is used here. Paul is saying that he that is spiritual has this special ca pacity to understand, to evaluate, to interpret, all things. Now one of the concepts wrapped up in that Greek word "kreno" is the idea of separating. That is crucial, is it not, in under standing. We must be able to dis tinguish between good and evil. We must know what is a right course of action to take. Verse 15 says that the spiritual Christian is himself judged or eval uated. It is the same Greek word, with the same prefix. And verse 16, I think, underscores this fact—that this man is not understood. It says, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." There is this separating power, this process, that Christ had in spir itual things. We find that we have this same capacity because God empowers us. One thing here that is signifi cant is that only God is capable of fully understanding us. The natur al man cannot. Looking back at verse 14, we see the problem that breaks down this process of the communication of spiritual truth. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." The word "n a tu ra l" in the phrase "natural man" is not a neg ative term. It is the Greek word "psuchikos" and it simply gives the the idea that he is a living being. It is not saying that man is evil. It is not saying that man is off- base. It is simply saying that he does not have the spiritual dimen sion that can receive the spiritual message. He is a one-dimensional Page 47
would like to be heard. Your ra dio is tuned to a specific station. As we look at I Corinthians and the last few verses of chapter two, we want to consider the spiritual Christian who has the capacity to receive the spiritual message that God has for him. Paul writes, "But he that is spir itual judgeth all things, yet he him self is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." The spiritual Christian is a two- dimensional man. Verse 15 says, "he that is spiritual judgeth all things." I think by contrast it is saying that the man that is not spiritual cannot judge all things. If you are living just on the human level, if you have been born only of flesh but not of the Spirit of God, you cannot understand the things of the Spirit at all. You can understand only those things that are on the human level. But through belief in Christ and then through yielding to the Spirit, we have an added dimension. We have the added capacity of receiving and understanding spiritual things and God's wisdom. The spiritual person is a two- dimensional man. He knows what is happening in both realms. He can judge all things. The word "judgment" here is particularly in teresting. The Greeks had a word "kreno" that simply meant "to judge." As we look at that word we might be prone to say, "Well, that is rendering a decision. That is passing down a legal sentence." But judging in the sense of "kreno" also carried with it the idea of interpretation, evaluation or anal ysis. That is the sense in which it
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