I Corinthians 2:6-16 (NIV) 6 We do,
however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this
age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery
that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8 None of the rulers of this age
understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. 9 However, as it is
written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has
heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has
prepared for those who love him—10 these
are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of
God. 11 For who knows a
person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one
knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what
God has freely given us. 13 This
is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by
the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them
foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through
the Spirit. 15 The person with
the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject
to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who
has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of
Christ.
There are times when we need to seek
and ask for God’s specific guidance, but the goal of the Christian life is to
be guided continually by God in all the decisions we make. This kind of
guidance is for those who sincerely want God’s guidance, who have been
instructed in the Christian faith, and who are aware that our will and God’s
will are often in conflict with one another. To live continually in the light
of God’s guidance is summed up in Paul’s declaration that we have the mind of
Christ, and where he uses a strong word for mind – a word that goes beyond
meaning intellectual abilities to include thoughts, feelings, desires, and
will. Paul wants us to recognize and claim the security we have with God.
Several things prevent us from living
continually in the light of God’s guidance. One is the failure to appreciate
the magnificent thing Jesus accomplished for us on the Cross, the way we have
been brought near God by the death of Christ. The Cross has closed the gap
between ourselves and God so we have the very mind of Christ. We are also
prevented from living continually in the light of God’s guidance because of a
false image of God that lingers in our mind and heart, the idea that God wants
us to do something a tyrant might demand of us. Yet all the while God is at
work bringing our wills into harmony with His until we naturally want to do the
same thing He wants us to do. God is not in the business of forcing us to do
the unpleasant against our wills.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs
Pope May 25, 1975
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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