What does Paul mean when he writes of the natural man?

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.

Now the inspired apostle tells us, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, that, "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." This is conclusive. He speaks of man in his natural state, be he ever so learned, ever so cultivated. He is not speaking of any special class of men; but simply of man in his unconverted state, man destitute of the Spirit of God. Some may imagine that the apostle refers to man in a state of barbarism, or savage ignorance. By no means; it is simply man in nature, be he 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 as to the word of God? How can he take it upon him to say what is, or what is not worthy of God to write? And if he is audacious enough to do so — as alas! he is — who will be foolish enough to listen to him? His arguments are baseless; his theories worthless; his books only fit for the waste paper basket. And all this, be it observed, on the universally admitted principle above stated, that no one has any title to be heard on a subject of which he is wholly ignorant.

ψυχικός, from 'life, soul.' "The natural man [that is, a man characterised by the natural life of the soul, without the teaching and power of the Holy Spirit] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." 1 Cor. 2:14. The body of the Christian is sown 'a natural body' (having had natural life through the living soul); it will be raised 'a spiritual body.' 1 Cor. 15:44-46.

The meaning of the adjective ψυχικός, animal, which the reader will find in 1 Corinthians 2:14; 15:44, 46; and James 3:15; may present some difficulty when thus applied, whether to the moral condition, or to the body, of a man. We think it well, therefore, to remark that, in these passages, the word indicates that which, like the first Adam, lives by virtue of the possession of a soul, and not by the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost. The same Greek word ψυχικός is found also in Jude 19, where we could hardly employ the term "animal," and have therefore replaced it by "natural."

The natural man, the man who has not the Spirit of God, is unable to benefit by the words of inspiration, and cannot therefore apprehend the revelations that God has given. He regards the things of the Spirit as foolish, not understanding them, and he will not accept them; but he cannot know them, not having the spiritual capacity to receive them.

Verse 14 insists that the natural man cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit of God; for he has not been born again, and is dependent upon his own natural senses in regard to what he understands. Spiritual things are outside the realm of his experience and of his knowledge, and he considers them only foolishness, because they are discerned only spiritually, not by his natural senses.

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.

A contrast between the natural (psychical) man and the spiritual man concludes this chapter. The natural man, no matter what his mental attainments are, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He must be born again and receive the Spirit before he can discern spiritual things. Why do men criticize the Bible, reject its great Truths, ignorant in spiritual things, though learned in the wisdom of the world? They are natural men, not having the Spirit (Jude verse 19).

Verse 14. "But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God," etc. In an earlier verse he has accounted for the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, by declaring that none of the princes of this world knew the wisdom of God. In the passage now before us, both that culminating work of darkness, and all other forms of resistance which men offer to the Spirit of truth, are referred to their common principle. To be natural we must reject the Spirit's things. We have here, first, a statement of fact, together with its operative cause; and, secondly, an explanation of both cause and effect. Men do refuse the Spirit's things, because they despise them. Men must so estimate the Spirit's things, because while in their natural state they are incapable of discerning their true value, and consequently of receiving them. Such is declared to be the born condition of the natural man.

Let us now observe carefully, before proceeding further, that in these opposing categories of "natural" and "spiritual," all who hear the Gospel are comprised. No place is found, in the Spirit's estimate, for that numerous class who may be said practically to be halting between two opinions. Not to receive the witness of God is to reject it. A neutral or indifferent position is allowed to no man in the presence of divine truth. Moreover, a knowledge of the Gospel, and even a mental acquiescence in its truth, is not the same thing as receiving it. But not to receive it in the love of it, is to neglect God's great salvation, and in the name of such it is asked, "How shall we escape?"5 Lastly, a religious profession may be quite sincere, and yet the professor be a natural man. He is so, until divinely taught the secret of his own entire ruin from his birth, and through faith enabled as a blood-bought sinner to glory only in the name of Jesus.

6 Now one would have thought that such a powerful truth, from the lips of Truth itself, would have awakened her from her stupid dream, and shewn her that there was more in it than carnal nature could discern. But no; she saw nothing of it, and replies, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." The natural mind is on natural things, and sees everything through that medium; it is shut up in its own little circle of feelings and ideas, and can neither see nor feel beyond it; there it looks for all its enjoyment; there it lives, there it continues, and there it dies. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned"; and the reason is this - they have neither seen nor know the God in whose presence they are, neither have they ever been partakers by faith in Christ of God's gift of the Holy Spirit, whereby they discern spiritually; they have no perception of the excluded state in which they are with regard to God and heaven; neither do they know anything of the entrance into the new life - the new creation, because the entrance of the Spirit has never been experienced in their hearts, they are foolish and worldly and know nothing of God.

(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.

In verse 14 the Apostle speaks of the natural man, in verse 15 of the spiritual man, and in 1 Corinthians 3 of the carnal, or fleshly, man. The natural man is the unconverted man, without the Spirit; the carnal man is the believer, having the Spirit, but walking like the natural man; the spiritual man is the believer walking in the Spirit.