But we speak wisdom among the perfect; but wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who come to nought.
Paul has just said that his preaching came without clever words, so that faith would rest on God's power. Now he turns the corner. The gospel is not short on wisdom. But only the full-grown can take this wisdom in, and it does not come from this passing age.
Paul had set aside the world's cleverness. He had not set aside wisdom itself.
It is not that "wisdom" is missing from the Christian scheme. It could not be missing. Christ, who is everything in it, is God's wisdom, and that wisdom has a character, height, depth, and extent proper to God. So it suits His children — at least those weaned from the first man and from the world where he seeks activity and importance. In a word, it suits "the perfect" or full-grown. It does not suit the babes. They are wrapped up in their own needs, and at best they want milk, not the meat that a riper condition needs for its nourishment.
Where the ESV reads "the mature," older translations read "the perfect." That word confuses people. It does not mean being flawless. It means being grown up.
A perfect man is one who is full grown. He has passed out of infancy. He knows what the cross has accomplished, and new creation in Christ has opened up before his eyes. The Corinthians should have reached this, but they had become stunted in growth; they stayed small. The apostle blames them for it. He had to feed them with milk.
Something in the believer's own state can block the hearing.
We may be believers. But we may still be unsure how we stand before God. We may still be caught up in ourselves over questions of deliverance from the power of sin. While that lasts, we have neither the heart nor the leisure to learn the wisdom of God. That wisdom is expressed in His counsels and purposes, which were once a secret but are now made known.
The Corinthians wondered why Paul had told them so little. He answers that the fault lay with them, and his answer carries a warning for us.
"See," replies the apostle, "I will tell you why I did not say much more about these secrets of wisdom. You are far too involved with the wisdom of this world. That is why I could not speak of it." ... The more time we spend in the wisdom of this world, the less able we will be to understand these hidden things of wisdom. That was the trouble with the Corinthians.
Older translations say "this world" here. The word really means an age — a span of time with an end.
The word "world" in verse 6 is really "age." In another Scripture Satan is called "the god of this age." The god of this age uses the princes of this age to put forward the wisdom of this age. At the same time he blinds their minds, so that they have no knowledge of God's wisdom — the wisdom God ordained before all the ages. When the Lord of glory was here, he so blinded their minds that they crucified Him.
Paul does not attack the rulers' intelligence. He states their expiry date, and sets it against where the believer is going.
First, he tells us it is not the wisdom of this age. It is not even the wisdom of the few intellectual giants who shape the thinking of the world. These intellectual princes, for all their wisdom, "come to nothing." The believer is the opposite: he comes to "glory" (verse 7), in the company of "the Lord of glory" (verse 8). Those who shine in the glory of this world come to nothing, while those who are nothing in this world come to glory.
History makes the point:
All the combined wisdom of the chiefs of this world is worth nothing before God. The chiefs themselves turn the world upside down and do more harm than good. Then they disappear from the scene and come to nothing. Napoleon himself regretted that one day his exploits would fill only half a page of general history. And where are Julius Caesar and Alexander now?
So what is the standard of maturity? Not human progress, but a Person.
It is no perfecting of the race of Adam ... It is the perfection of the glorified Christ, the centre of all God's glorious and eternal counsels. That is perfection, and there is no other.
- Wisdom. The gospel is not short on wisdom. Christ Himself is God's wisdom, with a height and depth proper to God.
- Mature. "Perfect" here means full-grown — past infancy, knowing what the cross accomplished — not sinless.
- Milk. If we are unsure where we stand with God, or soaked in the world's thinking, we cannot take in more.
- Age. The rulers Paul names belong to a passing age whose god blinds minds; they proved it at the cross.
- Glory. Those who shine in this world's glory come to nothing; those who are nothing here come to glory with the Lord of glory.
But we speak God's wisdom in [a] mystery, that hidden [wisdom] which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory
Paul has just set aside the wisdom of this age. Here he names what he does speak: God's own wisdom, kept secret, settled before time, and aimed at a glory that belongs to us.
Older translations read "in a mystery" where the ESV has "a secret and hidden wisdom." The word does not mean something unclear or hard to follow. It means something human thinking could never reach on its own.
It is God's wisdom "in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom". Those words do not mean it is unclear or puzzling. They mean no human cleverness could ever have discovered it. What is more, all through the ages it has been "hidden", so you will not find it in the Old Testament Scriptures.
The secret had a time limit.
It was hidden from the minds of men. They could not understand it until Christ Himself appeared to take away our sins. God's wisdom came long before the wisdom of men. It is simple in its greatness and great in its simplicity, yet man's highest wisdom could never find it.
The verse reaches back before the ages, to God's own plans and thoughts.
The first thing we learn is that these counsels of God were before the world. I am not speaking of election here, but of the plans and thoughts of God before the world was. That is the contrast in this verse: God's thoughts and counsels, ordained for our glory, set before the world we now live in with all its responsibilities. These counsels, which were before the world, came out as a result of the death of Christ.
Because God ordained it, the outcome is not in doubt.
We ourselves were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. More than that, God's wisdom had our glory in view before the ages began, and He ordained it all then. And what God ordains always comes to completion when His hour arrives. So our glory is certain. It is tied to Christ's glory and serves it. Christ's glory comes first, but ours is as sure as His, and God ordained it just as truly.
The final phrase is the surprise of the verse. We would expect God's wisdom to be aimed at His own honour.
So far as I know, this is the only thing the New Testament ever calls ordained for our glory. We read of what God ordained for His glory and for the glory of Christ, and by grace He brings us into that. But here it says He ordained this hidden wisdom for our glory. Oh, that we valued it more!
And that glory is promised to people the world counts as nothing.
This wisdom held God's secret counsel, settled before the ages, for the glory of His people. We might have expected the Apostle to say for the glory of God and of Christ. It will indeed be for the glory of Christ. But here the Apostle presses this on us: our calling shows that believers are the weak and despised of the world, and yet they are marked out beforehand for glory. We may not be wise, or mighty, or noble in this world, but we are called to glory.
The phrase "our glory" needs unpacking.
So this points to God's eternal counsels in Christ (see Ephesians 1:3-6). They were kept secret until now, but the Spirit has made them known through Paul's ministry (vv. 9, 10). In this light the words "our glory" become clear. They cover the full carrying out of God's purposes in Christ for His people, and so their likeness to Christ and their place with Him in glory.
God's aim was not only to show that His wisdom is greater than ours.
This was not only to display the superior wisdom of God. It was designed "for our glory" — to bring sinful mankind into a place of dignity and glory never imagined before.
People sometimes use the words "no eye has seen" to excuse not knowing.
How often we hear a Christian quote the words "no eye has seen, nor ear heard," to excuse an ignorance that the Spirit of God takes pains to show is no longer excusable. What God has prepared for those who love Him is now made known.
- Hidden — God kept this wisdom secret. It was never too tangled to follow. It was simply out of reach of human cleverness, and it is not in the Old Testament.
- Ordained — God settled it in His counsels before the world began. What God ordains always reaches its end.
- Revealed — it came out after the cross. The Spirit made it known through Paul, so ignorance is no longer excusable.
- Ours — God ordained this wisdom for our glory: likeness to Christ, and a place with Him.
- Yours — the weak and despised of this world are the very ones marked out for that glory. The only question is whether we value it.
which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;)
Paul has just spoken of a wisdom God settled before the ages. Now he names the one event that proves the world's leaders never grasped it: they crucified the Lord of glory.
The phrase points to the leaders of a passing era, and to the whole set of influences that shape it.
Romans 12 tells us not to be conformed to this age, and 1 Corinthians 2:8 speaks of "the princes of this age." The first means we are not to be shaped by the influences of the moment we live in, whether literary, scientific, philosophic, political, or social. They are, in fact, the sum of everything that forms the life of men as men at any time. The princes of the age are the world's, or the nation's, leaders. They are wise, as men count wisdom, in their own generation, but completely blind about the things of God.
The sentence came less from an ignorant crowd than from the leading men of the day. The notice above His head named the three cultures that led the world.
They condemned the supreme Lord of glory to a death of supreme degradation and shame — and not so much the ignorant crowd as the princes of this age. They wrote the notice on His cross in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The Greeks were beyond dispute the intellectual princes of the age. The Romans were the princes in military strength and in the art of government. The Hebrews were princes without a rival in matters of religion. Yet all shared in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory.
Commentators differ on what they failed to know. One says it was the wisdom of God, not the Person Himself.
It does not say they did not know Him, but rather they did not know the first thing about the wisdom of God, and the result is they crucified Him.
Others say their ignorance reached to Christ Himself. That leads to a blunt verdict on their wisdom.
Why did they crucify the Lord of glory? Because they did not know Him. Well, if their wisdom did not enable them to recognize their Creator when they saw Him, it stands condemned.
Paul does not call Him the Messiah here. The title he chooses reaches past Israel and past this earth.
This glory goes beyond the glory of Christ as the Messiah, reigning over the earth in connection with Israel. That earthly reign is no mystery. The prophets are full of glorious predictions about the kingdom glories. "The Lord of glory" speaks of a wider scene than this earth. It speaks of a rule over the whole universe, taking in every created thing and being, with the crucified One as Lord.
One writer measures the distance between what He is and what they did to Him.
They have given the place of the greatest shame and disgrace to the One to whom all glory belongs, the One in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9).
Paul points to the Person crucified, not only to the fact of the cross.
He adds that none of the princes of this world knew, for they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Because He was that, you get His Person, and not just the fact of the cross. It is a very strong thing to put before man. It is what wrote folly on their wisdom and on the grandeur of this world.
The rulers knew nothing of God's purpose. Yet the act they chose served it.
None of them knew it when Jesus was here, yet they too served as instruments in laying a basis for it. For the cross of Christ on earth answers to the glory of God in heaven, and that glory answers to the cross. Wonderful fact — a man exalted over the whole universe, risen and glorified, with all things put under His feet at God's right hand!
Their ignorance also cost them the outcome they were aiming at.
They had no idea that what they considered their victory over Christ was their actual defeat.
- Who — the "princes of this age" are the leaders of the moment: political, intellectual, religious. Wise by human measure, blind about God.
- What they missed — commentators differ: the wisdom of God, or the Person Himself. Either way, they knew nothing.
- Who they killed — not only Israel's Messiah, but "the Lord of glory," Lord over every created thing.
- What it proved — a wisdom that could not recognize its own Creator stands condemned. The cross wrote folly across the world's grandeur.
- How it ended — the act meant to finish Him laid the basis for His exaltation. Their victory was their defeat.
but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him,
Paul has just said that the rulers of this age never grasped God's wisdom, and now he backs it up with a line from the prophet Isaiah about what no eye has seen. The question every reader has to settle is whether these words shut the door on knowing God's plans, or whether the apostle quotes them to open it.
The words are not Paul's own. He takes up Isaiah 64:4 and uses it for a purpose the prophet could not.
This is an application of Isaiah 64:4, but not as a direct illustration. It is used for full contrast. God inspired the Jewish prophet to stop at one point: man cannot see through the veil that hides the future blessing God has prepared for the one who waits for Him. The Christian apostle does not stop there. The veil has been torn, and the blood of Jesus gives us courage to come near now... There is no use saying that these things are hidden from man. They were hidden, but God has now revealed them to His children.
The verse names three ways a person gets knowledge, and rules out all three. One writer ties two of them to friends of Job, who each tried that route and got it wrong.
"What no eye has seen": human observation could find nothing here. This was what Eliphaz appealed to when he rebuked Job (Job 4:8), and he was wrong. "Nor ear heard": the ear had never received this from all the gathered wisdom of past ages — the tradition Bildad appealed to when he judged Job (Job 8:8–10). He was just as wrong. "Nor the heart of man imagined": no one's own insight could have imagined wisdom like God's.
Sharpening the senses does not help, because the problem is not their weakness.
With powerful instruments his eye can see far into space and into the tiny wonders of nature. His ear can be trained to hear and enjoy beautiful music. His mind can hold great thoughts and deep feelings. But God has prepared things for those who love Him that the natural man has never seen and never heard. They lie beyond the reach of his highest imagination.
Writers warn about where people stop reading. Verse 9 is half of an argument. The next verse gives the other half.
And there people usually stop. But the apostle goes on, to show the difference between that state and ours: "these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit"... Is it not a strange thing? People quote the passage that says the heart of man has not imagined the things God has prepared for those who love Him. Then they pass over the statement that follows, the one that puts the position of Christians in contrast: God had revealed those things to them, and given them the Spirit so they could understand them.
Which two things is Paul comparing? Readers take this more than one way.
Scripture always contrasts the things of the world with the things of God, but that is not the special teaching here. Nor is the point that the things God reveals are so much greater than our present state that we cannot take them in... The apostle is contrasting believers who lived before Christ came with believers now. In the time of Isaiah their hearts could not enter into the things God had prepared for those who love Him. We are in a different position.
What has God "prepared"? One writer answers: something planned before time began, for the glory of people the world overlooks.
These wonderful things do not belong to earth or to time. They were in the mind and heart of God before time began. They were meant to enrich the very people the great men of this world think nothing of... How wonderful that He planned to bring the weak things He had chosen, the lowly and the despised of the world, into the brightest glory with Christ, His own beloved Son.
The verse does not describe the recipients as clever or qualified. It describes them by their affection for God — and their portion covers both halves of life.
For now, those who love God have all the care of a loving Father. For the future, God promises them wonderful blessings together with His own Son. The natural man has no ability to understand these things.
- Prepared before time. God settled what He has for His people in His heart before the ages. It is not made of earthly stuff. It belongs to glory with Christ.
- Prepared beyond reach. Looking, listening to the wisdom of past ages, and imagining all fail here. Better instruments and training only sharpen senses that could never reach this.
- Prepared, then quoted. Isaiah stopped at the veil, because in his day it still hung there. Paul quotes him to mark the contrast, not to repeat the limit.
- Prepared, then revealed. Stopping at "those who love Him" reverses the apostle's point. The next words say God has revealed these things through the Spirit. They can be known now.
- Prepared for lovers of God. Love marks out these people, not status: the Father's care for today, and blessing with His Son for what is coming.
but God has revealed to us by [his] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
Paul has just quoted the prophet on what no eye has seen, and many readers stop there. Verse 10 answers them with a "but": God has made those things known, and He did it through the Spirit, who searches "the depths of God."
Paul takes the prophet's words and adds a contrast. One writer notes how often people quote only the first half to excuse what they do not know.
How often we hear a member of the body of Christ quoting the words, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard," to justify an ignorance that the Spirit of God takes pains to show us is no longer excusable. The things God has prepared for those who love Him are now made known. Our position is the opposite of the one the Jews had.
Another writer puts the same point sharply: people stop mid-sentence "as if the things were so glorious and so great, that our hearts could not know about them," but the apostle's addition "shews that we can know them now."
Being beyond the natural mind does not mean these things stay unknown. One writer shows who makes them known, and answers the excuse that they are too deep for us.
The wisdom of God lies outside what the natural man can understand. That does not mean the things of that wisdom cannot be seen, heard, or known. The Apostle says at once, "God has revealed them"... Only the Spirit can reveal these things, for nothing is beyond the range of His divine knowledge and power... We may try to excuse our lack of spiritual energy by saying these things are too deep for us. But let us remember they are not too deep for the Spirit.
The word sounds strange used of God's Spirit, who lacks nothing in knowledge. One writer answers that the searching here happens inside believers.
We might ask with surprise, how can the Spirit of God need to "search" the things of God? Does He not share with the Father and the Son in all divine knowledge? Yes, He does, fully; but these words describe the Spirit in us... He works in the working of our minds as He leads them, and so He brings us into ever fuller communion with the Father and the Son.
Another writer traces three steps here: the Spirit reveals, the Spirit passes it on, and the Spirit makes us able to receive it — "The Holy Spirit in us searches all things; there is nothing hidden."
The verse speaks of "the depths of God." One writer asks what fills those depths.
Could any passage tell us of the depths of God like Ephesians 1:17-23? There is Christ, the centre of all His thoughts, the Christ who is the centre of His heart. God has given Him to be the centre of His affections, so that we might think of things as the Father thinks of them, in the circle of divine affection. God's deepest thoughts and His eternal counsel are centred in His beloved Son.
The depths also include what God is in Himself. One writer takes words the Son spoke to the Father, and finds that eternal relationship here:
These relations are "the depths of God" that the apostle speaks of. He adds that "no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." But God's Spirit has revealed this eternal relationship of the Father and the Son to us, through these words of the Son Himself.
A full revelation does not mean every reader takes it in. Paul names three kinds of people, and one writer explains why he could take the subject no further with the Corinthians.
The natural man can't receive these things. They are all completely foreign to his powers and his way of thought... The natural man means the unconverted man. There is the spiritual man (v. 15)... And there is a third kind of person, called in verse 3 the "carnal" man. Because these Corinthians were carnal, the matter cannot be explained to them any further.
For those who do receive, the searching has no end point: "the more we enter into the deep things in blessed fellowship with the Father and the Son, the more we desire to know."
- Hidden. No eye or ear could reach what God prepared, so people quote the verse before this one to excuse what they do not know.
- Revealed. That excuse is gone. God has revealed these things by His Spirit: first to the apostles, then passed on, then received.
- Searcher. The Spirit does the revealing. Nothing is beyond His knowledge and power, and these things are not too deep for Him.
- Depths. He searches the depths of God: God's deepest thoughts and eternal counsel, centred in His beloved Son, and even the eternal relationship of Father and Son.
- Received. The natural man cannot take these things in, and a carnal state stops a believer too. The spiritual receive them, and their desire to know only grows.