1 Corinthians | Chapter 2 – Scripture Supply

1 Corinthians 2:1-9

“No Peddlers Please!”

I. Introduction

Paul had explained to these Corinthian believers that God’s message for their salvation was at first either a “scandal or nonsense” to them. Furthermore, as far as those who received God’s message of the cross of Christ, He started at the bottom of mankind and worked up so that there were “not many” according to human standards of the top 10% of society among them. In other words, Paul speaks to these Corinthians of the foolishness of being proud of themselves because of their salvation.

The problem of pride in the Church is not unique to Corinth. It stems from our fallen human nature as we think of ourselves “more highly than we ought” (Rom 12:3). In Corinth, people would attach themselves to philosophies based upon the “persuasive arguments” that the teachers would make. The outcome was that people became followers of a way of life based upon a speech made by a man. This practice had followed them into the Church, hence Paul’s words in 1:12: “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ.” In this chapter, the emphasis is upon the method in which the message is delivered and why it must be delivered that way. It seems to me today that the church suffers from two equally devastating things:

It suffers from a lack of Bible teaching. In its pulpits are those who are either not equipped or have abandoned solid verse-by-verse Bible teaching.
Secondly, and equally debilitating, is that those who do possess Bible teaching gifts have adopted “preaching strategies” centered around emotion and entertainment, producing followers of “pastoral personalities” rather than true followers of Christ.

The outcome of these two things has produced a Church with high energy and emotion, but its loyalty is to a man who has taught them to follow him and not to obey the Word of God! Note this, Christian: God’s way is:

A foolish message
To foolish people
By a broken instrument!

II. Vs. 1-5 The Method for the Message

Vs. 1-2: The words “And I” are meant to cause the reader to equate what Paul is about to say with what he has just said. In other words, we could use the words “Because of the above I tell you this.” So what was it he had just said? Well, He just said, “that the only thing a Christian can rejoice in is that they are in the Lord.” “Because of that,” Paul says, “when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.” Paul is speaking of the time recorded for us in Acts 18 when he first came to Corinth from Athens, and he says the method he employed for proclaiming the message was not to glorify himself or start a “following” based upon his popularity.

Before we get into this, it is vitally important that you understand the “method” for the message of the cross of Christ. Paul did not want to appear to be a “Christian salesman” who was peddling a new philosophy called Christianity. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.” (2:17). So many today will speak of eloquent or clever messages given from the pulpit, but Paul wanted to make sure that when he spoke folks would not gather to hear him and miss the very Person he came to proclaim. I take this very seriously. On this pulpit is a Bible verse I read every time just before I teach. It’s not a verse that is designed to give me courage or to inspire me. No, it simply reads “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” It is taken from a section in John 12:21 where some Greeks were approaching Jesus, and the disciples wanted to know what they wanted. Why is it here? Well, it’s here to remind me that you have not come to hear me speak; you don’t want my opinions or my attempt at humorous antidotes. No, you have come to see Jesus, and it’s by His Word through His Spirit that He will become visible in your hearts.

Now Paul tells us two things his method was not:

“Did not come with excellence of speech”: This phrase “excellence of speech” occurs in classical Greek to describe people of distinction who spoke with perfect diction and used all the subtleties of philosophy and rhetoric of the day. In that day, the Corinthian philosophers were somewhat famous for their speeches. There was even a saying for a person who used eloquent words with style and flair. It was said they were using “Corinthian words”. But Paul says that he did not speak to them in that manner. Paul’s concern was not that folks were attracted by the way he spoke but rather of Whom he spoke. The story is told of a beautiful Church where behind the pulpit was a beautiful stained glass picture of Jesus on the cross. One Sunday, the Church had a guest speaker who was much smaller than the regular pastor who blocked the view of the window. A little girl turned to her mother and asked, “Mommy where’s the man who usually stands up there so we can’t see Jesus?” Oh, that is my fear that I will say something that blocks your view of Jesus. I wish not to give you some words from me to consider but rather “The word of God” so you can believe.
“Or of wisdom”: This phrase is best understood by what Paul says in verse 4, “not with persuasive words of human wisdom”. Paul’s speech on the Word of the cross was void of theatrics and techniques to manipulate a response. He did not want an emotional response to truth; he wanted a conviction of the heart to truth. You see, God is not just after a change of thinking, He wants a change of heart! Now we know that Paul was a very capable debater, yet he was careful not to teach in a way that “persuaded” someone to be a Christian. As Paul spoke to Agrippa, he told Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today.” Yet, it is not by playing with people’s emotions or out-arguing them into the kingdom. Paul deliberately chose not to speak in a manner that left those folks in Corinth impressed with the choice of words he used but rather with the Cross of Christ.

That being what Paul did not use in communicating the word of the Cross, He now tells them what he did do:

First, he says he declared or taught them the “testimony”, or mystery, of God which in 1:6 was confirmed in them. But what was this testimony or mystery? Well, in Timothy, he wrote “great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” In scripture, a “mystery is something that at once was hidden but now is revealed”. Again, this is further understood in light of verse 2 where Paul explains what he meant by saying, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”.
Secondly, the phrase “For I determined not to know anything among you” is best understood by looking at what Paul taught while in Corinth. In Acts 18:11, we are told that in Corinth Paul for “a year and six months, was teaching the word of God among them.” Furthermore, we are told in Acts 17:17 that while in Athens “he reasoned in the synagogue” with some there. What this means, in light of this, is that Paul was not interested in discussing man’s ideas or giving them his opinions about Jesus and how to live a better life. He kept the main thing the main thing! That was his method, to keep the focus upon the Word of the Cross of Christ.

Vs. 3-4: Paul further reminds these Corinthian believers of how he was personally as a vessel, “In weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.” Paul declares that when he spoke, he did so as a broken man. Now we must not assume that Paul was somehow affected because the message was not very good. No, it was because what he had to say to them was a matter of life or death. He proclaimed the truth boldly in fullness of mind yet with the realization that he could get in the way of something so important as to change the human heart. What caused Paul to think of himself as weak, fearful, and trembling? Well, it was the reality of his own inadequacy, as he would say in his 2nd letter to them: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” Paul recognized both the importance of the message and also how he could muck it up!

Thus, he says he made all the more sure that what he told them was not to convince them to follow him but rather to trust God. The word demonstration is a legal term in the Greek meaning “a legal proof presented in court”, perhaps we would say an “affidavit”! Paul sought to be broken so that the word of God would be to them a “legal proof in court” of the Spirit of God and of power. Paul wanted to make sure that when folks heard the word of God from him that they did not see a “performance” but rather a demonstration of God’s Spirit in power transforming sinners. H.A. Ironside was speaking at a Church when during a break a person handed him a note from a famous agnostic challenging him to a debate. Before he began to speak, he read the note publicly saying he would agree to the debate if the man came forward and could produce 10 people whose lives had been transformed by the words of agnosticism. Ten people who had been drunks, prostitutes, thieves, or murderers who, upon hearing him speak, had changed their lives for the better. The famous agnostic said he did know of any. Then, Ironside asked the audience if any would like to come forward who had their lives changed by hearing the message of the cross. Thousands raised their hands. As Ironside stilled the audience, he told the agnostic the debate was over! Oh Christian, the word of God is the only “affidavit” any teacher of God’s word needs. Paul would again write to the Corinthians and say, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men”.

Vs. 5: This verse explains why this method of Paul’s was used, “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The fact is, if I can convince you by my words or by playing with your emotions to come to Christ, then someone can use the same techniques to cause you not to believe in Jesus. Far too many teaching strategies today are nothing more than entertainment centered around preaching personalities to get folks to make an emotional response. Is it any wonder that we see a Church today that has no consistency? We need to get back to what Paul says here, “Men who would accept the verdict of a crucified life which will daily slay our pride and self-sufficiency. Then the Spirit of God will empower His word into the hearts that won’t settle for emotional entertainment!”

III. Vs. 6-9 Wisdom for the Ages

Vs. 6: Having downplayed “human wisdom” and “persuasive words”, Paul wants to make sure that the Corinthian believers don’t misunderstand what he is speaking of concerning wisdom. “Yes, the Word of God does not depend upon clever speech or entertaining mannerisms but that does not mean that it has no wisdom.” But the wisdom of the Word of God is not for the natural man, as Paul will say in verse 11-12, “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” You see Paul’s point? Hey, the clever speech of man is of no use in making followers of Christ because it is the work of the Spirit of God through the word of God that does this!

There are some that see this phrase, “rulers of this age” as pertaining to Satan and his fallen angels. As in verse 8, we are told that “had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” I don’t think you can say one way or the other, but it does bring up an interesting point. Did Satan and his fallen angels understand the crucifixion would cause their defeat? I don’t think they fully grasped it, not because they lacked the intelligence, but rather for the same reason we humans don’t receive the message of the Cross. “Pride” has blinded their understanding. The mature here are the ones that have received the message of Jesus on the cross.

Vs. 7-8: Paul’s point here is that it is impossible for the lesser of creation to understand the more advanced. Men cannot imagine what God may be like. They can try to figure Him out, making all sorts of false conclusions, but they just lack the ability to understand a more advanced person than themselves. If you have a pet dog, he cannot fully understand you. He has no idea about paying bills or why you put clothes on over your hide. I mean, let’s face it, he drinks out of toilets. Now follow me on this. Your dog can learn things you have revealed to him. He can learn of your power, your love, and your care for him. This, in turn, causes your dog to be loyal towards you, affectionate, and somewhat obedient. So, God has revealed Himself to us specifically through His Son, and it’s by this that we now understand Him. Yet even this is the work of His Spirit.

I was doing a study in Genesis the other night, and I came across a very interesting truth as it relates to how God is made known in human hearts. In the 24th chapter of Genesis, verse 34-49, Abraham’s servant retells the story of the events that had led him to Rebekah’s house to be the bride for Isaac. Now this unnamed servant was most likely Eleazar “the one called alongside to help”. There were three specific parts of what he testified to of Rebekah’s household:

He spoke of the Character of the Father: He spoke of his power, wealth, and wisdom.
He spoke of the uniqueness of the son: He shared of His miraculous birth, of His separation from the world, and that He was the sole heir of all the father had.
Finally, he spoke of His mission as the helper: That he did what the father had told him to do and went where he was told to go to find a bride for the Son.

I love it. God has done the same today, and it is beyond human wisdom. It was hidden, but now it is made known by the Spirit of God. Oh, I don’t want to mess that up to you all!

Vs. 9: Now this verse has long been used by Christians as it pertains to our experience in heaven, and there is truth to the fact that we cannot comprehend what God has for us in heaven. But with that said, this is not the context of this passage before us. Paul is speaking about wisdom that Christian believers have that those who have not received Jesus do not understand, as they still think the word of the cross is either a scandal or nonsense. Now follow me here, the “Eye that has not seen, and the ear that has not heard, and the heart of man that has not fully grasped the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” is you and I. Paul is speaking not of future in heaven but the truth that God will continue to pour out more understanding of Who He is as we remain broken before Him. Is that not true in your own life? I mean, do you not understand more of Who He is now than when you first believed. Now, let me ask you, “Is it not true that the times of greatest growth in your spiritual life have happened when you have been at the end of yourself?” That is what James said in 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Now that is why the method of proclaiming the truth is so important that nothing hinder the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power”.

1 Corinthians 2:10-12

“Word Perfect”

I. Introduction

As I said last week of verse 9, the context is not describing things in heaven for believers but rather the things that believers have right now that the world does not have or even understand. Prior to being born again, the Word of the cross was either a scandal or nonsense, but now, as believers, something has changed as we view it as the “Power of God and the wisdom of God”. The question is, “What took place in us that has led to such a radical change?” That is the focus of verses 10-16 as Paul describes in detail that which “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him.” I can still remember watching “The Price Is Right” game show as Bob Barker would say, “Carol, show them what they’ve won!” We get to peek behind the curtain this morning and view the “things God has prepared” for you and me right now! Before we do this, I want to call your attention to three types of people Paul is going to be speaking about, as it is important to notice them. In fact, this morning, we are either one of these three types of people here in this Church:

Vs. 14 The NATURAL man: The word here in verse 14 is where we get our word psyche which in Greek means “soul”. So out there today are “soulish people”. The truth is that all people born after Adam start out as soulish people or natural-born people. In scripture, there are three functions of the soul:
- Power to choose
- Power to feel
- Power to reason
More on these in a moment, but it is this “soulish person” where all people start out.
Vs. 15 The SPIRITUAL man: The word here appears 385 times in the N.T. and in Greek is “pneuma” which means “spirit”. Paul wrote to the Romans in vs 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” This is the person that has been born again and the Holy Spirit has come to abide or dwell in them.
Vs. 3:1 The CARNAL man: In Greek, the word “carnal” means “composed of the flesh” and appears 13 times in the N.T., where it is rendered several ways: “material, fleshly, worldly” and, as here, “carnal”. This describes the “spiritual man” that makes decisions and acts like the “natural man”. Now we won’t look at him at all this week, but next week we will start to understand why we sometimes act as Paul said of himself in Romans 7:15, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

II. Vs. 10-12 The Revealing Work of the Spirit

Vs. 10: Now remember here that Paul, in verse 9, had just said that the “eyes, ears, hearts” of men could not comprehend “the things” that God has prepared for those that love Him. Now in this verse we read, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” The things “hidden” in verse 7 have now been “revealed” to us through the Holy Spirit. This speaks volumes of truth to a prideful Church, as it is not us that figured them out or found them; no, they were revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.

In scripture, the work of the Holy Spirit is best understood by three Greek verb tenses, the first of which I believe is referred to here:

“Para”: In John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” The word for Helper, or Comforter, is “parakletos” which means “one called alongside to help”.

It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry to “search all things, the deep things of God” and reveal them to those that will receive them (vs 12). In John 16:8-14, Jesus spoke to His disciples about this, saying, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” Prior to our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit came alongside us “guiding us into all truth, taking of what is of the Son of God and declaring it to us.” It is this that Paul speaks of in verses 10-12 as the “revealing work of the Holy Spirit”. Folks, apart from this revealing work of the Holy Spirit, you and I would still look at the word of the cross as either nonsense or a scandal.

Vs. 11: Paul now brings us to a stated truth that only “like can understand like”. Here is what Paul is saying: “Higher forms of life can understand lower forms of life, but lower forms of life cannot grasp higher forms of life”. In other words, only you really know what’s in your own heart unless I tell you everything that is in it. Think of it this way; ever talk to your dog? I mean, you have had a real bad day, so you sit down and talk to your dog about what’s going on in your heart. What does your dog do? Well, he might whine, wag his tail, or lick your face, but he really can’t comprehend what you’re trying to convey to him. Hey, but talk to your spouse about what’s on your heart, and because they are like you, they will, “Whine, wag their tail, and lick your face”. Ok, bad illustration. The point is, they can understand and reveal insight you may not have. Even so, in the spiritual realm, “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” and, because He has revealed them to us, we now know them as well.

Vs. 12: Furthermore, Paul wants us to realize two things concerning the revealing work of the Holy Spirit that differ from the way the world receives information:

“We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God”: Paul draws a sharp contrast between the spirit of the world and the Spirit who is from God. In Ephesians 2, Paul declares that we all “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Human wisdom is susceptible to false information and stimulus, as we shall note in a moment. Human wisdom deals in the realm of “soulish man”, but not so with the Spirit that is from God. The information that the Holy Spirit gives us concerning God and Jesus is not directed at our soul but rather is directed at our spirits.
“We might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”: The second truth Paul tells us concerning the Holy Spirit’s information deals with the purpose of it, “that we might know the things freely given us by God”. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to make known the free Gift of Jesus into our hearts, therefore, He makes sure that He deals it directly to our spirit and not our soul which, as we saw above, is susceptible to false information and stimulus.

To make this understandable, I need to speak about the “natural man” which he mentions in verse 14 as not receiving the things of the Spirit of God. Now remember that the “natural man” is not like the movie with Robert Redford where he was a natural baseball player. Instead, we are told in scripture that we are triune beings, “spirit, soul & body” and, when Adam and Eve fell, we moved from the top story (spirit) to the second and third stories (soul & body) of our own building as governing our lives. You can truly say in the cases of all outside of Christ their elevator doesn’t go to the top floor. There are three primary functions of a person’s soul in scripture:

Power to choose: It is in the soul that we exercise the power of our will and make choices. We call this “free will” in humans, but what is interesting is that the “power of choice” is affected by the other two elements of the soul.
The power to feel: Now we are not talking about the sense of touch here but rather the internal feelings of “moods, urges, and desires”. These things come from our soul and, oftentimes, they heavily influence our power to choose. Let’s say that I have the power of choice not to eat one of those donuts out there, but I go by the box and smell them, and I have this overwhelming desire to eat 5 or 10. So, bam, I respond, and my power of feeling has influenced my power to choose.
The Power to reason: Now this part of our soul is like the above all internal going on in our heads. It’s based upon our ability of “observation and logic”. It relies heavily upon the five senses as well as our feelings. It’s kind of our “Jimmy Cricket”, weighing the logic against feelings and so on. So my desire is to have 5 to 10 donuts, but my observation says, “Hey, Dale, too many people there in front of the pink box for you to grab 5 or 10”. My sight sees my reflection in the glass side door and registers this insight, “Hey, buddy, looks to me like you have had far too many trips to the pink box already!” The biggest problem with my power of reason is that, in the soul of the unregenerate man, it only lives for the “here and now” and not the hereafter. So, my power of reason says, “Compromise, take two now and as many as are left after the crowd thins out. You only live once!”

Now back to verse 12, you see, the Holy Spirit has not made the revelation of Jesus susceptible to our power of choice in the soul as that has been the dominion of Satan and why we see the world respond to all sorts of stimulus that appeals to our feelings and reasoning for living only for the here and now. We see this all over the place in society. Take abstinence, for example. We have the power to choose, but we have desires and feelings, and this, along with logic that is dependent upon thinking for only the “here and now”, results in folks choosing not to wait until they are married to have sex. Even the statistics showing the rise of STD’s and teenage pregnancy has not been able to have much of an effect upon teenagers’ power of choice. Why? Because they are thinking with their soul and not their spirit. But when we start operating from a born-again spirit, it’s a whole different thing because we base our choices not upon our feelings or human logic but rather God’s Word by His Spirit. These choices come at us in nanoseconds 100’s of 1,000’s of times daily, and those that are “soulish” make their choices based upon feelings and the here-and-now logic. Is it any wonder we see the world making all these wrong choices? What a praise that God has seen fit not to send us the message of salvation by a way that makes wrong decisions all the time but rather by His Spirit in conjunction with His word into our once dead spirit, not upon emotions, feelings, or worldly logic.

1 Corinthians 2:13-16

“Word Perfect Part B”

I. Intro

I’ve got a confession. I like to watch home improvement shows. It’s not the completed projects that interest me; it’s rather all of the processes that lead up to that. It’s why I like detective shows and crime scene investigation. In all of these things, it’s the unraveling of a mystery that holds my attention. That is why this section dealing with the inner workings of mankind’s makeup fascinates me. There are two great mysteries that continue to blow my mind:

Why does God love me?
Why do I continue to do dumb things knowing that He loves me?

The answer to the first is because of who He is; His nature and character are such as to love those that are unlovable. The second great mystery is what we are unraveling in these last two weeks. To give a quick answer, it is that we fail to realize that He loves the unlovable.

By way of review, Paul outlines for us three types of people which correspond to three works of the Holy Spirit:

Vs. 14 The NATURAL man: The word here in verse 14 is where we get our word “psyche,” which in Greek means “soul.” So there are out there today “soulish people.” The truth is, all people born after Adam start out as soulish people or natural-born people. In scripture, there are three functions of the soul:
- Power to choose
- Power to feel
- Power to reason
So we all start out as a “soulish person,” and it is the Holy Spirit that reveals the person and work of Jesus in the “Para” experience:
- “Para”: In John 14:16 Jesus said, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” The word for Helper, or Comforter, is “parakletos,” meaning “one called alongside to help.”
Vs. 15 The SPIRITUAL man: The word here appears 385 times in the NT and in Greek is “pneuma,” meaning “spirit.” Paul wrote to the Romans in vs. 8:9, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” This is the person that has been born again, and the Holy Spirit has come to abide or dwell in them.
Vs. 3:1 The CARNAL man: In the Greek, the word “carnal” means “composed of the flesh” and appears 13 times in the NT, where it is rendered several ways: “material, fleshly, worldly,” and, as here, “carnal.” This describes the “spiritual man” who makes decisions and acts like the “natural man.” Paul said of himself in Romans 7:15, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

II. Vs. 13-14 The Instructing Work of the Spirit

Vs. 13: Paul moves from the work of the Holy Spirit’s revealing work to that of the “instructing work of the Holy Spirit.” As I said, there are three Greek verb tenses that describe the work of the Holy Spirit. The second is what I believe Paul is referring to here:

“En”: In John 14:17, Jesus spoke to His disciples saying, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Then, in John 20:22, we are told Jesus, “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” This describes the work of the Holy Spirit as He indwells us.

Part of His work after indwelling us is given to us by Jesus in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” That’s what Paul is speaking of here in verse 13, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” Two questions ought to come to mind as we read this verse:

“What are ‘these things?’” Well, the context would indicate that it is the things “eyes, ears, and hearts” of men that didn’t receive and could not comprehend, which God has prepared for those that love Him. They are that which “God has revealed to us through His Spirit.” The things “hidden” in verse 7 have now been “revealed” to us through the Holy Spirit. It is His word by His words!
“Who is the ‘we’ that teaches by way of the Holy Spirit?” Well, this phrase deals with Paul’s testimony as to the method he employed to proclaim the word of the cross, which he already spoke about in verses 1-5. In those verses, Paul spoke about the need to be broken. Now he explains why: “Because it is the Holy Spirit” that teaches. They owed their conversion not to the teaching of a man but rather to the instruction of the Holy Spirit through a broken vessel.

The same is true with additional understanding through teaching; thus, lining up behind a human teacher is foolish, as it is only the Holy Spirit that teaches. Paul says, “Hey, I did not teach you words of human wisdom but rather spiritual truths in spiritual power!” The phrase, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” means that Paul used the Holy Spirit to explain the Word of God; thus, the Word of God and the Spirit of God were fitly joined together. On our sign, we put it this way, “The Word of God, by the Spirit of God, to the People of God!”

Vs. 14: Paul now launches out into the limitations of being a “soulish man” when it comes to understanding the “things of God.” He tells us three reasons why the non-believer does not receive the word of God by the Spirit of God:

Stuck in the here and now: “For they are foolishness to him.” To the unregenerate man, the Word of God by the Spirit of God is nonsense. Why? Well, because the things of God deal in a realm outside of the “here and now,” and the soulish man is stuck in the here and now. When Paul spoke in Athens, a university town full of human wisdom, they said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” They thought that Jesus was a god and so was the resurrection.
Lack the equipment (Holy Spirit) to make sense out of anything beyond the here and now: “Nor can he know them.” Ever try to read the Bible prior to becoming born again? Did it make any sense to you? In John 3, Israel’s teacher, Nicodemus, could not grasp the need to be born again. Was he dumb? No, that was the point of Jesus saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He needed to be born of the Spirit!
No way of changing ourselves beyond the here and now: “Because they are spiritually discerned.” Even if a person tries to be a better person and locks himself or herself up in a monastery and tries all day, they cannot change their hearts. It is simply a work of the Spirit of God and receiving His word by His Spirit without any dependence upon our anything!

III. Vs. 15-16 The Discerning Work of the Spirit

Vs. 15: Notice the words “But he who is spiritual.” This is Paul’s way of revealing the second of our three types of people, the “spiritual people” or, better yet, the “God-breathed-on people.” You remember a moment ago where Jesus said in John 20:22, he “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” That’s who Paul is describing here in this section, and it reminds us of the third aspect of the Holy Spirit, and that is discerning work.

“Epi”: In Acts 1:8, we read of Jesus’ words to His disciples (who, I might add, had already experienced the “indwelling” experience of the Holy Spirit in John 20:22), now saying to them, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The word “upon” is the Greek verb tense “epi.” One of the many things the Holy Spirit does when He comes upon those He indwells is empower them to be Jesus’ witness. One of the many gifts He grants us is the “discerning of spirits” (12:10).

So, Paul tells us that the person who is indwelt and empowered by the Spirit is able to “Judge” all things. The word “judge” curiously is the Greek word for discern. So Paul will tell us three ways the “Spiritual man” is different from the natural or soulish man:

Vs. 15a “Able to judge all things”: In other words, because of the Spirit of God indwelling them, they are not limited by feelings or observation fixed upon the here and now. Instead, they have the Spirit of God working through the Word of God, which can cause them to make the right choice based on God working in our born-again Spirit. Paul wrote in Rom. 8:1, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” You see how that changes the feelings of fear to that of one that says, Daddy, Father?
Vs. 15b “Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one”: This speaks of the fact that human wisdom does not overturn spiritual truth. Feelings or here-and-now observations are not stronger than God’s Word by His Spirit. Feelings are legitimate, but they are not necessarily reality. Have your feelings ever deceived you? (Isaac thinking Jacob was Esau.) Paul wrote to Timothy and admonished him, saying, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” In other words, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it!”
Vs. 16 “But we have the mind of Christ”: Paul reworks Isa. 40:13 as a rhetorical question with the answer of “No one!” Finally, Paul says that God has changed the way we think from choices based on how we think and feel to an eternal perspective. Think of it this way: when we make decisions based upon our soul, we are like people walking in the dark upon a windy road with cliffs on either side. But, when the Holy Spirit guides us, empowering the Word of God to our hearts, He turns on the light! Ps. 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.”

Thus, the key to this is remaining teachable to the Holy Spirit as He works through the Word of God, and as we do that, we will think, feel, and act as Jesus does!