Imatges de pàgina
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14 But the natural man receiveth not the the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto

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things of Matt. xvi. 23.

y ch. i. 18, 23.

have been supposed to attach to this verse: first, from some uncertainty attaching to the meaning of the word comparing (σvykρívovтes), of which Bishop Ellicott gives three renderings-combining, comparing, explaining: and secondly, from uncertainty as to whether the last word translated "spiritual" is masculine or neuter, and so whether it means explaining spiritual things by spiritual things, or explaining spiritual things to spiritual men; the last seems to agree best with the next verse.

But various passages in the Epistle itself seem to direct us to the true meaning, which is "explaining spiritual things by spiritual," which in point of fact amounts to the same as that indicated in our Authorized, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, for we compare in order to explain. I think that St. Paul means we bring down spiritual things, as far as we are able, to the level of human apprehension, by the teaching of that which is most spiritual in the Old Testament-the teaching of the types. All through his Epistles St. Paul illustrates the New Testament truths by the significance of Old Testament types. Thus Christ our Passover in ch. v. 7, 8, and Christ our manna and spiritual drink in ch. x. 3, 4; and Isaac and Ishmael, and Hagar and Sarah as typical of the two Jerusalems in Gal. iv.

14. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," &c. The natural man is the psychical man, yuxikòs, the man under no higher influence than his animal soul, though that soul may have its intellectual or rational, as well as its sensual side. The spiritual man is the man in whom the spirit, his noblest part, does not lie buried under the weight of the animal, or merely mental or intellectual, but is alive to God, and takes in the things of God. We must remember that St. Paul, as we learn from 1 Thessal. v. 23, considers man to be of a tripartite nature:-1. The body; 2. The soul, which is intermediate between the body and the spirit, and has its animal side which looks to the boly, and its intellectual or even moral side, which looks to the spirit; and 3. The spirit, the πvɛõμa, which is that in him which looks to God, and is that part which the Spirit regenerates, and into which He infuses the knowledge of God, and of spiritual and eternal things. So that, according to St. Paul, a philosopher may reason deeply

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SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED.

[I. COR.

him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually Rom. viii. 5, discerned. 6, 7. Jude 19.

respecting intellectual and even ethical truths, and yet be vxikòs, natural, since all may minister to his pride; as the Apostle says in Colos. ii. 18, he may be "vainly puffed up with his fleshly mind," and so with all his intellect he may be no nearer to God; but when, through the power of the Spirit of God, the true functions of his highest part, his spirit, are revived or regenerated, then he begins to apprehend God and the things of the Spirit of God.

Now the question arises, is the psychical or natural man here the unconverted individual person, and the spiritual man (he that is spiritual) of the next verse, the spiritual or enlightened person? I think not, and for this reason, the terms natural or psychical, and spiritual man, are used in the sense of the old man and the new man of Ephes. iv. 22, 24. The man, natural or spiritual, signifies the Adam, or, as we say, the spiritual principle which is in each man. None are perfectly spiritual, as we learn from Rom. vii., and many whom from their conduct or opinions we should pronounce only natural, show some spiritual perceptions. Again, we cannot infallibly pronounce respecting the good and virtuous heathen (Rom. ii. 14, 15), that they have no pneuma, and whether that pneuma may not be in some degree acted upon for good by "the law written on their hearts" by "the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Again I trust I shall be forgiven in what I say, but I firmly believe that when an Evangelical commentator asserts that there is no such thing as a mystery in the ordinary sense of the word in the New Testament, he makes that assertion at the inspiration of the natural or psychical man remaining within him, and not of the spiritual. For the first action of Christ through the Spirit on the human spirit is to humble it, and so put it in possession of the three first blessings wherewith He blesses His people.

What, then, the Apostle means is that the natural man-the psychical principle within each of us-does not apprehend the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. He has not the organ by which they are apprehended, or if he has such an organ, i.e., the pneuma, it is in a dormant state: the Incarnation, the Atoning Death, the lifeimparting Resurrection, the perpetual Intercession, the truths of the Mystical Body, the resurrection of the spiritual body, the true

CHAP. II.]

a

JUDGED OF NO MAN.

a

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15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, Prov. xxviii. yet he himself is judged of no man.

5. 1 Thess. v. 21. 1 John iv. 1.

Or, discerneth.

Or, discerned.

discerning of the Sacramental Body, are foolishness unto him. He may acquiesce in them, or not deny them, because they may be a part of the Creed or body of divine truth of the Church to which he belongs, but he does not see them. He cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned-till the Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to him, he cannot realize their amazing significance.

15. “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." Judgeth ought perhaps to be rendered "discerneth." Judging in our language implies that we are superior, or for the moment take a superior position, to the things which we judge. The word is the same as that in the last verse, "they are spiritually discerned."

"He that is spiritual judgeth (or discerneth) all things." The spiritual man discerneth all things, even the deep things of God. His enlightened and strengthened spirit cannot altogether apprehend them, or compass them. They are to him as some vast object in some deep unfathomable abyss. He discerns that it is there. He discerns that side which is presented to him, but he cannot compass it or take the measure of it.

"All things." In this must be included human and worldly things. The spiritual man estimates at their right value the things of time and sense, the characters of men so far as one can do who cannot read the hearts, the relations of men to God, to Christ, and to one another. When any worldly scheme or political change is proposed, he instantly regards it in its relations to the Kingdom of God.

This means, of course,

"Yet he himself is judged of no man." that the spiritual man-the new Adam within him—is judged by no unspiritual man. "The spiritual man has a new faculty by which he judges all, but cannot be judged by any who have it not. He understands the language in which other men speak, but they understand not the language in which he speaks." This, of course, applies not to the individual spiritual person, who partakes of the mixed character which there is in the best, but to the spiritual man or Adam in each. If the spiritual or enlightened person commits sin, or falls from grace, or acts contrary to what even the

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b Job xv. 8.
Is. xl. 13.
Jer. xxiii. 18.
Rom. xi. 34.
† Gr. shall.

c John xv. 15.

WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.

b

[I. COR.

16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

16. "Of Christ." So N, A., C., E., L., P., most Cursives, d, e, Vulg., Syriac, Copt., Arm.; but B., D., F., G., f, g, r, read "of the Lord."

world acknowledges to be the highest principles of Christianity, then the worldly, unspiritual man rightly judges and condemns him. Principal Edwards writes upon this :- "The judgment of the spiritual man is at once the widest and the highest. All things are subject to it, from it there is no appeal. It is unhesitating, authoritative, absolute, final." Now, however this may be true of the spiritual man—that is, the new Adam in each-it is not true of any particular spiritual person, for this reason, that those who from their language we should account the most highly spiritual people, constantly differ from one another. Again, it is exceedingly seldom that a spiritual man takes in the whole circle of spiritual knowledge. He has constantly a habit of discerning some truths, and shutting his spiritual eye to others. The will, in fact, constantly makes itself felt in the domain of the spirit. So that we have always need to adopt for ourselves the words of the Apostle, "I pray God that my whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. v. 23).

16. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?" &c. This is a remarkable assertion of the Divine sphere of knowledge into which the spiritual man has been uplifted. Who can instruct God? and God through the Spirit has made known to us His mind, and we through the Spirit dwelling in us have the mind of Christ or of the Lord, meaning Christ; so that so far as the things of God are concerned, who can judge us? who can even instruct us? who can impart to us truth which we have not in and through Christ?

The " we,” however, is emphatic and must be applied only to St. Paul, and those who, like him (as the Apostles), have plenary divine knowledge of all things which the Church needs to know. Godet observes well, "In the nμɛis, we, there is a well-marked contrast to the vμaïs, you, of iii. 1-3. It is obvious how profoundly, in virtue of the revelation he has received, the Apostle distinguishes himself from the Church.”

"We have the mind of Christ," i.e., upon all things which it is necessary for the Church to be instructed in.

CHAP. III.]

BABES IN CHRIST.

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CHAP. III.

b

a ch. ii, 15.

ND I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto * spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

d

b ch. ii. 14.

• Heb. v. 13.

2 I have fed you with milk, and not with d Heb. v. 12,

13. 1 Pet. ii. 2.

1. "As unto carnal." N, A., B., C., D., 17, 67**, 71, read, rapxívois, fleshy; E., F., G., L, P., and most Cursives read, rapxíxoç, fleshly, i. e. sensual.

1. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." This means that though he did not speak unto them as unto those wholly unregenerate, for such could not be even babes in Christif they were babes in Christ they must have been brought into Him-but he spoke to them as those in whom the spiritual man was as yet scarcely at all developed; and so they were carnal, that is, the lower nature yet predominated in them.

"Carnal." The word is, according to the amended texts, founded on what are supposed to be the best manuscripts, σapkivois, and is translated fleshy, whilst the word in the Rec. Text is σapкíkos, translated fleshly. In the former the idea of nature (flesh) is supposed to predominate-in the latter, character. St. Paul, however, evidently means to assert that there was something wrong in them which hindered their spiritual growth from infancy to manhood in Christ, and so he was only able to speak to them as to infants in grace, and not as to grown men.

2. "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were," &c. What is this "milk " and what the "meat"? The question is more difficult than many suppose. Milk, according to Godet, "denotes the preaching of Christ crucified, with its simplest contents, and its most immediate consequences, expiation, justification by faith, the sanctification of the justified believer by the Holy Spirit," but surely the dullest Corinthian Christian must have asked, How could the Crucifixion of an unknown Jew make expiation for all sin? how could belief in such an One justify? It is quite clear that St. Paul must have preached to them how it was

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