How God Gives His Church Wisdom

God’s Wisdom Revealed

Although there are a variety of ways that God reveals his wisdom in and through the church, we focus on two. First, God imparts his Spirit to his people so they can live as wise people. Within the Old Testament, wisdom is associated with God’s Spirit. Joshua is described as “full of the spirit of wisdom” (Deut. 34:9). Speaking of the coming Messiah, Isaiah says of him,

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (Isa. 11:2)

Although working with a deficient understanding, Nebuchadnezzar says that Daniel can make known the proper interpretation of his dreams because “the spirit of the holy gods” is in him (Dan. 4:18).

That association continues in the New Testament. In response to a problem with the distribution of food among the Greek-speaking widows in Jerusalem, the apostles address the situation by instructing the church to “pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” (Acts 6:3). Just a few verses later in describing Stephen, Acts 6:10 says that the religious leaders who debated with him “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.” In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” (Eph. 1:17; cf. Col. 1:9). Paul is not implying that believers lack the Spirit but is rather praying that God would give them increasing measures of the Spirit’s presence and power in their lives. Consistent with what we have seen in the Old Testament, one thing the Spirit does is give believers wisdom. As the Spirit of Christ, the ultimate wisdom of God, the Spirit gives wisdom to believers in order to display God’s wisdom through them.

The Wisdom of God

Matthew S. Harmon

In this addition to the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, Matthew S. Harmon explores God’s wisdom throughout Scripture from Eden to the new creation, finding its fullest expression in the person of Christ.

Nowhere is this concept clearer than in 1 Corinthians 2:1–16. When Paul initially ministered in Corinth, he resolved “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Rather than rely on human wisdom expressed through clever rhetoric, Paul chose to rely on the powerful work of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:3–5). Despite his seeming rejection of wisdom, Paul, insists that he does promote wisdom through his ministry—not “a wisdom of this age” but rather a “secret and hidden wisdom of God,” which the rulers and authorities of this age could not comprehend (1 Cor. 2:6–9). Paul insists that

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Cor. 2:10–13)

Just as Daniel needed God to reveal mysteries of hidden wisdom, so do we as believers.¹ The only reason why we understand and respond rightly to the good news of Jesus as wisdom incarnate is because God’s Spirit has revealed these realities to us. The Spirit makes us spiritually alive and imparts the divine wisdom necessary to understand who Jesus is, what he has done for us, and how we should live as his people. This divine wisdom is in stark contrast to human wisdom, which cannot rightly understand divine truths (1 Cor. 1:18–30). The Spirit must teach us spiritual realities, often through Spirit-empowered teachers interpreting the truths of what God has revealed and explaining them to believers, who have the same Spirit dwelling within us. In that sense, Spirit-empowered teachers are like Daniel, who passed on the meaning of the mysteries of God’s wisdom that had been hidden but now has been revealed.

Paul further contrasts the state of those in Christ with those who are not when he explains,

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:14–16)

Although Paul does not explicitly use the term wisdom, the language of wisdom permeates these verses. By contrasting the “things of the Spirit of God” with “folly,” Paul makes an implicit connection between the things of the Spirit and wisdom. Wisdom granted by God’s Spirit is what enables a person to discern, judge, and understand spiritual realities rightly.

But the most stunning element of this passage is the claim that believers “have the mind of Christ.” In asking who has known the mind of the Lord, Paul paraphrases Isaiah 40:13, with the expected answer being “no one.” Yet as believers, because we are united to Christ by faith and have his Spirit dwelling inside of us, we share the same mindset or frame of reference. At the center of that mindset is the cross, which provides a focal point from which to evaluate all life: “The mind of Christ, then, is God’s profound wisdom regarding salvation through a crucified Messiah which was hidden but is now revealed by the Holy Spirit.”²

As the Spirit of Christ, the ultimate wisdom of God, the Spirit gives wisdom to believers in order to display God’s wisdom through them.

So the first way that God reveals his wisdom in and through the church is through the presence and power of the Spirit at work in their lives, both individually and corporately. He enables us to live wisely, in a way that reflects the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second way is described in Ephesians 3. Paul begins by affirming that they

have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph. 3:2–6)

Paul connects his apostolic ministry to a mystery that God has made known to him through revelation and enabled him to understand. This mystery was hidden in plain sight in the Old Testament but has now been made known through the apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This is the same pattern that we have seen in Daniel: A mystery is made known by revelation, which requires divinely inspired interpretation, and centers on God’s wisdom. Here the mystery is that, through the gospel, Gentiles are equal members of God’s people—a reality that was present within the Old Testament yet hidden in plain sight.

Yet Paul is not done unpacking this mystery. He continues,

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. (Eph. 3:7–12)

Central to his role as an apostle is making the plan of God’s mystery known, a mystery that has been hidden until the coming of Christ. The ultimate goal of making the mystery known is to display the multifaceted wisdom of God not just in this world but ultimately to the spiritual rulers and authorities who inhabit the heavenly realms. God intends to reveal and display his profound wisdom to both the angelic and demonic forces that inhabit the spiritual realm, and the place where he has chosen to do so is the church.

But how does God intend to do so? What is it about the church that will display his wisdom to the spiritual powers? Based on Paul’s description of the mystery in Ephesians 3:2–6, the answer is by bringing together Jewish and Gentile believers into one body on equal terms, united by their faith in Jesus Christ. Fundamental to this fallen world is dividing human beings according to ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic status (Gal. 3:28). While the Old Testament anticipated the Gentiles participating in Israel’s redemption, the assumption was that in order to do so, they would be required to take on the specific practices of God’s covenant with Israel. Thus a significant element in the mystery that Paul describes here is that Gentiles are able to experience God’s salvation without first becoming Jews.³ By uniting people from across these different worldly categories to worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the powerful wisdom of God is put on display for the spiritual realms. When men and women from different ethnicities, languages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds unite to worship Jesus Christ, it provokes angels to bless God and demons to curse him.

Notes:

On the connections between Daniel 2 and 1 Corinthians 1–2, see further G. K. Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd, Hidden but Now Revealed: A Biblical Theology of Mystery (IVP Academic, 2014), 114–23.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 2010), 138 (emphasis original).
See further Beale and Gladd, Hidden but Now Revealed, 161–66.

This article is adapted from The Wisdom of God: Revealed, Reviled, and Reverberated by Matthew S. Harmon.

Matthew S. Harmon (PhD, Wheaton College) is professor of New Testament Studies at Grace College and Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. He was previously on staff with Cru for eight years and is the author of numerous books, including commentaries on Galatians, Philippians, 2 Peter, and Jude. He also cohosts the Various and Sundry podcast. Matthew and his wife, Kate, live in Warsaw, Indiana, and have two sons.