Deep Wisdom
(based on 1 Corinthians 2:1-12)
In our New Testament reading from the first letter to the Corinthian Church, Paul told how he came to Corinth and found a city that was committed to philosophy and wisdom. Even after the church had begun there, the Christians were still exalting the wisdom of the philosophers. But Paul says the meaning behind the cross of Christ undercuts all the pride, all our boasting, and our power and glory. Instead, Paul speaks of what he calls "the secret and hidden wisdom of God” which can only be made available to us through the Holy Spirit.
This “secret and hidden wisdom” of God through the Holy Spirit is intended to mold us into the kind of human beings that God designed us to be; to produce knowledgeable and courageous people, who are -- loving, compassionate, strong and yet merciful and tender-hearted, filled with grace, beauty and strength. That is what knowing the secret and hidden wisdom of God is supposed to do to us. It is a deeper wisdom than what Paul found in the searching hearts of the people in Corinth. It is a deeper wisdom than what is sometimes taught by our own leaders today.
Paul also eludes to the belief that this deeper wisdom is the fullness of knowledge, the permanent understanding of truth. It is something that does not pass away or fade over the years, nor does it change from one cultural bias to another. It is the center of truth. It is the essence of God.
This deeper wisdom is undiscoverable by natural processes. By this I mean that you cannot learn about it in school; you cannot take a course in it. No philosopher can unfold it. No psychologist or psychiatrist can explain it or teach it to you. "The eye cannot find it," Paul says. In other words, it cannot be found by observation. "The ear cannot discover it," Paul says. So, simply listening to the voices of the past cannot uncover it; you will not read about it in history. It is not even available to reason, or simply to our minds. It is only made known to us through God’s Holy Spirit speaking to our inner spirits – that God spark that is in each of us, that recognizes the divine, that seeks out truth, that stands in utter speechlessness at the awesome works of God. It is in that spark, in that connection of spirits (ours and God’s) that the deep wisdom of God resides.
And it is a truth without which we human beings falter and fail, homes break up, violence breaks out in society, and all the evils we see around us begin to flood in. Therefore, it is the most vital line of wisdom in the world. We could try and search for it, but without the proper eyes to see or ears to hear or heart to feel, a person can never attain it, never acquire it.
God reveals these deeper wisdoms to us only through the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what in us can even know the depths of our thoughts except the spirit within us which speaks to God’s Spirit. And no one can comprehend the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit instructs us with the Word of God and leads us into the truth of God that changes lives and exposes us to this secret and hidden wisdom of God. When you finally discover that inner connection to God through the power of the Holy Spirit life changes completely. This deeper wisdom from God sets us free to become the very person God created you to be.
Do you ever try to tell your troubles to your dog or your cat? I know a lot of people who do. There are dog people and there are cat people and there are a few of us that are simply pet people. One could claim the old adage that a dog is man's best friend; man being used in the generic sense. But I think this phrase could really be used for most pets; I’m leaving reptiles, fish, and insects out of this as I don’t see them in the same way as I do dogs, cats, rabbits or even pet birds.
What does your pet do when you talk to it? It responds doesn’t it. The dog might whine, the cat might purr, they might wag their tail, hop over to you or flap their wings – all depending on what type of pet you have. Somehow the pet knows you're trying to get something across to them; and they are trying hard to understand, and yet, as comforting as their responses might be, they’ll never fully comprehend the depths of your anguish, pain, sorrow, joy, happiness. Afterall, they are only a pet. However, if you were to sit down and tell your troubles to your wife or husband, your brother or sister, your mom or dad, your best friend; they will understand. Why? Because the spirits within us can sympathize or empathize with the same kind of emotions, with the same depth of feelings and understandings. We share a common basis of knowledge.
Now here is this great Being of God in our universe, this fantastic Being of infinite wisdom and mighty power. How can we know anything about this God? Paul's answer is that we cannot, except for what God discloses to us. The level at which God operates is so foreign and unattainable to us, that we simply cannot comprehend it no matter how hard we try – just like our pet at home who tries hard to understand us and does to a certain extent, but not completely.
So, we cannot find, or discern, or understand God by searching. Our wisdom alone cannot know God. Our investigative powers, regardless of how immensely amazing they become, will never fully comprehend the entire dynamics of the natural forces that create, sustain, and move life forward. Only God knows these things and only reveals to us what we can comprehend through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In order for us to understand a tiny portion of the knowledge and depths of wisdom that God holds, God sent a son, God-made-flesh, so that we might have a visible demonstration of what God is like. The simplest answer to the question, "What is God like?" is to say God is like Jesus, under all circumstances. But it is the work of the Spirit, through the written record of Christ, that we comprehend what Jesus is like. As the Holy Spirit illuminates those pages and makes them vivid and real to us that we find ourselves confronted with the living, breathing Christ himself. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
And that is really what we try to do each and every Sunday when we gather here for worship; in our music, and in our prayers, in the words that we say and the words that we hear. It is to make the pages of this book come alive through the life of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that our own inner spirits speaking to the Holy Spirit might catch a glimpse of that deep wisdom of God.
On his missionary journeys across the ancient world, Paul lived among the people preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In certain places he adapted his teaching a bit. When he arrived in Corinth, the people were used to a hierarchy of power. They had been under Roman rule for a long time and were accustomed to the teachings of philosophers and great orators. But Paul chose to come to them in a different way. He did not preach to them with lofty words or to even try to speak of the mysteries of God. Instead, he spoke to them plainly of Jesus Christ and the purpose of the cross.
Under those kinds of teachings, they were challenged to receive the deep wisdom of God, not because they sought it, but rather because the Holy Spirit convicted them of it.
That is the process. It begins with the indwelling of the Spirit in the teachers from the Bible like Paul, who then preached and taught Christ crucified and what that means for the hearers, then comes the indwelling of the Spirit in the hearers lives by belief in that word taught and experienced and finally the illumination of the deep wisdom of God by the power of the Holy Spirit who allows each believer to glimpse an understanding of that deep wisdom of God as it fits his or her life directly. And this process has occurred in every generation from those we read about in Scripture down to us today. And it is our job to pass on that process to our children and to those whom we come into contact with now.
That is the process by which this great body of fascinating truth, the secret and hidden wisdom of God which is intended for our glorification, will begin to change our lives, our homes, our families, our community, our nation, and ultimately, the whole of the world. It describes to us why the world can never solve its problems, why it is locked into the same pattern of failure, generation after generation, and the only breakthrough that can ever occur is for someone to opens his or her mind and heart to the word of the Spirit, to be taught by the Spirit, and to begin to live on the basis of these life-transforming things. Only then will the deep wisdom of God become part of our every day existence with one another.
So, my prayer for you today is that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, impart to you a deeper wisdom for your own life. AMEN
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