So Steaver........spot on as in...... the Spirit is given to enable a person to welcome Divine truth?
Explain it Steaver.....you wanted me to explain what I believe.....anyone can say...spot on...what does the passage say?
Also.....speak to me if you could.....leave SBM and his false ideas to your conversation with him .
ok.....now open up that 1 cor passage......what does the Spirit enable believers to do.....go ahead Steaver...you can declare it........
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
--"We speak" Paul is using "we" as inclusive as he being one of the apostles. This is a carnal church. It is: "we", the apostles," ...
"perfect" telios, means complete or mature. Who is complete or mature?
It is the apostles. They are the mature, though there may be others as well.
The apostles speak the wisdom of Christ, the wisdom that is from above and teach that wisdom to the saints at Corinth.
Paul distinguishes his wisdom from the world's wisdom, from those that are false teachers in the church. Theirs will "come to nought."
The gospel is not a mystery. The word mystery means "hidden." The gospel was "hidden" to them before the cross. It is not a mystery any longer. It is not hidden. It is something Paul preaches daily. It was hidden to them that crucified our Lord. They didn't understand it. It is hidden to those that reject it.
Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the unsaved false teachers to the wisdom of the apostles or mature Christians. (worldly vs. spiritual).
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.
--Paul refers to the senses of our body in referring to the glory to come.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
--How can a man know of things he has not seen, cannot hear, cannot comprehend? The unsaved man cannot understand these things, at least not in the way that a saved man. All men know how "the heavens declare the glory of God."
But there is a deeper wisdom that Paul is speaking of, the very wisdom of God: neither unsaved nor carnal Christian speaks of Godly wisdom. Remember that Paul is speaking of "us" the apostles being "perfect" or "mature." Mature Christians can impart their wisdom to carnal Christians.
In our day and age how is a mature Christian taught.
He learns the "deep things of God," as he studies the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit teaches him. Verse 10 and 11 speak about illumination. He illuminates our hearts. Note carefully here it speaks of the
deep things of God.
It is evident that an unsaved person can pick up a tract or even a gospel or Bible, etc., and comprehend the gospel. The gospel is not "the deep things of God." That is not the message or teaching here.
Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the apostles compared to the wisdom of the false teachers (who very well knew what the gospel was, but no doubt had poisoned it with the law or works).
1Co 2:11 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.
--We cannot know the things of God apart from the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that illuminates our hearts; opens up the truths of the Word to us.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
--Here is the contrast again. The world vs. the spiritual.
But we have the Holy Spirit that we might know the things that are freely given to us--which is the Word of God.
Again this refers to the deeper things of God. This is not the gospel. These verses should not be taken out of context to mean that a person cannot be saved without regeneration first. An unsaved person can pick up a tract and be saved through it. Hudson Taylor did.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
--This is what Paul does. He takes the Word of God and the truths that the Holy Spirit has opened to him, and teaches them.
"comparing spiritual...with spiritual" Let me quote Clarke on this:
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual - This is commonly understood to mean, comparing the spiritual things under the Old Testament with the spiritual things under the New: but this does not appear to be the apostle’s meaning. The word συγκρινοντες, which we translate comparing, rather signifies conferring, discussing, or explaining; and the word πνευματικοις should be rendered to spiritual men, and not be referred to spiritual things. The passage therefore should be thus translated: Explaining spiritual things to spiritual persons. And this sense the following verse absolutely requires.
1Co 2:14 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.
--The natural man: natural, unspiritual, sensual, etc.
It does not have to refer to unsaved, but rather one who is not spiritual, and that is what the Corinthians were--unspiritual and carnal Christians.
--They had received the gospel.
But they could not receive the deeper things of God. That is exactly what Paul taught.
1Co 3:1 And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have
fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions,
are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
--Paul addresses them as "brothers in Christ," i.e. "brethren."
And yet they are Carnal Christians. They are carnal because they are not spiritual. He has taught them the gospel and other elementary principles but they have refused to go on further. They should be able to take meat--the deeper things of God--but they are carnal and the Spirit of God is unable to teach them the deeper things of God. They fit into the category of 2:14--the "natural man," because they aren't spiritual. They are carnal. They are natural. They are the opposite of those "desiring the spiritual."
In opposition to the Corinthian carnal Christians, Paul says:
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
He that is spiritual judges all things.
We have the mind of Christ.
--These truths stuck out in stark contrast to the spiritual condition of the average Corinthian Christian. They certainly did not have the mind of Christ and were in no place to judge anyone of spiritual matters.
