Year 2, Day 71: 1 Corinthians 2

Ungreat

I love where Paul begins his words here in 1 Corinthians 2.  He essentially says to them that when he came he didn’t proclaim any great speech to them.  People didn’t come and hear him because of his charisma.  They didn’t come and hear him because of his wealth.  They came and heard him because of his words.

The focus of our Christian life should be about our words.  The focus of our Christian life should be about our proclamation.  The shape and size of the building doesn’t matter.  The programs we offer don’t matter.  What matters is whether or not people are being drawn into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  The deepening of people’s faith matters.

Maturity

Then Paul starts talking about his dealings with the “mature.”  This is a word that has to do more with behavior than with anything else.  One’s maturity is not found in one’s age.  Nor is it found in one’s gender, height, or weight.  One’s maturity is not found in one’s denomination or one’s occupation.  One’s maturity is found in one’s behavior.

Notice that as we move through verses 6-13 we talk a lot about the faith that the “mature” received.  Paul is saying something here that might just not be popular today.  We can’t teach just anyone to have a deep faith life with God.  One must be spiritually mature in order to learn how to have a deep faith life.  This may anger us, because it immediately means that we must “evaluate” one another’s spirituality.  We might have to judge one another.  But Paul did that kind of thing all the time.

If you think about it, it makes sense.  We don’t give a baby solid food until they have started to develop their teeth.  They just can’t handle it.  We don’t teach 6 year-olds how to drive.  They just can’t handle the responsibility – and I’m not sure how many 20 year olds can handle it!  We don’t teach Geometry to 4^th graders – although we might teach “shapes.”  We don’t teach the theory of Political Science to people who aren’t in college.  We are always judging when people are ready to understand something deeper – why should faith be any different?

Interestingly enough, I was watching the “Andy Griffith Show” today – yes, believe it or not I do really enjoy the old-old reruns.  One of the plot points in the show I watch was when Opie found an abandoned baby and thought he needed to find a suitable parent for it.  Of course, he goes around during the day asking all the housewives that he knows if they would like to have a baby.  The women think Opie is talking about something completely different, naturally.  Andy and Aunt Bea have a discussion about whether or not Opie is ready for the “sex talk.”  This demonstrates that we make these kinds of decisions about other people all the time.

Thus, one does not simply walk into church and assume that you can know everything just by being present.  Sometimes we have to work for maturity.  Sometimes we need to spend time in God’s Word – lots of time in God’s Word.  Sometimes we need to come together with one another in prayer.  Sometimes we need to serve one another.  But we must practice our faith to become mature – to demonstrate maturity to others and God, even!  So Paul gives us a great lesson here, one that often gets overlooked.

Spiritual Nature

Then Paul ends this chapter with a conversation about spiritual nature.  Notice that Paul says that the spiritual things are imparted upon the spiritual.  The natural person is incapable of understanding the spiritual things.  The natural person who through an outward appearance seems to be spiritual is not capable of understanding spiritual things.  The only people who are capable of understanding spiritual things are spiritual people.

Again, this point just makes sense.  Yesterday we read that the message of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.  If the cross is folly to the perishing, then all things spiritual are folly to the perishing.  Paul says as much at the end of this chapter.  Who can fathom the mind of God?  No, in order to understand spiritual things one must in fact be spiritual.  One must be born of the Holy Spirit and have the Holy Spirit within you to be able to understand spiritual matters.

<><