Scripture Daily

Context No. 1846 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 2:6-16: in context

6We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” 10But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

Paul speaks of a wisdom not of this world, God's hidden wisdom, which none of the rulers of this age understood, for had they understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And he quotes the Scripture: things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him. These things, hidden from the world's wisdom, God has revealed to us by his Spirit, who searches even the deep things of God.

At the heart of Paul's words is a promise almost too large to take in: eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him. Whatever good we can imagine, whatever hope we can picture, whatever joy we can conceive, what God has prepared for those who love him exceeds it, lies beyond the reach of our seeing, hearing, and imagining. The best we can picture falls short of it. This is a staggering thing to sit with. We are prone to think we can roughly imagine what God has in store, to picture heaven, to conceive the good that is coming, and to find it, if we are honest, a little pale, a little less compelling than the goods we can see and touch now. Paul says our imagining is not the measure; what God has prepared surpasses anything eye has seen or heart conceived. The future God holds for those who love him is not a lesser or paler thing than present goods, but a good so far beyond them that we have no category for it, that our imagination cannot reach it. There is deep hope in this, especially for those whose present is hard. Whatever we suffer now, whatever we lack, whatever good we long for and do not have, God has prepared for those who love him a good beyond our imagining, unseen, unheard, inconceivable to us now, that will make the sufferings of this present time seem light by comparison. Paul is not asking us to picture it; he is telling us it is beyond our picturing, and that it is prepared, waiting, for those who love God. This should lift our eyes and steady our hope. The good coming to us is not the modest thing we can imagine but a glory beyond conceiving; and it is prepared, already, for those who love him.

Do I imagine that I can roughly picture what God has in store, and find it paler than the goods I can see and touch now, or can I take hold of Paul's word that eye has not seen, nor heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, a good beyond my imagining that lifts my hope above whatever I suffer or lack now?

Sources