1 Corinthians 2:10-16
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness,and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ.
In verse 7 Paul talks of a secret wisdom…now in v.10-11 we see the benefit of allowing the Spirit to do the speaking and just getting out of His way when delivering the gospel. The spirit knows God, the Spirit knows men, and thus He knows what needs to be said.
Now I have been questioned before about my use of notes when I preached. “How can the Spirit speak through you if you are using notes?” They say. I have pondered that. What if I just got up there and wung it (winged it? wanged it? hmmm. anyway) What if I said, “I had a nice sermon prepared for you this morning, but my dog ate it. I’m going to have to rely on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit today, but I promise to do better next Sunday.”
That would be absurd right? Remember what Jesus said to his disciples as he was about to leave them…
John 16:12-13
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
This is what Paul is talking about here in chapter 2. (and in v. 7)
When Paul tells us that, “In Christ we have become a new creation." Please know that the physical part of that is yet to come but the practical and circumstantial part is now and is wonderful. Imagine being an explorer and coming upon a new cave, a vast landscape never seen before. In Christ, we have a life of discovery.
The difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is not even comparable. Paul is trying to make the gap between, what they were living amongst verses what their potential could be, so wide, that not even an echo of the former could be heard in the latter.
Have you ever told your troubles to a dog? I have. They try but simply cannot understand. They wag their tail, they cock their head, but can never truly understand. But, I could tell my wife or a friend and they would understand completely. It is the same with God.
God is desperately trying to spill out His will, His plan, His love and His heart to human beings, but like dogs all we can do is wag our tails, cock our heads and pretend we understand. Thus the Holy Spirit becomes our translator. The lower (us) cannot reach up to the higher (God) but the higher (God) can reach down to lower (us) and that is exactly what he did.
That is what v.10 is saying. And also how v.10 edifies v.12—ever read the Bible before you were a Christian? It is dull, boring, did not make sense. I remember when I really started following God I had what I call Chinese dinner syndrome. Every time I ate of the Word, I just became hungrier when I was done.
Paul says look, these words we speak to you are not words of human wisdom, they are inspired words of God. Have you ever downloaded a file in, lets say Adobe, and then tried to open it in Microsoft office? Or download quick time and try to open in WMP?
Point is, when God downloads the programs of his heart, they must be opened by programs that can “read” what was downloaded.
Verse 14 was one of the first verses I ever memorized and is a great verse. As created, 3 part beings, (body soul and spirit), God communicated to his creation (holy)Spirit to (human)spirit. Have you ever seen a cartoon or silly movie where the upstairs bathtub comes crashing down through 3 floors into the basement? This is what happened at the fall. The upper room (Spirit) came crashing down to the basement.
Now mankind is prone to the old adage “if it feels good do it”. Well some would refute that and go to the other extreme but that is equally unbalanced. They think it through logically and consider what is going on using human wisdom.
So we have two wrong foundations of man. One is to respond to the flesh, that is, feelings and desire. The other is to respond to logic; the mind. Both have major delinquencies in proper action…they are contrasted in V.14.
The natural mind lacks…
1) The ability to accept the things of God
Kind of like all the talk about the Twilight movies a while back. As an adult male, I could not understand what the big deal was unless I went in and saw the movie. And even if I did, I wouldn’t get it. Why? Because I am not a teenage girl. This is why people who express an interest in the Gospel after much witnessing, may go and read the Word or read a great spiritual book and still say “I don’t get it”.
And you say, “You don’t get it? How? That book changed my life.”
Some things cannot be explained or understood until you enter into that realm. The world needs the Holy Spirit. This is why to blaspheme him, to ignore him, or slander and deny him, is the only unpardonable sin and seal ones fate.
The natural mind also lacks…
2) The ability to understand the things of God
This is why there is debates over things that are considered abominable in Christian circles . Why marriages are failing as each seek to fulfill their own personal desires. Why many do not see that adversity is God’s training ground, not His outlet for displaying anger and punishment. Even if the natural mind does somehow understand it, it is in a purely natural sense because the natural mind does not have…
3) The ability to discern the things of God
Let’s suppose somehow you can intellectually relate the gospel. Let us say that a person can “accept” it based on logic. There will still be a battle within the mind, as the enemy holds on like a pit bull to his host. That person will say, “I hear what this Christian is saying, it actually makes some sense, I can accept it, but something in me is not allowing me to submit to it.”
But, should that person give in and submit to the Holy Spirit they will have the proper “program” for downloading the things of God. So the benefit of the spiritual man are as follows…
The Spiritual man gains…
1) The ability to judge moral issues.
Not judge righteously, or without bias (even the spiritual man is still human) but to judge morally. That is, the Spirit gives instruction on what the heart of God is like and thus we are able to judge morally correct (Sort of a reverse order of the previous man).
Because we are given the discerning Holy Spirit, we can judge properly those things that mire the world in debate. With a moral/divine interpreter, what is the debate over abortion? Why is there feuding over homosexual clergy? Why do we even have conversations about cloning or stem cell research or euthanasia or …? It is our right and duty to pronounce ethical judgment in these and other areas.
The Spiritual man also has…
2) The ability to escape judgment.
This is not a reference to being judged, you will be judged even as a Christian. What judgment you are free of, Christian, is the judgment of the world. That is, when they pronounce anti-biblical laws, you are not subject to them. As Daniel and his 3 friends demonstrated. As Martin Luther did when he stood before the diet of worms and said,
“Unless my conscience be taught and corrected by the Word of God, I will not change or recant anything that I have written. Here I stand: I can do no other, God help me."
Finally, and perhaps most importantly,
The Spiritual mind has…
3) The ability to know the mind of God.
No other religion, no other faith, no other method can boast such a claim.
Be blessed.
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness,and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ.
In verse 7 Paul talks of a secret wisdom…now in v.10-11 we see the benefit of allowing the Spirit to do the speaking and just getting out of His way when delivering the gospel. The spirit knows God, the Spirit knows men, and thus He knows what needs to be said.
Now I have been questioned before about my use of notes when I preached. “How can the Spirit speak through you if you are using notes?” They say. I have pondered that. What if I just got up there and wung it (winged it? wanged it? hmmm. anyway) What if I said, “I had a nice sermon prepared for you this morning, but my dog ate it. I’m going to have to rely on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit today, but I promise to do better next Sunday.”
That would be absurd right? Remember what Jesus said to his disciples as he was about to leave them…
John 16:12-13
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
This is what Paul is talking about here in chapter 2. (and in v. 7)
When Paul tells us that, “In Christ we have become a new creation." Please know that the physical part of that is yet to come but the practical and circumstantial part is now and is wonderful. Imagine being an explorer and coming upon a new cave, a vast landscape never seen before. In Christ, we have a life of discovery.
The difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is not even comparable. Paul is trying to make the gap between, what they were living amongst verses what their potential could be, so wide, that not even an echo of the former could be heard in the latter.
Have you ever told your troubles to a dog? I have. They try but simply cannot understand. They wag their tail, they cock their head, but can never truly understand. But, I could tell my wife or a friend and they would understand completely. It is the same with God.
God is desperately trying to spill out His will, His plan, His love and His heart to human beings, but like dogs all we can do is wag our tails, cock our heads and pretend we understand. Thus the Holy Spirit becomes our translator. The lower (us) cannot reach up to the higher (God) but the higher (God) can reach down to lower (us) and that is exactly what he did.
That is what v.10 is saying. And also how v.10 edifies v.12—ever read the Bible before you were a Christian? It is dull, boring, did not make sense. I remember when I really started following God I had what I call Chinese dinner syndrome. Every time I ate of the Word, I just became hungrier when I was done.
Paul says look, these words we speak to you are not words of human wisdom, they are inspired words of God. Have you ever downloaded a file in, lets say Adobe, and then tried to open it in Microsoft office? Or download quick time and try to open in WMP?
Point is, when God downloads the programs of his heart, they must be opened by programs that can “read” what was downloaded.
Verse 14 was one of the first verses I ever memorized and is a great verse. As created, 3 part beings, (body soul and spirit), God communicated to his creation (holy)Spirit to (human)spirit. Have you ever seen a cartoon or silly movie where the upstairs bathtub comes crashing down through 3 floors into the basement? This is what happened at the fall. The upper room (Spirit) came crashing down to the basement.
Now mankind is prone to the old adage “if it feels good do it”. Well some would refute that and go to the other extreme but that is equally unbalanced. They think it through logically and consider what is going on using human wisdom.
So we have two wrong foundations of man. One is to respond to the flesh, that is, feelings and desire. The other is to respond to logic; the mind. Both have major delinquencies in proper action…they are contrasted in V.14.
The natural mind lacks…
1) The ability to accept the things of God
Kind of like all the talk about the Twilight movies a while back. As an adult male, I could not understand what the big deal was unless I went in and saw the movie. And even if I did, I wouldn’t get it. Why? Because I am not a teenage girl. This is why people who express an interest in the Gospel after much witnessing, may go and read the Word or read a great spiritual book and still say “I don’t get it”.
And you say, “You don’t get it? How? That book changed my life.”
Some things cannot be explained or understood until you enter into that realm. The world needs the Holy Spirit. This is why to blaspheme him, to ignore him, or slander and deny him, is the only unpardonable sin and seal ones fate.
The natural mind also lacks…
2) The ability to understand the things of God
This is why there is debates over things that are considered abominable in Christian circles . Why marriages are failing as each seek to fulfill their own personal desires. Why many do not see that adversity is God’s training ground, not His outlet for displaying anger and punishment. Even if the natural mind does somehow understand it, it is in a purely natural sense because the natural mind does not have…
3) The ability to discern the things of God
Let’s suppose somehow you can intellectually relate the gospel. Let us say that a person can “accept” it based on logic. There will still be a battle within the mind, as the enemy holds on like a pit bull to his host. That person will say, “I hear what this Christian is saying, it actually makes some sense, I can accept it, but something in me is not allowing me to submit to it.”
But, should that person give in and submit to the Holy Spirit they will have the proper “program” for downloading the things of God. So the benefit of the spiritual man are as follows…
The Spiritual man gains…
1) The ability to judge moral issues.
Not judge righteously, or without bias (even the spiritual man is still human) but to judge morally. That is, the Spirit gives instruction on what the heart of God is like and thus we are able to judge morally correct (Sort of a reverse order of the previous man).
Because we are given the discerning Holy Spirit, we can judge properly those things that mire the world in debate. With a moral/divine interpreter, what is the debate over abortion? Why is there feuding over homosexual clergy? Why do we even have conversations about cloning or stem cell research or euthanasia or …? It is our right and duty to pronounce ethical judgment in these and other areas.
The Spiritual man also has…
2) The ability to escape judgment.
This is not a reference to being judged, you will be judged even as a Christian. What judgment you are free of, Christian, is the judgment of the world. That is, when they pronounce anti-biblical laws, you are not subject to them. As Daniel and his 3 friends demonstrated. As Martin Luther did when he stood before the diet of worms and said,
“Unless my conscience be taught and corrected by the Word of God, I will not change or recant anything that I have written. Here I stand: I can do no other, God help me."
Finally, and perhaps most importantly,
The Spiritual mind has…
3) The ability to know the mind of God.
No other religion, no other faith, no other method can boast such a claim.
Be blessed.