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Instead of going to Corinth, and speaking to the unprepared
multitude the whole truth of God at once, the apostle fed them
according to their capacity. To babes he gave the `milk' of the
Word, to adults the `meat'. In Galatians 2 he tells us that, when
the great controversy was raging concerning the place of the
uncircumcised Gentile in the Church, he `communicated unto
them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but
privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I
should run, or had run, in vain' (Gal. 2:2).
So the apostle here tells the Corinthians that he had spoken the
wisdom of God in a mystery (secret). He does not say that he
told them `the Mystery' for this would have been altogether
foreign to his thought. The presence of the word `hidden',
coming so near the word `mystery' has led the superficial reader
to a false conclusion. It was not the mystery that was hidden,
but the wisdom, and it was this of which Paul spoke to those who
were perfect - and so, `in a secret'. He clinches his argument
with a quotation from the Prophets, a proof that `the Mystery' of
Ephesians was not in mind:
`But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God' (1 Cor. 2:9,10).
The apostle's intention here is made very clear by his own
expansion of the argument. He proceeds, in verse 12, to place in
contrast the `spirit of the world' and the `spirit which is of God'
- an evident parallel with the contrasted `wisdom of the world'
and `wisdom of God' in the earlier part of the chapter. In verse
12 we read that this `spirit which is of God' is given so that `we