What does it mean that the spiritual man judges all things (1 Corinthians 2:15)?

Man, morally, his affections, his judgment, are thus purified by that Jesus whom the Holy Ghost presents to him, — that he may possess Him in his heart. Sweet and sanctifying proof of the Father's love! The Holy Ghost in man is a real and divine power; but He also works morally, and in the intelligence of him in whom He dwells. The spiritual man discerneth all things. All means are at his disposal. He judges all things, he takes knowledge of all things if needful, according to the Spirit and by His direction. It is not his reason which judges; he judges spiritually of all things. He judges himself instead of pretending to judge God, as if he had a capacity independent of Him. It is this that is incompatible with faith; this is that criticism which is incompatible with faith, because faith acknowledges God, and judges that proud criticism, which, in its folly, would judge God.

58 If then one would speak of faith, it is because it has a sovereign power of criticism, because it is incompatible with criticism. That which criticizes supremely cannot be criticized, it would be a flagrant contradiction. "The spiritual man," says Paul (for faith is an abstraction), "judgeth [discerneth] all things, and he himself is judged [discerned] of no man," 1 Cor. 2:15.

Verse 15 is the total opposite of this. "He that is spiritual" does not describe every believer, for some of these are "carnal, even though they have the Spirit of God (ch. 3:1). It refers to those who in practice depend upon the leading of the Spirit, as every believer ought to. A carnal believer will not discern all things, because, while some of his thoughts may be spiritual, yet fleshiness is so mixed with these that his outlook will be confused. But one who is spiritual discerns all things. Indeed, he not only discerns spiritual things, but will discern the true import of natural things in a way the natural man cannot. "Yet he himself is discerned of no man." He is an enigma to men, for he thinks and acts on a different level, not energized by self-centeredness, but by a genuine regard for the glory of God.

"For," it is questioned, "who hath known the mind of the Lord: who shall instruct Him." This is knowledge inscrutable, because high above any creature level. "But we have the mind of Christ." Marvelous, precious declaration of fact! Having the Spirit of God, this is the revelation of the mind of Christ. The believer has this. Then he should certainly seek to make use of it in daily experience. If not, he is not "spiritual."

(Vv. 14, 15). Thus we learn that the wisdom of God is made known by revelation and communicated to others by inspiration. Now we learn that the reception of the truth is also by the Spirit of God. The natural man cannot receive the things of God; they are foolishness to him; they can only be spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerns all things. We do well to remember that it is the “spiritual”, not simply he that has the Spirit, that discerns all things. A man must, indeed, have the Spirit to be spiritual; but being spiritual implies a condition in which a man is under the control of the Spirit. Such discern all things, yet they themselves are not discerned of any. The spiritual man can discern the motives that govern the world, though the world cannot discern the motives and principles that govern the spiritual man.

For discerning, we need the right spiritual condition. The "natural man," i.e., man in his natural or unconverted condition, does not discern them at all. The "spiritual," i.e., the converted man, not only indwelt but also governed and characterized by the Spirit of God, alone can take them in. Possessing the Spirit we have the mind of Christ. Governed by the Spirit the eyes of our hearts are opened to understand.

The word "judges," occurring twice in verse 15, is just the word "discerns," as the margin of a reference bible shows. Read discerns and the sense is clearer. It is only the spiritual believer who has spiritual eyesight to see all things clearly.

The spiritual man, again, "judgeth all things." If I am not spiritual, I shall make a mistake. A man's saying a thing was done in the Spirit or not in the Spirit must depend on his grace to act, and has nothing to do with his power to judge. Of course it is assumed we are in the Spirit or spiritual. If a man is spiritual, he judges all things, and he must be spiritual to judge. If he is not spiritual, he cannot judge; but if he is spiritual, he first judges himself.

It is not the abstraction of the mind from the scene of evil to an imaginary scene of good, but whilst being in the evil, we recognise it in all its fearful extent, and detect it under the fairest outside, rising above it personally through Him Who was in it and felt its full pressure, in the blessed confidence that He overcame it all. In the world, not of the world, and therefore capacitated not only to see its misery, but to minister to it (and hence "the spiritual man judgeth all things"), we are enabled to bring forth the judgment of God upon circumstances apparently trivial. This is much opened to us in 1 Cor. 7. We find the apostle giving his judgment, not by immediate revelation from God, but as one who had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful, and had the Spirit of God (doko de kago pneuma theou echein), he applies the judgment of the Spirit in him to circumstances of the most domestic character. It is thus he judges all things, being himself only a looker on, and therefore enabled in all calmness to see what those who are themselves engaged in it, cannot. "Man looks on the outside," he may view a thing everywhere, but the Spirit gets at the principle, i.e. what is before God. In a very little matter a great principle may be at stake, and hence the shortcoming even of worldly wisdom in worldly things. "The Lord taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (1 Cor. 3:19).

Verse 15. "But the spiritual man discerns all things,"4 etc. This follows as a natural corollary to what has gone before. A man is according to his origin. If natural, he is cognizant of natural things; if spiritual, of spiritual things. But the Spirit searches all things. He therefore who is spiritual has an unlimited range of thought and search. Called with an immediate heavenly calling, he is exhorted primarily by the Spirit to fix his attention and engage his affections with the things above.5 But because he is in Christ, and is called to the fellowship of the Son of God, all that lies within the boundless sphere of His inheritance is also comprised within the proper range of spiritual thought. Now the earth is the Lord's as well as heaven, and its destinies, and those of its inhabitants, which to the politician or philosopher are speculative guesses only, are to the spiritual matters of sound knowledge; for God does not hide from His children the counsel of His will, but plainly reveals it in His Word. To see things clearly we must be above their level; and the gift of the Spirit not only makes the believer, so long as he is walking in the light, as "a lord of wing,"6 to overlook and so escape the methods of the devil, who would take him in his net, but by showing to him human things as they are seen from heaven unravels for him the perplexed enigma of "this present world." He does not, like the king of Babylon, think doubtfully of what may come hereafter,7 but has shown to him in open vision the history of man, from his beginning to his end. He can speak with the calm certainty of knowledge of a "world to come,"8 and bring its distinctive features into a positive comparison with those of the "present evil age." He knows the blessed yet deeply solemn difference between "man's day" and "the day of God."9 Both good and evil are the subjects of his meditation, and both in their direct relation to the person and titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether on earth or in heaven, the song of the Spirit has a double burden. He sings of mercy, but He sings of judgment also.1

Let me call attention to the language of extreme decision in speaking of these two classes. It is the habit of many an excellent Christian to deny the title of saints to exercise such a judgment; and to this they cite our Lord's prohibition in Matt. 7:1-2: "Judge not, that ye may not be judged; for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you." Now in this application they are not wise; for the Lord here does not at all blame spiritual discernment of persons or things, which is a clear and weighty privilege of the Christian for his own guidance and the help or warning of others. And so the apostle lays it down (1 Cor. 2:15) that the spiritual (in contrast with the natural) man judges, or examines, all things, and he is judged by no one. What the Lord warned the disciples against is the bad habit of censoriousness, which so often leads to suspecting evil motives without ground and contrary to the holy instincts of love. But love would be stifled by the notion that we ought not to judge who God's children are. If we are debarred from discerning them, how can we love them? Yet the very context proves that we can and ought to judge; for the Lord supposes it not only practicable but right and necessary when He says, "Give not what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine." If we are thus bound to discern the unclean, how much more is it our happy place to recognise the sheep and the lambs of God's pasture, and help them lovingly in their need according to our measure!

There was another lesson in its place of no less weight — the incapacity of man without the Holy Spirit not merely to know or convey, but even to receive the truth of God. "But [the] natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he cannot know [them] because they are spiritually discerned; but the spiritual [man] discerns all things while he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known [the] Lord's mind that he should instruct him? But we have [the] mind of Christ." (Ver. 14-16.)

This is a momentous declaration in all its parts. For the apostle by the "natural man" means man as he is born and grows up, without being born of God or the Holy Ghost given to him. He might be ever so learned, scientific, intellectual and refined; still, till quickened of the Spirit, he is ψυχικός. He does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for to him they are folly; nor can he learn them, so as to appropriate them, apprehending their truth, because they are spiritually discerned, and the Spirit of God he has not as unbelieving in Christ. The spiritual man on the other hand is one who is not only renewed but in the power of the Spirit. He accordingly has a divine spring of discerning while he is beyond the ken of all who are destitute of the Spirit.

It is in virtue of the Spirit of God that the believer now stands in so astonishing a place, capable of discerning all things, yet himself outside the discernment of man. How great the folly of any saint in Corinth or elsewhere yearning after human wisdom! What makes it even more striking is the application the apostle appends from Isaiah 40:13. For there the prophet insists on the supremacy of Jehovah's intelligence, as before of His infinite goodness and power. Unsearchable Himself yet searching all, "who has measured the Spirit of Jehovah, and, the man of his counsel, will teach him?" As independent of man's measuring and instruction is the Christian in divine things, and this through the Spirit of God dwelling in him. Thus the use of Isaiah 64 bears witness that, as man's heart had not conceived the purpose of God before the world for our glory (not merely the nations, as Kimchi would have it, but man generally, Israel included), so God has revealed it now that Christ is crucified and received up in glory, and this by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to be in and with us. But the use of Isaiah 40 goes farther; for the apostle ascribes to the Christian the mind (νοῦν) or intelligence of Christ, in whom God's wisdom is, and thus appropriates to us now by grace, as possessing the Holy Spirit, that which, belonging characteristically to God, is wholly independent of man and undiscoverable by him.

In short, as the revelation of God's hidden wisdom is of the Holy Spirit, so is the inspiration that conveys it, and no less truly though of a more general character is the reception of it. In the gospel as Paul knew and made it known, in the mystery of the gospel, was brought positively new truth, of which not Gentiles only but Israel or men universally were ignorant; but now it was revealed, communicated, and received in the Spirit. As He only could make it known, so He gave the words which were the due medium of conveying it, and He enables us to receive it.

(V. 16). In verse 15 the Apostle tells us that “the spiritual discerns all things”. It is not indeed that such naturally know the mind of the Lord, or can instruct Him; but the Lord has given to believers His Spirit and instructs them; such can therefore say, “We have the mind of Christ”.