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Hidden Truths, God’s Secrets, Holy Mysteries

Hidden Truths, God’s Secrets, Holy Mysteries

Hidden Truths, God’s Secrets, Holy Mysteries.

“A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and as stewards of the mysteries of God. Think of us as Messiah’s official underlings who are entrusted with the mysteries of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1).

MYSTERY: (Greek, “mysterion”); a sacred secret hidden in the heart of God until the appointed time of revelation; a truth that can only be known by divine disclosure; spiritual insights into God’s way of thinking and planning; hidden truths revealed by God that are beyond human intellect and reason; divine knowledge that can only be understood through the Holy Spirit; God’s thoughts and plans revealed to believers and hidden from skeptical doubters and those who choose not to believe. The word mysterion is found 28 times in the New Testament.

Kairos Time. Only the Lord God could keep a secret this long… a few hundred centuries! All this time, before history even began, God has been hiding certain truths until just the right time to reveal them to the world. In God’s eyes, timing is everything. The Greek term for this perfect timing of a truth is “Kairos” time. New Testament Kairos means time, but not just any time. Kairos means this is The Time, the time has come, in the fullness of time The other Greek word for time is chronos, which is simply the linear measurement of time, as in the word chronology. Chronos has to do with quantity of time, while Kairos has to do with quality of time. Chronos refers to the sheer presence of time, but Kairos refers to the presence of timeliness. There are two angles of Kairos that we can look at in the New Testament:

  1. Kairos means a timely opportunity; the fitting time for action; the right time to get involved; the proper time to act or decide something; a moment whose time has come; a time to respond because things have come to a head (kairos is related to the Greek word for head, “kara”); a particular time when a crisis has created an opportunity.
  2. Kairos is God-time; the appointed time appointed by God; a sacred time for God to act; the opportune time when the Holy Spirit is moving someone into action; the moment of truth when the Spirit of God is inspiring the right word or action for the occasion; the right, fitting time to accomplish God’s will.

God’s Secrets. There are a number of hidden truths, mysteries, that God had concealed until Kairos time arrived for their revelation:

  1. The Mysteries of the Kingdom. “Then the disciples went up to Jesus and asked, ‘Why do you talk to them in parables?’ In answer, He said ‘Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not granted.’” (Matthew 13:11).
  2. The Mystery of the Good News. “Let us give glory to God! He is able to make you stand firm in your faith, according to the Good News I preach about Jesus Christ and according to the revelation of the mystery, the secret truth which was hidden for long ages in the past. Now, however, that truth has been brought out into the open through the writings of the prophets; and by the command of the eternal God it is made known to all nations, so that all may believe and obey.” (Romans 16:25).
  3. The Mystery of God’s Wisdom. “It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, that goes deep into the interiors of His purposes. This wisdom of God was once hidden from human understanding and now revealed to us by God. This is God’s secret wisdom hidden before now in a mystery which God predetermined before the ages for our glorification, to lift us into the glory of His Presence. This is the wisdom that God destined for our glory before time began.” (a weaving of 1 Corinthians 2:7 using several Bible translations).
  4. The Mystery of Bodily Resurrection. “Behold! I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be transformed – in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the shofar trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed, beyond the reach of death, never to die again.” (1 Cor. 15:51).
  5. The Mystery of Salvation for the Gentiles. “If you read what I have written, you will be able to understand my insight into this mystery concerning the Messiah. In past generations, it was not made known to mankind, as the Spirit is now revealing it to God’s holy apostles and prophets; This mystery is that through the Gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together with the Jews in God’s promise in the Messiah Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:4-6).
  6. The Mystery of Spiritual Oneness. “Yes, I truly believe that we are all living members of Christ’s body, and as I relate this to marriage, it is indeed an enormous mystery. I may not understand all of this, but I can tell you this… the marriage of 2-becoming-1 is meant to be a vivid picture, a clear illustration of the union between Christ and the Church, the oneness that exists between Messiah and His universal household of faith.” (Ephesians 5:30-32).
  7. The Mystery of Christ’s Indwelling. “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  (Colossians 1:26-27, NIV).
  8. The Mystery of the Messiah. “My purpose is that they may be encouraged, that they may be joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches derived from being assured of understanding and fully knowing God’s mystery, which is – The Messiah! It is in Him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.” (Colossians 2:2-3).
  9. The Mystery of the Faith. “Deacons must be reverent… holding onto the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. Without question, great is the mystery of the faith: ‘God was revealed in the flesh, Proved right by the Spirit, Beheld by the angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:9, 16).

Deep Dive. Ancient Christians used to make a determined study of mysteries like these, intent on going back to square one when they got sidetracked, too distracted by life outside the truths of the Church. They called it “disciplina arcana,” which means “the secret discipline.” These early believers in Jesus would dwell on these Christ-centered mysteries, meditate on them, seeking to grow in their understanding of God’s long-held secrets, these hidden truths that have now been revealed. These mysteries, by God’s design, are accessible to believers who are in the process of gaining the ‘mind of Christ.’

“Who is able to understand the mind of Lord Yahweh? Who is able to be His teacher? We, however, have the mind of Christ!” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

“We have…” (Greek, “echomen”), which means ‘are having,’ ‘are keeping,’ or ‘are holding;’ to have and to keep on having, an action in progress; a process that is now taking place; the present state is a continuing state. So the literal translation is, “We, however, are having the mind of Christ.” Through the Holy Spirit, we now are new creatures who were given the capacity to learn how to think like the Messiah, the Anointed One. To gradually possess the mind of the Anointed One means we are in the process of acquiring anointed minds ourselves.

“… the mind of Christ.” (Greek for mind is “noun”); Through the Holy Spirit…

  1. We are being given the capacity to think the thoughts of the Anointed One;
  2. We have the growing ability to reason, to be logical, and to think things through like Jesus;
  3. We are being infused with the ability to understand God’s wisdom;
  4. We are being equipped with the moral intelligence of the Lord;
  5. We are being given access to the reasoning behind the actions of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;
  6. We are in the process of perceiving spiritual matters as Christ perceives them;
  7. We have an increasing ability to understand life from God’s perspective;
  8. We will be continually inspired to develop the divine common sense and street-smart shrewdness that Jesus was known for;
  9. We are gaining insight into what truly matters according to the thinking of God;
  10. We have a growing ability to reflect and ponder according to the will of Christ;
  11. We enjoy an ongoing co-mingling of our mind with Christ’s mind, until the end, when the new will have completely replaced the old, and those two minds will be indistinguishable.

In the passage above to the Corinthians, St. Paul describes followers of Jesus as “servants of Christ” and “stewards of the mysteries.”

HIDDEN SERVANTS: (Greek, “hyperetas”); literally the under-rower, the lowly person pulling the oars on the lower deck of the ship; the underlings; the subordinates who have special orders. A servant of Christ is one who is content to decrease while Christ increases, who considers it a privilege to serve Jesus in a way that is hidden, humble, and full of trust in God’s purposes.

RESPONSIBLE STEWARDS: (Greek, “oikonomos”); literally the manager of a household responsible to dispense what is needed; the custodian in a home given the responsibility to carefully distribute the necessities when needed; managers; caretakers; trustees, or those entrusted with important responsibilities from the owner of the house. In this context, to responsibly take care of the revelations of God and disperse the knowledge of God’s mysteries in a way that would honor the owner’s wishes; to carefully explain the revealed secrets of God’s in a responsible way; to guard the sanctity of what God has decided to reveal. A competent and faithful steward would be one who “holds the mystery of the Faith with a pure conscience.” (1 Timothy 3:9), since we are also called to be “stewards of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 3:2).  So if God has anything to do with it, these stewards of God’s mysteries must “speak the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15).

So there is a virtue in hiddenness when a truth of God is waiting for the right time to be revealed.

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