[TruthTalk] 1 Corinthians 2:14-16

[Lance Muir]

'Someone who is merely human doesn't accept the things of God's Spirit. They are foolishness to such people, you see, and they can't understand them because they need to be discerned spiitually.' But spiritual people discern everything , while nobody else can discern the truth about them! For. 'Who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of the Messiah'   Paul is now bringing his discussion of wisdom and folly, and spiritual maturity and immaturity, right down to where the Corinthians themselves are. They have been using the 'drug' of sophistry. supposing it makes them more 'spiritual'; and Paul declares that it has made them all the more human.   The more they take the drug, the more immature they show themselves to be; and the proof of it all is -- their in-fighting about different Christian teachers!   That is the main point Paul is making here, and it bears reflection in today's church as we so easily lapse from serious issues to personality clashes, and from personalities to mere gossip, while all the time pretending we are still dealing with important matters.   Paul draws a distinction between 'spiritual' people (vs 13) and merely 'human people', those living on the ordinary level.The former are ones in whom God's Spirit has come to dwell, opening them up to new depths and dimensions of truth and experience. The latter may think themselves 'sophisticated' but they are 'merely human'. ('soul-ish') Such a person (the latter) simply can't understand what's going on when talk turns to the deeper things of the spirit. They become LIKE A TONE-DEAF PERSON AT AN OPERA: IT'S ALL NONSENSE TO THEM. Imagine being the only muscial person listening to a wonderful string quartet in a large room full of tone-deaf people. That is rather like Paul's picture of being a 'spiritual' person in a world of 'merely human' people.   Those who have the spirit have the MESSIAH'S MIND   THE CORINITHIANS AREN'T READY FOR IT. Paul is drawing out the difference (2:6) between those who were ready for serious teaching and those who were still at the infancy stage. Paul declares (3:2) You are still babies. You are driven by all-too-human impulses.   LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR, HEAR!   What is this passage NOT about? What IS it concerning? One ought not employ God's Word without spiritual discernment. Might it be the case that those who buttress their comments with many biblical citations occasionally display immaturity? Might it also be the case that one's maturity/discernment can itself be DISCERNED even in the absence of such citations?   FWIW, I've found this to be the case quite in reading "G"  But, let not this aside detract from the above.