My, my Lance,
you've just run right off here into another subject entirely - Let's stick
with the one at hand and see what God has to say about it ... Those
prophets are messing with your head.
1 Cor 2:14 Juxtaposes the two kinds
of wisdom - which are natural/worldly and spiritual or that from above.
1 Cor 1:20 "For since in the wisdom of God the
world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased
through the (incarnation)? ... foolishness
of the message preached to save those who
believe"
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual
body (1 Cor 15:44-46)
There is wisdom from above and there is wisdom
that is earthly, sensual and demonic (James 3:15)
There are people who are spiritually minded and
those who are worldly minded and devoid of the Spirit (Jude
19)
Unless and until they repent the world can not
receive the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17)
God makes foolish the wisdom of the world (1 Cor
1:18-20)
So lets stay on track and see what leads
up to 1 Cor 2:14 ...... Paul writes:
1 Cor 2:6 The wisdom we speak is not of this age
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away....
1 Cor 2:7 We speak God's wisdom in a mystery
.....
1 Cor 2:8 The wisdom which none of the rulers of
this age has understood ...
1 Cor 2:10 For to us God revealed them through
the Spirit for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of
God....
1 Cor 2:11 Who knows the thought of a man except
the spirit of the man which is in him ...
even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of
God
1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of
the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might
know.....
1 Cor 2:13 Which things we also speak not in
words taught by human wisdom but in those taught by the
Spirit
combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural (or worldly) man does
not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him
and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
So how did "merely human" get into the
conversation and where does the drug of sophistry come from? Paul is
discussing two kinds of wisdom here
- this is not about who the people think they are or
mature/immature.
'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.
judyt
He that says "I know Him" and doesn't keep His
Commandments
is a liar (1 John 2:4)
