The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
—1 Corinthians 2:15-16.
1 Corinthians 2:15 in the Living Bible reads, “But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all.”
The spiritual man that Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:15 is the opposite of the natural man that he referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:14. The natural man can’t understand the things of God because they must be spiritually discerned. The spiritual man is someone who is not ruled by his emotions and natural feelings and thoughts. He is filled and led by the Spirit of God.
The word “judgment” (used in 1 Corinthians 2:15, NKJV) is the ability to analyze and discern people and situations. Paul basically said that a spiritual person is someone who is led by the wisdom of God and is competent to judge people and situations correctly.
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11, NKJV).
In this verse and also in 1 Corinthians 12:16, Paul explained that no one understands the way God thinks except the Holy Spirit and those whom He teaches. A person who doesn’t know Christ doesn’t have the Spirit within him. So he cannot judge a person who is led and governed by the Spirit of God.
“For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16, NKJV).
We have all of God’s wisdom—not just a little portion. Some people can’t grasp this because they know they aren’t perfect. Their natural minds and natural thoughts and natural abilities fall short of the glory of God. They make mistakes—have human emotions and feelings—therefore, they believe they could never have the mind of Christ.
Our natural minds are limited and certainly don’t know everything. But in our born-again spirit, we are a completely new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is where we have the mind of Christ. Our spirits have been totally reborn by the Holy Spirit into the image of God (Colossians 3:10). Because we have been reborn in our spirits by the Holy Spirit, we have received God’s power to understand all things (1 John 2:20). The spiritual part of us has received the mind of Christ while our natural minds have to be renewed to understand what we have received.
Since we are new creations in Christ and created in the image of God (Colossians 3:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17), we have been reborn in God’s perfect wisdom. But the knowledge we have received in our spirits needs to impact our natural minds—the way we think, our emotions, and our actions. That is why the renewing of our natural mind is so important (Romans 12:2). It is not our spirits that teach us. It is the Holy Spirit who trains our natural mind to let the perfect wisdom of Christ take precedence over our natural thinking. We choose to “put on” the new nature that was created in the image of God (Colossians 3:10, Ephesians 4:24).
The Word of God is Spirit, and it is life (John 6:63). God is the Word, and He lives within us (John 1:1). The Holy Spirit renews our natural mind with His Word. As we study the Word with the revelation knowledge of the Holy Spirit, our natural mind is molded and conformed to the mind of Christ.
“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4, NKJV).
Don’t we wish more than anything else to understand what we have received from God—to understand the very things that empower us to live the righteousness Christ has given us?
“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” Paul declared! “Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24, NKJV).
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Walk by faith and not by sight. You have the mind of Christ.
© 2021 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2021/07/the-mind-of-christ.html
No comments:
Post a Comment