Eye Hath not Seen, Nor ear Heard.

I stumbled upon this verse that I see so many people love to quote with reference to the things that God has prepared for us as Christians, yet I noticed that the way most of us have used it has always been with disregard to the immediate context of the verse. The verse I am speaking of is 1 Corinthians 2:9 which states:

“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.”

If you look at the verse upon face value without taking into consideration the immediate context it is an encouraging verse for those who believe. The verse appears to be referring to  the future where God will give to those who have faith in Him a magnificent gift that He has prepared, but one thing overlooked is that within context this verse is not referring to the future. Directly prior to this verse Paul is speaking to the Corinthians on the “princes of this world” (1 Cor. 2:6,8; John 14:30) whom he states would not have let Jesus Christ be crucified had they known what would occur.    The subsequent verses after v.9 is the section that identifies when that which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard” will be revealed as it states:

“But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God…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” v.10,12

It is not that we must wait for these things according to the verses above, but that it has already been revealed to us through His Holy Spirit. The future tense carries on insofar as the Holy Spirit teaches through comparing spiritual with spiritual and having the mind of Christ as believers should. The verse then should be one of a present abiding hope rather than hope delayed.

 

~ by Kiran Embers on June 27, 2012.