Friday 03 May 2019

Psalm: Psalm 115

Background

The meaning of the word “mystery” as it is used by Paul uses is unpacked particularly in Ephesians. It is used three times in Ephesians 3:3-5 and then again in verse 9. It is about God’s hidden plan, now revealed “in its rich variety” (Ephesians 3:10). Part of the rich variety of the mystery as it’s described in Ephesians 2 is that the “wall of division” between Jews and Gentiles has been broken down. But in Ephesians 1:9-10 we learn that the mystery isn’t just about Jews and Gentiles. It is that “all things” in heaven and earth are to be gathered up in Christ. All this is important background to understanding what Paul is saying in Corinthians 2 about “the mystery of God”.

Unlike other places in his letters, in today’s passage Paul goes directly on from “the mystery of God” to link this to the centrality of Christ crucified. Later in this letter Paul affirms that it is crucial to the gospel that Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-5) but we must be careful not to miss the “rich variety” of what Paul has in mind, and so reduce the breadth of Paul’s vision of the mysterious plan of God. The mystery of Christ cannot be reduced to a theological formula about how Christ’s death saves me from my sins – although that is certainly part of it. It is a plan of cosmic proportions. All things in heaven and earth are to be gathered up in Christ so that “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (see Romans 8:19-21).

In today’s passage Paul says that God’s power and God’s wisdom are evident in the outworking of this mystery. For Paul, proclaiming it in lofty words, words of plausible wisdom, is not necessary and might obscure its truth. It was “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” that Paul came to the Corinthians with the message of God’s mystery. The mystery has its own power, and the response of faith doesn’t rest on human wisdom.

To Ponder:

• How do you feel, and what do you think, about the word “mystery” as Paul uses it?
• What is your own understanding of the “rich variety” of the mystery of Christ?
• What do you take for yourself, in your own situation, from Paul’s admission that he was “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” when he came to present “the mystery of God” to the Corinthians.