3-D glasses

Although the glasses were boxy and cardboard, we all donned them once we sat down in the theater. We had entered a 3-D movie showing and we were curious.

We had a big bug fly within inches of our noses and a box tossed in the air seemed headed for our very row. We even ducked unconsciously.

The movie looked different through those glasses. I find a similar situation with Paul's discussion of wisdom and foolishness.

Paul wrote: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14)

In other words, those sitting in the movie theater with us but not wearing our cardboard glasses would not see what we were seeing. In the same way, those who accept the world's standards and do not put on the glasses of the Spirit can't see what God reveals.

"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." (1 Cor 2:12)

Believers receive God's Spirit and he allows us to see things from his point of view. Otherwise, we use our own understanding which we've crafted from our culture, our upbringing, our own ideas.

Those don't help us see things from God's point of view.

Paul said that believers were given new glasses, those tuned to God's standard. Then his words make perfect sense.

"...no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God"
(1 Cor 2:11)