1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-3:4 - WEEK 1 - A REASON FOR UNITY

WEEK 1 - A REASON FOR UNITY

Thursday

1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-3:4

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts 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 understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 But I, brothers [and sisters], could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

WISDOM FROM THE SPIRIT

People in Corinth were influenced by popular mystery religions, which taught that wisdom was secret and only accessible to those who went through the religion’s initiation process and rituals. You had to be in the right group or go through a particular process to be “in the know” and live beyond the limitations of more ordinary people. In contrast, Paul and Sosthenes write that God’s wisdom is “freely given.” When the way of the cross is revealed to us – and when we respond - not only our thoughts and attitudes, but also our relationships are transformed.

QUESTIONS

How do we gain wisdom?

Paul says that believers “have the mind of Christ” (2:16). What do you think this means? Is it difficult for you to believe this? If you have experienced this, what has it looked like?

If we are growing in maturity, what will our lives look like? (3:1-4)