Freely Given Of God

Just as it is important to eat good food regularly to promote our physical health, feeding on the word of God spiritually is indispensable for spiritual health.  So much of what happens inside our bodies after our food is chosen, chewed and swallowed is done automatically without a thought.  Digestion of food, the absorption and allocation of nutrients, and repair of our bodies is really out of our control.  When it comes to reading and considering God's word, however, this is a conscious mental, spiritual and physical exercise.  We must discipline ourselves to study, apply and put into personal practice what we learn.  We must learn to humble ourselves before our LORD who speaks to our hearts and meditate on what He has spoken to us.

One verse, sentence and single word of God is very powerful to deliver truth we need to hear and understand.  You have eaten many meals before today, but it is what you choose to eat today that will provide a positive benefit for the health of your body moving forward.  This is true also concerning God's word.  We can be familiar with a lot of Bible content and verses, yet we need to be reminded of context and process those words again to be impacted afresh.  I experienced this today as I read 1 Corinthians 2:12 in the KJV, for a single word opened up a new avenue of consideration I had not explored for awhile: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."  I typically teach out of the NKJV, and the rendering of that verse says we have received the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things "freely given to us by God."

These are both good translations of the Bible, and there are many others in English besides them.  I do not believe one must be right and the other wrong because of the variation of the highlighted word:  they both are in total agreement with one another and give us a different perspective of the same truth.  As believers all we have been freely given to us is by God, and there are things we have received that are of God.  He is both the source and the substance of His gracious provision.  When I quote this verse I tend to think in terms of understanding what has been freely been given to us by God when God also gives us spiritual discernment to know what has been freely given us of God.  Paul makes the point in this chapter those who are born again have the mind of Christ because we have received the Holy Spirit.  The mind of Christ is not something off in the distance we can work towards, but the mind of God He has already provided and thus we can receive.

So what are some things we have freely received of God?  Paul referenced many of these things in this chapter:  the ability to declare the testimony of God (ver. 1), in weakness and fear of God to speak in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (ver. 2-3), to speak wisdom of God ordained from before the foundation of the world (ver. 7), to have spiritual revelation of what God has prepared for those who love Him (ver. 9-10), the indwelling Holy Spirit (ver. 12), the ability to compare and discern spiritual things (ver. 13-14), the mind of Christ (ver. 16).  All these things have been freely given us by God and they are of God.  How amazing it is to know we ourselves are "of God," born again into the family of God by the Gospel.  1 John 4:4 says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."  Knowing we are of God and what we have freely received of God, let us walk in the Spirit according to the mind of Christ.