The Teacher
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
I parked on this scripture for a couple of days. So many paths to take here, but all of them speak of the Holy Spirit that is given to believers. Paul had just talked about the mystery of God revealed; the understanding that He gives to us through his Son and his Spirit. The things of God that those that are not children of God do not understand. Paul pours out his heart in prayer to the Ephesians that they may come to understand what is found in and through Christ. Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul is pleading that you come to faith in Jesus Christ, to answer that tug that He is placing on your heart. Paul knows that only through faith, are the mysteries of God revealed.
I never knew until much later in life that an unsaved person cannot understand the Bible. When they read it, to a hardened heart it makes no sense. If it is approached with the desire of a humble heart to find God, He will reveal himself to them. It is in that act of God that he reveals the mystery of Himself. In that act of seeking, His Son is found, and hopefully the lost is eternally saved through God’s work in their hearts and His Word. The best book I have been told for the lost to seek God in is the Gospel of John. You simply cannot read John’s gospel and not see Christ and his deity there. When Christ spoke to Martha, just before He raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, He asked and assured her; 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11). John’s gospel pierces the soul with these questions, questions that the soul begs for answers to.
Throughout this passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul is speaking to the division in the church, much of it relative to the supposed wisdom of men and their sects of division. Paul points to Christ and his Spirit to be the only One lifted up. The teachers of men do not need to be elevated; it is the message, not the messenger that we are to praise. Those that God entrusts to us to aid in helping us to understand are held to a higher standard by him. That weight of responsibility is great, and you should be committed to prayer for your pastors and teachers. All that they seek to aid in revealing to you is a lost cause without a humble heart and a heart that has found wisdom through His Spirit. Once you possess Him, all that you read in His Word will seem clear. You will begin to understand and discern more clearly those that teach. It is all found first with a humble heart that realizes you cannot do it on your own.
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