Words Of The
Spirit
Brothers
and sisters, when I came to you I didn't come with fancy words or great wisdom.
I preached to you the truth about God's love. I made up my mind to pay
attention to only one thing while I was with you. That one thing was Jesus Christ
and his death on the cross.
When
I came to you, I was weak and afraid and trembling all over. I didn't preach my
message with clever and compelling words. As I preached, the Holy Spirit showed
his power. That was so you would believe not because of human wisdom but
because of God's power.
The words we speak to those who have grown in the faith are
wise. Our words are different from the words of the wise people or rulers of
this world. People like that aren't going anywhere. No, we speak about God's secret
wisdom. His wisdom has been hidden. But before time began, God planned that his
wisdom would bring us heavenly glory.
None
of the rulers of this world understood God's wisdom. If they had, they would
not have nailed the Lord of glory to the cross. It is written, "No eye has
seen, no ear has heard, no mind has known what God has prepared for those who
love him." But God has shown it to us through his Spirit.
The
Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. Who
can know the thoughts of another person? Only a person's own spirit can know
them. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows God's thoughts.
We
have not received the spirit of the world. We have received the Spirit who is
from God. The Spirit helps us understand what God has freely given us.
That
is what we speak about. We don't use words taught to us by people. We use words
taught to us by the Holy Spirit. We use the words of the Spirit to teach the
truths of the Spirit.
Some
people don't have the Holy Spirit. They don't accept the things that come from
the Spirit of God. Things like that are foolish to them. They can't understand
them. In fact, such things can't be understood without the Spirit's help.
Everyone
who has the Spirit can judge all things. But no one can judge those who have
the Spirit. It is written, "Who can ever know what is in the Lord's mind?
Can anyone ever teach him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 22:1-16
When
you try to print out a flat map of a round world, things get distorted. The New
Testament often addresses the distortion that results when the ideas of popular
teachers become more important to us than what God says.
All
human attempts to explain God are inadequate, and can even distort our
priorities, confuse our thinking, and flatten our
understanding of the spiritual life. To keep from distorting God’s truth, we
must rely on God’s power rather than man’s wisdom.
To detect error, expose it to the light of God’s truth.
Our Daily Bread –