Adrian Rogers describes the natural man -
He does not have the equipment. You cannot smell music. Your nose may be working very well, but it cannot smell music. It is the spirit and not the soul that receives spiritual knowledge. With your soul you may know about God, but you cannot know God. One may know all about bread and starve to death. Knowledge is learned, but wisdom is given. Knowledge comes by looking around, but wisdom comes by looking up. Knowledge comes by study, but wisdom comes by revelation (and illumination). Knowledge comes to the soul, but wisdom comes to the spirit.
Roy Zuck - Only the saved are able to welcome God's truth.
When Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that "the man without the Spirit ("psuchikos" = soulish, unsaved man") does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, "he did not mean that an unsaved person is totally incapable of comprehending any of the grammatical data of the Bible. Rather, Paul meant that a non-Christian does not welcome its truth! The Greek word translated "accept" (dechomai) means "welcome." If "receive" were intended, a different Greek word (lambano) would have been used. The verse does not mean that an unsaved person, who is devoid of the Holy Spirit, cannot understand mentally what the Bible is saying; instead it means that he does not welcome its message of redemption to his own heart. [Daniel F. Fuller, "Do We Need the Holy Spirit to Understand the Bible"? Eternity, January 1959, p. 22.] He rejects the message, refusing to appropriate it and act on it. By contrast, people in Berea "received (dechoma) the message with great eagerness" (
Acts 17:11), and the Thessalonians "received (dechomai) the Word… with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (
1Th 1:6). The statement in
1 Corinthians 2:14 that the things of the Spirit of God are "foolishness" to an unbeliever would indicate that he has some understanding of what the Bible says. Otherwise, if nothing were communicated to him, how could he judge such a communication to be foolish? He could not call something foolishness unless he had some cognitive awareness of it. (
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Hermeneutics)
Vance Havner - The wise Christian wastes no time trying to explain God’s program to unregenerate men; it would be casting pearls before swine.
He might as well try to describe a sunset to a blind man or discuss nuclear physics with a monument in the city park. The natural man cannot receive such things. One might as well try to catch sunbeams with a fishhook as to lay hold of God’s revelation unassisted by the Holy Spirit. Unless one is born of the Spirit and taught by Him, all this is utterly foreign to him. Being a Ph. D. does not help, for in this realm it could mean ‘Phenomenal Dud!’
Illustration of foolishness - Several years ago, there was a massive volcanic explosion in the state of Washington when Mount St. Helens erupted. Sheriff Bill Closner said, “People were in the danger areas around the mountain because they refused to obey roadblocks. The bottom line is that nobody would listen.” As a result, there were needless deaths and injuries. Even though danger was physically imminent, people still refused to obey the regulations. Sin or disobedience always has consequences. If people refused to listen in the midst of dangerous circumstances like the Mount St. Helens eruption, we should not be so shocked at the depravity and stubbornness of men in spiritual matters. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively, Green, Michael P)
A T Robertson on he cannot understand them - He is not able to get a (an experiential) knowledge (ingressive second aorist active infinitive of ginosko). His helpless condition calls for pity in place of impatience on our part, though such a one usually poses as a paragon of wisdom and commiserates the deluded followers of Christ.
Can (not = absolute negation!) (
1410)(
dunamai) conveys the basic meaning of that which has the inherent ability to do something or accomplish some end. Thus dunamai means to be able to, to be capable of, to be strong enough to do or to have power to do something. It is usually translated able (50x), can (61x and cannot 58x) or could. BDAG says that dunamai means "to possess capability (whether because of personal or external factors) for experiencing or doing something."
Cannot understand - More literally "cannot know (
ginosko)" --
Paul's point is not the unregenerate or unsaved man cannot read the Word and in some sense cognitively apprehend it, but that he cannot know the Word in an experiential sense. I think for example of
Psalm 19:8 where David writes "The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart." Believers can experience joy in their heart, that a natural man simply does not know! As an aside, how thankful we should be that God's Spirit taking God's Word can produce joy in our innermost being!(cp
1Th 1:6,
Gal 5:22-23,
Ro 14:17,
15:13,
Acts 13:52) We are the most blessed of all people!
Roy Zuck adds that "
An unbeliever does not know God's truth experientially. He may grasp portions of it mentally, but he does not discern it spiritually nor experience it personally. Virkler summarizes this point well when he writes: 'Thus unbelievers do not know the full meaning of scriptural teaching, not because that meaning is unavailable to them in the words of the text, but because they refuse to act on and appropriate spiritual truths for their own lives. Furthermore, the psychological results of such refusal make them less and less able (and willing) to comprehend these truths.'" [Henry A. Virkler, Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation ] (
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Hermeneutics)
