I Corinthians
Chapter 2
Vs. 1 Paul tells them that when he came to them he did not use fancy big words and fancy speech to try to impress them.
Vs. 2 Paul said I made up my mind that I would speak only the simple message about Jesus Christ and what he did.
Vs. 3 I was with you in weakness. I had fear and trembled (shook).
Vs. 4 In my talking to you I did not use big fancy words. I did not try to show off my wisdom. I talked to you in the spirit and power of the Holy Spirit.
(The fact was Paul was one of the best educated and learned men of the scriptures. He had studied with a famous teacher in Jerusalem.)
Vs. 5 I did this so your faith would not be built on words of man’s wisdom, but your faith would be built on the power of God.
Vs. 6 When I am with people who have been Christians and are mature (grown-up) in Christian teachings I do share with them my wisdom about the things of God.
But this wisdom I share is not earthly man’s wisdom and earthly man’s thoughts about things, but it is the wisdom I have learned from walking with Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Vs. 7 The wisdom I share with you is about the “mystery” or the hidden things of God. These things have been part of God’s plan from the beginning of the earth, but they have been hidden from man’s understanding until now that Jesus has come and died. Now we understand God’s plan from the beginning.
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(This “mystery” that Paul talks about has to do with the plan that God had for all people to be saved both Jew and Greek (Gentile).
For thousands of years the people of Abraham’s family the Hebrews, Jews were the people God chose to give his promise that a Messiah Savior would be born to their people and he would save them.
Also God’s laws were given to the Hebrew people. God spoke to men called prophets to tell the people what God wanted them to do.
After a time, the Hebrew people began to think of themselves as “special”.
God did choose their people to give the world a Messiah, and to give the world the words of God.
God did not choose them because they were “special” of themselves, God chose them because when he called a man named Abraham to follow Him Abraham followed and obeyed.
So God promised Abraham that his people (future family) God would bless them and God would use his family to be a blessing to the world.
God did use Abraham’s family the Hebrew Jews to bless the world. Jesus was born into the Hebrew Jews through Mary.
But all those years the Jews began thinking of themselves as something “special”. They thought that they were better than other peoples. People who were not of the Hebrew family were thought to be “pigs, dogs” “dirty, unclean”.
The Jews had special foods meat, animals, that they were not allowed to eat. People who were not Jews, ate those animals.
So through the years the Jews people began to have the wrong idea about themselves being “chosen”. It was not because they were so special. It was because God chose a man who would obey Him so he could send His son to earth to be born.
As the years went by the Jews got the idea that God loved only them. That only they would have salvation and go to heaven.
Part of that was true in that a person needs to believe in God in order to go to heaven. The non-Jew Gentile worshipped idols not the God of heaven. So they did not have the hope of going to heaven.
The Jews most of them thought that that was okay. They did not care that the Gentiles would not go to heaven.
Some of the Jews did preach to the Gentiles and tried to get them to become like the Jews in their belief. They tried to get them to believe in God and to obey all the Jewish laws.
So Paul is telling the people at Corinth that God has loved the non-Jew Gentile from the beginning of the world. That God has always planned that the Gentiles be saved from their sin just like the Jews.
The Jews had thought of themselves as ‘special’ for so long they did not think of themselves as needing to be “saved”. They thought that in obeying the Jewish laws they were “saved”.
But when Jesus came and said to the people and Jews you must believe in Me you must believe that I am God’s Son that made a problem for them.
The Jews thought they were fine just as they were. They were obeying God’s laws. Why did they need Jesus?
The Jews most of them never did believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah Savior the One that God promised back in Genesis.
To this day most Jews do not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah Savior.
So Paul is trying to explain all of this to the people at Corinth. He wants the people at Corinth to believe that God loves them and God has always planned for them to be in the family of God.
Paul wants them to understand that all people Jew or Gentile must believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah Savior. And only if they believe in Jesus can they have forgiveness of sin and hope to live in heaven forever.
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Vs. 8 Paul goes on the say the Jews were not the only ones who did not understand who Jesus was. The rulers over the people did not understand either. If they had know who Jesus really was they would not have crucified him.
Vs. 9 Paul says It is written (in Isaiah 64:4)
No eye has seen, no ear has heard
No mind has imagined
What God has prepared for those who love him.
Vs. 10 But God has shown them to us by his spirit. For the Spirit knows and shows them to us.
Vs. 11 No one can know another person’s thoughts. Only that person himself knows what is in his mind. So man can not know God’s thoughts. Only the Spirit of God knows God’s thoughts.
Vs. 12 When we believe and belong to Jesus, and have been “born again” by the Spirit of God then the Spirit of God shows us God’s thoughts about things.
Vs. 13 These are the things I teach to you. I am not teaching you man’s thoughts and wisdom, but I am teaching you things that the Spirit of God has shown to me.
Vs. 14 A man who has not believed in Jesus a man who has not the Spirit of God in him can not understand the thoughts of God. It foolish talk to him.
His spirit has not been changed and born again with the Spirit of God, so he cannot understand the things of God I am talking about.
Vs. 15 A person who has the Spirit of God in him can judge and understand these things.
A person who does not have the Spirit of God in him does not understand these things.
Vs. 16 Who can know what God is thinking ? Who can give advice to God?
But we (who have God’s spirit in us) have the mind of Christ.
( This is something I have learned in being a Christian:
In times when I am in doubt about what decision to make, I pray “give me the mind of Christ”.
As Christians, with the Spirit in us, we have the mind of Christ, but for me it helps to say it and pray it to help me give more attention to the Spirit’s leading.
There have been times when I am been very upset with someone even angry with someone and I feel the Spirit trying to speak to me. When I pray and say, “give me the mind of Christ” in in this thing——–it helps me turn from my angry thoughts and begin to think what thoughts Christ would have about that thing. It helps me to give up my anger and think about that thing in a different way.
We want to always live and think and speak in a way that shows that we have the “mind of Christ” )