Yesterday I had the privilege of listening again to a brilliant Jewish man who has a mind for the things of God but does not even realize the source of his wisdom. Gabor Maté talked about the need to show compassion to the messed up people in society because it is compassion alone that can redeem them. This man, a doctor who works with those who have addictions, speaks of biblical principles, yet claims he is not at all religious.
In chatting with a young Christian man
sitting next to me, we agreed that the speaker was so close to the truth that God
speaks, yet not quite there. This I noticed when hearing this man speak a few
years ago. He has an amazing heart for people, great insights into how we respond
to trauma and pain, and wonderful ideas of how to change the world. Yet he missed
using important words like “choices” and “sin” and “forgiveness” even though he
did talk about “redemption” and “restoration.”
How is it that the heart of God can be
seen even in those who don’t acknowledge Him, and others are totally blind to
His presence and power? How can a child believe and a university professor
cannot? What is different between a tribal nobody who has faith and a religious
somebody who is merely faking it? Why can I see God and people far more astute
than I cannot?
Paul gave the reasons in 1 Corinthians 2. First, he says
that what we cannot see, He reveals: “’What
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has
prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through
the Spirit.”
God’s power is such that it can open
blind eyes, physically as Jesus proved, and spiritually as the Holy Spirit continues
to prove. The Spirit can do it because He “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.”
I’ve also studied Greek this week. Part
of the lectures and readings were about the task of Bible translators.
Actually, it is the same for other linguistic challenges. How can the words
from one language and culture be accurately conveyed to another language and
culture? This is no easy task.
The difficulties are multiplied when the
two cultures are separated by a couple thousand or more years of history, but
what about the separation between me, a sinner and mere mortal, and the God of
the universe who is perfect, who created all things, and who knows all about
everything? How can I possible understand Him? If left to my own devices, this
is a total impossibility. However, God understands me, and He didn’t leave me to
my own devices . . .
“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.”
He does the translating work — I don’t. He
gives me the Holy Spirit so I can be receptive, then when He talks to me, I can
understand what He says and accept that those words and those truths are from
Him. That is so awesome.
The Bible also says why some cannot grasp
these things. It is because “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.” Without the Holy Spirit, the Word of God is gibberish, even
offensive to their mind and heart. Without God’s translating work, whatever He
says is unintelligible.
However, “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?’”
As I read this, I think of Maté, the speaker with an
incredible grasp of truth, but not all of it. Obviously, God has given this to
him. He talked about his efforts to “not shut down his heart” and he even
quoted Jesus Christ, but he also said that he was still seeking answers. As I listened,
I wondered if God would one day give him the rest of it, the missing parts that
make a grand wholeness to the insights and wisdom he already displayed.
As for me, I could have been intimidated
or envious or even smug, but was not. This passage from 1 Corinthians ends with
a humbling declaration of what I know to be true. Even as I struggle to give
Him the priority in my thoughts, the Bible tells me, “But we have the mind of Christ.”
To that, I must agree — only God can do such
a thing, and bow my head before Him.
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