(2 Corinthians 2: 1 – 16)
Delivering God’s Message (Verse 1 – 5)
The world today is invaded by a lot of eloquent speakers who are making money as motivational speakers. They come with inspiring words and methodologies of how you can live a successful life. They come with wise words that remain as quotable quotes (also known as words of wisdom). They have become authorities in the fields they operate in. Some of them are even using such eloquence to teach or preach the word of God.
However, Paul chose not to be caught up in this web:
• He did not use eloquence or superior wisdom to proclaim the mystery of God.
• He decided not to analyze his audience or try to understand the people to whom he was proclaiming the testimony of God and how he can pitch his presentation to be acceptable. All he decided to know was the message of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion.
• He came to the church of Corinth in his low state, lacking self confidence and obviously not fit to stand before a crowd.
“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith may not rest in men’s wisdom, but on God’s Power,” (I Corinthians 2:4-5).
There is nothing wrong with eloquence. There is nothing wrong with the words you use to spread the word of God – but it is an issue of motive and the end result. The motive should be to serve the Lord. The end result should be people praising the God rather than you as the messenger of God.
Paul says his message and preaching was with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. The motive was to demonstrate the power of the Spirit that was leading him and the end result was that people rest their faith on God’s power.
God’s Secret Wisdom (verse 6 -10)
Psalm 25:14 says the Lord confides in those who fear him and Psalm 111:10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
God bestows unto us his wisdom once we start to fear him (profound respect). We can only fear him if we have faith in him. Fearing him means we begin to have a friendly relationship with him. He confides in us. You confide in someone that will understand what you are telling him. You confide to someone who is mature enough to comprehend the secret you are sharing and will be mature enough to handle it.
Therefore we need to mature in our relationship with God. Paul (called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God) says, “We do however speak a message of wisdom to the mature… …God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began,” (2 Corinthians 2: 7).
As you mature in fearing God, the Lord increases your wisdom and you gain access to what God has placed in a safe place for you. There is a wisdom that God has hidden and you can only access it once you grow in his knowledge and understanding. This is the wisdom “that God destined for our glory before time began” (which God decreed before ages for our glorification). God reserved a portion of our glory which we can only attain once we are mature.
God’s secret wisdom cannot be understood by those who do not know him, who do not believe in him and who do not love him. Paul refers to the rulers who crucified Jesus says if they understood God’s wisdom they would not have done so. This was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
In short, what God has prepared for those who love him remains a secret and inaccessible to ordinary men. However, Paul says, “But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
The Spirit of God Reveals God’s Secret Wisdom
We have received the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. The Spirit we are talking about here is different from the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world is something that belongs to the world but we received the Powerful Spirit who (a being) comes from God and this is the spirit that makes us understand God’s secret wisdom that has been prepared for us.
This is the spirit that Jesus promised, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you everything I have said to you, “ (John 14: 26).
If we have the Spirit in us, the Spirit will teach us words to express spiritual truths, in spiritual words, to spiritual people. A message from God’s secret wisdom can only be disseminated to those who are mature. That is why Paul says, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature.
Why? It is because men without the Spirit of God cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. The standard is too high for them such that they dismiss such things as foolishness. This is because they “cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned,”
Once you mature, you are able to access God’s secret wisdom; you become led by the Spirit of God; you have the power to make judgment about everything. You also become above reproach, no man can judge you.
In Romans 8:14 the word of God says, “Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” The son of God has the power to make judgment about all things and he is not subject to any man’s judgment.
“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba’ [Father]. So you are no longer a slave but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (Galatians 4: 6-7).
When you start to fear the Lord, you become a child of God and you begin to be wise. As you grow and mature you become a son of God and because God has made you an heir, that is when you can access the wealth of God. That’s when you gain access to God’s secret wisdom.
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