1 Corinthians 2:5-9 (NKJV) 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
I have been praying about 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. If you have been reading this blog, you know that I believe 2020 to be a year of restoration. Restoration means many things, but one of them means to fix what is broken or renew what is old. Obviously 2020 has been a very difficult year in many ways. However, we must understand that in order for God to restore, sometimes he needs to make clear the need for restoration. In the case of this section of scripture, I believe Jesus wants to restore his church to the great commission.
As someone who has been ministering the Word of God for more than 40 years, I am definitely old school in my belief system and how I like things to work. As I said in my last post, we started our ministry in a time of a great move of God. There was a hunger for the Word and the spirit that drove what we did and drew people to our churches. That move of God has passed and with it the general hunger upon which we built. What Paul found in Corinth was similar. It was a powerful secular city that had its own gods, its own culture and saw no need for this obscure Jewish sect called Christianity. What did he do to breakthrough?
What he tells us in 1 Corinthians 2 is the blueprint he used. First, he came with two things. He came with a focus on Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is the simple message of what Jesus did to bring people back into relationship with himself. Second, and just as important, he came in a demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God. In verse 5 he makes a simple statement that is key to what we need to understand from this. He says that he came with this demonstration so that their faith would rest on the power of God and not the wisdom of men.
I believe that our system of reaching the world needs a restoration. Let me be clear. If something is broken that does not make it bad. If something old is in need of restoration that does not mean it is bad. The truth is, I do not believe that there is anything new when it comes to the ministry of the Word of God. I believe we have let some things slip. I also believe that in each age there are some things that need to be updated. The message and method Jesus, and Paul, gave us must always be at the center of what we do. In what we read in 1 Corinthians 2, as well as in the various statements Jesus gave us concerning what his disciples were to do after he left, the simple Gospel confirmed with signs following must be there.
Why is it so important that our faith rest in the power of God and not the wisdom of men? Paul goes on to say that there will be a time to teach wisdom. He is not speaking of the wisdom of “this age nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.” He is speaking of the wisdom of God “in a mystery.” The point of the mystery Paul wanted to teach them is that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has in store for those who love them.”
God has so much more for his people than worldly wisdom can understand. Paul also tells us in this chapter that the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who see only in the natural because the wisdom of God can only be discerned in the spirit. The problem we face in the church is that everything we deal with is natural. The people we want to reach are dominated by natural wisdom. The system in which we must live to reach them is dominated by natural ways of thinking. Education, media, culture and almost every influence on a person’s life is dominated by the natural world and natural wisdom. If we try to bring people to relationship with a supernatural God using “enticing words of man’s wisdom” they will be no more likely to understand the wisdom of God than those who do not know him.
If the church begins to build on things that come from a primarily natural orientation, they lose something. They become more like the world. What they offer becomes less powerful than what the Bible teaches and less different from what the natural world has to offer. In the end, the church becomes a pale imitation of what the world. Many denominational churches followed this path and became social organizations that tried to give a religious touch to social programs. When that happens, the church becomes increasingly irrelevant. We are not here to supplement what the world offers. We are here to offer something far more powerful and, ultimately, more relevant to people than anything the world can give.
Why is the world system incapable of understanding the wisdom of God? Why does the church often turn to that wisdom and reject the hidden wisdom of the spirit? The answer is simple. Their faith rests in the enticing words of man’s wisdom and not on the power of God. They may be Christian words. They may be words of sound doctrine. They may be scholarly words that clearly teach the Word of God. Nevertheless, if the words are all that draw people they will never go beyond the words. Paul understood that there was something greater God wanted his children to see. No eye had ever seen it nor had any ear heard it. There was something God wanted for man that could only be spiritually discerned. Why are we unable to see it?
The answer is in this simple statement from 1 Corinthians 2:5. Paul tells them that their faith had to rest on the power of God, not the wisdom of man. As long as all we have are words, whether they are good words or bad, the foundation will be on natural things. We need to experience a demonstration of the Spirit and of Power. If our faith does not flow from that, what we believed will always be influenced by what we understand of natural things.
Once we experience the real power of God, nothing will dissuade us from believing that God has something for us that natural eye cannot see, and natural ear cannot hear. We will access a wisdom that is not limited to natural possibilities. When we are confronted with physical challenges that have no solution, we will look to a deeper wisdom. We will see the power of God as the solution. That power may take many forms, but we will know that it is available. When everything and everyone says impossible, the power of God will say nothing is impossible.
Faith in this power will enable us to see a world where solutions are available that the natural eye has not seen, and natural ear has not heard. Sometimes these solutions come via means that seem natural, but in retrospect we know could not have happened given our limitations. Sometimes the solution is a suspension of the natural laws people are subject to. When our faith rests in the power of God, we know that there are no limitations to what God can do. He will do things his way and in his time, but we will be able to see that there is always something more.
If our faith rests in the wisdom of man, even good men, we will never rise above what the natural eye can see and what the natural ear can hear. My faith does rest on God’s power. I want to become a channel that will help others find that faith and that wisdom. I want to come to my world knowing nothing buy Jesus and him crucified. I want to come with a demonstration of the Spirit and of his power.