1 Corinthians 2:15

1Co_2:15-16

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

The spiritual man

I. His character.

1. Enlightened.

2. Born of God.

3. Endued with the Spirit.

II. His privileges.

1. He judges all things.

2. Is exalted above the judgment of others.

III. The source and security of his happiness.

1. Not natural.

2. But Divine. He has the mind of Christ. (J. Lyth D. D.)

The spiritual man

I. His condition. Spiritual.

II. His discernment.

1. Wherein it consists.

2. To what it extends.

III. His immunity from the judgment of others; because natural men--

1. Cannot appreciate Divine things.

2. Are incompetent to form a correct judgment upon them. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The spiritual man

I. His power to judge--

1. Arises out of an enlightened understanding.

2. Extends to all matters affecting his religious well-being.

3. And if not infallible, is guarded by the disposition to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.

4. Hence he is preserved from all serious error.

II. His immunity from judgment. He can despise the judgment of worldly men because they have no spiritual apprehension and their decisions are worthless, being over-ruled by the testimony of the Spirit within him. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Authority in matters of religion

The religious or spiritual man, then, is characterised not by taking his religion from other men, not by living on a decision formed by others, but by a personal, private judgment of his own. Religious truth, like other truth, nay, much more than other truth, is a personal conviction, and not merely a conviction, but a judgment, part of mans own rational being--the very life of his rational being--that in which he looks out upon and judges of men and things, when he is most conscious of exercising his own faculties. Nay, more than this, he holds this truth, not merely on his personal private judgment, but with a certain strenuous insistence upon its independence in the face of other men, even within the Christian society.

1. What is the antithesis to this tenure in conscious, personal, and rational judgment of religious truth? It cannot be what is impossible that we should hold a body of truth on the external authority of the Church, while it does not commend itself to our own deliberate judgment. We cannot disbelieve a thing in our own mind and accept it on an authority external to us. The most that is possible is that a man should take a body of truth as summarised in Church formulas, and without letting his mind work upon it at all, simply passively accept it, and externally laud it and conform to it. And no man can for a moment suppose that such an attitude towards religious truth is the attitude of the Christian. No religious truth, then, is held rightly as a spiritual man should hold it, which is held as a mere external dogma positively accepted. It is held only then in a way worthy of our personal responsibility when it is held with active personal apprehension, as that which is an indelible and irrefutable part of our own deliberate conviction, in the light of all the facts of experience.

2. But it is only in our shallowest moments that we shall suppose this repudiation of absolute and unconditional authority, which leaves room for an exercise of our judgment, to involve in any sense the repudiation of authority at all, or the denial that truth should be held finally on mere external authority, to involve the rejection of external authority from its proper place in the formation of our mind. Indeed, those portions of the truth which do not come under the verification of our own faculties, must permanently be held on external authority, but the authority itself must then come under verification. In no part of our life do we live so much by authority and legitimately in its own sphere as in scientific matters. I accept, for example, with no hesitation, a body of truths in physics which are considered well established, the evidence for which I not only could not produce myself, but though I believe it exists, I am, through want of sufficient training and capacity in mathematics, incapable even of understanding and appreciating. But I accept the results because on other grounds where scientific reliability is put to a test intelligible to the uninitiated, I am able to verify it, The verifications general and particular open to ordinary men appear to be quite as valid of their kind in the sphere of religion as in the sphere of science. But in religion, as in science, the authority verified in general must cover particulars beyond the scope of our personal verification. It is, for example, only reason to take on the authority of Christ truths about the future which cannot come under our present cognisance, if we have reason to believe that they come under His. But the true relation of authority and private judgment, in matters of religion, appears more clearly on a more cognate subject, the subject of morals. In morals there is a commonly recognised standard from which a man could not differ without being looked upon with almost universal suspicion--say, on the subject of personal purity and truthfulness. We hold up before each generation as it rises this authoritative standard, this norma of moral truth. We do not tell a man as he grows up not to think on moral subjects, not to exercise his own private judgment, but we do tell him that if he exercises it in every way aright he will arrive at an agreement with the authoritative norma, though the norma is a very old one, which has not materially varied since Christianity first illuminated the moral conscience of mankind, and though on non-theological ground, the basis of this moral dogma is not easily formed and stated--and if a man comes to a conclusion on morals counter to the established dogmas of purity and truth, we condemn him, not for having exercised his private judgment, but for having exercised it wrongly, conformity to the highest standard of mankind on a particular subject being taken as the test of right thinking on that subject. Indeed, unless we are prepared to identify self-will with the exercise of will, and license with liberty, and eccentricity with strength of character, we have no justification at all for putting private judgment as a contradiction to orthodoxy. The place of authority, then, is primarily and mainly in helping us to form our own judgment, We ought to bring our thoughts and feelings, our desires, into the light of the established and recognised authority, which may provisionally, and in the light of common experience, be regarded as expressing the collective wisdom, and setting the standard on the subject, whether of taste, knowledge, or religion. Our judgment ought not to be formed in an isolated, individualistic manner. It is out of committing ourselves to authority that right reason normally and naturally grows. Behind holy teachers, behind our mothers influence, there should be the great mother, the mother of us all. To receive in the Church of Christ in earliest years--in education, at the time of our confirmation--a body of truth, a system of practice emphasising and embodying holiness of life, to receive it on her loving authority, and to grow up, as our faculty develops, into the intellectual recognition of her truths and practices on our own judgment--this is the moral growth of man.

3. The general principle of authority admits of a great variety of applications in matters of religion. Let us apply it to one particular state of mind. There is a very widely spread fear of committing oneself in matters of religion. A man is often deeply impressed with the need of religion. He has little doubt that the Christian life is what he wants, and to his practical judgment it appears reasonably clear that the Christian life is indissolubly bound up with the Christian motives, and that Christian motives derive their only force from positive and supernatural facts. Why, indeed, should anybody deem that the life can be severed from the truth which has moulded the life? Christian holiness has reigned supreme and final in the world of morals since its origin. And it has come down indissolubly bound up with its environment of doctrines, sacraments, ministries in the Christian society. In the strength, more or less, of these thoughts, there is many and many a man who feels the attraction of the Christian Church: its appeal. It seems the true home of what is best in him and those about him. But it is so much to commit oneself to--is it all true?--Crede ut intelligas is the Churchs reply. The understanding of spiritual things can result only from experience, and experience involves faith as its basis. If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine. This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. The self-committal of faith must precede and be the basis of the satisfaction of the intellect. Well, is this unreasonable? Does it not appear on a little reflection that taking things on trust does in every department of life precede verification? The pure Pyrrhonist who professes to regard certainty about anything as unreasonable is the only person in theory who rejects the ultimate basis of faith. In the commonest knowledge of external nature is involved the taking on trust an objective reality which corresponds to the imitations of sensation. It was pointed out, Mr. Spencer says, when treating of the data of philosophy, that we cannot take even a first step (in knowledge)without making assumptions, and that the only course is to proceed with them as provisional, until they are proved true by the congruity of all the results reached. Apply this principle to the sphere of religion, where its application is more complete, and it gives just what we want, the crede ut intelligas. And do we suppose that we are in danger of really dwarfing our capacities for originality, our faculties of criticism, by such temporary suppression of them? On the contrary, is not the principle which Hegel used to inculcate in regard to education profoundly true--that we empoverish and reduce our faculties by a premature exercise of criticism, judgment, originality? Will, not intellect, is the basis of life. Self-conscious intellect belongs to the second stage, not the first. Faith is as legitimate a faculty of man as intelligence. It has its special exercise in realising mans moral and spiritual being. Why should we be ashamed of it? Why should it be apologised for? Thou shalt understand, but thou must first believe.

4. The scheme of Christian truth coheres. To a Christian believer who has advanced to any measure of understanding the whole is one and indissoluble. He recognises that it would be unreasonable to pick and choose; he recognises the coherence of the same sort of means by which we recognise the similar connection, far beyond our personal knowledge, in the department of science. Thus he abides under the shelter of the whole creed. He takes it on trust as a whole. The Christian Church seems to his spiritual faculties eminently trustworthy. He waits while the Spirit leads him into all the truth. That is, he waits while in the growing experience of life, in the vicissitudes of failure and success, of joy and suffering, of growth and manhood, point by point, the truth becomes realised to his experience and his understanding. What was obscure is cleared up. What might have seemed at one time unnecessary is seen to have been wanted. If anything remains yet outside the sphere of his own personal verification, the processes of his past life warrant him in believing that the future will give it its place. There comes to hand--at this moment in a recent biography--a beautiful instance of the way in which one who stood wholly outside the Christian creed, and, as far as can be judged, by little or no fault of her own, came gradually within the bosom of the Church of Christ, and knew her Lord. Ellen Watson was a brilliant mathematician. When at the age of twenty she was a pupil of Professor Clifford, at University College, in London, and loved with the deepest respect and affection to speak of him as the Master, he in his turn had a high admiration of her abilities, believing, as we are told, that she possessed the rare faculty for doing original work in his science; indeed, he even looked forward to her becoming known some day as a discoverer or originator in mathematics. Her position in regard to religion at that time is thus described: The one absorbing passion of her mind was the love of positive truth, and this love was guarded by an almost severe morality of the intellect, which made her fear, above all things, every kind of illusion and self-deception. She dreaded, as an intellectual sin, the giving to a wish or a hope or a dream of the imagination the subject and influence of a conviction. Mathematics, by its strictly logical conclusions, and natural science, by its severe experimental tests, commended themselves to her high intellectual integrity as the greatest and best of all teaching, while at the same time they best satisfied the craving for positive truth which filled her soul, so that she delighted in resting on their conclusions as on an immovable basis. I do not need religion, she often said at that time; science thoroughly satisfies me. For, judged only as to the satisfaction afforded to the reason, religion appeared, by the side of positive science, as a collection of dim, uncertain facts mixed with conceptions of the imagination. The certainty of science gave peace to her intellectual conscience; all else seemed misty--delusive. Within five years she died at Grahamstown, but with words very different on her lips, the words of triumphant faith and praise which make up the Churchs Gloria in excelsis, and with the Churchs viaticum for her journey into the unseen world. The biography is mainly an account of the converson of her mind. It was a progress without a break. She lost nothing she had ever had. No part of her hold on scientific truth, her trust in scientific method, ever vanished. She did but, as she described it, gradually wake up in a larger world and found that the spiritual truths which she held by faith, though reached, it is true, by a different process, were still the crowning knowledge of all that she had won before, perfecting and completing what was otherwise rudimentary and broken. The premature death of her master, Clifford, and the discipline of sorrow and suffering, rudely shattered the completeness which she had at first assigned to the life in the mere visible world. The imparious exigencies of an awakened spirit forced her into the sphere of spiritual and supernatural facts. The recognition of the Divine Fatherhood came slowly but surely upon the mind. Through Divine Fatherhood came the belief in the Divine Sonship manifested in Christ, and while she was yet far off any clear grasp of the accuracies of the Christian faith, the Christian Church presented itself to her as embodying the truth, and satisfying mans obvious need for order, for spiritual shelter, for unity. She had none of that intellectual vanity which keeps clever people from confessing themselves wrong; none of that pride which makes us preserve our isolation. She desired to have perfect fellowship with the common Christian life. She accepted the Church in practice. She presented herself for confirmation. She sought and found in South Africa the fellowship of the saints in the Church. Authority presented itself to her, and was accepted by her just in the shape of something which embodied what her soul wanted. She recognised the truth, so hard to the natural will, that we must surrender ourselves, merge ourselves, if we are to find our true selves. (C. Gore, M. A.)

Spiritual judgment

The epithet pneumatikos as applied to believers is significant and comprehensive. It does not mean rational as opposed to sensual. It is the indwelling of the Spirit that gives character to the believer. The Spirit has an illuminating power, so that new discernment is imparted to the soul. This does not arise from light shed on the object, but from the effect produced on the mind. Its faculty of vision is restored; its eyes are opened. Before it was blind--not rationally so as not to perceive truth in its logical relations, nor morally so as to be insensible to moral distinctions, but spiritually so that it cannot discern the things of the Spirit. The case of the Jews in their judgment concerning Christ is an example. They saw that He was a wise man, that He was just, benevolent, and kind. They understood His words, but had no such discernment of His character as enabled them to see the glory of God as it shone in Him. The effect, therefore, produced in the mind is the ability to discern the things of the Spirit. Hence--

I. There is a coincidence of judgment between the believer and God. What God declares to be true the believer sees to be true. He acquiesces in the judgment of God as to sin, the method of salvation, the person of Christ, the doctrines of grace, the reality and importance of eternal things. So in his judgments of men. Those whom God approves the believer approves. This is the ground--

1. Of the unity of faith among believers.

2. Of the unity of fellowship; so that all Christians recognise each other.

3. Of the authority of the Church, and of the only legitimate authority of tradition.

4. Why schism is a sin.

II. There is also a coincidence of feeling, i.e., the spiritual love what and whom God loves, and hate what and whom God hates. The friends of God are their friends. This is the reason why they have a common experience, and why they love each other as brethren.

III. There is a conformity in the life of the believer with the will of God. He does what is in accordance with the mind of the Spirit. This is the ground of the community of worship. They all walk by the same rule and worship the same God and Saviour.

IV. All relievers are united so as to form one body. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

Spiritual judgment

its range.

I. He that is spiritual judgeth all things.

1. It is not said that he judges all men, or any man; he has his opinion as to their views; but in regard to their persons, to their own Master they stand or fall. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Spiritual judgment, then, has to do not with persons, but with things. Still, does it absolutely judge all things? It is clear that it will not make a man acquainted with the truths of science, or the facts of history, or the details of business. Many a great statesman has had very little spiritual judgment. It will not make a man a skilful Biblical critic, nor a profound theologian.

2. Paul speaks of those things which come within the sphere of the spiritual nature. The Spirit of God reveals to the soul a world which lies both within the present and outside it. It is in a hidden chamber whose existence we dimly felt, but which Gods Spirit makes known to us; and this chamber has in it a window which looks out on a new and infinite universe. We do not know ourselves, our fall and possible rise, our sin and salvation, until we are taken in there. This world may seem to those who have not been in it a narrow and poor and almost non-existent thing. But to those who have lived in it, it grows in certainty as its life grows, and it deepens and expands and rises, until it penetrates and comprehends the natural world on every side.

II. Its independence--he himself is judged of no one.

1. This does not mean that the spiritual man is beyond the judgment of others when he has contravened human law. Nor is he exempt from judgment in his spiritual life. He can never be freed from the judgment of God, and his fellow-Christians may have it in their power to instruct and correct his judgment. And then, again, any man of the world can judge a Christian mans conduct, so far as it comes before the outward eye; he can approve it or he can condemn it, and he has a right to do so.

2. What, then, is meant by he is judged of no man?

(1) The apostle is speaking of an inward, spiritual region into which the Christian man has been introduced by Gods Spirit, and of the judgments which natural men, who have no experience of it, may form of it, and of him as he lives in it.

(2) Perhaps the best way of illustrating this is to take Paul himself, and see how he had a whole world within him removed from the judgment of natural men around. Take

(a) the great truth of salvation by grace without the works of the law. It was looked on by many then and since as an immoral doctrine. But they could not understand that in receiving this free grace there is a new nature received, the motions of which are always saying, How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

(b) Neither could he be judged as to the way his new life was supported. Men saw the persecutions, &c., to which he was exposed. The world could not understand how the spirit in him was sustained, and rose up in fresh flames of consuming zeal.

(c) The mere natural man could not understand the happiness of his life. Let us only think of this chain which begins with hope and ends with it, like two golden nails fixed to the gate of heaven, while the links hang down into all the trials of life, which are touched and turned to gold by their Divine fastenings (Rom_5:2-5). Now this was not peculiar to the apostle. The experience of most Christian men will fall very far short of that of the apostle, but it is the same in kind; and they have a right to set this inner world, in which their spirit is living and moving, against all the arguments which the outer can advance.

III. Its guidance and tests.

1. It must never separate itself from its source--Gods Spirit acting through Gods Word. The spiritual judgment, if it is to be sound, can never be cut off from this fountainhead. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, &c. But in order to this there are two things to be observed.

(1) We must not form our judgment on single texts, but on the breadth of Scripture--the letter may kill, the spirit gives life; and I know no better way of reaching the breadth of Scripture than by carrying it up in its final issue to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many things that are doubtful become simple when we ask, What would the example and spirit of Christ lead us in this case to say and do?

(2) We must ask the guidance of the Spirit which gave the Word, and which kindled any light in us that we may possess. To ask the Author of the book to explain it is the true way of being guided aright (Psa_25:6).

2. After this guidance from the Source, there is that which we may receive from the new nature formed within, and from the growth of it in obedience to Gods will. (J. Ker, D. D.)

The spiritual man unknown to the world

We have here--

I. A spiritual character. The natural man is man in his unregenerate state, under the power and influence of those principles and affections which are natural; the spiritual man is man renewed by the Spirit of God.

1. Spiritual men have--

(1) Spiritual appetites: they hunger and thirst after righteousness.

(2) Spiritual senses, which are exercised to discern good and evil; spiritual eyes--they can see Him on His throne; spiritual ears--they can hear His voice.

(3) Spiritual lips--they show forth His praise.

(4) A spiritual taste--and therefore they can savour the things of God.

2. Let us particularise, and lay down a few tests by which the spiritual may be known. As regards--

(1) The thoughts. They cluster around the Cross. Evil thoughts may enter, but they enter either by fraud or force. But they enter the mind of the natural man as friends and acquaintances.

(2) The desires. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? They seek their happiness in the things of time and sense only. But the spiritual pray, Lord, hit Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon me. These desires in the Christian may not arise so high as he could wish; but this is the current in which they flow, the end to which they move.

(3) Gratitude. If ever a natural man feels anything like gratitude it is for some temporal favour. Now a spiritual man overlooks none of Gods mercies. He blesses Him for his daily bread, but much more for heavenly bread. He blesses God for his civil freedom, but above all for the freedom with which the Son hath made him free.

(4) The use of creature possessions. A natural man only uses them as bodily gratification; or, if mentally, as objects of curiosity and science. But a spiritual man sees God in everything.

(5) Association. While here, we must have to do with the world; otherwise we must needs go out of it. But a spiritual man, when he is entirely free, will say with David, I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that love Thy name.

(6) Conversation. Spiritual discourse to a natural man is always uninviting, and even irksome. But the spiritual man encourages it and is at home in it.

(7) Devotional exercises. The spiritual man does not draw nigh to God with his lips while his heart is far from Him.

II. An attribute attached to this character. The spiritual judgeth (i.e., discerns)

all things. This must be qualified by being taken with four limitations. All things mean religious things, and apply--

1. To religious things only. True religion tends to make men wiser in other things--by arousing their faculties, by exciting their energies, by inducing them to redeem their time; but Paul does not refer here to the knowledge of nature, arts, science, &c., but to the things of the Spirit, the things which are of God.

2. Only to religious things that are revealed. Secret things belong to God, &c.

3. To religious things only of importance. Everything in religion is not equally momentous, though it is equally true. What you are required to know is not the decrees of God, but His commands; His promises, rather than His prophecies. A man may be spiritual and yet not able to judge what kind of creature the leviathan was; or know where is the locality of Ophir, or the length of a Jewish cubit. A man may be able to open the seals and blow the trumpets--that is, in his own imagination-and be no nearer to the kingdom of God than before.

4. Only to the knowledge of these comparatively; not absolutely and completely. For who by searching can find out God--who can find out the Almighty to perfection? Paul, after knowing so much of Christ for so many years, says, That I may know Him.(See also Eph_3:18-19.)

III. A distinction. Yet he himself is judged of no man.

1. This distinction must be exemplified.

(1) You have, perhaps, acquired a certain art, and a person, ignorant of the art, calls in question your proficiency in it, and you say, I am not to be judged of by such as you. How could Handel be judged of properly by a novice in the principles of music? How could a statesman, in executing the complex concerns of a whole nation, be judged of by a man not able to manage his own family, or even himself?

(2) It is always difficult to judge a man religiously. For we are ignorant of the heart and of a thousand things which may tend either to extenuate or condemn. For a man may be conscientious in certain things in which he is condemned. Therefore our Saviour says, Judge not, and afterwards applauds judgment. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

(3) But the spiritual is absolutely inexplicable to the natural man. He is a new creature, and not, therefore, to be judged of by the old rules and principles of natural men. He knows them, but they know not Him! He has been in their condition, but they have not been in His!

2. The spiritual are, therefore, said to be men wondered at.

(1) Others may think it strange that we run not with them to the same excess of riot; but they know not what it is that has weaned us from it all, viz., the discovery of something infinitely superior.

(2) They wonder, that you, should find such delight in the exercises of the Lord s day. While they say, What a weariness it is!--when will it be over? you are made joyful in the house of prayer.

(3) Their experience under affliction often perplexes the people of the world. They see their afflictions, but they do not see their consolations.

(4) Their conduct is often equally puzzling to them. They wonder to see them following a course which exposes them to endure reproach and self-denial. They know not the lever that moves them, and are unacquainted with the machine--the love of Christ--that sets all in motion.

(5) Neither can they judge of the system of doctrine which they hold. It may seem to them as though they may continue in sin that grace may abound. But no, they hate the very appearance of evil. How can we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Conclusion:

1. Our subject accounts for Christians not being very ready to communicate to men of the world of their religion and experience. They would not understand it. David said, Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul. They could relish it, but others could not.

2. Christ accounts for the divers misrepresentations of Christians by men of the world. The world knoweth them not, although they are very free in speaking of them. Let us learn, then, to be indifferent as to the judgment of the world.

3. But is there nothing by which the people of the world may judge you who are spiritual? Yes. They can judge of--

(1) Your talents. They may, perhaps, be able to say to you, You think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

(2) Your outward condition, and know that you live above your income, and that you had better lower some of your sails.

(3) Your consistency as professors of religion. What do ye more than others? You profess more than others, and you are to be judged of by your own pretensions.

(4) The moral and practical effects of your feelings and experience. You should, therefore, seek to abound in all the fruits of righteousness, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. (W. Jay.)

The spiritual faculty

Nothing seems at first sight more reasonable than to expect that a revelation which is intended for all mankind should rest on such evidence as can be appreciated by all men. How otherwise can it be universal? Surely the evidence ought to be such as to bear the fullest and strictest investigation by all sound intellects; it ought to be impossible for any one who reasons exactly to fail to reach the right conclusion. Nay, there seems to be not only truth but justice in this claim. The revelation professes to be made not to perfect but imperfect men, not to the holy but to the sinful. To send such a revelation to men who have some peculiar power of appreciating the evidence for it, and to make the reception of it depend on their exercise of that power, seems to contradict not only rational expectation but the demands of equity. How are sinners to be saved if the means of their salvation cannot reach them on account of something in the very sinfulness from which it is the purpose to deliver them? Ought not religious knowledge to be treated as all other knowledge is treated? Ought it not to be considered a branch, in fact, of natural science? Ought not its evidence to be subjected to the same kind of investigation; ought not its basis to be observed facts, handled by strict reasoning; ought not its truth or falsehood to be decided in precisely the same way as the truth or falsehood of any other assertions. Nevertheless, in spite of all this, which is undeniably weighty, we find the revelation which we have received distinctly declining to submit its claims for recognition to these conditions. It appeals to a distinct faculty from those which decide on the truth or falsehood of assertions concerning the laws of nature. It insists that the spiritual man who accepts its teaching, while still keeping all his natural faculties and capable as ever of judging all questions which those natural faculties can handle and determine, has in him a faculty of judging of spiritual truth which is either wanting or dormant or possibly dead in others. It declares with St. Paul that if the gospel be hid it is hid to those who are blinded. How, then, can we call this reasonable or fair? Now, as regards the reasonableness, it must be plain that even in regard to natural phenomena there is a vast difference between one observer and another, and that not only as between the trained observer and the untrained, but between the capacity of one man for being trained and the capacity of another. There are men who cannot see for themselves the facts on which the inferences of science are based, and some cannot even see them when aided by having them pointed out by men of clearer sight than themselves. The conclusions rest on observations in the making of which men differ in power from one another, and, nevertheless, no man is allowed to plead that because his faculties cannot discern the fact, therefore the fact is no fact at all. Now, the same thing is unquestionably true as regards the fundamental facts of all real religion. The claim that the intellect and not the spiritual faculty shall judge of the truth or falsehood of a religious revelation is a claim that bad men and good men, men with aspirations to holiness and men content with their own moral and spiritual condition and desiring nothing higher, shall be on precisely the same level. And this is not so, and never can be so. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees truths which are not seen by men who have no such hunger nor thirst. He not only knows better what is meant by the beauty of self-sacrifice, of holiness, of unearthliness, but he knows too and sees as others do not see the eternity and supremacy of these things. And the perception of these facts makes an enormous difference in the inferences which he perpetually draws from the sum total of the facts before him. He draws different inferences because he takes into account different premises. He sees that the inferences drawn from the partial premises which alone are within the reach of bodily observation are of necessity incomplete, and be cannot be content with them. The question, whether there is a God at all, whether the Bible comes from Him, whether the history told in the New Testament is a true history, have to be determined with due regard to the insight which he ever has within himself into the eternal nature, into the absolute sovereignty, into the more silent but imperative command of the great law of duty. This will demonstrate to him the existence of God; this will largely determine his judgment on the true nature of the Bible; this will never be forgotten in his estimate of the historical truth of the New Testament. The value which he attaches to particular human testimony, the degree in which he will allow the possibility of exceptions to those generalisations which we call the laws of nature, but which after all are nothing but generalisations, must be and must rightly be gravely affected by his looking at the evidence taken as a whole from the point of view which belongs to his spiritual character. If his premises are different, it is inevitable that his conclusions must be different also. So true is this and so sure is the operation of the spiritual character upon the hold that a man has on religious truth, that we can trace it not only in the decision of the great question of all, Shall we believe in a God or not? but in the acceptance of particular doctrines contained in the revelation we have received. Thus, for instance, the doctrine of our Lords Atonement is grasped with a strength by some Christians which is not to be traced in the convictions of others. And if we search for the reason we always find it in the conflict which these men have had to pass through which others have not known. St. Paul, from the agony of his struggle with his own lower nature, came to the Cross with a passionate conviction of his need of a Saviour which we cannot find expressed with the same fervour in any other writings than his. The man whose inner life has been comparatively calm and who has known nothing of such violence of battle, will not see with the same vividness that the Cross of Christ is his one hope, and while accepting the doctrine will not place it at the very height of all his faith. The varying spiritual characters give an insight into varying aspects of spiritual truth, but without the spiritual character such insight cannot be. When, therefore, it is seen that religious men decide differently from other men questions which have to be decided on evidence, there is nothing in this that is contrary to reasonable expectation. They are, of course, liable to make mistakes in the inferences, just as all men are liable to make mistakes. But the difference in their conclusion is not due to the fact that they reason differently from others, and set aside the ordinary canons of inference. It is due to their taking into account certain premises which others disregard and cannot help disregarding. But to deal with the other demand, namely, that a revelation to sinners ought to be appreciable to sinners: it is to be observed that the revelation was never intended to work mechanically without any demand on the moral action of those to whom it was made. It was intended to be effectual on those who were willing to use it, and, therefore, it was made to be appreciated in accordance with that willingness. It was offered to all, but it was offered without relieving or being intended to relieve any from responsibility for his own life. The responsibility of every individual moral being is a fundamental religious truth, never to be set aside. And in order that this responsibility may be complete, it must extend not only to action in obedience to revelation when accepted, but to the act of acceptance itself. Men shall not be prevented from accepting it because they have sinned; provided there still remain the power of longing for higher things, even though that longing be of the faintest and the feeblest. The revelation of God meets the aspiration of man. Where there is the upward spring of the soul, even though that soul be in the very blackest depths of evil, there shall penetrate the power of the voice of God, and shall give force to the effort, and shall touch the heart, and shall clear the insight, and shall revive the conscience, and shall make the will the master of the life, to go on ever and to go on upwards, in spite of falls and failures many, to the very presence of God Himself. But if now it be asked what judgment can be formed of those who, notwithstanding, have come to the conclusion that the revelation is not true, the answer is plain, no judgment can be formed by us. We are speaking all this time not of the application of the laws of the spiritual world to individual men, but of the laws as they are in themselves. It is conceivable that a mans spiritual faculty may be palsied by the concentration of his mind on the phenomena of sensible things. The possibilities travel beyond our conceptions, and leave us unable to say what exceptions to His general rules our heavenly Father may make. Of this we are sure, to begin with, that His justice is absolute, and we are told expressly that when all secrets are revealed this also shall be plainly seen. But until that day we must be content, in spite of apparent contradictions, to leave all judgment on mens souls absolutely to Him. These arguments are not to enable us to judge others, but to enable us with strong certainty to live in our own faith, and to show us in what direction we are to seek for that which will confirm that faith in us and aid the formation of that faith in others. There is nothing which will help either others or ourselves more than the perpetual reiteration of the majesty, of the eternity, of the supremacy of that which is the very essence of the nature of God Himself, the law of duty. (Bishop Temple.)

For who hath known the mind of the Lord?… But we have the mind Of Christ.

The mind of God is

I. Unfathomable. His thoughts are--

1. Vast.

2. Unsearchable.

3. Unbiased.

II. Disclosed to His servants.

1. In Christ.

2. By His Spirit.

3. Through faith. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The mind of Christ

We may have the mind of Christ--

1. Representatively. The minds of great men represent themselves--

(1) Through the character of their disciples. Jesus put His disciples in possession of His mind--both its great ideas and governing sympathies. They faithfully represented His mind to others. They died; but their followers, in their turn, transmitted the mind which they received. We look at the true Church, and we can see in it the mind of Christ.

(2) Through literature. A mans book is a kind of second incarnation of himself. Thus the mind of Jesus has come down to us in the New Testament.

(3) In their historic influence. Christs mind has come down to us in this way.

2. Personally. Christ has distinctly assured us that He--not His mere influence, but Himself--is with His Church always, even unto the end, to enlighten, sanctify, guard, and strengthen it. This fact gives the Bible a wonderful advantage over other books. I take up the work of a departed author, and I find many things which I cannot understand, but I have no help. But when I take up the Bible--though it has been written for centuries--its Author is by my side. If we have the mind of Christ, then--

I. Whether we rightly act in relation to that mind or not, our obligation is immense. Our obligation is ever regulated according to the powers and privileges with which Heaven has endowed us. Unto whom much is given, of them much will be required. In connection with this principle note--

1. That the most precious thing in the universe is mind. Matter, in all its forms of life and beauty, is but the creature, symbol, and servant of mind. One human soul, though tabernacling in poverty, is of more essential worth than the sun. The sun has no feeling, thought, volition; it can neither form an idea of itself, nor of its Author. But the feeblest moral mind has all this, and can do all this,

2. That the most precious mind in the universe is the mind of Christ.

(1) All human minds are not of the same relative value. The minds of such men as Newton, Bacon, Milton are worth the aggregate mind of their age. But he who is instrumental in restoring one soul to moral truth and God, may do a greater work for the universe than he who corrects a hundred inferior minds. But the most majestic intellects bear no comparison with the mind of Christ; His mind was the image of the invisible God.

(2) Now nothing enhances our responsibility so much as connection with minds of a high and holy order. But contact with the mind of Christ enhances our responsibility a thousandfold. If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, &c. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, &c.

II. If we act rightly in relation to that mind, the effects on our character will be most glorious. There are three great blessings which will result.

1. Mental vivacity. Mind is the quickener and developer of mind. The amount of vital energy and impulse, however, which one mind is capable of imparting to another will, perhaps, generally depend upon two conditions.

(1) The character of the subjects of intercourse. Where they are tame commonplaces or vague abstractions, but a small amount of impulse will be imparted; but where they are of an opposite character, a powerful effect may be expected.

(2) The native vigour of the mind that presents these subjects. The most moving subjects will produce little effect when presented by a lifeless mind; but where there is great native energy in the soul of the communicator, in any case, there must be a powerful effect. Now you have just these two conditions in the highest form in connection with the mind of Christ. His mind is life and light--condensed energy and focal flame. His mind broke the mental slumbers of humanity, put the world in action, and gave it an impulse that shall go on accumulating for ever. He, therefore, who is rightly connected with the mind of Christ must be a man of mental earnestness. A sleepy-minded Christian is a solecism--a contradiction.

2. Moral assimilation. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Fellowship with a pre-eminently spiritual, holy, humble, benevolent, and devout mind is eternally incompatible with worldliness, impurity, pride, selfishness, and impiety.

3. True happiness. Christs mind does two things towards human happiness.

(1) It removes all obstructions. Sin is the great obstruction, and the great work of Christ is to lint away sin; to put it away in its--

(a) Idea form--the intellectual errors of men are sources of misery.

(b) Disposition form--the wrong and conflicting dispositions of men are sources of misery.

(c) Guilt form--the sense of guilt upon the conscience is a sore element of distress.

(2) It supplies the necessary condition of happiness. A suitable object of supreme love. Our supreme affection is the fountain of our happiness; but for the supreme affection to yield perfect happiness it must be free from all moral defects, capable of helping us in all the contingencies of our being, ever reciprocating our affections, and one which will continue with us for ever. In Christ we have all this, and nowhere else. If, then, we are in right connection with the mind of Christ, we are happy. Melancholy and gloom are foreign to Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The mind of Christ

A wonderful property, even for an apostle! And if it is within our reach that man must be a fool who does not give his mind to consider what it is, and how it is to be obtained. The expression is a full one--for you may take the words and actions of a man, and still fall short of his mind. For that is his spirit, the motive which actuates him, the feeling which moulds his conduct, the inner life which gives tone and character to his outer being. So you might copy Christs example, and speak and act like Christ--but all the while be unable to say, I have the mind of Christ. Note--

I. What the constitution of The mind of Christ was.

1. It was altogether human. It is an idle thought that the body of Christ was human, but the spirit or mind of Christ, was Divine. That which is Divine, being always infinite, is incapable of any growth or increase. But Christ increased in wisdom. So complete was Christs emptying of Himself here for our sakes that His mind became subject to all the laws by which our intellect is governed.

2. This is necessary for the truth of the history, to the integrity of His humanity, for the perfectness of His sympathy and power, for His being an exemplar that we may imitate.

II. How did the human mind of Jesus become that sublime and perfect thing it was? He had the Spirit without measure.

1. This thought is the connecting link which unites our little minds with His. For this is exactly Pauls reasoning. The spirit which is of God is identified with the mind of Christ. That soul of Jesus, then, infinitely stored with the Holy Spirit, becomes a fountain from whence that Spirit is always pouring out into His own people; so that out of His fulness have all we received. And this it is which makes a gift of the Spirit so very sweet to a Christian.

2. And, as that process goes on, every fresh communication of the Holy Ghost, passing as it does from the bosom of Jesus, enables us to say with greater and greater truth, We have the mind of Christ.

III. The advantages which belong to those who have the mind of Christ.

1. As respects that great search after truth, no man can really understand the Bible who does not bring to the study of it the mind of Christ. Now mark the apostles reasoning. He says, no man can tell what is passing in any mans mind except that man himself. In like manner he says, no one can know what is passing in the mind of God but God only. But if only God knows God, how can we know God? By having the mind of Christ. Thus, then, it is, by bringing the mind of Christ in our souls to the mind of Christ in the Bible that we can understand the mind of God.

2. The possession of the mind of Christ is a wonderful clue to the intricate windings of the labyrinth of life. There are thousands of points which require instantaneous decision. The juncture gives little space to go to some friend, or even to the Bible. At such moments a rapid perception of the right is an inestimable gift, and we shall have that if we have the mind of Christ.

3. They have the benefit of the mind of Christ who wish to pray rightly. God has given us the license to ask what we will, and it shall be done. But may not a man inadvertently ask and obtain a curse? Our security in that dangerous privilege is in the knowledge of the Bible--an acquaintance with Gods promises. But we want something quicker. Those who bring Christ in them to their knees, having the mind of Christ in asking, know what is the mind of Christ in giving. And it is surprising to what an extent this may control and guide prayer. The Syrophenician woman had it, when she would not cease till she had obtained what she wanted. Abraham had it equally when he stayed his supplication for Sodom at the ten. And doubtless Paul also, when he ceased to deprecate the thorn at the third petition. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The Christly spirit

(Php_2:5, and text):--Let the thought, the aim, the spirit of Christ be in you and be yours. All that He did, wills, approves, and blesses, even in the details of every-day life. Observe here the Christly spirit--

I. Urged as the supreme pattern of self-renunciation. Mark--

1. Voluntary humiliation. He emptied Himself, became obedient unto death. He who would study the grand pattern for the Christly life must begin in the valley of humiliation.

2. Absolute surrender for others--the perfection of self-sacrifice. He came not to be ministered unto, &c.

3. Disinterestedness in benevolence--Looking to the things of others.

4. The grand law of Christian discipleship. Though we may never be able to equal the incomparable humility, gentleness, and self-sacrifice of Christ, yet we may follow His example.

II. Possessed--as the Divinest inspiration to the higher life. No man that would ascend to the loftiest moral excellence but must possess the mind of Christ. By the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ there is imparted into us--

1. Strength to fight against sin and to achieve a victory.

2. Inspiration to spiritual power, beauty, excellence, and holiness.

3. Harmony of heart with the heart of God.

III. Realised--as the crowning endowment for the noblest service. We have the mind of Christ. The conscious possession of the mind of Christ has led thousands to make the highest sacrifice and to render the noblest service--Luther to attempt the Reformation; Robert Raikes to establish the Sunday-schools; Charles of Bala to originate the British and Foreign Bible Society, &c. Lessons: The attainment is--

1. Possible.

2. Certain. We have.

3. Let us all seek it afresh, for the glory of God, for the good of others, and our own happiness. (J. Harries.)

The certainty and solidity of the experience of Christian believers

I. We have the mind of Christ.

1. Enlightening the understanding.

2. Assuring the conscience.

3. Informing the judgment.

4. Renewing the heart.

II. We are thus fortified against the objections of all unbelievers. Because--

1. They do not know the mind of God.

2. Are incompetent to judge of spiritual things.

3. Much more to offer any instruction to those who have the Spirit of God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 2:15-16. But he that is spiritual — Whose mind is enlightened, and his heart renewed by the Spirit of God; judgeth — Or rather discerneth; all things — Namely, all the things of God whereof we have been speaking; yet he himself is judged — Is discerned; by no man, by no natural men; they neither understand what he is, nor what he says, while, perhaps, they are very forward and confident in their censures of him: he remains, says Doddridge, like a man endowed with sight among those born blind, who are incapable of apprehending what is clear to him, and amidst their own darkness cannot participate of, nor understand, those beautiful ideas and pleasing sensations, which light pours upon him. And surely if matters be considered aright, this cannot be any cause of wonder. For who — That is not supernaturally enlightened, but is a mere natural man; hath known the mind of the Lord — Those counsels of his respecting the salvation of mankind, which exist in his eternal mind, or his deep designs concerning us; that he may instruct him? — So as to take upon him to judge of his schemes, and arraign his conduct. “There must undoubtedly be in the divine counsels many secret and hidden things, and a man must have a mind capacious as that of the blessed God himself, to take upon him to judge of his schemes. See note on Isa 40:13-14, the passage here referred to. But many approved commentators suppose, although the words of the prophet evidently refer to God, yet that, as they are here varied, they were intended by the apostle of the spiritual man, intending thereby chiefly a divinely-inspired teacher, and that the question means, What unenlightened, carnal man, hath known the mind of the Lord, his deep counsels, (1Co 2:10,) so that he can instruct the spiritual man? that is, as the expression, συμβιβασει αυτον, seems to imply, prove to him that the principles on which he judges of spiritual things are false, inform him of things he is ignorant of, and show him, that in believing the gospel he hath fallen into error. “The truth implied in this questions” says Macknight, “must afford great satisfaction to all the faithful. No man, no infidel, hath been, or ever will be, able to confute the gospel; or to show a better method of instructing, reforming, and saving mankind, than that which God hath chosen, and made known by revelation.” But we — Spiritual men, apostles in particular; have — Know, understand; the mind of Christ — Concerning the whole plan of gospel salvation.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:15 Those who are spiritual: People who have the Spirit have a true understanding of divine revelation.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 2:15. Ὁ) There is great beauty here in the addition of the article [the spiritual man]; ψυχικὸς [a natural man] is without the article.—πάντα, all things) The neuter plural, as 1Co 2:9-14, all things of all men, and therefore also [he judges] all men. The Masc. is comprehended in the Neut. as Mat 11:27.—αὐτὸς) he himself.—ὑπʼ οὐδενὸς, by no) natural man.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_2:15. He who is spiritual, on the other hand, judges all things, but is for his own part (αὐτός) judged by no one; so lofty is his position, high above all the ψυχικοῖς, to whom he is a riddle, not to be read by their unenlightened powers of judging, to which τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος are folly!

ὁ πνευματικός] he who stands under the influence of the Holy Spirit, enlightened and led by Him. Comp on ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚῶς in 1Co_2:14.

ΤᾺ ΠΆΝΤΑ] (see the critical remarks[429]) receives from the context no further limitation than that of the article, which is not unsuitable (Hofmann), but denotes the totality of what presents itself to his judging, so that it does not apply merely to τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος (Ewald: all the deepest and most salutary divine truths), the ἈΝΑΚΡΊΝΕΙΝ of which, on the part of the ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΌς, is a matter of course, but means all objects that come within the sphere of his judgment. To everything that comes before him he can assign the right estimate in virtue of his power of judgment, enlightened and upheld by the Holy Spirit. He has the true critical eye of the δοκιμάζειν (1Th_5:21) for all that offers itself to him to be judged. How often has Paul himself displayed this ἈΝΆΚΡΙΣΙς ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΉ, and that, too, in matters not connected with doctrine, under situations the most varied! e.g. in his wise availing himself of circumstances when persecuted and put on trial, during his last voyage, etc.; in his decisions concerning matrimonial questions, contendings at law, slavery, collections, and the like, in regard to which he manages with consummate tact, and with the most wonderful clearness, precision, and impartiality, to subject everything to the standard of a higher spiritual point of view; in his estimate of the different persons with whom he comes into contact; in the mode in which he adapts himself to given relations: in his sublime judgments, such as 1Co_3:22; in his powerful self-witness, 2Co_6:4 ff.; in his noble independence from earthly things, 1Co_7:29 ff.; Php_4:11 ff.

ὑπʼ οὐδενός] namely, who is not also ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΌς. This follows necessarily from the foregoing Ὁ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤ. ἈΝΑΚΡΊΝΕΙ ΤᾺ ΠΆΝΤΑ. Comp too, 1Jn_4:1. The standpoint of the psychical man is too low, and his mode of thought too foreign in its presuppositions and principles, for him to be able to understand and judge of the pneumatic. In like manner, the blind (see as early as Chrysostom and Theophylact) cannot judge of the painter, nor the deaf of the musician.

How Roman Catholic writers have sought to render 1Co_2:15, standing opposed as it does to the authority claimed by the church, serviceable to their own side, may be seen, e.g., in Cornelius a Lapide: Sin autem nova oriatur quaestio in fide aut moribus, eaque obscura et dubia, eadem prudentia dictat homini spirituali … ejusdem Spiritus judicio recurrendum esse ad superiores, ad doctores, ad ecclesiam Romanam quasi matricem, etc.

[429] In connection with the reading πάντα, those who take it as masculine explain the clause very variously; either: Quando audit alium loquentem vel docentem, illico dignoscere potest et dijudicare, utrum sit ex Deo necne (Bos, Alberti); or: Ego quidem … quemlibet profanum … dijudicare adeoque a τνευματικοῖς s. vere collustratis dignoscere possum (Pott); or: Convincere quemlibet profanum erroris potest (Nösselt, Rosenmüller). Were the reading genuine, and πάντα masculine, it is only the first of these renderings that would be admissible; for, according to ver. 14, ἀνακρ. cannot mean erroris convincere (against Nösselt), and to restrict πάντα to the profane would be entirely unwarranted by the context, as is plain from πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται in ver. 14 (against Nösselt and Pott). At the same time, it would also be arbitrary in adopting the first view to refer it only to the loqui or docere, and not also to deeds and other expressions of the life.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 2:15 . “But the spiritual man tries (tests) everything” a maxim resembling, perhaps designedly, the Stoic dicta concerning “the wise man”. Paul sees “in the Πνεῦμα , the Divine power creatively working in the man and imparted to him, the κριτήριον for the right estimate of persons and things, Divine and human. The Stoa on its part was intently concerned ‘to know the standard according to which man is judged by man’ (Arrian-Epictetus, II., xiii., 16) … it found this criterion in the moral use of Reason .… The Christian believer and the Stoic philosopher both practise an ἀνακρίνειν ; both are conscious of standing superior to all judgment from without; but the ground of this superiority, and the inferences drawn from it, are equally opposed in the two cases. The Stoic’s judgment on the world leads him, under given conditions, to suicide (‘The door stands open,’ Epict.): the Christian’s judgment on the world leads to the realisation of the victory of the children of God” (Hn [440] ). πάντα (not every one , but neut. pl [441] ) is quite general everything ; cf. , for the scope of this faculty, 1Co 6:2 f., 1Co 10:15 , 1Th 5:21 , 1Jn 2:20 f., 1Co 4:1 , Rev 2:2 . Aristotle ( Eth. Nic. , III., iv.) says of ὁ σπουδαῖος (the man of character), ἕκαστα κρίνει ὀρθῶς , καὶ ἐν ἑκάστοις τἀληθὲς αὐτῷ φαίνεται … ὥσπερ κανὼν καὶ μέτρον αὐτῶν ὤν ; Plato, De Rep. , iii., 409 [442] (quoted by Ed [443] ), ascribes the same universally critical power to ἡ ἀρετή . Paul’s πνευματικὸς judges in virtue of a Divine, all-searching Presence within him; Aristotle’s σπουδαῖος , in virtue of his personal qualities and attainments. Paul admirably displays in this Ep. the powers of the πνευματικὸς as ὁ ἀνακρίνων πάντα . There are, of course, limits to the exercise of the ἀνακρίνειν , in the position and opportunities of the individual.

[440] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[441] plural.

[442] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[443] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπʼ οὐδένος ἀνακρίνεται , “while he himself is put on trial by none,” since none other possesses the probe of truth furnished by the Πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ; the πνευματικὸς stands on a height from which he overlooks the world, and is overlooked only by God. The statement is ideal, holding good of “the spiritual man” as, and so far as, he is such. Where a Christian is σάρκινος (1Co 3:1 ), his spiritual judgment is vitiated; to that extent he puts himself within the measure of the ψυχικός ( cf. 1Jn 3:1 ; 1Jn 4:5 ). If μέν , after ἀνακρίνει , be genuine, it throws into stronger relief the superiority of the man of the Spirit to unspiritual judgment: he holds the touchstone and is the world’s trier, not the world his. This exemption P. will claim for himself, on further grounds, in 1Co 4:3 ff. Ἀνακρίνω , used by P. nine times in this Ep., and in no other, was probably a favourite expression with the over-weening Cor [444] like “criticism” to-day.

[444] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 15, 16. “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man; 16. for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of the Lord.”

1Co 2:6 supposed in a preacher the faculty of discerning in each case whether he had to do with a psychical or a spiritual man. This is the faculty which the apostle affirms, 1Co 2:15, and the possession and free exercise of which he claims for himself, 1Co 2:16. The link between 1Co 2:15; 1Co 2:14 is in the term and idea ἀνακρίνειν, to judge. In virtue of the sway exercised by the πνεῦμα, the Spirit, over the psychical faculties of the regenerated man, he is endowed with a superior tact which gives him the power of estimating men and things with certainty. As Edwards says, “If the profane man cannot understand holiness, the holy man can understand the depths of evil.” From the higher stage one can look into the lower, but not inversely.

The μέν, which T. R. reads with some Mjj., seems to me to throw rather too much emphasis on the antitheses of the two propositions. I am inclined to suppress it. — Instead of πάντα, some Mjj. read τὰ πάντα, which would here designate the totality of things, absolutely speaking. It is more natural to read πάντα without the article: “All things, each as it presents itself.” Several commentators make this πάντα a masculine: each man. This sense would be perfectly justified, first by the context, according to which Paul claims for the spiritual man the faculty of discerning in each case with what kind of hearer he has to do, next by the οὐδενός, none, which follows, and which is evidently a masculine. But it is nevertheless true that the neuter sense is that which presents itself most naturally to the reader, and it is wide enough to include the other: all things, that is to say, every circumstance, every situation, and consequently, also, every person with whom one meets. St. Paul therefore had the right to estimate the spiritual state of the Corinthians, and to judge what suited or did not suit their state.

But, on the other hand, this spiritual man is subject to the scrutiny and sentences of none. The masculine sense of the pronoun οὐδενός is evident, since it is only intelligent beings who are capable of judging. From this principle flowed the application which Paul proposed to make to the Corinthians (1Co 3:1-4); he can judge them, but they are not in a position to judge him.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_2:15

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

To judge here means to discern, to appreciate, and thus pass judgment upon. As the original word is the same in this as in the preceding verse, there is no good reason why the translation should vary. The spiritual man discerns the things which are spiritually discerned, though he himself is not discerned or properly appreciated by any natural man. The all things here spoken of are limited by the context to the things of the Spirit. It is not of the officers of the church only, nor of the church collectively, but of each and every man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, that the apostle affirms this ability to discern the truth, excellence and beauty of divine things. It is as impossible that one man should discern for another what is true and good, as that one man should see for another. We must see for ourselves or not at all. The right of private judgment in matters of religion, is inseparable from the indwelling of the Spirit. Those who can see, have the right to see. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth, to open our eyes to discern it in its true nature, and to feel its power. It is on this demonstration of the Spirit, as taught above, that saving faith is founded. And as this demonstration is granted to every one who has the Spirit, the faith of the Christian is founded neither on the wisdom of men nor on the authority of the church, and is subject to neither.

Yet he himself is judged of no man. This again is limited by the context. He is appreciated by no man who has not the Spirit. Paul afterwards says it was to him a small matter to be judged by mans judgment, 1Co_4:3. He is not here speaking of the legitimate subjection of the believer to his brethren; for he elsewhere teaches that those who have the Spirit may sit in judgment on those who profess to be spiritual, and determine how far they are really led by the Spirit. And he gives the rule by which that judgment is to be directed, 1Co_5:9-12; 1Co_12:3. Gal_1:8. If any man profess to be spiritual, and yet does what the Spirit in his word forbids, or denies what the Spirit teaches, we know that he deceives himself, and that the truth is not in him. We must try the spirits, whether they be of God. This is true, and is perfectly consistent with what the apostle here says, which only means that the spiritual man cannot be discerned or estimated aright by those who are not spiritual.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He amplifieth the matter by contraries.

Understandeth and discerneth.

The wisdom of the flesh, saith Paul, determined nothing certainly, no not in its own affairs, much less can it discern strange, that is, spiritual things. But the Spirit of God, wherewith spiritual men are endued, can be deceived by no means, and therefore be reproved of no man.

Of no man: for when the Prophets are judged of the Prophets, it is the Spirit that judges, and not the man.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

He that is spiritual--literally, "the spiritual (man)." In Co1 2:14, it is "A [not 'the,' as English Version] natural man." The spiritual is the man distinguished above his fellow men, as he in whom the Spirit rules. In the unregenerate, the spirit which ought to be the organ of the Holy Spirit (and which is so in the regenerate), is overridden by the animal soul, and is in abeyance, so that such a one is never called "spiritual."

judgeth all things--and persons, by their true standard (compare Co1 6:2-4; Jo1 4:1), in so far as he is spiritual. "Discerneth . . . is discerned," would better accord with the translation of the same Greek (Co1 2:14). Otherwise for "discerned," in Co1 2:14, translate, "judged of," to accord with the translation, "judgeth . . . is judged" in this fifteenth verse. He has a practical insight into the verities of the Gospel, though he is not infallible on all theoretical points. If an individual may have the Spirit without being infallible, why may not the Church have the Spirit, and yet not be infallible (a refutation of the plea of Rome for the Church's infallibility, from Mat 28:20; Joh 16:13)? As the believer and the Church have the Spirit, and are yet not therefore impeccable, so he and the Church have the Spirit, and yet are not infallible or impeccable. He and the Church are both infallible and impeccable, only in proportion to the degree in which they are led by the Spirit. The Spirit leads into all truth and holiness; but His influence on believers and on the Church is as yet partial. Jesus alone, who had the Spirit without measure (Joh 3:34), is both infallible and impeccable. Scripture, because it was written by men, who while writing were infallibly inspired, is unmixed truth (Pro 28:5; Jo1 2:27).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things] He who has the mind of Christ discerns and judges of all things spiritual: yet he himself is not discerned by the mere animal man. Some suppose that the word ανακρινεται should be understood thus: He examines, scrutinizes, convinces, reproves, which it appears to mean in 1Co 14:24; and they read the verse thus: The spiritual man-the well-taught Christian, convinces, i.e. can easily convict, all men, (παντα, accusing,) every animal man, of error and vice; yet he himself is convicted of no man; his mind is enlightened, and his life is holy; and therefore the animal man cannot convict him of sin. This is a good sense, but the first appears the most natural. See Pearce and Rosenmuller.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. But the spiritual man judgeth all things. Having stripped of all authority man’s carnal judgment, he now teaches, that the spiritual alone are fit judges as to this matter, inasmuch as God is known only by his Spirit, and it is his peculiar province to distinguish between his own things and those of others, to approve of what is his own, and to make void all things else. The meaning, then, is this: “Away with all the discernment of the flesh as to this matter! It is the spiritual man alone that has such a firm and solid acquaintance with the mysteries of God, as to distinguish without fail between truth and falsehood — between the doctrine of God and the contrivances of man, so as not to fall into mistake. He, on the other hand, is judged by no man, because the assurance of faith is not subject to men, as though they could make it totter at their nod, it being superior even to angels themselves.” Observe, that this prerogative is not ascribed to the man as an individual, but to the word of God, which the spiritual follow in judging, and which is truly dictated to them by God with true discernment. Where that is afforded, a man’s persuasion is placed beyond the range of human judgment. Observe, farther, the word rendered judged: by which the Apostle intimates, that we are not merely enlightened by the Lord to perceive the truth, but are also endowed with a spirit of discrimination, so as not to hang in doubt between truth and falsehood, but are able to determine what we ought to shun and what to follow.

But here it may be asked, who is the spiritual man, and where we may find one that is endowed with so much light as to be prepared to judge of all things, feeling as we do, that we are at all times encompassed with much ignorance, and are in danger of erring: nay more, even those who come nearest to perfection from time to time fall and bruise themselves. The answer is easy: Paul does not extend this faculty to everything, so as to represent all that are renewed by the Spirit of God as exempt from every kind of error, but simply designs to teach, that the wisdom of the flesh is of no avail for judging of the doctrine of piety, and that this right of judgment and authority belong exclusively to the Spirit of God. In so far, therefore, as any one is regenerated, and according to the measure of grace conferred upon him, does he judge with accuracy and certainty, and no farther.

He himself is judged by no man. I have already explained on what ground he says that the spiritual man is not subject to the judgment of any man — because the truth of faith, which depends on God alone, and is grounded on his word, does not stand or fall according to the pleasure of men. What he says afterwards, that

the spirit of one Prophet is subject to the other Prophets, (1 Corinthians 14:32,)

is not at all inconsistent with this statement. For what is the design of that subjection, but that each of the Prophets listens to the others, and does not despise or reject their revelations, in order that what is discovered to be the truth of God, may at length remain firm, and be received by all? Here, however, he places the science of faith, which has been received from God, above the height of heaven and earth, in order that it may not be estimated by the judgment of men. At the same time, ὕπ ᾿ οὐδενός may be taken in the neuter gender as meaning — by nothing, understanding it as referring to a thing, and not to a man. In this way the contrast will be more complete, as intimating that the spiritual man, in so far as he is endowed with the Spirit of God, judgeth all things, but is judged by nothing, because he is not subject to any human wisdom or reason. In this way, too, Paul would exempt the consciences of the pious from all decrees, laws, and censures of men.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) He that is spiritual.—The spiritual man judges all spiritual truth, but he himself is judged by none who are not spiritual. (See 1Co_14:29; 1Jn_4:1.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things] The word which is used in this and the preceding verse, which is translated discerned in the last verse, in the text of this verse by judgeth, and in the margin by discerneth, signifies in every other passage in the N. T. to examine, and is so rendered by the Vulgate (see Act_4:9; Act_12:19; St Luk_23:14, and ch. 1Co_9:3). It must therefore be interpreted of the process rather than of the conclusion, of the exact scrutiny to which the spiritual man can subject all things, while he himself is beyond the scrutiny of others who do not possess the means of making it. “The Gospel in its essence is neither theoretic, abstract, nor reflective, nor even imaginative: it is historical, but this history is Divine. The preaching of the Gospel is a revelation of God’s doings. When belief is well established, then, and then alone, may God’s acts become subjects of theory or research among the members of the Church, and even then so far only as the whole investigation proceeds from faith. Of such an inquiry faith could never be the consequence. In God’s Spirit alone has faith its origin.”—Olshausen.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord,.... The deep counsels of his heart, the scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ, as drawn in his eternal mind, the sense of the Spirit of God in the writings of the Old Testament, the things of the Spirit of God, or the doctrines of grace more clearly revealed under the Gospel dispensation; not any natural man, by the light of truth and strength of reason, has known any of these things. The apostle either cites or alludes to Isa 40:13

that he may instruct him? not the Lord, who needs no instruction from any, nor can any teach and instruct him, nor would any be so bold and insolent as to attempt it nor does the knowledge of the mind of the Lord qualify any for such a work; since if he knows ever so much of it, he cannot know more than the Lord himself: but the spiritual man, whom a natural man, being ignorant of the mind of the Lord, cannot instruct; and so the words give a very proper and sufficient reason why the spiritual man is not discerned, judged, convinced, and instructed by the natural man:

but we have the mind of Christ; the same with "the mind of the Lord" which proves that Christ is the Lord, or Jehovah, and so truly and properly God; and which is to be understood, not only of the apostles and ministers of the Gospel, but of all true believers; and therefore want no instruction, as they can have none from the natural man; though chiefly of the former, whereby they were abundantly qualified for the further instruction even of spiritual men.

Next: 1 Corinthians Chapter 3

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Ver. 15. Judgeth all things] By his spirit of discerning, 1Co 14:2, his spiritual senses exercised to discern good and evil, Heb 5:14, his undoubted persuasion of that truth he professeth, Col 2:3, and whereof he hath felt the sweetness, Col 1:9. Papists will needs have this spiritual man that judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of none, to be the pope. But when this Epistle was written, there was no such thing as a pope; no such doctrine as that the pope is infallible; that he must not be contradicted though he speak blasphemy or heresy; no, though he should draw thousands of souls after him to hell, say the Canonists, those abominable slowbacks. St Paul, who had the mind of Christ, was never of this mind.

Is judged of no man] Of no natural man, who can judge no more of divine truths than a blind man can do of colours, or a sick man of meats. And herein the poorest idiot (saith one), being a sound Christian, goeth beyond the profoundest clerks that are not sanctified, that he hath his own heart instead of a commentary, to help to understand even the most needful points of the Scripture.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he that is spiritual - The man who is enlightened by the Holy Spirit in contradistinction from him who is under the influence of the senses only.

Judgeth - Greek: “Discerns.” (margin); the same word as in the previous verse. It means that the spiritual man has a discernment of these truths in regard to which the sensual man was blind and ignorant.

All things - Not absolutely all things; or not that he is omniscient; but that he has a view of those things to which the apostle had reference - that is, to the things which are revealed to man by the Holy Spirit.

Yet he himself is judged - Greek, as in the margin, “is discerned;” that is, his feelings, principles, views, hopes, fears, joys, cannot be fully understood and appreciated by any natural or sensual man. He does not comprehend the principles which actuate him; he does not enter into his joys; he does not sympathize with him in his feelings. This is a matter of simple truth and universal observation. The reason is added in the following verse, that as the Christian is influenced by the Lord and as the natural man does not know him, so he cannot know him who is influenced by him; that is the Christian.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He that is spiritual, in this verse, is opposed to the natural man, in the former verse, πνευματικος to ψυχικος. So that by spiritual here is understood, he that is taught by the Spirit of God, and is by him specially and savingly enlightened.

Judgeth or discerneth

all things, that is, of this nature, the mysteries of God, which concern man’s eternal life and salvation; not that every good Christian hath any such perfect judgment or power of discerning, but according to the measure of illumination which he hath received.

Yet he himself is judged of no man; it may as well be translated, of nothing; and the term judged might as well have been translated examined, or searched, as it is in Act 4:9; 12:19; 17:11; 24:8; or condemned. The wisdom that is of God is not to be subjected to the wisdom of men, nor to be judged of any man, but only the spiritual man. The truth, which the spiritual man owneth and professeth, dependeth only upon God and his word, and is not subjected to the authority and judgment of men, nor the dictates of human reason: so as the spiritual man, so far forth as he is spiritual, is neither judged by any man nor by any thing. There are some that by he himself understand the Spirit of God; he indeed

is judged of no man, nor of any thing; but that seemeth a much more strained sense.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Judgeth all things—All the things of 1Co_2:12-13; the deep things of God. By these all things are not meant merely the doctrinal truths of theology, which are comprehended by the logical understandings, but the deeper things of holiness of heart and spirit.

Judged of no man—He is not subject, in his experience and realization of divine things, to the understanding of the natural man. The spirit from God is not to be judged by the spirit of the world. For God is right and the world is wrong.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Judgeth all things. If he can judge the higher, lie can of course judge the lower. Being spiritual, he becomes intellectual also, as well as more than intellectual. He can see into the difference between the dream and the reality; he can no longer take the shadow for the substance. He can not only decide about ordinary matters, but can also "discriminate the transcendent," i.e. see that which is best even in different alternatives of good. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him". (Psa_25:14) He himself is judged of no man. He may be judged, condemned, depreciated, slandered every day of his life, but the arrow flights of human judgment fall far short of him. These Corinthians were judging and comparing Paul and Apollos and Cephas; but their judgments were false and worthless, and Paul told them that it was less than nothing to him to be judged by them or by man"s feeble transitory day. (1Co_4:3)

"Evil men," as Solomon said, "understand not judgment". (Pro_28:5)

The judging faculty.

that is spiritual" is he in whom the Spirit of God dwells, pervading his spirit with a light and quickening it to a life above that of nature. This higher spirit life has many marks of distinction. It is one of these to which the apostle here gives prominence. Two things are affirmed of the spiritual man

(1) His power to judge;

(2) his freedom from being judged.

I HIS POWER TO JUDGE. The attitude of mind suggested is an inquiring, critical, testing attitude an attitude in which it holds its faith in abeyance until perfectly convinced that that which claims it is divinely true, "proving all things" that it may "hold fast that which is good." The spiritual man brings everything thus to the secret tribunal of his own soul.

1. All forms of human teaching and influence, the various ways in which men seek to guide our opinions and our conduct. "Believe not every spirit,

2. but prove," etc.. (1Jn_4:1) We may apply this to the whole action of the spirits of men upon us through the ordinary means of personal influence. The spirit of truth and the spirit of error, the spirit of good and of evil, come to us through these human channels; and our mental conditions, our daily habits of thought and life, are determined; often far more than we are aware of, in this way. The spirits of men are embodied in their works and words, and thus not merely when they are physically present with us, but when we have never seen them face to face, when oceans roll between us, when they have passed away to other worlds, we may feel their living touch upon our souls: Their sway over us is independent of the conditions of space and time. "Being dead, they yet speak." "They rule us from their urns." Their very names are instruments of persuasive spiritual power. The grand question in every such case is whether this power is on the whole favourable or otherwise to the cause of truth and righteousness. It is by some criterion of right and wrong in our own souls that this question must be determined, and what can the criterion be but the "spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind" that God gives? Books, sermons, newspapers, theories, systems of religious faith and ecclesiastical polity, the personal example and converse of others, the social sentiments and customs that prevail around us, in short, everything that possesses a moral quality and wields a moral influence over us, must be subjected to this test. This is the Divine "right of private judgment," which in its highest aspect we cannot surrender if we would.

3. The revelation of God, coming to us as it does through human and. natural channels, must needs be amenable to the same law. According to its own teaching, the Divine in us can alone discover and recognize the Divine element in it. "He that is of God heareth the words of God"; (Joh_8:47) "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice"; (Joh_18:37) "Ye have an anointing of the Holy One," etc.. (1Jn_2:20) Men justly argue that the Bible, like every other book, must be brought to the tribunal of the "judging faculty." But what is that faculty? If they mean by it the Spirit of God given in his measure to every lowly Christian believer, the wondrous supernatural light that shines from heaven upon every soul that humbly and prayerfully looks up for it, this is a principle to which all apostolic voices bear witness. But if they mean some native faculty, some light of natural reason, some power of spiritual discernment inherent in the very constitution of our being, they are trusting to that which is the source of all confusion of thought and divergence of opinion, an ignis faluus, which leads through mazes of uncertainty to the darkness of doubt and of despair. The religious sensibility in every man to which revelation appeals is one thing; the interpretive and verifying faculty, which is the special gilt of the Spirit of God, which, indeed, is the Spirit of God in man, is another. How stroll we know that we have this power? In one view of it it is a self witnessing power, which no rival authority can gainsay; in another, it is a power that proves itself by its qualities and results. It is a lowly, loving, patient, trustful, obedient spirit. And its supreme characteristic is that it testifies to Christ as at once the Centre and Circumference of our highest thought, the Source and End of our noblest life. It is the "mind of Christ," and no "persuasion" can be in harmony with it that does not lead more or less directly to him.

II HIS FREEDOM FROM BEING JUDGED. "He himself is judged of no man" who has not the same spiritual faculty. This follows as a necessary consequence of the superiority of his own gift. Take it in different ways.

1. No such man can understand him. The workings of his inner life, his deepest thoughts, affections, aspirations, conflicts, the powers that sustain and the principles that govern his whole spiritual existence, these form a world into which the unspiritual man cannot enter. We arc all mysteries to each other in the individuality of our being. Each lives in his own world, and the painful sense of solitude will often seize upon the thoughtful spirit. Imperfect sympathies arising from imperfect mutual acquaintance are among the saddest features of our social existence, and will often awaken strange longings for a state of being in which we "shall know even as also we are known." In no case is this separation so complete as between the spiritual and the carnal man. Here lies a gulf which no artifice, no arrangement of outward circumstances, can bridge over. When a good man"s lot is cast among uncongenial society, he is driven in upon himself, on the silent satisfactions of his own soul. Like the Master, he "has meat to eat which the world knows not of." Many a tender spirit has felt thus isolated in the midst of those most fondly loved. An atmosphere of natural affection and all natural endearments of life surround them, but in the deepest reality of their being they dwell alone.

2. He is not open, on the side of his religious thought and life, to the hostile criticism of any man. How shall others "judge" that with which they have nothing in common, and the very essential meaning of which they cannot understand?

3. No false influence from man can lead him fatally astray. Who shall unsettle the faith or shake the steadfastness of one who is thus bathed in the light and rooted and grounded in the life of God? Who is he that shall bring again into bondage one whom the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has thus made free? Here lies the grand condition alike of mental assurance and. moral strength. W.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the spiritual man - He that hath the Spirit. Discerneth all the things of God whereof we have been speaking. Yet he himself is discerned by no man - No natural men. They neither understand what he is, nor what he says.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

As if the apostle had said, "Although the natural man, who acteth only by principles of human reason, receiveth not the things of the Spirit, nor can know them by any study of his own, because they are spiritually discerned; yet he that is spiritual, that is, who hath the revelation and illumination of the Spirit of God, judgeth, or discerneth and trieth all things, that is, all spiritual matters; yet he himself is judged of no man, that is discerned by none who hath no higher principle than that of nature to discern things by."

Learn hence, That such Christians as are enlightened and renewed with, guided and conducted by, the Holy Spirit of God, are the only proper judges of spiritual matters, able to understand their duty, and to discern between good and evil: He that is spiritual judgeth all things.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. “The spiritual man discerneth all things, but he himself is discerned by no one.” This corroborates 1Co 2:8, which certifies that the murderers of our Savior committed the foul and atrocious deed under a Satanic delusion. Why? Because those great and learned pastors of the church which God had instituted could not see in Jesus the meek and lowly suffering Savior, dying for a guilty world, though they had read it in the prophecies all their lives. They could only see in Him a blasphemous disturber of the church, and an enemy to their religion. So it was with the two hundred millions who have followed Him in bloody martyrdom. The church rulers, clergy and laymen, who took their lives, saw in them nothing but fanaticism, heresy and insubordination. If they could have seen the beautiful and lovely grace of God in them they would have been far from hurting them. John Fletcher well says that “perfect love is an angel so beautiful and charming that the devil has to cover it with a bear skin before he can get his Hell hounds to chase it. During all the ages of blood and fire, the martyrs could look right through their carnal persecutors and see the very venom of Hell in them, yet they thought they were right and doing God’s service. This fallen world is irreconcilably opposed to purity, because it is a constant and withering rebuke to the impure. For this reason, when God sent his own pure and spotless Son into the world, they would not even let him live on the earth. His presence was a constant withering and scathing rebuke to the corrupt people of this fallen world. The true saints of all ages have had the spirit Christ manifest and predominant in their lives. For this reason the counterfeit saints, who are ignorant of purity, and rebuked and insulted by its profession, have made it a rule, so far as they could, to destroy all the people on the earth who had the spirit of God’s pure and holy Son. They do not persecute them with the understanding that they are good people, but believing that they are bad, because out of harmony with themselves, whom Satan has deluded with the idea that they are the people of God. There is no possible remedy for this irreconcilable antagonism. Jesus could not help it, but submitted to it while they nailed Him to the cross. If Omnipotence should interfere with the human will, He would dehumanize us, and defeat the very end of creation. This irreconcilable disharmony and irrepressible conflict between spirituality and carnality is bound to continue so long as Satan is in the world. This verse unlocks the whole mystery. Spiritual people see and read the carnal like we read books; yet the carnal can not see the spiritual, from the simple fact that their spiritual eyes are not opened. There never was an age in which ecclesiastical ostracism was more rife than at present, and doubtless will increase to the end of the “Gentile times,” which is certainly very nigh. This ostracism and clerical autocracy is the same spirit and in the same place which killed Jesus and all the martyrs. It is only now held in check by the civil law.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man .

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. He that is spiritual. He who lives the spiritual life. Judgeth all things. “Examineth,” in the margin of the Revision. The spiritual man, helped by the indwelling Spirit, is prepared to study the deeper truths of the Spirit. Judged of no man. None who are not spiritual are able to sit in judgment upon his higher life. He is on a higher level, and the animal man, from his lower level, cannot well estimate him.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

15. [μὲν] before πάντα. Om. ACDFG Vetus Lat., Vulg., Peshito. B inserts it. The whole verse is omitted in א, no doubt from the repetition of ἀνακρίνεται at the end of this and the preceding verse.

15. ὁ δὲ πνευματικὸς ἀνακρίνει πάντα. ἀνακρίνω, which is translated in A.V. discerned in the last verse, in the text of this verse by judgeth, and in the margin by discerneth, signifies in every other passage in the N. T. to examine, and is so rendered by the Vulgate (see Act 4:9 to Act 12:19; Luk 23:14, and ch. 1Co 9:3). ‘The ἀνάκρισις was an Athenian law term for a preliminary investigation (distinct from the actual κρίσις or trial) in which evidence was collected and the prisoner committed for trial, if a true bill was found against him.’ Bp Lightfoot On a Fresh Revision of the N. T., p. 63. It must therefore be interpreted of the process rather than of the conclusion, of the exact scrutiny to which the spiritual man can subject all things, while he himself is beyond the scrutiny of others who do not possess the means of making it. ‘The Gospel in its essence is neither theoretic, abstract, nor reflective, nor even imaginative: it is historical, but this history is Divine. The preaching of the Gospel is a revelation of God’s doings. When belief is well established, then, and then alone, may God’s acts become subjects of theory or research among the members of the Church, and even then so far only as the whole investigation proceeds from faith. Of such an inquiry faith could never be the consequence. In God’s Spirit alone has faith its origin.’—Olshausen.

αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπ’ οὐδενὸς ἀνακρίνεται. There exists, so to speak, no common measure of things human and Divine, visible and invisible.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15.] But (on the contrary) the spiritual man (he, in whom the πνεῦμα rules: and since by man’s fall the πνεῦμα is overridden by the animal soul, and in abeyance, this always presupposes the infusion of the Holy Spirit, to quicken and inform the πνεῦμα—so that there is no such thing as an unregenerate πνευματικός) judges of all things (Meyer, reading τὰ πάντα, interprets it, ‘all spiritual things;’ but the ordinary rendering, ‘all things,’ is better: the Apostle is generalizing, and shewing the high position of the spiritual man, who alone can judge things by their true standard.

The acceptation of πάντα as masc. sing.,—“convincere potest quemlibet profanum,” as Rosenm.,—is against the context, which speaks of things, τὰ τοῦ πν.,—besides that πάντα would not be used absolutely, for ‘every man,’ but either πάντα ἄνθρωπον, as Col 1:28, or τὸν πάντα), but himself is judged of by none (who is not also πνευματικός, see ch. 14:29; 1Jn 4:1, where such judgment is expressly attributed to Christian believers). καὶ γὰρ ὁ βλέπων, πάντα μὲν αὐτὸς καθορᾷ καὶ τοῦ μὴ βλέποντος, τὰ δὲ ἐκείνου τῶν μὴ βλεπόντων οὐδείς. Chrys. Hom. vii. p. 57.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. ὁ δὲ πνευματικός. The man in whom πνεῦμα has its rightful predominance, which it gains by being informed by, and united with, the Spirit of God, and in no other way. Man as man is a spiritual being, but only some men are actually spiritual; just as man is a rational being, but only some men are actually rational. Natural capacity and actual realization are not the same thing.

ἀνακρίνει μὲν πάντα. ‘He judges of everything’ ‘sifts every thing,’1Th 5:21; Php 1:10; contrast Rom 2:18. The whole Epistle exemplifies this principle in St Paul’s person (7:25, 8:1, 10:14, 11:1, etc.). Aristotle, in defining virtue, comes back to the judgment formed by the mature character: ὡς ἂν ὁ φρόνιμος ὁρίσειεν (Eth. Nic. 11. 6:15). ‘Judgeth’ (AV., RV.) does not quite give the meaning of what is expressed here: ‘examines’ is nearer to it.

αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπʼ οὐδενὸς ἀνακρίνεται. This perhaps means ‘by no non-spiritual person’ (cf. 1Jn 4:1). It does not mean that the spiritual man is above criticism (4:3, 4, 14:32; Rom 14:4). St Paul is not asserting the principle of Protagoras, that the individual judgment is for each man the criterion of truth; πάντων μέτρον ἄνθρωπος, τῶν μὲν ὄντων ὡς ἑστί τῶν δὲ μὴ ὄντοων ὡς οὐκ ἐστί. He is asserting, with Bishop Butler, the supremacy of conscience, and the right and duty of personal judgment. But it is the spiritual man who has this vantageground. The text has been perverted in more than one direction; on the one hand, as an excuse for the licence of persons whose conduct has stamped them as unspiritual, e.g. the Anabaptists of Münster; on the other, as a ground for the irresponsibility of ecclesiastical despotism in the mediæval Papacy, e.g. by Boniface viii. in the Bull Unam sanctam, and by Cornelius à Lapide on this passage. The principle laid down by St Paul gives no support to either anarchy or tyranny; it is the very basis of lawful authority, both civil and religious; all the more so, because it supplies the principle of authority with the necessary corrective.

ἀνακρίνεται. ‘Is judged of,’ ‘subjected to examination.’ See on 4:3, 4, 5, 9:3, 10:25, 27; also on Luk 23:14. Ἀνάκρισις (Act 25:26) was a legal term at Athens for a preliminary investigation, preparatory to the actual κρίσις, which for St Paul would have its analogue in ‘the day’ (4:5). Lightfoot gives examples of the way in which the Apostle delights to accumulate compounds of κρίνω (4:3, 6:1-6, 11:29-32; 2Co 10:12; Rom 2:1). By playing on words he sometimes illuminates great truths or important personal experiences.

א* omits the whole of this verse. A C D* F G omit μέν after ἀνακρίνει πάντα (א1 B D2 E F G L) is to be preferred to τὰ πάντα (A C D* P).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.