Chapter 2

Paul says that it was for this reason he preached a simple sermon, understandable by all.  (He had the education to preach complexity and so on, but chose not to do that, so that all could hear and understand.)  But then in seeming contradiction to all that, there is this verse:

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. [1Co 2:6-7 ESV]

I expect the gnostics would make much of this verse.  MSB says this "secret" refers to things God knew from before time began, and revealed over time as we were ready to receive it or as He was ready for us to know it.  It is not a secret that only the "initiated" can know.  2021 - So it is ok to search out what God has done and how He has done it.  It is ok to search for wisdom at the source of all wisdom.  But this wisdom comes from God, not from man, and is not to be the basis of our "status" in the church, our "worth" in the church or anything along those lines.  It is to bring us closer to God, individually.

He continues and says that the things of God are revealed by the Holy Spirit within us.  Only through the Spirit can we know the thoughts of God.  NOT through Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, and so on.  Man is not the source of wisdom. I like the phrase in verse 13 that says  "....interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."  This is what teachers do.  They confirm what the Spirit is already teaching those who are saved.  They do not impart their own knowledge but confirm what is revealed - on a level appropriate to each person - to every saved soul.

2024 - This one, that I find very interesting:

11 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. [1Co 2:11 ESV].

11 For who among men knows the [thoughts] of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the [thoughts] of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. [1Co 2:11 NASB95].  ESV much better.

Only we know what we really think.  We live in secret in our own heads, no matter what others think they know.  Further, this is characteristic also of God.  In this, we are like him.  In this, we are as we should be.  This is imago dei, but not one we hear about.  This was not in Grudem's shared characteristics of God.  But when the Spirit of God dwells in us - in the saved - THEN we can know much more of the thoughts of God.  We share in his self-knowledge.  What a thought that is!

This verse:

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. [1Co 2:14 ESV]

The test again, or another test?  The unsaved, unregenerate person, without the Spirit of God to communicate Spirit to spirit, sees spiritual revelation as "folly", as silliness, as frivolous fantasy and imaginative fabrication. 

Logic and reasoning do not work for convincing people to be saved.  It is folly to them.  Salvation is in hearing that Jesus was the Son of God, that he died, and rose again, and will come back to get those who believe in him.  Any logical proofs in witnessing should be aimed at showing that Jesus was predicted to arrive and do these things, and that he in fact did arrive and do these things.  Until this is accepted, and a person is saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the deeper things are incomprehensible.  The MSB note on vs 14 says the Spirit gives us the capacity to understand divine truth, but does not imply that it won't take hard work and study to get there.  It also does not imply that no one needs a teacher.