DAY #247: 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:10

When he was among mature Christians, Paul did speak with words of wisdom, but this was the highest wisdom because it came from God. The “mature” Christians were not those with advanced training but those who had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and had received salvation, as contrasted with those who had rejected it. 

This plan had been made before the world began. God knew the entire cycle of the creation, fall, and salvation through his Son before he made the earth and placed Adam and Eve on it. This reveals God’s great plan for the human race—that despite their downfall, he would bring some to glory.

This “secret wisdom” had not been revealed to the rulers of this world (those who are impressed by worldly wisdom. If these leaders had truly understood who Jesus was and the eternal consequences of rejecting him, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. This is at the heart of Paul’s irony: The very ones who were trying to kill Jesus were actually carrying out God’s will. Thinking they were getting rid of a nuisance—Jesus of Nazareth—they were really crucifying the very Lord of glory, God incarnate. Jesus was misunderstood and killed by those whom the world considered wise and powerful.

Who is the Holy Spirit? God is three persons in one—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God became a man in Jesus so that Jesus could die for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead to offer salvation to all people through spiritual renewal and rebirth. When Jesus ascended into heaven, his physical presence left the earth, but he promised to send the Holy Spirit so that his spiritual presence would still be among mankind. 

The Holy Spirit first became available to the apostles on the day of the Resurrection and then to more believers on the day of Pentecost. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit empowered specific individuals for specific purposes, but now all believers have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them. The statement, the Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets, means that only the Spirit can reveal to believers God’s profound nature and wonderful plan, especially that formerly hidden mystery that is now revealed—salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Because believers have the Spirit, they understand these things. They are able to make right judgments—not necessarily about all matters, but certainly about spiritual matters such as salvation or God’s future blessings, and they will be able to make the necessary discernments regarding them. 

Who among the detractors knew the mind of the Lord so as to bypass the simple message of the cross? In contrast to those who do not have the Spirit and do not know the mind of the Lord, believers do have the mind of Christ. Believers understand fully, as did Christ himself, the significance of the cross and what it meant for mankind’s salvation.

Paul confronted the believers for their lack of maturity in the faith. Instead of growing in the faith, they had let themselves be diverted into quarrels and factions so that Paul could not even talk to them as he would to mature Christians. He had to talk to them in his letters as though they belonged to this world or as though they were infants in the Christian life. 

These believers in Corinth should have long since grown out of the “infant” stage and been maturing in their faith. Instead, they were still acting like “infants”, so Paul had to continue to feed them (teach them) the basics of the faith instead of being able to teach them deeper truths. 

Just as babies drink only milk because they cannot eat solid food, so these “baby Christians” had to keep relearning the basics. Paul longed to teach them deeper truths, but he realized that they weren’t ready because they were still influenced by the world. Their sinful desires indicated that their mind-set was worldly, not characterized by the desires of the Spirit. 

Their jealousy and quarreling proved it. Instead of acting different from the world because of their salvation through Christ, they continued to act like people who don’t belong to the Lord. They were believers, but they were spiritually immature. By remaining immature and allowing that immaturity to divide them, they were wreaking havoc on the church.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)

Spiritual growth is not rocket science, but it does take discipline. Spiritual growth does not happen by osmosis or in your sleep. Spiritual growth happens as a result of intentionality on your part. Read below from one of my messages this year from the series JUMP START.

I was 16 years old when I heard our senior pastor at the time, Pastor Bill Yaeger, read a letter that he had recieved that week from our worship pastor. The worship pastor said he was leaving the church and his wife. He had been having an affair for the past year and he didn’t want to lead a double life anymore.

Shocking as that was, the part of the letter that Pastor Yaeger read,  that grips my heart still today – This worship pastor went on to say how dry his soul was and how it had been 2+ years since he had a quiet time and spent any 1x1 time with the Lord. Folks, that letter is a tragedy on so many levels. It was a tragedy for the families involved – it was a tragedy for the church. And the thing that just drives me nuts – it didn’t have to happen. It shouldn’t have happened. It could have been prevented.

Here’s the truth this morning - until you learn to feed yourself from God’s word you’re never going to be able to grow and be all that God wants you to be.  Until you learn to feed yourself from God’s word, you’ll be open to every temptation, you’ll be prey in our arch enemy – Satan’s hand. You cannot grow and you will not grow to spiritual maturity without the Bible. 

Jesus said in Matthew 4:4  “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" The truth is most believers don’t know how to do that.  We don’t know how to feed ourselves.  In fact most believers have to depend on second hand sources in order to grow.  They depend on pastors, they depend on sermons, they depend on Bible studies, tapes, classes and other things because they don’t know how to feed themselves.

As a human being, one of the marks of maturity is you learn how to feed yourself.  You stop being fed by other people and you start to learn to feed yourself.  This is true in spiritual growth too. The apostle Paul said this when speaking about some the Christians of his day.  Hebrews 5:12, “You’ve been Christians for a long time now.  You ought to be teaching others.  Instead, you still need somebody to teach you...  You’re like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food.”

The Bible is the best selling book in the world.  Most of us probably have three, four or more Bibles in our homes yet most people are biblically illiterate. 

In fact, just this week I read that they did a survey at a high school in Newton, Massachusetts.  They asked a series of questions about the Bible and discovered that most of the high school students thought Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers.  They thought Jesus was baptized by Moses.  They thought the gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luther and John.  And that the epistles were the wives of the apostles. 

There are a lot of people who have the Bible all mixed up and they think things like “God helps those who help themselves,” is out of the Bible.  That’s not in the Bible.  That’s actually Ben Franklin who said that. 

So we have to learn to feed ourselves on the word of God.  How? #1, If you’re going to grow in your Christian faith…

The first thing you have to do is you have to accept the Bible as your authority.  I must accept its authority. How you approach the Bible will determine how much you get out of it.  If you approach the Bible as a skeptic it’s going to be a closed book to you.  If you approach the Bible with reverence and you approach it with humility and you say “God, I want to learn from Your word,” God will use His word to change your life and change your word.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says this “We thank God continually because, when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men but as it actually is – the word of God which is at work in you who believe.”  Notice that the Bible claims to be the word of God.  It’s different than every other book. 

 Before you can study the Bible you have to accept its authority.  This is the starting point.  So before we can even talk about studying the word you need to come to this conclusion that you’re going to say I’m going to accept the word of God – this book, the Bible – as my authority for life. 

When it contradicts culture I’m going to go with the Bible.  When it contracts what seems reasonable, I’m going to go with the Bible.  When it contradicts my feelings, I’m going to go with the Bible.  When it contradicts things that seem rational, then I’m going to go with the Bible.  The Bible is the only thing you can count on that’s perfect on this planet.

 The Bible says about itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.   “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  

Notice it says the word of God is good for four things. Teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. The Bible teaches us what is right. The Bible rebukes us when we are wrong. The Bible corrects our thinking and behavior. The Bible trains us to be the people God wants us to be. Where would you be without the Bible? In a world of hurt.

But it’s not just enough to accept God’s word as your authority, if you’re going to grow as a Christian you’ve got to learn to study the Bible.  That’s the second thing- #2. I must learn to study God’s Word..

A closed Bible doesn’t do any good.  It could sit here on the shelf and it will never help me.  It could sit on my coffee table and gather dust.  I can write names in it of people who’ve died in my family and keep a family Bible.  But if I don’t study this book it doesn’t do me any good. 

I want you to notice some verses.  The Bible says in John 5:39 “Search the scriptures; for in them you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.”  Jesus was talking.  He said we are to search the scriptures.  That means we’re to study it.  We’re not just to read it.  But we’re to study it. 

Then in 2 Timothy 2:15 He says “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that is not ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  God says I want you to learn how to study the Bible. The question now is, what will you do?