The Corinthian church struggled with division because they lost sight of the Cross. This is because they saw it by human wisdom and not the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18). In turn, why they could not receive the wisdom of God was because they did not live by the Holy Spirit, who is the “Spirit of wisdom” (Eph 1:17). Thus, the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to see the Cross. …Read More
However, being ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit was something the Corinthian church was very well acquainted with, since they were able to manifest the Holy Spirit‘s gifts. How then could the church be filled with the Holy Spirit and yet not see the Cross, manifesting problems of division, immorality, and the like? This is due to their wrong understanding of the Holy Spirit and their failure to live by Him – which is a sign of ‘immaturity’.
In 1 Cor 2:6, Paul says that the wisdom of God is only revealed to the ‘mature’ – ‘the person with the Spirit’ (2:15). By contrast, the ‘person without the Spirit’ (2:14) would thus be deemed ‘immature’. The ‘immature’ are likened to the ‘infants’ (3:1), who are not able to understand spiritual matters and are ‘still worldly’ (3:1). How can one receive both the ‘Spirit who is from God’ and ‘the spirit of the world’ at the same time (2:12)? Yet, that is the reason why many people are not able to grow/mature even though they have been in church for years.
The consequence for those ‘without the Spirit’ is that they will have no eyes to see, no ears to hear and no mind to conceive of the Cross (2:9). Living by the Holy Spirit requires us to fight the conflict with our flesh (Gal 5:16, Rom 8:13): if we choose the flesh, we will only receive the “spirit of the world” (2:12) and live by our “psyche” (2:14) – the natural order of things, not spiritual. Then, we can no longer discern the “mind of Christ” (2:16).
The ‘mature’ believer who lives by the Spirit will know the thoughts of God (2:11) and discern ‘spiritual things in Spirit-taught words’, i.e. discern the truth (2:13). Ultimately, they would be able to reach the state of ‘glory’ (2:7) i.e. perfection, and become ‘church builders’ (3:10) – doing the ‘works of service’ (Eph 4:11) that edify (build up) the church. Since the Holy Spirit leads people to the Cross, and thus to the Church – which is also the Holy Spirit’s temple (3:16) – the ‘person with the Spirit’ would certainly be found in a church, using His gifts to edify/build (14:4) the church, and live a life inseparable from the church.
This Pentecost, may we have the correct Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit, so that we will not end up making use of the Holy Spirit like the Corinthian church. May we realise how important the indwelling Spirit is to our faith life. Without Him, we can never live a life of the Cross, understand the Word, discern the Truth, and grow to spiritual maturity.
