To be a “mature” believer is to be full of wisdom, not earthly wisdom, but God’s Wisdom. Reflect on the verse from the Wisdom of Solomon 9:6 “for even one who is perfect among human beings will be regarded as nothing without the wisdom that comes from you.” The Bible contains the writings taught not by human wisdom but by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:13). The Bible (Basic Information Before Leaving Earth) is a Judeo/ Christian manual of operation that reveals “the things of the Spirit of God”—things from God that us humans can’t know on our own. The Apostle Paul began chapter 2 by explaining that He did not come with “eloquence” or “human wisdom” because he wanted the faith of his hearers to depend upon the power of God. He explains that worldly wisdom is useless in understanding the gospel, rather what we need is God’s spirit. “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.” Jewish thinkers in this period thought that people could understand God’s plans only by the gift of this wisdom and his Spirit. Christians are indwelt with the gift of the Holy Spirit during Baptism, our bodies become temples for the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit bestows upon a Christian the gift of wisdom, one of the many gifts a person receives from the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine teaches us that,” Wisdom is the knowledge of Divine things.” Wisdom allows us to “see things from God’s perspective”. In his book, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, R. Garrigou-Lagrange writes, “The gift of wisdom, the principle of a living contemplation that directs action, enables the soul to taste the goodness of God, to see it manifested in all events, even in the most painful, since God permits evil only for a higher good, which we shall see later and which it is sometimes given us to glimpse on earth.” The gift of wisdom enables us to better understand how God will often allow trials and tribulations to enter our lives which in turn if we trust Him can bring about a greater good. (God does not want the trials, but only allows them) We may not comprehend exactly what the greater good is at the time, but we will have the wisdom to trust God. If we continue to grow in holiness every day and deepen our relationship with God we can become mature believers, believers who possess God’s wisdom. Thank you God for the Gift of the Holy Spirit, we bless and praise you in Jesus’ holy name.
1 Corinthians 2 NIV
2 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, 5 so 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. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these 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. 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, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Picture above: BRESCIA, ITALY The fresco of angels adorating of Holy Spirit in church Chiesa del Santissimo Corpo di Cristo by Paolo da Caylina il Vecchio (circa 1501)