Why We Don't Understand the Bible
After checking my website analytics for the tenth time in a day, I've asked myself too many times, "What's the point of a Bible study no one reads?" It sounds like good stewardship, but the real question is more uncomfortable: What's the point of a Bible study that doesn't get me anything? That I could want to write about the crucifixion to get me status is proof that I still don't understand what God is doing.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Yet we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing. Rather, we speak God's wisdom as a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God planned before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age has understood it. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: "What no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, and what has never entered the human heart, is what God has prepared for those who love him." But to us God has disclosed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit fathoms everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit within them? In the same way, no one has understood God's thoughts except the Spirit of God. Now we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things God has freely given us. And these are the things we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual truths to spiritual people. The unspiritual person does not accept what comes from the Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him. He cannot understand it, because it is examined spiritually. The spiritual person examines everything, but he himself is examined by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
The city of Corinth was known for its love of oratory. Traveling teachers called Sophists delivered the TED talks of their day. Their polished speeches drew crowds, built reputations, and made for a good living. Further, the leaders of their city had all the advantages that their culture's wisdom could offer: education, credentials, political influence, and wealth. So the Corinthian church thought they knew what wisdom was for (gaining status) and how to wield it (impressively). Paul outmaneuvers them on their own turf. He acknowledges wisdom's value, but shows that their understanding is foolish. Instead of lifting them high, their self-congratulatory approach will bring them to nothing. The proof is public: the "wise" were the ones who shamefully crucified the Lord of glory. So how can they be trusted to tell us anything about life or God? Any wise person would take into account this catastrophic error and recalibrate their understanding of true wisdom. One reason we misunderstand the crucifixion is we downplay its significance. We see it as a temporary inconvenience for God, as a one-time irregularity, or something God reluctantly did to raise us up to heaven. That's how everyone has always thought about God: too glorious to suffer. But now God has disclosed what no "wise" person has ever understood: he always planned for the crucifixion to be how he revealed his wisdom and glory. God is love, and so the ultimate sacrifice for our good was always part of the plan. Why does God's wisdom seem foolish to us? Despite our every effort to make sense of the heavens, there was a fatal flaw. By relying upon ourselves, and gaining increasing mastery over creation, we deluded ourselves into thinking we might also have mastery over the Creator. But God is personal, and the only way to get to know a person's most intimate thoughts is if they share them with you. There's no logical pathway to deducing God's plans. So the pathway to wisdom, counter-intuitively, is to humbly receive God's Spirit into our spirits, so that he can share his wisdom with our hearts. What separates the wise and the fools is whether or not they have listened to the Holy Spirit explaining the most important spiritual realities. How can we tell? If they leverage their insights to impress us and gain power, then we know they are unspiritual. But if they follow the pattern that Jesus established, and lay down their lives to serve others, then we can see that their lives are governed by the mind of Christ. In God's wisdom, he wanted to die for us, and live with us because he loves us enough to share his heart with us.
How have you seen someone with impressive credentials be completely wrong about God?
What would change if you thought that being like Christ was the best gift God could give you?
What in you resists God's wisdom, that he always intended to die on the cross?
Talk with a friend about the ways you've each tried to use God for your own advantage rather than allowing his Spirit to reshape the trajectory of your lives.