Are you not ordinary people?

1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; ⁷ but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; ⁸ the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; ⁹ but just as it is written:

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the human heart,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

¹⁰ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. ¹³ We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

¹⁴ But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. ¹⁶ For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

3 And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, ³ for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? ⁴ For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people?

Paul ends today’s text saying:  I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people?  Sadly though, even today there are many people who prefer to identify as being part of a church or denomination, rather than as a Christian. I once sat in a meeting where a pastor said, I think it is better to be known as a _ _ _ _ than as a Christian, because our reputation is better in the eyes of the world. In Luke 9:26 Jesus says:  Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels. It is not our reputation with the world we should be concerned with, but rather our reputation with Christ. Speaking of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2-6 it says:  He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him. He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.  Jesus was not concerned about His reputation when He bore our sins and shame on the cross. In John 15:17-25 Jesus says:  “This I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me for no reason.’” It is a privilege beyond measure to be called by the name of Christ. 

The text says:  “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”  For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.  When we walk in the power of the Spirit, we will at times look foolish to the world. When we are in step with God’s will and His plans, we will be out of step with the world. Jesus taught us to pray saying:  Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  We are not only to pray that, but having the mind of Christ, having the Spirit of God to instruct us, we are to be those who are part of the answer to that prayer, bringing the realities of heaven to earth. The world will not often understand a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Paul says:  Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit may I live in the world but not be of the world. May I speak Your words, wisdom to the mature, but foolishness to the world. May I know the great privilege and honor that it is to be called by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.