We think we are making wise decisions, all the while ignoring the counsel of God’s Word. Just as the Corinthians relied on worldly wisdom, many Christians today still search in all the wrong places for discernment and insight. True wisdom that pierces the senses can only be received and understood through a special revelation from the Spirit of God: “For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets” (1 Corinthians 2:10, NLT). No unenlightened minds have perceived the mysteries of God, for they are beyond human thinking. No unregenerated ears have heard and received the truth in the gospel message of salvation. This is what no ordinary human eyes have seen-the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And in His inscrutable wisdom, God planned to bring along all those who love Him to share in His glory. Long before the world began, the heavenly Father chose to send His Son to die on a cross and become the way of salvation. Wisdom is the message of Jesus Christ crucified.
Paul summed up mature Christian wisdom as the message of the gospel: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV). But the rulers of this world have not understood it if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord” (1 Corinthians 2:6–8, NLT).
No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God-his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. If the world’s rulers had understood the message of the gospel, they would never have crucified Christ: “Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. Paul taught that God’s wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12–14) and only understood by the spiritually mature. They were valuing worldly intelligence and philosophy above the Christian message. The believers in Corinth were relying on human wisdom to deal with problems in the church. As part of a more extensive teaching about the difference between human wisdom and the wisdom in the message of the gospel, Paul borrowed from the book of Isaiah: “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4, NLT). In 1 Corinthians 2:9, the apostle Paul made a statement that has thrilled and intrigued believers for many generations: “But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived’-God has prepared these things for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, CSB).
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