1 Corinthians 2

Good Afternoon Brothers,

Just a few quick notes before we start.  I missed an opportunity to improve our group recently and I apologize to you for that.  Micah emailed us with some prayer requests the other day.  I added them to my list and failed to carry the thought one step further.  Why not have a list of prayer request attached to the bottom of the study?  We could all contribute to the list, pray for the same things, and when the prayer is answered, rejoice together.  What do you think?  Thanks Micah, sorry it took me so long.  By the way, let us know the status of Dennis, Rick & Joanna. 
 
I sent the study yesterday and received 2 emails in return, Praise God!  Thanks Lee, I read through your email several times, I hope that you find time to contribute more often.  Also thanks Derrick, his question "1 Corinthians sounds good to me.  I was wondering are looking for feed back from everybody on a daily basis.? Darrick"  I would be grateful for any contributions you may have.  I am trying to take the emails and copy and paste them to a word document so we can all have a record if we wish for later.  The wealth of information and insights that we have as an aggregate group is tremendous.  If you have an insight and don't mail it to the rest of us, you are cheating us out of a blessing.  I don't expect you to email every day, but if you feel led, do it.  I am trying to mail each day just to keep us on track.  I feel that if we aren't receiving mail, we will all drift away from this commitment very quickly.  It is also a selfish move on my part,  if I write about something I find that I learn so much more, (just the way that I tick).

 Finally to get to our study.  I noticed a key thought carried through from Chapter 1, that of wisdom.  Paul throughout the chapter compares the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God.  In verse 1 note that he does not use his wisdom to speak about this subject.  If anyone wished to speak from his experience, Paul could have.  Looking at his background, how he was saved, and what he accomplished after he accepted Christ, no one could have better speak from his wisdom or experience. 

 vs. 2-5  Paul kept the message simple, "Jesus Christ and Him Crucified"  In the face of turmoil, this simple message cuts to the heart of the matter.  Look, the wisdom of God is equated to the Power of God,  powered by the Holy Spirit.  Man's wisdom is discarded as useless and ineffective.  Sounds like an Eveready battery commercial.  God's wisdom is the power that keeps us going and going and going, mans wisdom runs out quick and is powerless.

 vs. 6-8  Wisdom is clarified.  The wisdom of the world passes away as men die.  However, God's wisdom is a mystery, hidden , predestined for us, which the world cannot understand.  If it did understand it, Christ would not have been crucified.  Worldly wisdom, would have been not to have crucified Christ so that the world would not be redeemed.  Christ wisdom demanded a sacrifice for the sin of the world, I'll bet the devil is still kicking himself for trying to kill Christ Jesus!

 v. 9  Probably one of the more misquoted verses out of the Bible.  We see in context that it is referring to wisdom, yet how many times has it been used to refer to worldly riches?  This reminds me of a point made at church recently,  as a modern church we have created a distorted view of God.  Misquoting verses such as this one contributes to this distortion, God does not promise that if we are Christians everything will always be great for us.

vs. 10-13  Wisdom is defined.  The Spirit reveals to us wisdom, God's thoughts.  Man knows man's thoughts, God knows God's thoughts and is willing to teach us to think them.  If we are to think God's thoughts, first we must believe Jesus Christ and Him crucified, second our hearts must be willing to listen.  I reflect on my life and see so many hindrances to listening.  We in the information age have tremendous hindrances to this listening process, movies, media, plush lifestyles and the internet.  I am reluctant to pursue this train of thought, each person must make his own decisions on how and what controls his life.  That that occupies the mind rules the life.  I hope that each of us has made Christ truly Lord, and is listening to the Holy Spirit for instruction.

vs.. 14 The natural man cannot possibly understand God's thoughts.

vs. 15,16  The Spiritual man appraises all things, thinks about them, and has the mind of Christ.  How tremendous!  This is certainly something to think about.

Let's examine our lives to see if we are existing on our wisdom, or if we are listening to the Spirit and have the mind of Christ.  I pray that He will give us all the ability to evaluate our lives by what we have read and to make the changes necessary in order to live fully in the Spirit.  That each of us will experience the reality of having the mind of Christ.  Also that He will enlighten each of us as we study His word together.

Remember to pray for Dennis's wife that she will be healed, for Rick and Joanna that they will grow through the loss of a loved one, and that all of them will come to know Jesus.  Pray for my son James, we are praying that the Lord will bring him back to the fold. (Email your requests, if the log gets too long, we may need to email a separate letter just to cover this,  we'll work it out as we go along.

In Him,

Joe Turner