How Can We Learn the Things of God?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to 1 Corinthians 1-7 in a lesson titled “Be Perfectly Joined Together.” This lesson was preceded by the following statement: “Record your impressions while you read 1 Corinthians 1-7. These impressions may include promptings to study an idea further, to share with others something you learn, or to make changes in your life.”

The lesson for Sunday School was preceded with this interesting statement: “Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught that most people ‘come [to church] seeking a spiritual experience’ (“A Teacher Come from God,” Ensign, May 1998, 26). As you read 1 Corinthians 1-7, prayerfully consider what you can do to help create spiritual experiences in your class.” 

Both of the above statements of counsel encourage us to prepare for and to act on spiritual promptings, which come from God. The lesson was introduced by the following paragraph.

During the months that Paul spent in Corinth, “many of the Corinthians hearing [him] believed, and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). So it must have been heartbreaking for Paul to hear, just a few years later, that there were “divisions” and “contentions” among the Corinthian Saints and that in his absence they began to heed the “wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 1:10-11, 20). In response, Paul wrote the letter we now call 1 Corinthians. It is full of profound doctrine, and yet at the same time, Paul seemed disappointed that the Saints were not ready to receive all the doctrine he wanted to give them. “I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,” he lamented, “for ye are yet carnal” (1 Corinthinians 3:1-3). As we prepare to read Paul’s words, it might be helpful to examine our own readiness to receive truth – including our willingness to heed the Spirit and strive for unity within our families, with our fellow Saints, and with God.

The scripture block for this week contained several appropriate principles to discuss, but I feel prompted to discuss this principle found in 1 Corinthians 2:9-16: “I need the Holy Ghost in order to understand the things of God.”

If I wanted to learn about algebra, I would seek instruction from an algebra instructor. If I wanted to learn about automotive mechanics, I would seek someone who knows how to work on automobiles. Paul tells us how to seek learning about “the things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). Here are the applicable scripture verses:

9 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.

10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12 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.

13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned..

15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

God knows all things, and He teaches us the things that we should know through the power of the Holy Ghost. He has helped me to better understand His doctrines and principles. He has taught me many concepts that I needed for my college classes. He has even helped me to make decisions in making quilts or planting gardens. God knows all things and will help us in our daily lives if we listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

The most important things that God teaches us are “the things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11). In the October 1977 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder LeGrand Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke about the things of God and man. He gave several examples of how people learned about the “things of God” by being instructed by God. One of his examples is as follow: 

Now I would like to point out a few of the differences between the ways of men and their teachings and the truth as the Lord has revealed it through his holy prophets. First, I refer to the way they believe in the Trinity. When the Prophet Joseph saw his vision, the whole Christian world believed in a God without body, parts, or passions. That means he had no eyes; he couldn’t see. He had no ears; he couldn’t hear. He had no mouth; he couldn’t speak. Moses knew that this condition would prevail, for when he went to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, he told them that they would not remain there long, but that they would be scattered among the nations, and that they would worship gods made by the hands of man (that’s man’s doing) that could neither see, nor hear, nor taste, nor smell. (See Deut. 4:26–28.) That’s exactly the kind of a god the whole Christian world was worshipping at the time Joseph Smith had his vision. But Moses didn’t leave it at that. He said in the latter days (and we live in the latter days) that if they would seek after God they would surely find him. (See Deut. 4:29.) Joseph Smith sought after him and found him.

At one time the Prophet Joseph visited the President of the United States, and the President asked him the difference between his church and other churches, and the Prophet said, “We have the Holy Ghost.” And when one has the Holy Ghost, he is laboring under the divine direction of God, the Eternal Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. He is not dependent upon the ways of man, and as Paul pointed out, the ways of God are foolishness unto men because they can’t comprehend them.

Compare, now, that idea of God with the experience of the Prophet Joseph. As a young man, he went into the woods to pray in answer to the invitation of the apostle James, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5.) And in answer to his prayer, a light descended from heaven, brighter than the noonday sun, and in the midst of that light were two glorious personages: the Father and the Son. The Father said to Joseph: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS-H 1:17.)

And then the Savior of the world, whose right it is to pass judgment upon the right and wrong of all individuals and groups, asked Joseph what he wanted to know, and he asked which of all the churches he should join. The Savior answered that he should join none of them, for they all taught for doctrine the precepts of men. And that is the reason for the thousand churches in the United States today—it is because they follow the precepts of men rather than the revelations.

Joseph Smith, as a fourteen-year-old young man, learned that God will answer prayers when we sincerely seek for answers. He also learned a truth that had been lost from the world: God the Father and Jesus Christ have glorified bodies of flesh and bone (see Doctrine and Covenants 130-22-23). This truth explains and supports the doctrine that God created male and female in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27).

Elder Richards shared other examples of how the “things of God” differ from the “things of man.” One of those examples is baptism. Man has decided that infants must be baptized by sprinkling water on them or they will not be saved. God commands that male and female must be baptized by immersion after they reach the age of accountability (age eight). Therefore, infants, toddlers, and children under the age of eight years are innocent and do not need baptism.