By Scott Guffin
Associate Professor and Executive Director of Christian Ministry, Samford University
GOD SPEAKS
THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT
1 Corinthians 2:6–16
In my estimation, the voices we encounter today are louder and more numerous than they have ever been. I have a setting on my cell phone that tells me every Sunday morning how much time I have spent on average per day on my phone and iPad in the previous week. I have often been tempted to turn off the setting because it serves as a painful reminder of how much time I commit daily to pursuing mostly nothing.
But I am not alone in my weakness. A quick internet search (ironic, I know) of studies reveals that the average American spends 5.5 to 6.5 hours per day on phones and tablets.
In the midst of this constant cacophony of voices, there is one voice that we as followers of Christ must seek out, discern and listen to — the Holy Spirit.
We can’t comprehend His will by our own power or reasoning. (6–8)
Paul insists in verses 1–5 that when he proclaimed “the mystery of God” to the Corinthian church, he did not do so “with brilliance of speech or wisdom” but “with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” In verses 6–7, Paul contrasts “a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age” with “God’s hidden wisdom,” noting that it is a wisdom not known or understood by “the rulers of this age.”
Paul’s message here to us is that the “wisdom” of the world is no wisdom at all and that true wisdom, which emanates from God, is unattainable to us in our natural state. Who will reveal it to us?
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the mind of God. (9–11)
When Jesus informs His disciples in John 16 that He will send the Holy Spirit, He tells them that the Spirit “will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears” from the Father (v. 13).
Paul elaborates on this idea in 1 Corinthians 2:10, explaining that “God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
What an amazing thought that the Spirit, who indwells us as believers, communicates to us the mind of God.
It is important to note here that everything the Holy Spirit says will always be consistent with God’s revealed Word in Scripture because God does not contradict Himself. Indeed, the Holy Spirit’s primary way of communicating with us is through the illumination of God’s Word to us. For this reason, we are called as God’s people to meditate on His Word, that the Holy Spirit might “turn on the lights” of His truth for us.
We must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us apply Scripture to our lives. (12–16)
In this passage, Paul notes that “the person without the Spirit” is unable to receive the things that come from the Spirit because those things are spiritually discerned. We as believers, however, have received “the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.”
As the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s Word to us and we position ourselves to receive it through prayer and meditation, the Spirit helps us not only with knowledge and insight but also in application and transformation so that we may be conformed more and more to the image of Christ.
God is speaking to us through His Spirit. Are we listening?
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