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.
The 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 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.
If 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.
It 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?
Here 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.
Where 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.
Your 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.
This 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.
Dullness 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].
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But [the] natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know [them] because they are spiritually discerned;
This verse cuts the human race in two: the man born with only natural life, and the man who has the Spirit of God. The problem is not that God's things are too hard to follow; the natural man has nothing in him that can take them in.
So who does Paul mean? The answer covers every person from birth, and learning does not move anyone out of the class.
By the "natural man" the apostle means man as he is born and grows up, without being born of God or the Holy Spirit given to him. He may be very learned, scientific, intellectual and refined. Still, until the Spirit gives him life, he is the natural man. He does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for to him they are folly. Nor can he learn them and make them his own, grasping their truth, because they are spiritually discerned. He does not have the Spirit of God, since he does not believe in Christ.
Behind "natural" stands one Greek word. It tells us where a man's life comes from.
The adjective ψυχικός, animal, appears in 1 Corinthians 2:14; 15:44, 46; and James 3:15. Its meaning may present some difficulty when applied either to a man's moral condition or to his body. We think it well, then, to note what the word points to in these passages. It points to that which, like the first Adam, lives by having a soul, and not by the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit.
So why can he not know them? The answer is a missing sense.
A blind man does not know for himself what the beautiful colours of a flower are. He has no sense of sight to perceive this loveliness of God's handiwork. Our power for discerning divine things lies in having the Spirit of God within us, who is like eyes to our souls. … The simplest believer on earth, with the Spirit of God within him, knows more of God's things than the wisest of men without the Spirit. The natural man may sit in judgment on God's Word and God's character. But to the Christian his pride is like that of a council of deaf men giving their opinion on harmony.
That has a hard edge for anyone who reviews the Bible as a critic:
He is not speaking of any special class of men. He means man in his unconverted state, man without the Spirit of God… it is man in nature, whether he is a learned philosopher or an ignorant clown. He cannot know the things of the Spirit of God. How then can he form or give a judgement about the word of God?
The verse leaves no middle ground. Even sincere religion can fall on the wrong side of the line.
In the Spirit's estimate there is no place for the large group who in practice waver between two opinions. Not to receive the witness of God is to reject it. … Knowing the gospel, and even agreeing with its truth in the mind, is not the same thing as receiving it. … A religious profession may be quite sincere, and yet the person making it is still a natural man.
God makes Himself known morally. That is what man's conscience refuses to face.
Man's thoughts differ so far from God's that man can see nothing but foolishness — even in the most wonderful display of God's saving power. No wonder. If man is to know God at all, he must know Him morally. But men's consciences shrink from looking at God in His moral character… We must know God, not as fallen man can understand Him, but as He has revealed Himself. Only the soul taught by the Spirit can grasp this.
Commentators add a caution: having the Spirit and being spiritual are not the same thing.
We do well to remember that it is the "spiritual", not simply the one who has the Spirit, who discerns all things. A man must, of course, have the Spirit to be spiritual. But being spiritual means a condition in which a man is under the control of the Spirit. Such people discern all things, yet they themselves are discerned by no one.
- Source. "Natural" means a life drawn from the soul alone — the life of the first Adam, not the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Scope. It covers every man as born, philosopher and labourer alike. Learning changes nothing while the Spirit is missing.
- Sense. Missing the Spirit is like missing sight. The simplest believer knows more of God's things than the wisest man without Him.
- Stance. Not receiving is rejecting. There is no neutral seat, and even sincere religion can leave a man in this class.
- Shift. Only God's work changes this: new birth and the gift of the Spirit. Then the man under the Spirit's control discerns all things.