Today’s scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:6–16 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
All the books of the Bible that the Apostle Paul wrote, except for Philemon, were written to specific churches, not to individuals. Paul’s intention was that his letters be read aloud, straight through, when the community of faith gathered for worship. It seems that, especially in 1 Corinthians, Paul was interested in the health of the congregation, possibly believing that healthy communities of faith produce healthy individual Christians, rather than the other way around.
The first letter to the church at Corinth is full of issues to be addressed, most of which have their source in all manner of divisions in the congregation. This is what happens when individualism is rampant. In this part of his letter, Paul is concerned with “wisdom.” It seems that there was a clique in the church who believed that they were smarter than the rest, that they knew what was best for the whole church. Worldly wisdom had permeated the church through this particular clique.
The Johari Window helps me to remember that I am not omniscient, all-knowing, even about myself. My Known Self is what I know about myself, and it’s so obvious that others do, too. My Hidden Self is what I know, and no one else does. Paul refers to this when he writes: “Whoever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself?” (verse 11a; The Message). My Blind Self is what others see, but I don’t; this is where my best friends are so important, helping me to grow. And then, there’s my Unknown Self, which, at this point, only God knows.
Paul writes about our discovery of God’s Hidden Self becoming God’s Known Self in a way similar to the Johari Window: “The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along . . . [The Spirit] not only knows what [God is] thinking, but [the Spirit] lets us in on it” (verses 10, 11b; The Message)
So, how can we be spiritually wise, knowing what God is thinking and planning, beyond the wisdom of this world? First, we need to be in a relationship with God that is open to God’s revelation of who God is and what God is doing. “Spirit can be known only by spirit — God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing” (verse 15; The Message).
Second, and Paul comes at this a bit more subtly, when he quotes Isaiah 40:13, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what [God] is doing?” In Isaiah, it’s a rhetorical question, to be answered, “No! Of course not!” However, Paul answers, “But we have the mind of Christ” (verse 16b; NRSV), meaning that the mind of God is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit and therefore we can know what God is planning and doing, in order to cooperate with God. The word we in verse 16 is emphatic in the original Greek. We, the Body of Christ, have the mind of Christ, not any one individual or divisive clique. We, the Body of Christ, have the mind of Christ when we are truly inclusive and unified.
Thought for the day: Christ is present; Christ guides and directs; and Christ’s will can be known and obeyed, so that the Body of Christ shall be One.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.