The Mind of the Spirit
Dear Brethren and Sisters, we begin again to read together Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. As all too often happens, many in Corinth have accepted the Truth without accepting the spirit of the Truth. They lacked the spirit of Christ-the spirit of gentleness and holiness and intense consuming zeal for divine spiritual things. They did not realize the Gospel of God was something entirely different from everything else in the world-something on a completely different plain. We MUST comprehend the immensity of the Truth-the immensity of the change it calls for in our life, the extent to which it requires a complete subservience and subjection of every other interest and activity. It is, and it must be, all or nothing. IF we can but truly grasp this marvelous, revolutionary, unearthly fact, we should not need to be told to leave this or that worldly thing alone. All such things will stand out clearly in their pitiful emptiness and time-wasting listlessness.
Corinth was a prosperous, self-satisfied city. Worldly wisdom and accomplishments were in high esteem. But the Apostle had come among them proclaiming a more excellent way. And a few of the city’s half million people had been drawn to that way. Paul, in deep concern, is now writing to try to impress them with the greatness and the holiness of their calling in Christ Jesus-taken out of the world’s passing vanities and related to an eternal divine constitution of things. And so, he addresses them in his opening salutation-verse 2, “Unto the ecclesia (the called out ones) of God at Corinth… sanctified (consecrated, set apart as holy-as dedicated to the great eternal purpose of glorification of God in the earth), sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints” (that is, glorious, holy ones, purified ones). This is the whole end and purpose of their calling-“called to be saints.” Could any more exalted or sublime form of address be conceived? A full and whole-hearted realization of what is involved in these few words of salutation would eliminate the necessity for most of the rest of the epistle, for therein he is largely just trying in detail to bring them to a grasp of this one central all-absorbing fact-“called to be saints.”
These are the high things of God to which we claim relationship. A true and full realization of them would inevitably dominate and purify every waking moment of our lives. We should be constantly impressed with the solemn, dreadful, but glorious truth that the Apostle emphasizes in Chapter 3, “Ye are the temple (the dwelling place) of God…If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy.” “Called to be saints”-holy ones.
We offer ourselves as the exclusive dwelling place and manifesting-place of God in this present evil world. Do we realize what that means, what we are taking upon ourselves, what we are undertaking to be and to do? The natural reaction, in the face of the dawning of such a realization, is the reaction of Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But love, and zeal, and absorbing enthusiasm must overwhelm and sweep away all fear and hesitancy and doubt.
Jesus said many hard things-not hard in the sense of harsh and severe, but hard and frightening in their tremendous and penetrating scope-unnerving and crushing to the petty conceptions of established temporalities of the little mind of the flesh. These hard things drove the small and fearful minds away from Jesus, back into the obscure comforts of the natural fleshly darkness to which they were accustomed, where they were comfortable. But this same Peter, when asked if he would go away too, back into the darkness, said, “Where shall we go, for thou hast the words of eternal life?”-the words of eternal life.
Next, in verses 4 - 9 of Chapter 1, Paul reminds the Corinthians of the confirmation of their calling and all the riches of spiritual blessing and endowment. “Ye were enriched in all utterance and knowledge… so that ye come behind in no gift”-a very privileged group. Our first reaction is to feel that in this respect we are less favored than the Corinthian brethren, who had these gifts of the spirit, that we have no obvious manifestation of spirit power to reinforce our faith. But the external spirit gifts were only a very minor part of the promised spiritual blessings. The heart and power of that blessing was that described by the Apostle in his second epistle: “God hast given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”-in our hearts. Before the immensity of this blessing freely poured on all who seek God with all their hearts, the external gifts fade into insignificance.
In verse 10, Paul comes to the main point and purpose of his letter, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord (and savior) Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” At first appearance this might seem to be a call for mere union, as against separation. But clearly the Apostle’s emphasis is on all speaking the same thing-all being perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. It is not mere physical union. This is only possible on one basis-the whole Truth, whole-heartedly received and obeyed. Unless all speak the same thing, there can be no true communion and harmony together, no free intercourse of mind, but only a strained and restrained tenseness-a conspiracy to conceal disharmony by silence or obscurity.
Now it is impossible to all speak the same thing, unless all agree in the same judgment. And it is impossible to all agree in the same judgment, unless all are of the same mind. What is that mind? It must be the mind of Christ. The divine standard of perfection, as manifested by the mind of Christ, is the only possible common ground of agreement. Any limitation and we immediately cease to be unified and create differences of degree and of judgment, as each one sets his own standard that he thinks practical and logical. But, where that perfect standard is whole-heartedly accepted, there and there alone, is the same basic mind-the mind of Christ-the mind of the spirit-the mind that recognizes that perfection is the only standard, and that anything less is simply a measure of the extent of the weakness of the flesh-something to be confessed and striven against, never to be justified or encouraged or satisfied with.
The Apostle says, verse 8, “Jesus Christ shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless,”-that ye may be blameless-“in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now what does that mean “to be blameless?” And what does it mean, when the Apostle says to the Ephesians, Christ gave himself for the ecclesia, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it…and present it to himself a glorious ecclesia, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” What do we understand by those words: blameless, no spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish? Is this something we expect to be miraculously accomplished in us at the judgment seat of Christ by some fairy waving a magic wand at the last minute? Is that our perilous idea of the plan of salvation?
The words of the angel in the last book of the Bible have a direct bearing on this point. Speaking of that great day, he pronounces this solemn decree, “For the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” There will be no changing then. It must be done now. The judgment seat will not change the facts: We are filthy, or we are holy. But rather it will reveal and confirm and establish them. “If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged.”
The Corinthians said, in verse 12, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos…” It was not that there was any real difference between Paul and Apollos. They both taught the same Gospel-the very same way of life. But there would be external differences of style and manner and approach-superficial distinctions around which these contest-loving, shallow-minded Corinthians clustered, missing the deep lessons and the basic unity of the Truth. Just as if oblivious and heedless to the great divine truths they both taught, we could absorb and delight ourselves in contests and conflicting allegiances over the differences in style and the relative merit of Brethren Thomas and Roberts.
Apollos is especially described in Acts as an eloquent man. Whereas the various references we have to Paul are that his speech gave a very contrary impression. Apollos visited Corinth after Paul left, and to the shallow-minded who could only comprehend external appearances, Paul would compare very unfavorably with the eloquent Apollos, though it certainly would not be Apollos’ desire or intention to foster this comparison.
This judging by external and worldly standards, and making a factional issue of superficial differences, appears to be the reason for the next section of the epistle-the rest of Chapter 1 and all of Chapter 2. Paul in this section draws a deep and clear line between all the so-called wisdom of the world and the true wisdom-the wisdom of God. He is not criticizing Apollos, or Apollos’ manner, but he takes the occasion to deal in full with the spiritually shallow, but worldly-wise outlook that is swayed by worldly methods of oratory and style, rather than by the heart-searching simplicity and power of divine truth. Paul was obviously well aware of the weaknesses among the Corinthians for these external things.
Verse 17, “Christ sent me…to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” What is wrong with the wisdom of words, with education, with worldly knowledge and accomplishment? Simply this: They confuse the issue and mar the foundation. Their presence obscures the real and basic elementary facts. There is always the great danger that the acceptance of the Truth is for other motives than the power of the Truth itself. Even the person himself, so brought in, can never be sure of his own foundation. Paul explains this in Chapter 2:4-5, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” And the purpose: “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” He deliberately went out of his way to avoid any natural persuasiveness, so that their faith would be based on the simple truth itself, and not on the emotional oratory of its presentation. So many are easily swayed by oratory and persuasiveness. And Paul was very anxious to avoid getting any converts on such a flimsy basis.
In the rest of Chapter 1, Paul endeavors to drive home a fundamental truth that it is so hard for the natural mind to comprehend-the whole fabric of worldly wisdom is foolishness and vanity in God’s sight. Far from helping man to comprehend spiritual wisdom, it is rather a detriment and a stumbling block.
Verse 20, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Why has God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The primary reason is in verse 29, “That no flesh could glory in His presence.”
The whole design of the plan of salvation is to the humbling of the flesh and that, too, is for a sound reason. For the flesh, at its best, is by eternal divine standards of absolutely no account. It is the weak, ignorant, passing vapor. Therefore, the wisdom and knowledge of the world can only be, at its very highest, clever foolishness in God’s sight. All salvation, all good, all life, all true knowledge is in the hand of God and from God alone. But the entire worldly setup is built upon the honoring and praising of men. The greater a man’s worldly accomplishments the greater his praise and glory among men. This would seem to be reasonable. But, there is a fatal flaw: verse 21, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The world by wisdom knew not God.
Man’s average life span is less than 70 years. Then he dies, and naturally speaking, that is the end of him. Now, if there is such a thing as the possibility of eternal life, living forever in a state of unalloyed enjoyment, free from all the evils of the present-if there is such a thing, and if its attainment depends on devoting this life to preparing for it, could anything be more obviously foolish than wasting this present life on any other interest or activity? And calling it wisdom? Calling it knowledge, learning, achievement? Could anything be more stupid?
Look at all the worldly attainments and accomplishments of the very wisest and greatest of men in this life, and their pitiful foolishness in God’s sight becomes glaringly apparent. Where are they now-the great light of the past-Einstein, and such? Was it wisdom or was it foolishness?
Verse 22, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” The Jews require a sign-a great manifestation of supernatural power. The Gentiles seek after wisdom-he who comes in God’s name must match up to their conceptions of human wisdom and learning. “But we preach Christ crucified.”
What a message to those who look for power and wisdom! A man who died in deserted weakness as a despised criminal, who made no mark in the learned circles of his day, and who was scornfully rejected by all the powerful and educated among his own people. But, as Paul points out to those few who are called and favored with divine discernment, the crucified, rejected, despised Christ manifests all the glorious power and wisdom of God, because in him, and in him alone, is life.
What power! what wisdom! is there like the power and wisdom of his perfect life, and triumphant death-destroying resurrection! What wisdom like the wisdom manifested in all the workings and inter-weavings of the divine plan for man’s humiliation, purification, and eternal redemption. And who will perceive the power and the wisdom of the plan? The greatest of the earth? Not at all. It is those who are not blinded and confused by their own pitiful pretense of power and wisdom-those who recognize to the full their own weakness and ignorance-mankind’s weakness and ignorance.
Verse 26, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” The only hope for us is to gladly and thankfully be among the weak and despised and poor and lonely and worldly ignorant. For God has chosen the foolish and the weak and the despised as the instruments of His great pride-humbling purpose “that no flesh should glory in His presence.” Well it behooves us to be among them. We must empty ourselves of all pride and self-esteem and desire and admiration of worldly wisdom and accomplishment, so that God can work wonders through us to His own unscoured glory.
Go with Paul among the Corinthians. As Saul, the learned Pharisee, he was high among the educated and respected of his day, and he could have put on a good flesh-gratifying show to any audience in the world. But, says he, “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,” because he realized the reality-his own true position before God. All this was to deliberately center the honor and glory on the message and away from the messenger. What a wonderful lesson in the preaching of the Truth!
“Howbeit,” he says in verse 6 of Chapter 2, “we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” His discourse now takes a different turn. Having exposed and cleared away all the world’s pretense of wisdom and learning, he speaks of the true, marvelous, divine wisdom, in which he was thankful that he excelled. “The wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.” He is now entering into things, which cannot be put into words-things of glorious depth and beauty, which must be felt and experienced-the deep things of God. These are the real things of life.
Verse 10, “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” We at best only scratch the surface of these things, regardless of how we devote ourselves to them. We generally perceive them and grope after them, but to what extent we find them, who can tell?
Verse 11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” We grope and stumble towards these deep divine things. We are perplexed by so many problems. We seem to comprehend so little. But, of one thing we can be sure, it is along this strange and dimly discerned path, and along this path alone, whose existence is not even dreamt of by the natural man, that the way to life is to be found.
Let us then deeply search the way, laboring to bring every thought into captivity to Christ, for the inspiring promise always shines before us. “Ye shall seek for me, and ye shall find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” The secret lies in bringing the heart into the divine focus. Then the way will shine clear.
Verse 12, “We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.” The wisdom of the world enters through the mind, and it’s cold and lifeless. The wisdom of the spirit enters through the heart, and is warm and living and of divine transforming power.
Verse 13, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” Spiritual things can only be discussed and discerned and understood by spiritual minds.
Verse 14-15, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth (or discerneth) all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man.” (note middle margin)
Paul says elsewhere in Romans 8:6, “To be fleshly minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” A spiritual mind is a mind that has placed itself completely under the influence and control of the Spirit of God-a mind that has responded to the glorious invitation to accept the transforming power of God-a mind that has recognized that all the natural reactions of the flesh are evil and ungodly. This is the great recognition that marks the distinction between the mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh. “He that is spiritual (verse 15) discerneth all things.”
Verse 16, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Natural man knows nothing of the mind of God, so how could they possibly judge or instruct the spiritually-minded man, who lives on a spiritual God-instructed plain. “But,” says the Apostle, “we have the mind of Christ.” We MUST have the mind of Christ, for we are plainly told that if any man have not the mind of Christ-the spiritual mind-he is none of his.
The first few verses of Chapter 3 touch directly again on the sad state of the Corinthian brethren. As Paul points out in bringing home to them this distinction between the fleshly and spiritual minds. He says, “I could not speak unto you as spiritual,” for your conduct gives evidence that you do not discern the spiritual mind, but are controlled by the fleshly mind. He shows them that both Paul and Apollos were workers together in the one great purpose of God. And that setting up factions in their respective names showed a failure to comprehend and cherish that essential spiritual unity.
Verse 5, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?” Just ministers-instruments being used by God.
Verse 6, “I have planted, Apollos watered,” but it was God who accomplished any results that came of it.
Verse 7-8, “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.” Paul and Apollos were one-one in purpose and aim. The Corinthians did them no honor by setting up conflicting parties in their names, rather they greatly distressed them.
Verses 8-15 are to guard against a misinterpretation the might arise. If Paul and Apollos are nothing but instruments in God’s hands (nothing of themselves), and that all the results are of God, the Corinthians might get the impression that there is no personal responsibility for the work and would therefore loose interest and incentive. Like the churches, “you have to do nothing-you can do nothing-only believe.” But in the beautiful wisdom of God, the instruments He honors by using are not obliterated, nor is their individual effort obscured or made meaningless.
Verse 10, “But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon (upon the foundation).”
Verses 12-13, “If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest.” Though instruments of God, there is still a very personal responsibility for effort and labor. Bad experience often brings out the depth of the significance of these words-building wood, hay, and stubble. Sometimes we find that we have been building wood, hay, and stubble, in our methods, our efforts, and our basis conceptions of what and how to build. We tend not to build deeply and strongly enough, not to sufficiently examine our materials, to be misguided by a surface appearance of unity and strength. We mistake organization and legislation for spiritualization and transformation. We have the form but not the life. We must labor for individual depth and solidarity, rather than superficial group conformity. And, above all, we must concentrate largely upon our own personal purification and transformation. If we are successful in this great endeavor, we shall accomplish more by quiet example than by any amount of preaching that is not rooted in the personal manifestation of divine transforming power.
This was the substance and power of Paul’s appeal. Several times he said, “Be ye followers of me.” As to the Philippians (3:17), “Be followers together of me, and mark them which walk according to our example.” We find the same in this Chapter 3.
Now verses 16-17 arise naturally out of this thought of the building that is to be erected on the foundation of Jesus Christ. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” It is a very solemn thought, strongly emphasized by the great lessons of extreme carefulness, sanctity, and holiness that are contained in the divine regulations concerning the literal Mosaic tabernacle and all its appointments. “Ye few, specially chosen,” the Apostle is saying, “are the appointed dwelling-place of God on earth”-at all times-wherever you are and whatever you are doing. This is the climax of his letter up to this point and naturally leads into the summing up of all that he has said.
Verses 18 to the end of chapter 3, “Let no man deceive himself.” What about? About God’s great work among men and his own relationship to it, about the vital holiness of this spiritual temple, about its purely spiritual, unearthly basis, about its utter independence of and separation from and actual incompatibility with the wisdom of the world and the natural thinking of the flesh, about the great responsibility that lies upon us-the temple of God.
“If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” (Verse 18) Let him become a fool in the world’s sight, and let him realize that all his natural wisdom and ability and education and accomplishments are foolishness in God’s sight. So he can start at the bottom to learn true spiritual things on a clear sound basis.
Verse 21, “Therefore let no man glory in men.” There is nothing about men worth glorying in. Even the best of them, like Paul himself, are entitled to no personal glory, as distinguished from the glory due to God’s working through them. “For all things are yours.” Paul is speaking to the Body of Christ in its completeness, of which the Corinthian brethren were a representative part. “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.” The Apostle is endeavoring to inspire them to an ennobling realization of the great height and destiny of their calling.
What a tremendous conception, if we can but grasp it, and live and think in harmony with its immeasurably implications! All things-all things are yours. Every humble saint is a multibillionaire, many times over, a potential fountain of wisdom, a prince of majesty and power, in things far more precious than the world dreams of. All things-past, present, and future-are for their sakes. The whole rolling course of history, from Adam down through all the noisy potsherd strivings of the present, into the glorious endless future, has no meaning-no reason for existence-apart form the great purpose of God in His chosen people.
Verse 23, “And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
Bro. G.V.Growcott
