“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.”
(1 Corinthians 2:14)
In the second chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains why the truths of God are so often rejected by those who possess natural reason but no spiritual life. The difficulty is not that divine truth is irrational, confusing, or defective. The difficulty lies in the condition of the hearer. The natural man judges spiritual things by the wisdom of the flesh and therefore finds foolishness where God has revealed wisdom. The defect is not in the object seen, but in the eye that attempts to see it.
Natural man may possess intelligence, learning, memory, judgment, and skill in earthly matters, yet still lack the spiritual light necessary to apprehend the things of God as they truly are. Reason itself is not destroyed by the fall, but it is corrupted and limited in spiritual judgment. So natural reason inevitably misjudges what belongs to the Spirit.
Paul says that the natural man “cannot” know these things because they are spiritually discerned. There is blindness in the mind, perverseness in judgment, and enmity against God. A person may hear the same doctrines repeatedly and still fail to comprehend their spiritual worth because the necessary principle of spiritual discernment is absent.
Spiritual discernment requires spiritual light.[1] The Spirit of Christ must illuminate the understanding and renew the affections so that the mind receives what God reveals. This does not mean that the Spirit portrays a different gospel from the one written in Scripture. Rather, He makes the written truth spiritually intelligible and compelling to the renewed soul. The object remains the same; the perceiving faculty is changed.
Even when a believer tries to judge divine truths by natural wisdom, he remains liable to confusion. The renewed man must still attend to the Spirit’s illumination and resist the tendency to reduce spiritual truth to what natural reason finds immediately acceptable. Human reasoning may organize, compare, explain, and defend truth, but only the Spirit can make the soul receive it spiritually. The believer therefore still depends on divine assistance every time he approaches the Word.
We should therefore not seek more information, but more light; not stronger arguments, but a mind increasingly renewed by the Spirit; not simply to know what Scripture says, but to discern its spiritual excellency. The great danger is to imagine that familiarity with doctrine is the same as spiritual perception. And the great mercy is that God gives the very Spirit by whom His truth is discerned.
Contemplations:
- Give Me Eyes That Natural Wisdom Cannot Supply. My mind can gather facts, compare arguments, and follow reasoning, yet none of these powers can create spiritual sight. Keep me from trusting intelligence, education, or familiarity with information as though these were substitutes for the Spirit. Let me approach divine truth with dependence on illumination from Your Spirit. Open my understanding so that I apprehend the wisdom, holiness, and beauty contained in what You reveal.
- Help Me Not Judge Your Word by My Preferences. My natural wisdom wants to decide beforehand what ought to be true, reasonable, acceptable, or fitting. Preserve me from placing myself above revelation. Where Your truth confronts my assumptions, make me willing to be corrected. And do not let me call foolish what You call wise simply because it offends natural reasoning.
- Renew More Than My Understanding. Spiritual discernment is not intellectual improvement. My affections also need renewal. I can understand a doctrine outwardly and yet remain inwardly resistant to it. So let what is true become lovely to me because it reflects You. Let holiness become desirable, Christ precious, and grace beautiful. Keep me from a dry understanding that leaves the will untouched. And make my spiritual knowledge living, affectionate, and obedient.
- Keep Me Dependent Even After Illumination. Do not let past understanding make me careless about present dependence. Even where You have already given light, I remain capable of judging according to the flesh. Teach me to seek the Spirit’s help continually. Let every reading of Scripture, every sermon heard, every doctrine considered, and every spiritual judgment begin with the awareness that I need You. Preserve me from the pride that assumes I can now see clearly without fresh grace.
Prayer (Supplication):
Father of lights, give me spiritual discernment by Your Holy Spirit.
My natural reason is not enough. It can observe, compare, and argue, but it cannot by itself receive the things of the Spirit as they truly are. Deliver me from confidence in my own understanding.
Where my mind is blind, give light. Where my judgment is distorted by the wisdom of the flesh, correct it. Where pride makes me resistant to truths that humble me, bring me into submission.
Do not let me measure Your Word by what seems immediately reasonable. Rather teach me to receive revelation as the standard by which my reason must be corrected.
Renew my affections together with my understanding. Let spiritual truth become not only known, but valued.
Guard me from thinking that education, theological knowledge, or long familiarity with Scripture removes my need of the Spirit. Keep me dependent every time I open Your Word.
Give me that inward illumination by which divine things are spiritually discerned. Let Your truth penetrate more deeply, govern more fully, and shape my whole life.
When natural wisdom calls Your truth foolishness, strengthen me to stand with the wisdom of God. When my own thoughts conflict with Scripture, make me willing to be corrected.
Continue to teach me, illumine me, and humble me.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References:
1 Cor. 1:18; John 14:17; 1 Cor. 15:44; James 3:15
[1] David Dickson, An Exposition of All St. Paul’s Epistles Together with an Explanation of Those Other Epistles of the Apostles St. James, Peter, John & Jude, (London: R.I. for Francis Eglesfield .., 1659), 43.
