But *we* have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which [is] of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God
Paul has just said that no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now he tells the Corinthians which spirit they have received. The verse sets two spirits side by side, and gives God's reason for giving His own: so that His people would understand what He has already handed to them. The older translations these writers use say "know" where the ESV says "understand."
For one writer, this contrast never changes. He then marks the change it made for God's people.
J. N. DarbyThe Spirit of God and the spirit of the world are always in contrast… We have to say, "no eye has seen"; these things are so great we cannot conceive them, but God has revealed them by His Spirit. Believers in Old Testament times could not find out or know these things, but with us it is the opposite. We do know them, and He has given us His Spirit "that we might know the things."
So what is the "spirit of the world" like? One writer describes movement that never arrives.
The Christian's FriendThe spirit of the world is restless. It is always active and always searching, either to find something new or to invent some cure for the many-sided misery of man. It may turn to theory or to practice, but it never finds the remedy that satisfies… The spirit of the world always advances, but never reaches its end. It leads on to what is coming, but what has never yet come. The Spirit which is of God is the very opposite.
The verse before compares knowing God to knowing another person's private thoughts. One writer takes that comparison further.
An Outline of Sound WordsIf a man could hand over his own spirit, the one who received it would know all about him. Every secret of his heart and mind would lie open. No man would ever let anyone know the deepest secrets of his heart. But this is exactly what God has done. So that we might know His secrets, He has given us His Spirit.
The knowing that results is not information collected from outside.
William KellyIt is the same with God, only with far greater force. No one can come to know the things of God unless God reveals them. Only the Spirit of God knows them. But here is the priceless privilege of the Christian. We did not receive the spirit of the world. We received the Spirit that is from God, and for this very purpose: that we might know — inwardly know — the things freely given to us by God.
So what does the Spirit show us, and how sure can we be of it?
Samuel RidoutHere God throws open to us the full treasure-house of His gifts of love. As we gaze in wonder at one gift and then another, the Spirit assures us they are all ours.
The same grace lies behind both the giving and the knowing — and the youngest believer is not excluded.
William KellyWhere the blood has been put, the oil can follow. That is the anointing from the Holy One, by which the very babe in Christ knows all things. God's grace has freely given him everything along with God's own Son. That same grace would bring him into the conscious knowledge of it all, and into the joy of communion. This can only be by the Holy Spirit of God.
Paul writes "we," and one writer refuses to narrow it.
William KellyYour minds are not able to take in the truth, but the Spirit of God stoops to work in man. In what believers? The apostles or the early disciples only? God forbid we should be so unbelieving! The very thing that has preserved the church of God all through the ages has been the possession of the Spirit. This is a cardinal truth of Scripture.
Every believer has the Spirit, yet not every believer knows the same amount.
Leslie M. GrantThis does not mean that all believers have the same conscious knowledge. But all have the same Spirit, who is able to communicate the things of God. We come to know them as far as we are willing to be taught and led by the Spirit.
Two opposite failures can block that learning — feeling too little, or reasoning too far.
Hamilton SmithDullness of affection may keep us from profiting by what God has revealed. Or the activity of our own minds may carry us beyond what is written. So let us take care. Let us seek, with awakened affections and minds controlled by the Spirit, to enter more fully into all that has been revealed…
- Contrast — the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world stand opposed. One keeps searching and never arrives. The other makes known what God has already given.
- Gift — God did what no person would do. He gave His own Spirit, so that we could know His deepest secrets.
- Purpose — God gave the Spirit so that we would know His things from the inside, not just gather facts about Him.
- Reach — the "we" covers every believer, not the apostles only. The same grace that gave the Son brings even a babe in Christ into conscious knowledge.
- Measure — all share one Spirit, but knowledge grows as we let Him teach us. Cold affections and restless reasoning both hold it back.
which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual [things] by spiritual [means].
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