Lessons #51 and 52
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Paul’s preaching involved revealed secret wisdom (1 Cor 2:6-12)
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 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.
The section of 1 Corinthians 2:6-12 is concerned with the fact that the truth Apostle Paul preached/taught revealed secret wisdom from God. We have indicated that the apostle in this section of 1 Corinthians was eager to describe the wisdom associated with his preaching. This, we said he did through three major assertions. The first major assertion of the apostle is that the wisdom associated with his teaching is usually directed to those who are spiritually matured. A second major assertion of the apostle regarding wisdom associated with his preaching/teaching the word of God is that its nature should be understood. This nature we have examined in detail using four sub assertions. In fact, our last study was concerned with the fourth sub assertion which is that the wisdom with which the apostle preaches/teaches is not understood by rulers of this world. They did not grasp the significance or meaning of the wisdom with which he preached the cross. He provided two justifications for this assertion. A first justification is that the rulers of this world were those who crucified Jesus Christ. A second is that it is because of the declaration of the Scripture. In other words, the apostle said that their failure to understand is already stated in the Scripture since such understanding is reserved for the elect. Following this justification, the apostle gave the third major assertion of this passage.
A third major assertion of the apostle regarding wisdom associated with his preaching/teaching the word of God is that it involves the Holy Spirit. In stating this third major assertion, we believe that the apostle was still concerned with the issue of the revealed wisdom of God but there are those who think the apostle was concerned with the things God prepared for the elect. Of course, regardless of what the issue is, it is undeniable that the apostle conveyed the involvement of the Holy Spirit. That aside, we maintain that the third major assertion of the apostle in the passage we are considering is that the wisdom associated with his preaching/teaching of God’s word involves the Holy Spirit. This assertion, he expounded with two sub assertions. A first sub assertion is that the wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit. It is this sub assertion that is given in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
There is a manuscript problem associated with this first sentence. This problem deals with what was the original Greek particle that began the sentence. Some Greek manuscripts contain a Greek particle (de) that is translated “but” in many of our English versions as in the NIV. Other Greek manuscripts contain a Greek particle (gar) that may mean “for” as in the NASB. This variation in the reading of the Greek manuscripts has lead to three major ways of beginning the Greek sentence in the English. Some English versions begin either with the word “but” or “for” and others such as the ESV, NET, the 2011 edition of the NIV, among others, simply omitted translating the Greek particle. However, nearly all these English versions added a pronoun “it” or “these” or “them” in their translation although none of these is found in the Greek.
The addition of “it” or “these” or “them” in our English versions is a matter of interpretation. This is because the clause of the NIV but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit is literally For to us God revealed through the Spirit. The literal translation indicates that what God revealed or the object of the revelation through the Spirit is not specified. Thus, translators decided what object to supply. There are two possibilities, “secret wisdom” or “what God prepared for the elect.” To my understanding, the apostle is still concerned with the subject of wisdom and not what God has prepared for the elect because the concept of what God prepared for the elect is brought in 1 Corinthians 2:9 as the apostle’s second justification for asserting the rulers of this world did not grasp the significance or the meaning of the wisdom that is associated with his preaching/teaching of the word of God. We are saying that because “what God prepared for the elect” is part of scriptural quotation to justify the apostle’s assertion that the rulers of this world did not grasp the significance of the wisdom associated with his preaching/teaching, then it is not what the apostle had in mind in verse 10. Instead, the apostle was still thinking of the “secret wisdom” introduced in 1 Corinthians 2:7.
Anyway, we still need to decide the particle the apostle used in the original. Did he use the Greek word (de) that means “but” or the Greek particle (gar) that means “for?” We cannot be certain which is the right particle the apostle used. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the original contained the Greek word translated “for.” This is because of the theme of 1 Corinthians 2:6-12 is wisdom. The apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:7 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature according to the NIV. His focus was God’s secret wisdom since the verbal phrase speak a message of wisdom among the mature of the NIV is literally speak wisdom among the matured. After his introduction of the concept of wisdom, the apostle then focused on its descriptions. It is during these descriptions that he quoted from the OT Scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:9. Thus, after the apostle quoted from the Scripture, the Holy Spirit would have brought his mind back to the theme of his focus, that is, wisdom. Therefore, when he began verse 10 it is proper for the apostle to begin it with a Greek particle that is often translated “for” in our English version. However, its use in verse 10 is either to provide the reason the apostle could speak of God’s secret with such wisdom or that he was about to make an important point regarding wisdom that was involved in his preaching/teaching of God’s word. Of course, it is probably the case that the apostle wanted not only to convey the reason for his preaching God’s secret with wisdom or insight but to convey that the reason he supplied is an important one. Thus, we believe the apostle used the Greek particle that means “for.” There is another reason we believe this. It is because that is the reading found in the oldest Greek manuscript available to date. It is true that a copyist could have added it as some suspect but there is nothing in the text that suggests that this is the case. In fact, there is no reason a copyist would have changed the Greek particle that means “but” with the one that means “for” if the original had it. It makes more sense for a copyist to have changed the Greek word that means “for” to one that means “but” as a matter of interpretation. In effect, a copyist might have felt that because verse 9 is concerned with the justification for the apostle’s assertion that the rulers of the world did not understand the wisdom associated with his preaching/teaching of God’s word that it makes sense for the apostle to make a contrasting statement in verse 10 relating his position and that of the rulers of the world. Therefore, such a copyist could have changed the Greek word that means “for” to one that means “but.” This notwithstanding, the truth is that the particle used does not materially affect the point of the apostle regarding the involvement of the Holy Spirit in revealing God’s secret. You see, the Greek particle that means “but” may also mean “now” as a marker linking narrative segments. This is probably the way the translators of the HCSB and the REB understood the Greek particle translated “but” since they used the meaning “now” and “and” respectively in their translation. My point is that ultimately, a focus on the theme of the apostle regarding wisdom should enable us to recognize that verse 10 is not being contrasted to verse 9; although that is possible, but is concerned with the explanation of the apostle’s reason for teaching God’s secret with the insight displayed in his teaching/preaching.
Be that as it may, a first sub assertion of the third major assertion of our passage is that the wisdom associated with the apostle’s preaching/teaching is revealed through the Holy Spirit as stated in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. As we indicated previously, the pronoun “it” does not occur in the Greek text but it is added to enable the Greek sentence to become more intelligible to the English reader. Of course, there is question of how to understand the pronoun “it” which we argued refers to God’s “secret wisdom” or simply His secret that is revealed through an insight given by God the Holy Spirit.
The thing revealed is through or by the Holy Spirit. We say this because some English versions use the preposition “through” in their translation while others use the preposition “by.” It does not matter which word is used; the meaning is the same. This because the word “by” of the NIV is translated from a Greek preposition (dia) that has several usages but, in our passage, it is used as a marker of personal agency so that the Greek preposition may be translated “through” or “by.” The point is that the Holy Spirit is the agent of God’s revelation of His secret wisdom or simply His secret.
We used the term “Holy Spirit” when the NIV simply reads by his Spirit. So, you may ask how we could have used that term. To begin with, the phrase by his Spirit of the NIV is literally through the Spirit. The translation of the NIV is permissible since the article in Greek may be used as a possessive pronoun “his” but it is probably that the apostle used the article to refer to the Spirit he mentioned previously in 1 Corinthians 2:4:
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
That aside, we still must provide justification for the use of the term “Holy Spirit” when our text literally reads through the Spirit. There are three reasons for this. First, the phrase the Spirit is one that is used in the NT to refer to the Holy Spirit even if the word “Holy” is not used. We can learn this from the description of the temptation of Jesus Christ recorded in the gospels. Matthew indicated that Jesus was led to the place of His temptation by the Spirit in Matthew 4:1:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew did not use the word “Holy” to describe the Spirit but that is understood as we may learn from Luke’s account of the same event in Luke 4:1:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
Clearly the Spirit that led Jesus to the desert according to Luke’s record is the Holy Spirit that he said Jesus was full of. This practice of simply referring to the Spirit when the Holy Spirit is meant is also found in Apostle Paul’s epistle. Take for example, the apostle teaches that the Holy Spirit lives in the believers in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
But then, in his second epistle he taught the same thing but without using the full term “Holy Spirit” in 2 Corinthians 1:22:
set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
The phrase his Spirit, no doubt, refers to the Holy Spirit as the One who lives in the believer as also conveyed in 2 Timothy 1:14:
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Second, the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Godhead that reveals things to us. Apostle Paul indicates that God is the revealer of things, as stated in Philippians 3:15:
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
The clause that too God will make clear to you is literally God will reveal this also to you. When the apostle indicates that God will reveal something to the Philippians, he could be thinking of any member of the Godhead since each member of the Godhead is described as a revealer of truth or things to believers. Jesus Christ is described as a revealer in Matthew 11:27:
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
God the Father is described as a revealer in Luke 10:21:
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
The context of 1 Corinthians 2:10 implies that the Father is involved in the revelation in our passage but also the apostle mentioned the Spirit as the personal agent of this revelation. Therefore, he could only mean the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that we use the term “Holy Spirit.” Third, the apostle is acquainted with the promised function of Holy Spirit as teacher, according to the Lord’s statement in John 14:26:
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
These reasons we have given are sufficient to convince anyone that the use of the literal phrase the Spirit or his spirit in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 2:10 is a reference to God the Holy Spirit. He is the agent of the revelation that the apostle had in mind when he wrote God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The pronoun us refers to all believers but with primary emphasis on the apostles as those who received further revelation given in the Scripture. We are saying that although the pronoun refers to all believers, it is probably that the apostle thought of this but in his mind recognized himself and the other apostles as the first recipients of God’s revelation.
Many times, we say things or act in certain ways without proper justification for what we say or do. However, it is important that we be careful to provide reasons or justifications for what we say or do. I am saying that it is possible that you may make what you may think is a spiritual truth but without justification. This, of course, is particularly the case with preachers or teachers of the word of God. They make statements they expect others to believe but they fail to provide the justification for them in the Scripture, especially if they claim to be teaching principles from the word of God. Such a practice is shown to be wrong by the various times we find in the Scripture, especially in the NT epistles, justifications for either doctrinal statements or requirements expected of us as believers. The passage we are studying provides such an example. The apostle had stated that God has revealed to believers, beginning with the apostles, God’s secret wisdom. He could have stopped at such a statement for after all, he was guided by the Holy Spirit to write so that there would be no doubt he told what is true. Furthermore, although he did not focus on the detail of how that happened, he had indicated that the means of such revelation is the Holy Spirit. But, he did not. Instead, he went on to provide reasons that the Holy Spirit is the revealer of what he described in our passage. We say that he provided reasons because of the conjunction the apostle used to begin the next sentence of the passage we are considering.
The translators of the NIV did not translate the Greek conjunction (gar) used that has several usages in the Greek. For example, it may be used as a marker of explanation in which case it may be translated “for” or “you see.” In our passage, it is used as a marker of reason with the translation “for” although it is also possible to consider it as a marker of explanation. That notwithstanding, the apostle gives us a reason the Holy Spirit is a revealer of things related to God.
The reason the Holy Spirit is the agent of revelation of things regarding God is because He is God. There are those, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who say that the Holy Spirit is neither God nor a person but an impersonal “active force.” Such a doctrine is shown to be false by the passage we are considering. But before we get to the passage we are considering, let me provide you just few facts to remind you He is God. First, He possesses the attributes of God. For example, He is omnipresent, that is, He is everywhere so that the psalmist was aware of this that he cried out that there is no escape from His presence, as implied in Psalm 139:7–8:
7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
He is eternal as, indicated in Hebrews 9:14:
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Second, the activities of God are associated with Him. For example, the Holy Spirit is involved in creation as we can gather from the admission of Job in Job 33:4:
The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Because God the Holy Spirit creates, He gives new birth as we read in John 3:5–7:
5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
Apostle Peter speaking by the Holy Spirit declared He is God because he interchanged the Holy Spirit with God when he said that Ananias lied to God that he previously identified as Holy Spirit, as given in Acts 5:3–4:
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”
The same interchange is demonstrated by the human author of Hebrews. He quoted what the Holy Spirit said in Hebrews 3:7–11:
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
Notice what the Holy Spirit is said to have stated in verse 11 They shall never enter my rest. But when the human author of Hebrews referred to this oath, he attributed it to God as we read in Hebrews 3:18:
And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
Thus, there should be no doubt that the human author of Hebrews writing under the Holy Spirit understood Holy Spirit is God. We have given these two arguments to support that Holy Spirit is God so let us return to the passage of 1 Corinthians 2:10 we are considering for further support of the deity of the Holy Spirit.
It is true Apostle Paul did not directly state that Holy Spirit is God but that is what he conveyed in the reason he gave for the Holy Spirit being the agent of revelation of the things of God. For the apostle wrote The Spirit searches all thing, even the deep things of God. This sentence speaks to the fact that the Holy Spirit is both a person and God.
Holy Spirit is a person because of the word “searches.” It is translated from a Greek verb (eraunaō) that may mean to make a careful or thorough effort to learn something. Thus, it may mean to examine or investigate something carefully as in the study of the Scripture as Lord Jesus asserted the Jews were doing in their quest for eternal life in John 5:39:
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.
It may mean “to search” as the word is used to describe the activity of the Lord Jesus as conveyed to the church in Thyatira, according to Revelation 2:23:
I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
The Greek word may mean “to find out” as it is used to describe the effort of prophets that received information concerning Christ’s appearance on this planet in 1 Peter 1:11:
trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
It is in the sense of to consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning of something that the word is used in our passage hence the word means “to examine, search out or investigate.” This examination or investigation is not to discover something one does not know but simply to search out the extent of something. This searching out the extent of something is one that the Holy Spirit continues to do because the apostle used a present tense in the Greek. The activity of examining or searching is one that can be carried out by a person where a person is defined in terms of intellect, will, and sensibility. The fact the Holy Spirit is involved in examination or searching activity means He is not a force but a person.
The Holy Spirit is God not only because as a person He carries out detail examination or searches out but also because of the extent of His examining or searching activity as given in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 2:10 all things, even the deep things of God.
The phrase all things is translated from a Greek word (pas) that means “all, every, each, whole” but in the Greek form used in our passage it means “all things, everything.” Quite often when we encounter the word “all” or “everything” we think in terms of absolute totality. This, of course, creates problem for many in accepting specific teachings of the Scripture. For example, some people reject the doctrine of election because they say God is not willing for anyone to perish but wants everyone to come to repentance, as we read in 2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
The problem with using this passage to deny election is at least twofold. The first is with the word anyone translated from the plural of a Greek word (tis) that means “anyone, anything, someone; something, many a one or thing, any, some.” In the Greek text, it is in the plural so it is best to translate it “some” or “certain ones.” This interpretation is supported by the fact the translators of NIV translated the same plural Greek pronoun “some” in the clause as some understand slowness and so one wonders why they did not translate it “some” the second time the word appears. This interpretation of the Greek word used, to mean “some” or “certain ones,” immediately reveals that those that will not perish are not humanity in general but “certain ones” or “some.” The second problem is with the word everyone that is translated from the same Greek word that we said means “all, every, each, whole.” The context suggests that it should be translated “all” and not “everyone.” If this translation is followed, then it is easier to understand that “all” refers to the “some” or “certain ones” that God is not willing for them to perish but to repent. These certain ones are the elect to whom Apostle Peter mentioned in the beginning of his first epistle. They are those God is not willing to perish but to be saved; for all the elect will be saved as implied in the reason Apostle Paul gives for his laboring to preach the gospel in 2 Timothy 2:10:
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
The point we want to establish is that the Greek word translated “all” in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 2:10 all things, even the deep things of God should not always be taken in an absolute sense but that it is the context that determines its interpretation. Let me illustrate from several passages in the Scripture. The Lord Jesus declared all things were committed to Him by the Father in a passage we cited previously, that is, Matthew 11:27:
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
The phrase all things could refer to authority and power or to knowledge and teaching. Our Greek word is used in reporting Jesus’ Parable of Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:26:
“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’
The word everything may also be translated “all things” that here refers to total debt owed by the speaker. Luke at the beginning of his gospel account used our word in Luke 1:3:
Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
The word everything may be translated all things that in the context refers to every available information or facts regarding the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. Apostle John used our Greek word in the involvement of Jesus Christ in creation in John 1:3:
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The phrase all things here refers to totality of creation. Apostle Paul used the Greek word in Galatians 4:1:
What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.
The sentence he owns the whole estate is literally he is master of all things. In the context of Galatians 4, the phrase all things refers to everything that a man owns, hence the translators of the NIV gave a good interpretative translation using the phrase whole estate. The apostle used our Greek word in his epistle to Titus in Titus 1:15:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
The phrase all things here is a reference to food. This interpretation is supported by what the apostle stated in Romans 14:20:
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
The sentence All food is clean is more literally all things, indeed, are pure. The Greek phrase so rendered is similar to that used in Titus 1:15, the only difference is the word “indeed” that is inserted between the two Greek words translated “all things” and “pure.” Thus, for all practically purposes, the Greek phrase in both passages is the same. It is true that the word “food” does not appear in Romans 14:20 but the context supports the insertion of the word “food” as found in the NIV since the last phrase of the first sentence of verse 20 is for the sake of food. Furthermore, the preceding context of verse 20 indicates the apostle had in mind the question of clean or unclean food, as he stated in Romans 14:14:
As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
The context of Romans 14:20 is concerned with the ceremonial aspect of the Mosaic law which is similar to the context of Titus 1:15. Consequently, since the same Greek phrase is used in both Titus 1:15 and Romans 14:20, we are correct in our interpretation that the phrase all things in Titus 1:15 refers to food.
The examples we have cited should convince you that the phrase all things should not always be taken in absolute sense without reference to the context. It is probably because Apostle Paul recognized the potential of understanding the phrase absolutely that he tried to ensure that when it is used of Jesus subjecting everything under Him that all things would not include God, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:27:
For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.
The point is that it is the context that enables us to understand how the Greek word translated “all things” in 1 Corinthians 2:10 is to be interpreted. This being the case the “all things” refers to “secret” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2:7. Hence, the Holy Spirit examines or searches out every secret that we can possibly have. In effect, He is omniscient and omnipresent so that He can examine or search out every secret. This activity of the Holy Spirit clearly indicates He is God. For it is God alone that can do this. Thus, God states that nothing is hidden from Him in Jeremiah 23:23–24:
23 “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? 24Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
By the way, this attribute of seeing what is secret, is that attributed to all members of the Godhead. It is attributed to God the Father in Matthew 6:4:
so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
It is attributed to Jesus Christ as He searches the innermost part of humans in Revelation 2:23:
I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
Anyway, the sentence The Spirit searches all things of 1 Corinthians 2:10 indicates that the Holy Spirit is God because of the extent of what He can examine.
The extent of the Holy Spirit examining or searching activity is presented in such a way to convey that He is God. Thus, the apostle writes in the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 2:10 even the deep things of God. Literally the Greek reads and the deep things of God. This is because we have a Greek conjunction (kai) that may be used as a marker of connection of words or clauses and so is often translated “and.” It may be used as marker of a sequence of closely related events with the translation “and, and then.” In fact, the conjunction has several usages. In our passage, there are at least three possible usages. It could be used as a marker of explanation in which case it may be translated “that is”, implying that the phrase the deep things of God provides an explanation to the preceding phrase all things. Another usage is to indicate the apostle reached a climax or crescendo in what he wrote so that the conjunction is what is known as “ascensive” with the meaning “even.” The implication of this interpretation is that the apostle added one last piece of information or a comment to the preceding phrase. Another usage is as a marker of emphasis and so may be translated “indeed.” Which of these did the apostle mean? It does not seem to be that he meant that the phrase the deep things of God explains the first phrase all things although some think both are the same. Therefore, the apostle probably meant the other two usages. In effect, the apostle added an additional information but that is done in an emphatic manner. He extended the activity of the Holy Spirit to include God Himself. This extension will imply that there is a connection between what the apostle writes in the phrase all things and the phrase the deep things of God Anyway, the extent of the examining activity of the Holy Spirit is given in the phrase the deep things of God.
The word “deep” is translated from a Greek word (bathos) that may mean “depth” in the sense of the space or distance beneath a surface, as in the Parable of the Sower where the seed did not fall on soil with depth, as in Mark 4:5:
Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
The clause because the soil was shallow is literally because it did not have any depth of soil. It is in the sense of space that Apostle Paul used it with the meaning “depth” to describe the impossibility of the believer being separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, as we read in Romans 8:39:
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word may mean “depth” in a figurative sense of something nonphysical, perceived to be so remote that it is difficult to assess. Thus, Apostle Paul used it to indicate how difficult it is to fully describe the inexhaustibility of the riches of either God’s grace or of His wisdom and knowledge, as stated in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
In the figurative usage the word may mean “extreme” as it is used to describe the poverty of the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8:2:
Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
The phrase their extreme poverty is literally their deep poverty. It is in the sense of that which is difficult to assess that it is used in 1 Corinthians 2:10. The implication is that the phrase the deep things of God refers to the secrets of God that consist of His plan or purpose. The phrase things of God may be understood either as the things that belong to God or the things that characterize God. It is difficult to differentiate these two since what belongs to God can also characterize Him. The point is that the secrets or plans examined by the Holy Spirit belong to God and can only be known by God. Therefore, it is because Holy Spirit is God that He can examine or search the secrets belonging to God. In any event, a first sub assertion of the third major assertion of the apostle regarding the Holy Spirit is that the wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit.
06/22/18