1 Corinthians 2:6 – 14
Subject: Spiritual understanding verses Natural understanding.
V. 14 “But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.”
I will begin by asking this all-important question, who among us rightly understands the “Word of God”? Well, it is most certain that there is one right understanding of God’s Word and all others are wrong. God’s Word is an “in context and without contradiction” book, there is one doctrine and one direction to God’s Word, Holy in its nature. Here in 1 Corinthians 2:6 – 14 The Apostle Paul is talking about the spiritual nature of understanding verse the natural way of understanding, one is wrong, and the other is correct, one is Truth, and the other is non-truth. The bible is a Spiritual Book unintelligible by mankind in its totality, it must be Spirit taught. This is an absolute fact; the lost will never utterly understand the contents of the bible “…because they are spiritually discerned.” The question now must be what is the meaning of being “being spiritually discerned”? A.H. Strong’s defines it this way, - they are unable to scrutinize, that is, (by implication) investigate the bible -, Thayer defined it this way – they are unable to examine or judge the excellence or defects of the bible -. This means that the bible is written like a puzzle, and no one in the natural state of mind will ever intelligibly comprehend any form of it. Even the most intelligent of God’s creation cannot comprehend and rightly assemble God’s puzzle of truth. Paul said in V. V. 10 - 11 "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Please look awfully close to these words, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit…” God’s Spirit does not communicate with the lost or the natural person in any form in their lost state. Even with the saved He only communicates to a limited level. To the lost person the bible makes no sense, their natural understanding prevents them from seeing the truth of the bible, they simply will never put the puzzle together. Paul speaking about his lost Jewish countrymen said this, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Romans 10:2 - 3 The Gentiles are no different than the Jews, the world is full of lost and spiritually unintelligible creatures with a great zeal attempting to understand, worship, and preach God’s word, but it is all in vain. Dead spirits know nothing.
Now, let us look at the believers scriptural understanding. A Christian has two natures, their natural nature, and a spiritual nature. A Christian still lives under their natural nature until the Holy Spirit moves us in our spiritual nature to over-ride our old nature. Therefore, Christians do not in unity understand the scriptures, we are NOT one bible, one doctrine, one understanding, but we ought to be, right. While Christians have limited understanding no one among us has an infallible understanding of the puzzle called the bible. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” God before the foundation of the world pre-ordained every single believer a predestinated life and understanding of His puzzle called the bible. Even to the believer the bible is unintelligible, if it were not then every believer would understand His word in unison and without error. All believers would be scripturally in one accord. The bible is a Spiritually written book, that means the Holy Spirit wrote the bible through men whom God chose to write it thru time. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” 2Tim. 3:16 This means every word of the bible, except the words in italics are absolutely the words of God. Paul said “…for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God… so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” The “no man” includes Christians, for the Christian must be taught of God by His Holy Spirit, and if they are not then they will never put the puzzle together. Note these words, “…the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” This means – the mystery or the hidden counsels or purposes of God -. The bible is a revelation and is revealed only to believers, as God has chosen for us to understand it. Just because we read and study the puzzle does not mean we have the spiritual ability to assemble the pieces in its correct form to complete the puzzle, no one will complete the puzzle completely correct. Paul wrote “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:4 spiritual gifts are, any gift given by the Holy Spirit and that includes scriptural understanding. God can make the weakest intelligible Christian biblically smarter than those who hold a PhD among us. Human intelligence may make one a smarter and greater speaker, but it makes them no smarter in biblical soundness. John wrote “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:” Joh 16:13 He also wrote these words, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26 Even the Apostle Paul recognized this truth, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (11) Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 – 11. No matter how hard we work, how hard we study, we are only what God has elected to make us, as Christians and understanding His word. We need to all pray that our understanding is correct and pray that God will continue to connect the pieces of His puzzle in our hearts.
