Day 218

Ezra 3:1–4:23; 1 Corinthians 2:6–3:4; Psalm 28:1-9; Proverbs 20:24-25

IN TODAY’S READING from 1 Corinthians, Paul continued his discussion on the “nonsense” of the gospel, which we began yesterday. In effect, Paul advised that God’s plan to redeem the world was ancient and hidden (1 Corinthians 2:7) but was revealed in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit —for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

If you read that last sentence through your own human understanding of the world —if you do not believe there is more to our existence than our five physical senses —Paul’s words make no rational sense. However, once you’ve felt the truth of that sentence flooding into your soul, you can’t see the world (and your place in it) any other way —which is difficult to describe to a person who doesn’t see the world spiritually. Paul explained it like this:

The rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. . . . But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.

So how do we reconcile the disconnect between our own reason and the awareness that our spiritual reality is more tangible than anything else in the world? This is precisely what Paul was attempting to explain:

No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. . . . But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

In other words, the human mind alone cannot reason the ways of God; we need something more than our own minds. For Paul, only one reality would reconcile the disparity. In explaining it, he gave us one of the most quoted verses in the Scriptures: “But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

All of this can sound highly technical and theological. So how do we boil it down into something we can live into today? Thankfully, words much more ancient than the apostle Paul’s offer us clear direction from the voice of Wisdom: “The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?” (Proverbs 20:24).

As we move through the day, let’s pay attention to God’s direction. Seeing the world through spiritual eyes is not something we have to figure out. It’s something we are to enjoy.

MEDITATION:

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9, (See also Isaiah 64:4)