Reflections on 1 Corinthians 2:11
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11, NIV)
The Living Bible says no one can really know “what he is really like, except that person himself.”
Just as only a person’s own spirit can truly know their mind, so only the Spirit who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26) can know the true intentions, the heart, and the understanding of the mind of God. No one knows the mind of God but the Spirit of God Himself. And this same Spirit, who knows God’s heart, comes to live in ours.
The study of ourselves is the hardest work there is to do: the ability to look into your own heart and own the real intentions that live there. This is the real work, done with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. An honest friend can point out obvious flaws, but the truth of our hearts is known only to us, if we are willing to know it, and to the Holy Spirit. “The heart is deceitful above all things… who can know it? I the LORD search the heart” (Jeremiah 17:9–10).
This is a work that cannot be done haphazardly, but in the kindness and Love that flow freely from the Father of lights (James 1:17). It is not a hard road to walk with the guidance of the Spirit. Dealing with yourself is actually less painful than spending your entire life with blinders on, tripping over every obstacle you refuse to acknowledge or look at. That is a hard way to spend a life in this hard world.
Wisdom says: own your life, flaws and all. Learn to love yourself, all parts of you, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is much kinder to yourself to grow up into the maturity of a real saved and healed Christian than to stumble around lost and alone, bleeding from your wounded soul until life feels unbearable.
But life can be joyful, regardless of what was done to you or what you have done to yourself. All the damage can be healed. Own your life; deal with yourself. The Lord is there to carry you through all the hard places, and you will find yourself living in the Light and Joy of heaven here, now, in this world.
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). So wake up, and enjoy your morning of truth and light.
