14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
V. 14 - “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God” - A natural man is someone (male or female) that rejects God’s will. (See: John 1:13) They refuse to hear, or understand (Matt 13:13-17; Zech. 7:11-13). The natural man does not listen, that is: obey God’s commands (Deut. 6:3). Their ways are not His ways (Isa. 55:8-9; Ezek. 18:29; Mal. 2:9). Their minds are hostile to God’s way of thinking (Rom. 8:7, 27, 12:2, 15:5).
“for they are foolishness to him” - The ‘they’ in this case are the spiritual things. The truths given to us by God, through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit will make no sense to person who will not listen to them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “There are people who are mentally agile but foolish, and people who are mentally slow but very far from foolish... The fact that the fool is often stubborn must not mislead us into thinking that he is independent. One feels in fact, when talking to him, that one is dealing, not with the man himself, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like, which have taken hold of him. He is under the spell, he is blinded, his very nature is being misused and exploited. Having thus become a passive instrument, the fool will be capability of any evil and be incapable of seeing it as evil... Folly can be overcome, but only by an act of liberation... The Bible’s words that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psa. 111:10) tell us that a person’s inward liberation to live a responsible life before God is the only real cure for folly.”
The natural man, the person without Christ in his life, will not understand the concepts of sin, forgiveness, heaven, hell, God, righteousness, etc. Why? These truths are spiritually understood.
V. 15 - “he who is spiritual appraises all things“ - The spiritual person can investigate actions and words to determine if these words or actions have value with respect to his Christian faith. Actually, everything can be evaluated. (Back the truck up - I do not mean the spiritual person can pass judgement on the Lord Jesus Christ, or His death and resurrection for our sin. That is way, way, way above our pay grade.) However, the things we are taught about our faith should always be compared to what the Bible teaches us.
This is not to be arrogant and lord it over people, especially non-believers. The Jews, after returning from Babylon, decided that God’s command to not inter-marry with the pagan nations around them was not strict enough, so decided to kick any non-Jew out of Judah, including wives and children. They would not buy food, etc., from Gentiles - that is, the “enemy”. They took the command against intermarriage and turned it into a matter of pride - they would not be like these heathen pagans, these dogs, human vermin. Instead of being a beacon showing the way to God, they became a barrier to prevent others from coming to God. We are not to be like that. Christ came and died for all - both Jews and Gentiles, alike. All are to be able to come to God through the Christ.
The natural man (our basic human condition) cannot understand or comprehend the worth and importance of spiritual concepts.
Because we have the Holy Spirit, given to us by God when we believe and accept Christ as Lord and Savior, spiritual concepts are understandable. We can judge and evaluate teachings and instruction, to decide if it is correct. I think there are concepts that we may know about, but not fully understand - our resurrection, our new bodies, when Christ will return, what happens when He returns (there are hints in the Bible, but that is as good as it gets).
The sentence indicating the spiritual man is appraised by no one indicates that this refers to a ‘natural man’ (unsaved) cannot possibly make value judgements about the spiritual man. I think this does not mean that if the spiritual man sins, the natural man will not notice the sin. The natural man cannot pass judgment, condemn him to eternal separation from the Lord.
Also, I think the ‘no one’ does not include the Lord. He appraises ALL THINGS. All power and authority is His because He died and was resurrected.
Additionally, the spiritual man can only be spiritual if controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. If we make value judgments using our own intellect and reasoning, we will be acting no different than the natural man. We must be led by Christ through the Holy Spirit.
“yet he himself is appraised by no one” - Again, this does NOT mean the spiritual man cannot be appraised by the Lord. All authority and power is vested in Jesus Christ. The non-Christian cannot decide whether another person is sufficiently righteous to be saved. A Christian cannot decide whether another person who claims to be saved is sufficiently righteous to actually be saved. We may observe that another is not living according to scriptural principles, but can make no other judgment. (You may wonder sometimes, but that is far as your 'authority' goes.)
V. 16 - “Who has known the mind of the Lord” - This is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:13-14. Which one of us is capable of teaching the Lord, of instructing Him in the correct way to go, of advising Him of the right or proper way of judging? Sometimes, secretly, we think we do know better. Fortunately, reason and reality arrives to wake us up.
A friend once compared us and God to ants and us. If we stand still and observe the ants at our feet, we note they pay no attention to us. We are beyond their comprehension. They are focused on their life and sustaining it. They will crawl over the toe of your boot, or around the heel to get on to where they are going. We are similar with respect to God. He is far, far above us spiritually and mentally; and we cannot comprehend Him on our own.
“We have the mind of Christ” - However, when Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, we have the Holy Spirit, and He will place the necessary understanding in our mind and thoughts when needed. Christ is not an ancillary add-on to our lives. He is not a “new coat of paint” added to cover blemishes. He is not “part of our lives” - Jesus IS our life.
Note 1: I think that verses 2:6-16 probably should be treated as one long paragraph, but that generates a very very long study section. So I divided it into three sections: verses 6-9, verses 10-13, and verses 14-16.
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End of Chapter
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