing in this section: God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The meaning of his statement in 2:10a is self-evident: God has revealed God’s previously unperceived wisdom to the Christians by his Spirit. God’s people know God’s wisdom only because God’s Spirit reveals it to them, so the Spirit alone perceives and reveals. Once stated explicitly, this idea becomes the theme for the remainder of chapter 2.

2:10b–11 / Paul adds two further explanatory remarks in these lines. The NIV fails to signal the explanatory nature of the second sentence in 2:10 by omitting the word “for” from the translation of the Greek, which literally reads, “For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” The omission of “for” is unfortunate, since in Greek the presence of this and the subsequent “for” in 2:11 signals that Paul seeks to argue the validity of his position. His rhetorical strategy is a “like by like” argument that was a well-known philosophical principle of the Greco-Roman world. Like things are able to be known by like things. The human knows the human, and God alone knows God, so the Spirit is a necessary link between God and humanity, for otherwise humanity would not be able to know God. Humans are unable to perceive the reality of the divine, for God’s greatness and holy-otherness (the deep things of God) are beyond the comprehension and grasp of the finite human mind. Thus, the Spirit of God who knows the thoughts of God has been given by God to “those who love him,” so that the Spirit can reveal to such humans the otherwise imperceptible wisdom of God (Christ crucified, the saving power of God).

2:12–13 / The two verses form one complex sentence in Greek. Paul reiterates his central point that humans cannot themselves comprehend God and that the Spirit is an absolute necessity, given by God and received by humanity, in order that humans may understand God’s will and work. Having reiterated this crucial contention, Paul returns to the theme of this preaching, commenting on its contents and character. Once again Paul insists that the spirit of the world, an age out of congruity with God, does not understand God. This contention is part of Paul’s apocalyptically formed worldview: There are two ages, one in bondage to the forces of evil and the other formed and revealed by the intervening power of God. For Paul, the character of this world requires that whatever truth humans know about God must come to them from God as a powerful, gracious gift. In a backhanded fashion Paul strikes another blow against human claims of knowledge about God and human efforts to fathom the divine. God’s goodness and grace are seen in the gift of the Spirit who is from God so that the Christians may understand what God has freely given in the cross of Jesus Christ.

As the gift of the Spirit enabled understanding, so also the presence and the power of the Spirit taught Paul the spiritual truths that he expressed in spiritual words. In other words, the Spirit enabled Paul’s preaching, determining both its content and constitution. Here, 2:13 echoes the lines of 2:1–5. Having been taught by the Spirit about God’s will and work, by the power of the Spirit Paul explained these things to others. Implicit in Paul’s remarks is an understanding of the missional character of the presence and the power of the Spirit. The Spirit and the truths about God are not grasped and possessed by humans, rather, they themselves grasp humanity and direct persons toward others as the agents of God’s saving work.

2:14 / With the words of this verse Paul returns to an argument he initiated in 1:18. The thrust of the argument is negative and echoes similar elements already encountered in 2:6, 8–9, 12–13. Along with presenting the positive case that God’s wisdom revealed by the Spirit is nothing other than Christ crucified, Paul vigorously denounces human wisdom as an inadequate avenue to understanding God. Mere reason does not bring humanity into a true relationship with God and the transforming power of God’s work. Indeed, without the Spirit humanity resists or rejects as foolishness the revelations of the Spirit (the things that come from the Spirit of God). The Spirit alone provides perception that enlightens and transforms humanity by bringing the human into a divinely initiated relationship with God. And, finally, it is important to notice that, while Paul’s language in this verse refers to the individual, the context of his comments in this section clearly indicates that he is thinking of the common human experiences of belief and disbelief. His concern is with a corporate, not a private, spiritual awakening.

2:15–16 / Paul closes this portion of the letter with a statement of the benefits of the reception of the Spirit, which he substantiates with a quotation of Scripture. The shape or logic of the lines is remarkable. First, in 2:15a Paul makes a positive statement—the spiritual man makes [is able to make] judgments about all things—that reverses the image of the unspiritual person’s lack of spiritual discernment (2:14). The remainder of 2:15, then, makes a statement in contrast to the first part of the verse: but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment. The power of spiritual discernment means freedom from human scrutiny. The first part of 2:16 offers a reworked version of the LXX’s Isaiah 40:13, and it seems to corroborate that the one who receives the Spirit is free from human judgment. The quotation both instructs the Corinthians about true freedom and shields Paul from any criticism the Corinthians might make of him. Finally, Paul boldly answers the rhetorical question of the line from Isaiah by declaring, But we have the mind of Christ. Those who experience the illuminating and transforming power of the Spirit are granted Christ’s own capacity of spiritual discernment and the freedom that comes with it.