But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God…

1 Corinthians 2:7a

While urging Corinth to repent of elevating human wisdom over God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:18-2:5), the apostle acknowledges, “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” (2:6).  Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand that not all wisdom was bad.  He understood that he and his fellow apostles and teachers had imparted a kind of wisdom to their hearers, albeit a wisdom different from the carnal, human wisdom touted by the Greek philosophers and Roman rulers of their day.  Such men were “doomed to pass away.”  In contrast, the wisdom found within the apostles’ teaching came from God and thus would never pass away nor be found to be irrelevant nor ineffective (cf. Matt. 24:35; Ps. 119:89, 98-100; Is. 40:8).  Those who are spiritually “mature” would recognize it as such.

This “wisdom of God” is described by Paul as “secret and hidden” (2:7a).  “Secret” (musterion, from which we get our word mystery), refers literally to a closed mouth and figuratively to something not spoken because it was unknown, which is why Paul also referred to it as “hidden.”  Mankind on our own could never find nor comprehend the wisdom which comes from God.  The only way the Corinthians of old and we today could come to know this divine wisdom is through the Holy Spirit inspiring the apostles and prophets who wrote the Scriptures, thus sharing God’s wisdom with us (2 Pet. 1:19-21; Eph. 3:3-5).  What God had not fully revealed before, he would reveal now (Rom. 16:25-26; cf. Matt. 13:17; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:10-11).

The apostle now elaborates on this fact, noting first that this wisdom of God was “decreed” by the Almighty “before the ages for our glory” (2:7b).  Thus, before “the beginning” when “God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), God had in mind his plan to save mankind from their sins and bring them into the eternal glory of heaven (cf. Mk. 16:15-16; John 14:1-3; 2 Tim. 4:6-8).  It had always been God’s plan for Jesus to die on that cross.  Yet Paul alludes again to how such a plan was beyond the scope of man’s wisdom, writing that “(n)one of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (2:8).  God’s plan to save mankind would be through means which man could not imagine, by means of their Savior dying a criminal’s death to save their souls (1:18, 21-24).

This is what Isaiah had prophesied 700 years earlier (Is. 64:4), a prophecy Paul now cites:  “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’” (2:9).  Many brethren read this passage and understandably (yet mistakenly) apply it to our eternal reward in heaven.  However, Paul specifies exactly what he is referring to in the next verse, and it is not heaven.  Rather, “these things” – i.e., what is referenced in Isaiah’s quoted prophecy in verse 9 – “God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (2:10a), contextually the “secret and hidden wisdom of God” (2:7), the teachings of Jesus and his Father which the apostles were giving the church through Holy Spirit inspiration (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 14:37; John 14:26; 16:12-15).

Elaborating on the value of what the Spirit had given the apostles, Paul writes, “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  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” (2:10b-11).  No human except yourself – your own spirit or mind – knows specifically what you are thinking (although others can have a generalized idea of the condition of your heart by observing your words and actions – Mk. 7:20-23; Matt. 12:34-35).  The same is true of God.  Only the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God.  Just as one cannot know exactly what I am thinking unless I tell them, no one can know the thoughts of God unless the Spirit of God reveals them.  This the Spirit of God has done, by inspiring the writers of Scripture (2 Pet. 1:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:16).

That’s how valuable your Bibles are.  They contain the thoughts of God.

— Jon