but God has revealed to us by [his] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
Paul has just quoted the prophet on what no eye has seen, and many readers stop there. Verse 10 answers them with a "but": God has made those things known, and He did it through the Spirit, who searches "the depths of God."
Paul takes the prophet's words and adds a contrast. One writer notes how often people quote only the first half to excuse what they do not know.
William KellyHow often we hear a member of the body of Christ quoting the words, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard," to justify an ignorance that the Spirit of God takes pains to show us is no longer excusable. The things God has prepared for those who love Him are now made known. Our position is the opposite of the one the Jews had.
Another writer puts the same point sharply: people stop mid-sentence "as if the things were so glorious and so great, that our hearts could not know about them," but the apostle's addition "shews that we can know them now."
Being beyond the natural mind does not mean these things stay unknown. One writer shows who makes them known, and answers the excuse that they are too deep for us.
Hamilton SmithThe wisdom of God lies outside what the natural man can understand. That does not mean the things of that wisdom cannot be seen, heard, or known. The Apostle says at once, "God has revealed them"... Only the Spirit can reveal these things, for nothing is beyond the range of His divine knowledge and power... We may try to excuse our lack of spiritual energy by saying these things are too deep for us. But let us remember they are not too deep for the Spirit.
The word sounds strange used of God's Spirit, who lacks nothing in knowledge. One writer answers that the searching here happens inside believers.
Numerical Bible NotesWe might ask with surprise, how can the Spirit of God need to "search" the things of God? Does He not share with the Father and the Son in all divine knowledge? Yes, He does, fully; but these words describe the Spirit in us... He works in the working of our minds as He leads them, and so He brings us into ever fuller communion with the Father and the Son.
Another writer traces three steps here: the Spirit reveals, the Spirit passes it on, and the Spirit makes us able to receive it — "The Holy Spirit in us searches all things; there is nothing hidden."
The verse speaks of "the depths of God." One writer asks what fills those depths.
George DavisonCould any passage tell us of the depths of God like Ephesians 1:17-23? There is Christ, the centre of all His thoughts, the Christ who is the centre of His heart. God has given Him to be the centre of His affections, so that we might think of things as the Father thinks of them, in the circle of divine affection. God's deepest thoughts and His eternal counsel are centred in His beloved Son.
The depths also include what God is in Himself. One writer takes words the Son spoke to the Father, and finds that eternal relationship here:
William J HockingThese relations are "the depths of God" that the apostle speaks of. He adds that "no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." But God's Spirit has revealed this eternal relationship of the Father and the Son to us, through these words of the Son Himself.
A full revelation does not mean every reader takes it in. Paul names three kinds of people, and one writer explains why he could take the subject no further with the Corinthians.
J. S. BlackburnThe natural man can't receive these things. They are all completely foreign to his powers and his way of thought... The natural man means the unconverted man. There is the spiritual man (v. 15)... And there is a third kind of person, called in verse 3 the "carnal" man. Because these Corinthians were carnal, the matter cannot be explained to them any further.
For those who do receive, the searching has no end point: "the more we enter into the deep things in blessed fellowship with the Father and the Son, the more we desire to know."
- Hidden. No eye or ear could reach what God prepared, so people quote the verse before this one to excuse what they do not know.
- Revealed. That excuse is gone. God has revealed these things by His Spirit: first to the apostles, then passed on, then received.
- Searcher. The Spirit does the revealing. Nothing is beyond His knowledge and power, and these things are not too deep for Him.
- Depths. He searches the depths of God: God's deepest thoughts and eternal counsel, centred in His beloved Son, and even the eternal relationship of Father and Son.
- Received. The natural man cannot take these things in, and a carnal state stops a believer too. The spiritual receive them, and their desire to know only grows.
For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God.
Paul has just said that the Spirit searches the depths of God. Now he asks what it takes to know a mind — starting with your own private thoughts, and ending with God Himself.
The first half of the verse rests on a plain fact about human life.
Hamilton SmithWhat is in a man's mind is not known to anyone but the spirit of the man himself who has the thoughts. No one knows the unspoken thought of my mind except my own spirit. In the same way, no one knows the unspoken thoughts and plans of God except the Spirit of God.
Paul picks a particular word for the part of a man that does the knowing, and that choice carries weight.
Leslie M. GrantThe Spirit of God penetrates the deep things of God, as no creature could ever do. So He is the one who can reveal them. Verse 11 illustrates this with the spirit of a man. It is a man's spirit that knows the things of a man. Knowledge, intellect and understanding are connected with the spirit, not with the soul. The soul is marked more by desire and feeling.
The phrase "so also" is not a flat comparison. It moves from something hard to something impossible. One writer traces both halves of that step.
William KellyNo one knows what is in another's mind. He may guess more or less accurately. But no one can inwardly know what is in another's mind unless that person tells him. The spirit of the man himself knows, and no one else. It is shut out not only from animals lower than man in the scale of creation, but from his fellow men. The same is true of God, but with far greater force. No one can come to know the things of God unless they are revealed. Only the Spirit of God knows them.
The Spirit knows God's thoughts the way your spirit knows your own. So the verse tells us who the Spirit is, not only what He does.
Samuel Ridout"The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God… no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:10-11). Omniscience, another attribute belonging to Deity alone, is before us here as belonging to the Spirit. He knows and searches all things, knows the end from the beginning, for He is God.
The verse quietly closes a door. Ability, education and hard thinking are real, but they do not open onto God's mind — and this has always been the point at which people go wrong.
H. H. SnellThe root error of all this departure from the truth is surely the refusal to accept God's verdict that "those who are in the flesh cannot please God," and the acceptance instead of the false idea that man is competent to judge the things of God, ignoring our fall through Adam's disobedience. In matters of this life men certainly have natural abilities; but Scripture plainly tells us that "no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). Even the apostles… used to say, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God."
The illustration has a striking turn in it. What no human being would ever surrender, God has given away.
An Outline of Sound WordsOnly the spirit of a man can understand the things of a man. No man would give anyone else his own spirit, even if he had the power to do so. He does not want another person to know the deep secrets of his heart. But God has given us His Spirit so that we might know the wonderful secrets of His heart — things revealed by the Spirit that God has given to us.
The Spirit's knowledge does not stop with Him. One writer counts the stages it passes through.
J. N. DarbyThere are three things. The Spirit unfolds and reveals the things; by words given by the Holy Spirit we communicate them; and by the Holy Spirit too they are received.
- Locked. An unspoken thought belongs to the thinker's own spirit alone. No one else can reach it — not his fellow men, and not the creatures below him.
- Locked tighter. What is hard between two people is impossible between man and God. His thoughts stay hidden unless He reveals them.
- The key. Only the Spirit of God knows them, and He knows them because He is God — omniscience is an attribute of Deity.
- Unlocked. No man would hand over his own spirit and expose his heart. God gave us His Spirit so that we might know His heart.
- Passed on. The same Spirit reveals the things, gives the words that carry them, and enables us to receive them.