Last night we finished our look into how we as Christians justify our claim to know things by looking at how the Holy Spirit is the revealer of the the things God wants us to know. Here are the notes:
A Christian Epistemology, Part 4: The Holy Spirit and Our Knowledge
1 Corinthians 2:1-8 – There is a wisdom and knowledge which is not understood by the current age.
1 Corinthians 2:9-16 – But God gives us this knowledge by His Spirit.
So what is going on here?
- First, remember that, as we saw in the first study of this series, all knowledge is personal. See Proverbs 1:7. To truly know anything (especially the truths Paul’s discussing in 1 Corinthians), we must be rightly related to the One who has all knowledge.
- But, we all have a broken relationship with Him. Sin is the thing that causes this disconnection.
- The story of Scripture is the story of how He repairs that break and restores the relationship.
- The Old Testament tells, through recounting the history of Israel, of a cycle of sin and exile. But God begins to promise something which will fix it: The New Covenant. See Ezekiel 36:25-28, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Luke 22:20
- The New Covenant is God’s way of repairing the relationship. He puts His own Spirit in our hearts so that we love Him, and have the desire and power to please Him. This puts us back in right relation to Him. (See Romans 8:15-16, John 3:19-21)
- Once we’re in right relation to Him, He gives us knowledge again.
1 Cor 2:6-8
What is this wisdom of God? See 1:18-25. It is the message of God’s way of saving people: through the crucifixion of Christ. His wisdom is to provide the one thing we needed. In human thinking however, we were fine without Him. (Hence, Genesis 3). God’s way of doing it seems foolish to us. This fundamental bit of knowledge is the thing we can’t figure out on our own. (see Matthew 11:25)
1 Cor 2:9-12
God’s Spirit knows God’s thoughts. When He is in us, He reveals God’s thought to us. Then we can know the things God has decided we should know.
1 Cor 2:13
When we talk about these things with people, we are not simply giving our opinions, we are speaking the God has given to us.
1 Cor 2:14-16
But these things cannot be embraced by the person who insists on thinking without God’s help. Only those who admit their need get it. We have the mind of Christ!
Challenges:
- Are we submitting to God? Are we in right relation to Him?
- Are we allowing our minds to be submitted to Him? Do we allow knowledge to come from Him, or are we insisting on thinking autonomously?
- Are we cultivating our walk with Christ, so that we are receiving the life of the Spirit in constant supply?