“March 11, 2024 - Secret and Hidden Wisdom”

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Secret and Hidden Wisdom

Reading:  1 Corinthians 2:6-10
    
    Paul has been reminding the Corinthians that his preaching work among them was “not in plausible words of wisdom”(1 Cor 2:4).  But that doesn’t mean that the message does not contain wisdom.  “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although that it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.  But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory”(1 Cor 2:6-7).  There is brilliance, insight, and deep meaning in the gospel, but it is not the type of wisdom Greek philosophy prizes.  Nor is it the style of wisdom that informs “the rulers of this age” of the best way to govern and consolidate power.  It is instead something “secret and hidden”—overlooked, disdained, taken for granted, and ignored.

    Especially is it secret and hidden because it is not produced my human insight or experience.  “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’”(1 Cor 2:9).  Human beings could not have concocted the story of the cross, nor could they conceive of the future glory that awaits those God blesses.  We do not think our way to Jesus; often our thinking is what leads us away from him.  Instead, we perceive it only as God reveals it to us through his Spirit (1 Cor 2:10), here mediated through the apostles (1 Cor 2:12-13).

    Paul wants us to stand in awe of a God who can save the world in a totally unexpected way—even using “the rulers of this age” to unwittingly accomplish it (1 Cor 2:8).   It is a lesson in humility:  we can never, ever predict God’s next move or reduce him to a formula.  But there is also great wonder here:  if we can trust this God and go along with his unexpected plans, he has prepared great things for those who love and obey him.  We cannot even imagine what good he has in store for us!

-----------
One Thing to Think About:   What is the “wisdom of this age” in my time?  Does it acknowledge Jesus?  

One Thing to Pray For:  Willingness to rely on what God has revealed about himself—not just my thinking 
 

Share