Spiritual Wisdom
The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, enables us to discern good from evil and live a righteous life. How He does this is difficult for the finite mind to comprehend, but Paul offers some explanation of the process in 1Cor. 2:6-16. First, the natural person cannot understand spiritual truth. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (vs. 9). It is humanly impossible to understand the wisdom of God through our natural channels of perception and our limited ability to reason, “but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (vs. 10a).
Second, the Holy Spirit knows all things and reveals the nature of God and His will. “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (vs. 10b). Third, as believers we have not received the spirit of this world, but we have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit makes known to us the things freely given by God. Fourth, we have the mind of Christ, because the very presence of God is within us. Fifth, the Holy Spirit takes words (logos), that are not taught by human wisdom but by the Spirit, and combines (brings together, or explains) them. The original language literally reads, “spirituals with spirituals.” That phrase is translated in the NIV Bible as, “words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truth in spiritual words” (vs. 13b).
Recall that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Paul says, we are to be made new in the attitudes [literally, the spirit] of our minds (Ephesians 4:23). The Holy Spirit discloses to us the mind of Christ as we study God’s Word. The Holy Spirit then enables our thoughts and renews our minds with the Logos. The peace of Christ rules in our hearts as the Words of Christ richly dwell within us (Col. 3:15,16). Finally, the peace of God guards our hearts and our minds (Phil. 4:7).
We may not fully understand how God does this, but we don’t have to in order to believe that He does. Nobody can fully explain the virgin birth of Jesus, the mystery of the incarnation, the Holy Trinity, and the miracle of our new birth, but liberated Christians believe it. When we choose to believe what God says is true, the Holy Spirit renews our mind and we begin to understand and see more clearly. Those who refuse to believe God and His word until they fully understand will never fully understand. Those who choose to trust God and live accordingly by faith are blessed and began to understand more fully as they mature in Christ. Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus and believed prompting Jesus to say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20: 29).
Dr. Neil
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