Title: Spiritual Man
2008.5.11. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16)
Our faith today is also possible only by the Holy Spirit. That is the case with our worship service now. This worship is a godly act of glorifying the Holy Trinity. One person in the Holy Trinity is the Holy Spirit. We ask for the help of the Holy Spirit when we pray. It is no exaggeration to say that Christianity begins with the Holy Spirit and ends with the Holy Spirit. That is why the church is called the community of the Holy Spirit.
Ruach
Ask yourself a question. Do you know what the Holy Spirit is and who it is? Those with a certain level of association in the religious life will have heard many stories. The most basic answer is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. But that answer sounds very abstract to some people. Specifically, speaking in tongues or showing the power of healing can be thought of as the power of the Holy Spirit. Korean believers generally accept certain special gifts as evidence of the Holy Spirit. There is also a slightly different trend. This is mainly seen in people with a mystical attitude, who think of the Holy Spirit as their inner voice. It means that when you are moved by the Holy Spirit, a certain realization will occur within you. Some consider the Holy Spirit to be moral. Galatians specifically lists nine fruits of the Spirit. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, good deeds, truth, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22,23)
We hear a lot of stories about the Holy Spirit, but very few people actually experience it or know it right away. I'm just saying that because other people say so. Even if they do not have a clear understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit, they do not express it. The reason is probably because the sign of receiving the Holy Spirit is not revealed. And the more important reason is that even if you do not experience the Holy Spirit, there is no problem in your life of faith and the world. But strictly speaking, without the experience of the Holy Spirit, there are many obstacles. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life, and without it, it cannot be called life. Life without the Spirit of Life appears to be alive, but in reality it is as if dead. Think about the difference between living with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, and living without it. However, it is not easy to distinguish between a life with the Holy Spirit and a life without the Holy Spirit. This is not something that can be learned by listening to other people's explanations. People have a habit of thinking only based on what they have experienced, so they do not want to accept anything beyond that, no matter how much explanation is given. Let me explain with an example.
The ancient Hebrews who started to speak the word ruah were probably spiritualists. Not everyone has this experience. People usually just pass by without thinking. Others have only seen it, but this spiritualist feels it with his whole body, agrees with it, and enters into it. It still is. No matter how much I tell you to feel the wind with your whole body, people don't take it seriously. I think that's too boring. Even if you ask them to feel their breath, people find it disrespectful. The danjeon breathing that Master Hwang Ki of our church is doing is probably a study that accepts the breath with the whole body. This is not easy. No matter how many people tell you to feel the breath with your body or accept the wind with your body, people just copy it superficially, but cannot actually get into it. The reason is probably because your mind is distracted by other things. The spiritualists of the Old Testament experienced the unity of wind and life very realistically through the word ruah.
Sophia
The Hebrews called the ruah, the Greeks called pneuma. Of course, that means spirit, breath, wind. The key word used in today's text is pneuma, and in the original Greek Bible, it appears eight times, including slightly modified words. Why does Paul use the word pneuma, and why does he use it so often? Changing to the question asked above, what and who is the pneuma he is talking about? These questions are really important to us today. This is because knowing the pneuma that Paul speaks of in the text is the gateway to the original faith of Christianity.
It is important to know the overall context in which Paul brought up the text. The church in Corinth, to which Paul wrote, is a Christian community established in the city of Corinth. Corinth was also a very prosperous city in Greece. The economy was doing well, there were lavish Greek temples, and regular sports festivals were held here. The Corinthian style, which is treated as important in the history of ancient architecture, refers to this architectural style of Corinth. However, the members of the Corinthian church did not have a very high social status. ?쏤rom a worldly point of view, how many of you were wise, powerful, or of good origin???(1 Corinthians 1:26) It is a shameful thing in Greece, the land of philosophy, that such people gathered together. It was. But Paul says the exact opposite. It is that God called the Corinthians to shame the educated through the ignorant. Paul is now 'confronting' with Greek philosophy. The subject of this confrontation is Sophia, or wisdom, which the Greeks consider the ground of truth. Paul asks, what is true wisdom now?
Paul distinguishes Sophia into two categories. One is the wisdom of the world. This wisdom is the wisdom of rulers who will soon perish from this world. The other is the profound wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 2:7). This wisdom was prepared and hidden by God before creation for our glory. It is a hidden truth. Paul quotes Isaiah 64:3. ?쏷hings which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no one imagined, God has prepared for those who love Him??(1 Corinthians 2:9). You know what wisdom is. That is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the profound wisdom of God. The rulers of the world could not realize it, so they eventually crucified Jesus.
Here you don't have to look at the ruler of the world with strange eyes. They are decent people recognized by the world. They are the kind of people everyone wants to emulate. But the problem is that they don't see Jesus as the Christ. Why couldn't they understand Jesus Christ correctly? Such smart people. That's not weird at all. Think about it. Jesus is a worker born into a very ordinary family. He is not royalty like the Buddha, not a nobleman like Confucius, nor a priestly family like John the Baptist. There was not a single corner that could attract the attention of the world. How can I believe him to be the Christ? It was very common sense, and quite natural, that the rulers of the world had Jesus crucified. They rule the world that way. They put people who disturbed society in prison and punished those who broke the law to earn money, gain power, and gain fame. It is natural that they did not see Jesus Christ, and it still happens often.
According to Paul, the people who saw the profound wisdom of God that the rulers of the world could not see were the Corinthian church members who belonged to the ignorant class of the world. The reason they could see it was the Holy Spirit. This is because the Holy Spirit ?쐓ees all things down to the deep economy of God??(1 Corinthians 2:10). Although the Corinthians were ordinary people who had nothing to show for themselves, they were able to recognize Jesus Christ, the profound wisdom of God, through the Holy Spirit. So Paul asserts: ?쏷he Holy Spirit we have received is not from the world, but from God. So we have come to understand and know the gift of grace that God gives us??(1 Corinthians 2:12).
Pneuma vs Psychichkos
Do you understand Paul's argument? And do you agree with that? Do you know what was the basis for their conviction that they had received the Holy Spirit? That is Jesus Christ. It is the wisdom and mystery of God that only spiritual people can understand, and the church in Corinth knew and believed it. Knowing the profound wisdom and mysteries of God is proof that they have received the Holy Spirit. It seems easy to know and believe, but it is not at all. It must go through the Holy Spirit. This is because spiritual things can be recognized and experienced only through the Holy Spirit.
A person who does not understand spiritual things is referred to by Paul as ?쐕nspiritual.??This word is called 'pshi kos' in the Greek, which the Revised Bible translates as 'the natural man', and Luther's 'natural man' (Der nat).