January 6 | 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

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DAILY READING

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

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REFLECTION

Clean Fresh-from-Heaven

By Pam Mann

Paul opens 1 Corinthians 2 with a clear statement of purpose:

I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 

The crucified Christ. This is Paul’s focus.

Like us, Paul was not an eyewitness to the death of Jesus. Like us, however, he has met the crucified and resurrected Christ. Growing in connection with the crucified Christ has changed everything for Paul. It shifted his worldview. He see everything now in a new light...the light of the crucified Christ.

Every believer experiences such a change, though we each have unique stories of how God has worked in our lives. In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The good news is that this new life in Christ is available to every believer. Adventuring into new life in Christ is not something abstract nor far off, but it is something that can be misunderstood and despised by the world.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:7 of how God before time began planned for us to know God’s wisdom. What a stunning thought! How is such a wonder possible in our finite sinful brains? 1 Cor. 2:10 explains that it happens because God’s Spirit is in us. That’s another stunner, isn’t it? Just think: God’s Spirit indwells our flawed human flesh. Now the clincher comes in 1 Cor. 2:26. Paul announces: We have the mind of Christ.

Really?

Does Paul not consider all the nasty things our minds can ponder? He gets it. He’s writing this incredible truth first to the Corinthian church, which had more than its share of scoundrels. Clearly, the mind of Christ is a gift to the undeserving. Paul knows well that our ways are not God’s ways.

How then do we have the mind of Christ?

It happens because God the Father planned it before time began; because Christ the crucified assures it for us by the power of His resurrection; and because God’s Spirit reveals it to us. It's a trinitarian triple play, rare in baseball and available to us as God's regular routine! God's work opens up for us such an amazing opportunity: having the mind of Christ!

Sure, we’re still sinners living in a broken world. We’re like my six-year-old granddaughter who comes in from playing in the snow. Her mother catches her putting compacted snow from her boot treads into her mouth. “What are you doing?” asks her startled mother.

“Eating snow,” she replies. “Grandma says we can.” I did say we can eat snow. When I said it, however, I meant the clean fresh-from-heaven stuff. Likewise, when Paul says “You have the mind of Christ,” he means the clean fresh-from-heaven stuff.

Sure, we live among gray slushy snow mounds, but that’s not where we’ll find the fresh-from-heaven clean stuff. Above and beyond our sinful thoughts, we have the mind of Christ. Isn’t that why we come daily to the scriptures to soak in God’s truth? Isn’t it why we worship regularly and study the Bible with other believers? Why we come to the Lord’s table? Why we pray without ceasing? Why we long to walk in the Spirit?

Sure, we live with a lot of gray slush, but we know Christ crucified. We have the mind of Christ, clean fresh-from-heaven.

PRAYER

Thank you, Father, for planning our connection with You before time began. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross which cancels our sin to bring us to You. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for indwelling us that we might have the mind of Christ.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.