SERMON: “The Spirit’s Hidden Wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:6–13)
“The
Spirit’s Hidden Wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:6–13)
Series:
“1 Cor: Holiness from
Messes” #8 Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6–13
By:
Shaun Marksbury Date: November 16, 2025
Venue:
Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
I.
Introduction
Arising from the late first century was a
movement known as Gnosticism. It grew to
dominate in early church history, drawing on Greek philosophy, Jewish
mysticism, and Persian dualism. At its
core, Gnostics taught that the material world was not the creation of the true,
transcendent God but of a lesser, flawed deity who trapped human souls (divine
sparks) in bodies of flesh. They said
salvation was not achieved through faith and repentance but through gnosis
— a secret, experiential knowledge that awakened the soul to its divine origin
and enabled it to escape from its prison of matter. To an elite few, they imparted this saving
“knowledge” through a series of myths, passwords, and initiations.
What made this secret knowledge so
intoxicating? It promised a certainty
and superiority which appealed to pride.
With knowledge of hidden things, they thought they could have power amid
persecution which would help them to arise above both Rome and the
synagogue. It also fed a mystical hunger
of the seeker that early churches typically avoided. In texts like the Gospel of Thomas or The
Secret Book of John, Jesus isn’t merely a savior through the cross; He’s a
cryptic guide. For many, that felt more
liberating than public creeds ever could.
There are always people looking for hidden
wisdom, and there is certainly a wisdom that is a mystery to the world. However, you don’t need to join a mystical
organization to discover it. God’s Word
is revealed in Scripture, and we dare not take such a wonderful gift for
granted.
This morning, we’re considering the true
wisdom of God as revealed through the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? We’ll note the wisdom hidden to the world
(vv. 6–9) and the wisdom revealed through the Spirit (vv. 10–13). Let’s consider this together.
II.
First, the Wisdom Hidden to the
World (vv. 6–9)
Yet
we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this
age nor of the rulers of this age, who are being abolished. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the
wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our
glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had
understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye
has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of
man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ ”
Paul contrasts the text here with v. 5. Paul said that he does not want the
Corinthian believers’ faith to be in “the wisdom of men.” It might be easy to conclude, like some Christian
sectarian groups have concluded, that the pursuit of all knowledge and wisdom
is something we should avoid.
However, Paul says “we do speak wisdom.” This could refer to private conversations,
but it doesn’t exclude public proclamation such as preaching.[1] Paul, Apollos, Peter, and any other teachers
are uttering the wisdom of God in Corinth to any with ears to hear.
The wisdom that Paul communicates is “among
those who are mature.” This certainly
does not imply that, like the mystery religions, Paul had secret wisdom for
insiders, those Christians who reached a certain point of initiation! While Paul does go on in the next chapter to
talk about spiritually immature believers (3:1), that isn’t quite the fitting
meaning here. If Paul meant anything of the
sort, he meant it ironically; orators used this term of themselves,[2]
and some of the Corinthians may have wrongly thought themselves “mature” beyond
the rest.[3]
Yet, maturity is something Christians should
strive for (Eph 4:13; Phil 3:15; Heb 5:14; 6:1), and it is part of the process
of sanctification. So, this refers to
someone who doesn’t merely profess faith. Rather, this is a person who possesses faith,
who lives a spiritual life (vv. 13, 15; 3:1) because they have the Holy
Spirit. To put this more simply, this
person trusts in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not in the wisdom or power of man. Only the believer regenerated by the Holy
Spirit will strive for this maturity.
Paul further clarifies what kind of wisdom he
is speaking of here. This wisdom is not
“of this age” — all “periods of human history until the Lord returns”[4]
— for the present evil age is passing away (Gal 1:4). Nor is this a wisdom “of the rulers of this
age,” which would include those who murdered Jesus, any other rulers who don’t
believe in Him,[5]
or even demonic powers (Eph. 6:12).[6]
Whatever the case, Paul says these rulers “are
being abolished.” The verb is present
passive: God is the one at work, and He is already dismantling their dominion
through every conversion and gospel victory.
The final abolition awaits Christ’s return.
So, in v. 7, Paul says, “But we speak God’s
wisdom.” This is not a wisdom of limited
people or even spirit beings. Rather, it
is the true wisdom, the wisdom that comes from the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe.
True wisdom is mysterious, as is evidenced by
people seeking it in strange places.
Yet, in Scripture, a mystery is not a puzzle to solve;[7]
it is a truth God kept hidden in past ages and has now revealed.[8] As Ephesians 1:8–9 says, He cause the riches
of His grace “to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him.” This points us to Christ, for in Him “are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). You may have heard this a lot and not think
about the message of the cross as a mystery, but many people are yet to
discover it!
This wisdom “has been hidden.” That means that God concealed it for His
purposes. That’s why we read here that
He “predestined” or “decreed” (ESV) it “before the ages.” Unlike what the Gnostics believed, the
Creator God is the same one that chose our salvation and sent His Son. This is also a reason why we shouldn’t be
looking elsewhere for hidden knowledge — God chose what He wanted us to know
and when to unveil it.
What was His purpose in all of this? Paul says this was “to our glory.” This glory begins at conversion. We get to share a bit in the glory of God
through salvation and through our walk with the Holy Spirit. The current “ministry of the Holy Spirit” is
glorious (2 Cor. 2:8), for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom” (v. 17). And, in our beholding
of Christ, we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory”
(v. 18). This is only part of it — we
will one day be changed (1 Cor. 15:51), and though our bodies be buried “in
dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power”
(v. 43). So, God chose a path that would
include us in His glory!
Paul restates what he said in the first
chapter (cf. 1:26) — this is not the wisdom of the world. He says here in v, 8 that “none of the rulers
of this age has understood” this. It
includes the true plan of salvation, that Jesus would die a sacrificial
atonement for sin, His raising again, and His glorious ascension.
If they understood any of this, “they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
It’s not that the rulers were entirely ignorant. When Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no authority
over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who
delivered Me to you has the greater sin,” (John 19:11), Pilate “kept
seeking to release Him” (v. 12). Yet,
Pilate neither fully understood nor feared his actions, for he gave into the
Sanhedrin. They also did not know, for
our Lord prays in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what
they are doing.” So, it isn’t right to
consider a certain group — like the Jews — as eternally anathema when
God doesn’t look at them that way.
Yet, we also must recognize that they did not
know. Jesus is “the Lord of glory.” The expression “God of glory” refers to the
Father (Acts 7:2), and “King of glory” refers to Yahweh (Psa. 24:7–10), but
here, it’s applied to Jesus.[9] This is also reflected in James when he
called Him “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1). Here, this might parallel the “mystery… which
God predestined before the ages to our glory” (v. 7). In other words, in the wisdom of God, we have
glory because of the Son.
This wisdom is simply beyond human
perception. In v. 9, Paul weaves Isaiah
64:4 with echoes of 52:15 and 65:17.[10] This contrasts what came before. The rulers of this age may have chosen
differently if they knew, but their eyes haven’t seen and their ears haven’t
heard, nor have they imagined what God has prepared.
The quotation is not about heaven’s wonder, as
is often misapplied.[11] Rather, it’s about the wisdom God prepared
for believers. Human faculties — our
eyes, ears, and imaginations — cannot discover the wisdom and the glories God
has prepared. Only divine revelation
can, which is why He calls us back to the Word.
He has done this for “those who love
Him.” As one commentary notes, “For the
Corinthians, knowledge mattered more than love; for Paul, the key to knowing
all that God has prepared for us is in loving him.”[12] Love, not gnosis, is the key.
The world cannot see this wisdom. So, how can we see it? We’ve already begun hinting at the answer,
but we’ll see it more clearly here:
III.
Second, the Wisdom Revealed
through the Spirit (vv. 10–13)
But
to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things,
even the depths of God. For who among
men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
Even so the depths of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the depths
graciously given to us by God, of which depths we also speak, not in words
taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual
depths with spiritual words.
This is a good text to assure a believer of
salvation. Because of the Holy Spirit,
we have the text of Scripture and the things of God illuminated to us. That doesn’t mean that we will understand
everything, but the Lord may be working to illuminate our understanding in an
unexpected way through our struggle with a particular issue. There are also times when we pray for
understanding and insight, and we find that the fog in our minds and hearts
begins to clear. When we have these
moments, we are assured that God is with us and is at work in our hearts. Alternately, those who do not know the Lord
and have trouble understanding can pray for it!
God has revealed to us what the world doesn’t
know. The “us” here, though, must first
apply to the apostles and the prophets.[13] They are the ones to whom inspired Scripture
came. They were “carried along” as they
wrote. Even so, the previous words of v.
9 were “for those who love Him.” The
Scripture was revealed not just for the apostles, but also for all
believers. Since all believers have
access to the Spirit, though not all receive revelation, all do receive
illumination.
In v. 10, we see that the Spirit “searches all
things,” even “the depths of God.” Of
course, this is not ignorance on the Spirit’s part; it is omniscience (as the Reformation
Study Bible notes). The same Spirit
who knows the Father indwells every believer (Rom. 8:9). So, our assurance of salvation flows from
this reality.
In v. 11, Paul explains this with an analogy
of intimacy. That is, he makes a
lesser-to-greater argument[14]
to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit’s knowledge is the superior knowledge to
have. He essentially says that no one
knows my inner thoughts like I do; my spirit or inner self has exclusive
access. Well, then, the Spirit of God
alone knows God’s depths because He is God.
So, Paul then talks about the gift of the
Spirit in v. 12. Again, this applies
primarily to the apostles. In the Upper
Room, Jesus promised that the Spirit “abides with you and will be in you.”
(John 14:17). The Holy Spirit would
reveal to them what Jesus wanted them to write and do. Because they received the Holy Spirit, we
have Holy Scripture.[15]
Yet, this can again apply secondarily to all
believers. We all have the spirit of the
world at birth, growing up to learn fleshly ways by worldly people. Yet, Christians have been redeemed, and Paul
affirms that Christians have already received the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:15 says, “For you have not
received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the
Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ ”
The Holy Spirit is already indwelling us, for Jesus promised all who
believe would have the Spirit in their innermost being (John 7:37–39). As a result, we can grow in our understanding
of God through God’s Word and the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
It's that thought that carries us into v.
13. Paul says they speak about these
depths, primarily referring to himself (and to the other apostles, those who
received the divine revelation). Yet,
all believers should be speaking the Word of God rather than human
speculations!
That brings us to a difficult phrase that is
translated differently in some Bibles.
It seems to be best rendered “combining spiritual depths with spiritual
words.” The apostles matched divine
truths to divinely chosen words, producing Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet.
1:21). Preachers today explain (the verb
here can mean “interpret”) those same truths to spiritual people — believers
indwelt by the Spirit.
IV.
Conclusion
Do you seek hidden knowledge? Today, there are a lot of sources that
promise hidden knowledge to the elite, but let’s not look to vain
speculations. Paul proclaims a wisdom
hidden in plain sight, though — Christ crucified. He says God has revealed this truth to
believers by His Spirit. The world
crucified the Lord of glory in ignorance, but the Spirit opens blind eyes to
behold Him.
Do you love Him? Then the Spirit dwells in you, illuminating
Scripture, assuring your heart, transforming you from glory to glory. Do not chase secret myths, then! Open the Spirit-inspired Bible, pray for
light, and share with others what the Spirit has taught.
[1] Ronald Trail, An
Exegetical Summary of 1 Corinthians 1–9, (Dallas, TX: SIL
International, 2008), 84.
[2] Andrew David Naselli, Romans–Galatians,
2020, X, 237.
[3] John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown,
Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael
R. Grigoni, and David Bomar, Faithlife Study
Bible, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), 1 Co 2:6.
[4] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed.,
(Nashville, TN: Word Pub., 1997), 1731.
[5] J. I. Packer, Wayne Grudem, and Ajith
Fernando, Eds., ESV Global Study Bible,
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 1608.
[6] Barry, et. al.
[7] MacArthur.
[8] Naselli, 238.
[9] Barry, 1 Co 2:8.
[10] Ibid., 1 Co 2:9.
[11] MacArthur.
[12] David Prior, The
Message of 1 Corinthians: Life in the Local Church, The Bible
Speaks Today, (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1985), 52.
[13] MacArthur.
[14] F. Alan Tomlinson, CSB Study Bible: Notes,
2017, 1814.
[15] MacArthur.