Spiritual Wisdom

“Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God. … But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:12, 16 CSB)

People have personal areas of interest, as do churches. The Corinthian church had a particular interest in “wisdom.” Their interest was not in wisdom in the generic sense but in the sense of the mystical. In their case, we find a church that allowed itself to be influenced by the culture of the day. Greeks, as Paul noted earlier in his letter to the Corinthians, are fascinated by wisdom and philosophy. Thus, many of the church members brought that interest with them into the church, and that impacted the fellowship. Some of the members believed that wisdom and knowledge was the way to the understanding of life.

Paul acknowledged that wisdom and knowledge and understanding are good things, but he was determined that Greek ways and understandings would not become a dominant theme of the church. For Paul, the only wisdom that had real value was spiritual wisdom, and that wisdom came from one source only: the Holy Spirit. The proponents of Greek wisdom were, in fact, promoting a prideful view which said, “I have wisdom, and you do not. I know the way, and you do not. Therefore, you must do what I say.” What Paul taught was that every believer has “spiritual wisdom,” or wisdom which comes from the same Spirit who dwells in each of us.

Paul said that the Spirit of God searches everything, even the deep things of God. He said that just as the spirit of a man is the only one who knows what is in a man, so the Spirit of God is the One who knows the heart concerns of God. Thus, the Holy Spirit imparts to us “the mind of Christ,” and enables us to understand what is important to God and how we should thus live. This kind of wisdom is the kind that counts, because it is eternal and spiritual in nature and not based on an IQ. In fact, this kind of wisdom is only available to those who receive the Spirit of God into their hearts and minds. It is not obtainable by human intelligence.

Today, while we acknowledge the importance of education, learning, knowledge, and the logic of philosophy, let us also affirm that spiritual wisdom is far superior in that it comes from the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind of Christ and instills that in us. May we march to the drumbeat of the Spirit of God and not according to the drumbeat of the world’s values.

Father, We celebrate the spiritual wisdom that You impart to us. Help us to use it today to help us live the kind of lives that glorify You. Amen.