07/28/13

1 Corinthians 2: The Language of The Spirit

The Language of The Spirit Revised and Updated

 

 Rev. Charlene

 

In the United States we assume that we all speak the same native language. However, there are other languages spoken, some even more original. English predominates, so it is the responsibility of those who wish to communicate with the masses to learn to speak English. Yet it is fast becoming a necessity for those of us who speak English to take on Spanish as our second language. This language must be learned through diligent application, whereas the language of our birth was naturally acquired over time without hardship.

 

 

Those who travel and minister across the world must also learn the languages native to other regions and countries.  This can prove to be an even harder task. The desire to communicate and to spread God’s love is a motivational force that empowers people to learn new ways and new languages.

 

The languages of the world are different from the language of The Spirit. Those who possess God’s Spirit speak another-worldly language that has its origin in heaven, not earth. This language is not our native tongue, but became accessible when we came to Christ. It is through surrender to Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit that we discern this gifted language. Without our interpreter, God’s Holy Spirit, we cannot discern the ways of God, nor can we understand the mysteries of our salvation.

 

 

As Paul writes to the Corinthians:

 

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived[b]
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit”.

 

Unless you are in indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit you simply cannot hear nor speak the heavenly language. It is a part of your inheritance gifts, just as speaking the spiritual language of the world makes you heir to the degradation of the world. Death becomes your wages, not life. Only Jesus Christ could pay the price for our sins because of His sinless nature, and it is only through The Cross that our sins are forgiven. Jesus knows the fullness of who we can be or are in Him.

 

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct Him?’[d]

 

 

But we have the mind of Christ”. 

 

 

1 Corinthians 2

New International Version (NIV)

 

 

 1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

 

 

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

 

 

 6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:

 

   “What no eye has seen,
   what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[b]
   the things God has prepared for those who love him—

 10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

   The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[c] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16for,

 

 

   “Who has known the mind of the Lord
   so as to instruct Him?”[d]

   But we have the mind of Christ.

Footnotes:
  1. 1 Corinthians 2:1 Some manuscripts proclaimed to you God’s mystery
  2. 1 Corinthians 2:9 Isaiah 64:4
  3. 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual
  4. 1 Corinthians 2:16 Isaiah 40:13

 

Scripture Credits:  Holy Bible. New International Version. BibleGateway.com

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