The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
by Paul George
The first cause of divisions in the church is the
misunderstanding of the gospel message. The second cause of divisions in the
church is the misunderstanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians chapter two begins with a reminder to the saints at Corinth,
that when Paul came to Corinth he came to tell them about Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, that their “faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God,” (1 Corinthians 2:5).
The real problem in the church was those in Corinth who had turned from the
apostles to other teachers, deceitful men who disguised themselves as apostles.
They were tickling the ears of the Corinthians just as false teachers; the
deceitful workers who disguise themselves as a messenger from the Lord are doing
in the twenty-first century church. The preaching and teaching of the true
gospel message is offensive and foolishness to those seeking to have their ears
tickled. Those who identified themselves with Paul and his preaching the
unbelievers in Corinth labeled them fools. Those who accepted the idea the
preaching of the true gospel message was foolishness and offensive identified
themselves with new leaders whose preaching and messages were far more
acceptable. Associating with them gave themselves a much higher status in the
eyes of the world.
Paul did not deny that his message and preaching were foolish and offensive to
the followers of the ear ticklers; rather, he emphasizes this is so. In verse 6,
Paul makes a sharp right turn. Up to this point, he has admitted the fact that
his gospel is foolish and weak. Now he begins to clarify and expand his
instruction. The true gospel message he preached is foolish and weak to
unbelievers, but it is neither foolish nor weak in the sight of God. This is why
the believers in the church should not regard the true gospel message as foolish
or weak.
The gospel message preached by the apostles is not of “this age.” This is why
the rulers of this age are not able to understand the message. Even those who
are the wisest and most powerful people of this age are unable to understand the
true gospel message. The rulers of this age include both the spiritual rulers
and the human rulers. This is evident at the cross of Calvary. The spiritual
rulers believed they could destroy the Ruler of all ages through the human
rulers of the day. It is obvious the human rulers of the day did not understand
the true gospel message preached by the Old Testament prophets. Evidence of this
is they turned the Messiah over to the Romans who fulfilled the evil intent of
the hearts of the rulers of that day. Today, the deceived and rebellious rulers
of both the secular and religious communities and the people cannot see the true
gospel message clearly manifested to men in the person of Jesus Christ.
At the cross where they crucified Jesus is where man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom
separate. In the person of our Lord Jesus Christ God reveals His wisdom. The
rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ reveals the perverted wisdom of man. The true
gospel message preached by prophets in Old Testament and the apostles in the New
Testament reveal the eternal wisdom of God established in eternity past. The
wisdom of man is limited, temporal. This is why he cannot understand God’s
eternal wisdom. Why he cannot see, hear, or comprehend the things of God. How
then can mere mortals ever know God’s wisdom? The answer, verses 10-16. In
verses 10-13, Paul writes about the doctrines of inspiration and revelation
whereby God has made His wisdom known through the apostles. In verses 14-16,
Paul turns to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer,
enabling him to comprehend the things of God that He revealed in the Scriptures
through the apostles.
How can men know of a God who cannot be seen and whose provisions are beyond
human thought, the answer, through the Holy Spirit, who has imparted the
knowledge of God to and through the apostles in the New Testament Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of God.” Just as the spirit of a man knows the
deep thoughts of the man, so the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, knows the
intimate things of God. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He spoke many
things to His disciples that they did not understand or even remember. Jesus
told them that after His departure, He would send His Spirit. The Holy Spirit
would not only call the things He had spoken to their remembrance, He would also
enable them to understand them so that they could record them for others. In
addition, the Spirit would reveal things to come, things of the coming age.
Jesus told the disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with
you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you”
(John 14:25-26). He told the disciples, “I have many more things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will
guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but
whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of
Mine, and will disclose it to you” (John 16:12-15).
In verses 7, Paul told the Corinthians, “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery,
the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.” A mystery
is something God reveals concerning the future that men do not understood before
its fulfillment because it is beyond human comprehension. After God has
completed a work that was formerly a mystery, He fully discloses that mystery
through one of His apostles. Paul was one of the apostles given the privilege to
speak of several mysteries. In the Book of Ephesians, Paul spoke of the
privilege God had given him as an apostle to reveal some of these mysteries
(Ephesians 1:3-14; 3:1-13; 5:32).
In 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, Paul describes the fulfillment of our Lord’s promise
to His disciples, remember that Paul was divinely added as the twelfth apostle.
Man, Paul is saying, could never know God on his own. However, God has chosen to
make Himself known through His Word and through His Spirit so that the things of
God might be recorded as a part of the Bible. Here is a crucial difference
between the apostles and the false apostles. The apostles claimed to speak for
God, and they did. False apostles claimed to speak for God, and they did not. To
reject the apostles and their teaching as the “wisdom of God” is to reject God,
for they are the only ones through whom God has chosen to disclose Himself. To
reject the apostles’ teaching is thus to reject the God who disclosed Himself to
men through them.
The work of God the Spirit in the lives of Christians in general is spoken of in
1 Corinthians 2:14-16.
God has disclosed Himself to men through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit knows the
intimate things of God and, by inspiring the apostles, has translated spiritual
thoughts about God into spiritual words, the New Testament. In the Old Testament
period, God revealed His Word through the prophets. In the New Testament times,
this revelation came through the apostles. Yet the unbeliever seems blinded to
the truth contained in God’s Word. How can this be? How can some find in the
Bible a rich source of revelation that enables them to know God more intimately,
while others find the Scriptures a senseless mixture of writings that cannot
even be understood, why are some drawn to the Scriptures and others are not? The
difference is the presence or the absence of the Holy Spirit. We see in verses
10-13 that Paul speaks of the Spirit’s work in conveying God’s thoughts to men
by inspiring the apostles to convey spiritual thoughts through spiritual words,
the words of the New Testament. Now, in verses 14-16, Paul writes of the work of
the Spirit, enabling men and women to understand the Scriptures and thus to know
the mind of God.
Previously, Paul divided humanity into two groups: (1) those that trust in the
sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for their eternal
salvation and (2) those that do not. Another way of viewing these two groups
would be: (1) those that do not possess the Holy Spirit, who cannot understand
the wisdom of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and (2) those that do possess
the Holy Spirit, who therefore have the capacity to understand the Scriptures.
The first group Paul refers to as “the natural man” (verse 14). The “natural man
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.” The natural man, who is not
indwelt by the Holy Spirit, cannot understand “the things of the Spirit of God,”
“These are the ones who cause divisions” (Jude 19).
The second group are called “spiritual (verse 15) by Paul. Most often, we
understand the term “spiritual” to refer to those who are mature, who manifest
the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. Paul seems to use it here to refer to
those who possess the Spirit, who live in the realm of the Holy Spirit because
they have trusted in Jesus Christ. The one who possesses the Holy Spirit is able
to grasp and to appraise both temporal and eternal matters.
While the Christian, “he who is spiritual,” is able to appraise all things and
thus to understand the beliefs and the behavior of the unsaved, the “natural
man,” the unsaved man is unable to understand the Christian, “He who is
spiritual.” No wonder Christians are misunderstood, persecuted, and considered
foolish and weak. This is the best the natural man can do.
In verse 16, Paul closes chapter 2 with the words of Isaiah 40:13: “For who has
known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him?” Paul told the
Corinthians, “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). These words
sum up the difference between the non-Christian and the Christian. God has
revealed Himself to all men in the person of Christ and in the Scriptures. The
Scriptures make no sense to the unbeliever. This is because it is impossible for
the unbeliever to understand the things of God apart from the Spirit of God. Who
can know the mind of the Lord? No one can, apart from the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. Note that the words of verse 16 indicate not only the natural man’s
ignorance but also his arrogance. Who would think that any man could instruct
God? But this is precisely what the unbeliever does think. This is why they
think the Christian is foolish and weak.
This final statement sums up the vast difference of opinion that exists between
Christians and unbelievers over “wisdom.” The unbeliever is incapable of
understanding God’s wisdom because the wisdom of the natural man is a limited,
distorted temporal wisdom. The Christian has the means for knowing the mind of
God and thus has access to the wisdom of God. This is why the reaction of the
unbeliever to the preaching of the gospel surprise Christians. In addition, the
Christian should not forsake the vast wisdom God has made available to us in
order to pursue the wisdom that the world seeks.
What a blow this chapter strikes at human pride. Paul came to the Corinthians in
weakness, fear, and much trembling. He came with a message offensive to both
Jews and Greeks. He refused to “know” anything other than the crucified Christ,
for he came to bring the message of salvation. His message was not one of
superior wisdom, one that would appeal to the intellectual Corinthian. His
method of presentation was not one that would naturally draw a crowd or attract
a following. From a merely human point of view, Paul did everything wrong when
he went to Corinth. But what happened? A number of his readers came to faith in
Jesus Christ because of Paul’s mindset, message, and method!
How could Paul do everything wrong, from a worldly point of view and yet sinners
be converted and a church born, human weakness transformed into divine power?
How can human foolishness become divine wisdom and pagan sinners become saints,
the answer, the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The Corinthians had become
mesmerized by men and by human wisdom. They were wrong. What had saved them was
the Word of God and the Spirit of God, working through humble men who proclaimed
a straightforward, simple message of Christ crucified, even though their message
and their methods were unappealing to unsaved men.
Men can come to know God in only one way, through His Word and through His
Spirit. There are many different beliefs about God, but there is only one true
God. All views of God that come from some other source than the Bible are false.
Paul was a devout Jew, deeply religious, committed, and sincere. But he was dead
wrong. When God revealed Himself to Paul, everything suddenly changed. The
things he once prized, thinking they won him favor with God; Paul now counted as
“dung” (Philippians 3:1-11). Now Paul is a new man in Christ. Now he has come to
know God through His Word and through His Spirit. That is what Paul wants for
each one of us.
If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ, you do not know God. The Bible
clearly states, you cannot know God apart from Jesus Christ. You cannot know
Jesus Christ apart from His Word and His Spirit. You cannot know God through
your own wisdom or insight. We cannot see, hear, or touch Him. But He has
revealed Himself through His Word, the Bible. By the ministry of His Spirit, we
can come to know God personally as the One who has provided for the forgiveness
of our sins and for eternal life. God has revealed Himself in His Son, who died
on the cross of Calvary, bearing the penalty for our sins. He has raised Him
from the dead, as proof of His satisfaction with the work of Christ. All we need
to do is believe in the One whom God sent to take away the sin of the world.
It is not according to the popular message of the twenty-first century, hell
will be populated with countless souls who served a “god” of their own making,
and such “gods” are not God at all but only idols of our mind.
Are you serving the God of the Bible or the god of the secular world?
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