What Unbelievers Don't Understand

A Verse

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

However, as it is written:

What no eye has seen, what no ear heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

A Comment

In verses 9-10, the apostle Paul aims to support the claims he has made in verses 6-8. In verses 6-8, Paul explains how people who are wise according to the world have failed to understand God's wisdom and salvation. The idea that God would bring about salvation through the crucifixion of the “Lord of glory” is foolishness to the world. It was a “stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23). This, however, is not the case for those who have received God’s Spirit.

The wisdom of God is only understood and received by those whom God has chosen to reveal it. This revelation is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul preached. And those who received this message understand it to be “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18)

This truth should help us understand why unbelievers do not yet understand the hope of salvation that believers possess in Christ. No human eye could see, nor human ear hear, nor human mind conceive “the things God has prepared for those who love him.” And this true of all of us until God opened our hearts as he did Lydia’s to receive this unbelievably good news.

Thus, we should not boast in ourselves but in the Lord. We should pray for the unbelievers in our lives that do not yet understand what God has prepared for those that love him. And we should be full of thankfulness that God through his Spirit has revealed these great and glorious things to us as His children.

A Prayer

Would you pray with me?

A Blessing

Grace and peace be yours in abundance, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.