Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 2:15

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

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.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

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.)

.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

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 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, (, 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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He that is spiritual, in this verse, is opposed to the natural man, in the former verse, to . 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 mans 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.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. He that is spiritualliterally,”the spiritual (man).” In 1Co2:14, it is “A [not ‘the,‘ as EnglishVersion] natural man.” The spiritual is theman distinguished above his fellow men, as he in whom the Spiritrules. In the unregenerate, the spirit which ought to be the organ ofthe Holy Spirit (and which is so in the regenerate), is overridden bythe animal soul, and is in abeyance, so that such a one is nevercalled “spiritual.”

judgeth all thingsandpersons, by their true standard (compare 1Co 6:2-4;1Jn 4:1), in so far as he isspiritual. “Discerneth . . . is discerned,” would betteraccord with the translation of the same Greek (1Co2:14). Otherwise for “discerned,” in 1Co2:14, translate, “judged of,” to accord with thetranslation, “judgeth . . . is judged” in this fifteenthverse. He has a practical insight into the verities of the Gospel,though he is not infallible on all theoretical points. If anindividual may have the Spirit without being infallible, why may notthe Church have the Spirit, and yet not be infallible (a refutationof the plea of Rome for the Church’s infallibility, from Mat 28:20;Joh 16:13)? As the believer andthe Church have the Spirit, and are yet not therefore impeccable, sohe and the Church have the Spirit, and yet are not infallible orimpeccable. He and the Church are both infallible and impeccable,only in proportion to the degree in which they are led by theSpirit. The Spirit leads into all truth and holiness; but Hisinfluence on believers and on the Church is as yet partial. Jesusalone, who had the Spirit without measure (Joh3:34), is both infallible and impeccable. Scripture, because itwas written by men, who while writing were infallibly inspired, isunmixed truth (Pro 28:5; 1Jn 2:27).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But he that is spiritual,…. Meaning not any particular individual person, not the pope of Rome, as his adherents vainly imagine, whom they fancy to be a supreme and infallible judge in things spiritual, from whose judgment is no appeal, and who himself comes not under the judgment of any; for he is so far from being a spiritual man, or having judgment in spiritual things, that he stands described as the man of sin, the son of perdition, the wicked one, the beast, to whom a mouth is given, speaking great things and blasphemies; but a set of men are here meant, and not such who are only outwardly reformed in their lives and conversations, who are at best but moral, and not spiritual men; nor all that have a form of godliness, an appearance of spirituality; there may be such who may have this, and yet deny the power of it, in which the principle and essence of spirituality lies; nor all such who have spiritual gifts, which may be where there is no spiritual grace; or that have a greater degree of spiritual knowledge than others, or that even have a greater degree of real grace than others; for though these are certainly spiritual men, 1Co 3:1 yet they are not the only ones; others that have less knowledge and grace, are spiritual also, and are comprehended in this character; much less does it design such who have no flesh or sin in them, for there are none without sin in the present state; and if this was essential to a spiritual man, there would be no spiritual man in the world; such are only the saints in heaven, who are without fault before the throne: and after the resurrection will have spiritual bodies, as well as their spirits or souls are now made perfect: but here a spiritual man intends every man that is born of the Spirit; seeing what is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, or spiritual; from whence the regenerate man is denominated spiritual, he is such an one that is quickened by the Spirit of God, and lives spiritually by faith on Christ; he breathes after spiritual things, salvation by Christ, and an interest in him, communion with God, conformity to Christ, pardon of sin, a justifying righteousness, and eternal life: he has spiritual senses, and these in exercise; he has a spiritual sight of things, of himself, and his lost state by nature, and of the person, grace, and things of Christ; he has a spiritual hearing of the Gospel, by which faith comes; he hears so as to live, and he lives so as that he hears the joyful sound with understanding, approbation, and acceptance; he has a spiritual taste of things, of the grace of God, the fruit of Christ, and the truths of the Gospel; and he smells a sweet savour in them; he has a spiritual feeling, he feels the weight and burden of sin, the gracious influences and operations of the Spirit, and handles Christ, the word of life: he talks the spiritual language of Canaan, and his speech betrays him to be a spiritual man; and he walks spiritually by faith on Christ, and in the paths of holiness, righteousness, and truth: he is one that is renewed by the Holy Spirit, in the spirit of his mind; has a new heart, and a new spirit put within him; and is become a new creature in Christ: he has the good work of grace wrought in his soul; and in him grace is the reigning principle; in him the Spirit of God himself dwells, and he is led by him out of himself to Christ, and into all truth, and walks after him, and not after the flesh: his conversation is spiritual and heavenly; he is spiritually minded, he minds not the things of the flesh, but the things of the Spirit; and though there is a great deal of carnality in him, in his thoughts, his words, and actions, yet this is matter of grief to him, and is his daily complaint: and such an one

judgeth all things; or “discerneth all things”; not all things in nature, or which fall within the compass of human knowledge; there are many things he may have no knowledge of, nor judgment in, being for the most part not the wise and prudent, but the foolish things of the world who are spiritual; but things divine and spiritual, the things of the Spirit of God, the doctrines of the Gospel before spoken of; and these not every difficult passage of Scripture, or knotty point of controversy, but the several articles of faith, necessary and essential to salvation; these are plain and easy to him, they stand before him in a clear light; as that salvation is alone by Christ, pardon by his blood, justification by his righteousness, c. these he has seen and tasted of, and relishes, and can discern things that differ, and approve those which are more excellent he can distinguish truth from error, and the voice of Christ from the voice of a stranger; and knows when the Gospel is preached, and when not, of which he judges by the word of God and his own experience: not that every spiritual man has a like degree of spiritual knowledge and judgment, but everyone discerns and judges according to the measure of the gift of Christ:

yet he himself is judged of no man; or “discerned of no man”: that is, not of any natural man; who is not capable of discerning and judging who and what he is; only a spiritual man can discern and judge of his spiritual light, grace, and state; as the churches of Christ do, when persons are proposed to, them for communion; the other knows him not, but takes him to be a weak, or a wicked man, an hypocrite and a deceiver; and it is a small thing with him to be judged of man’s judgment; he cares not what judgment the natural man passes upon him; nor does his faith in things spiritual, stand upon the authority and judgment of men; nor will he submit to it; nor can he be reproved, convinced, and refuted by such a person: for though a thousand sophistic arguments may be used with him which he cannot answer, he has a witness within himself to the truths of the Gospel, which opposes itself, and stands its ground against all objections; as with respect to the impurity of human nature, the impotency of man to anything that is spiritually good of himself, the insufficiency of his righteousness to justify him before God, the proper deity and real excellency of Christ, his blood and righteousness, and the internal work of the Spirit of God on the heart; sooner may a rock be removed out of its place, than a truly spiritual man can be convicted by a natural man of the falsehood of these things, of which he has had an inward experience, as well as is instructed in them by the word of God; nor can he be better taught and instructed by the natural man.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Judgeth all things ( ). The spiritual man ( ) is qualified to sift, to examine, to decide rightly, because he has the eyes of his heart enlightened (Eph 1:18) and is no longer blinded by the god of this world (2Co 4:4). There is a great lesson for Christians who know by personal experience the things of the Spirit of God. Men of intellectual gifts who are ignorant of the things of Christ talk learnedly and patronizingly about things of which they are grossly ignorant. The spiritual man is superior to all this false knowledge.

He himself is judged of no man ( ‘ ). Men will pass judgment on him, but the spiritual man refuses to accept the decision of his ignorant judges. He stands superior to them all as Polycarp did when he preferred to be burnt to saying, “Lord Caesar” in place of “Lord Jesus.” He was unwilling to save his earthly life by the worship of Caesar in place of the Lord Jesus. Polycarp was a man.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “But he that is spiritual” (Greek ho de pneumatikos) “But the spiritual man,” the man who has been begotten of the spirit of God, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5; 1Jn 5:1.

2) “Judgeth all things.” (anakrinei men panta) “discerns on one hand all things.” Because he has the Spirit of God, the regenerated has the comprehension power toward all things revealed by God’s Spirit, even the world and angels, 1Co 6:2-3.

3) “Yet he himself is judged of no man.” (Greek autos de hup oudenos anakrinetai) “moreover he himself (on the other hand) by no one is discerned or judged.” The unspiritual is moronic in attempt to discern, evaluate, or pass judgment upon the spiritual, the saints of God, Col 2:16-17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

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. (135) 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, (136) 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 (137) 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. (138) What he says afterwards, that

the spirit of one Prophet is subject to the other Prophets, (1Co 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, (139) may at length remain firm, and be received by all? Here, however, he places the science of faith, which has been received from God, (140) 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, (141) 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.

(135) “ En cest endroit “ — “In this matter.”

(136) “ Pour estre ou n’estre point selon qu’il leur plaira;” — “So as to be or not to be, according as it shall please them.”

(137) “ Et foy;” — “And faith.”

(138) “ N’est point suiete au plaisir des hommes, pour estre ou n’estre point, selon qu’ils voudront;” — “It is not subject to the pleasure of men, so as to be, or not to be, according as they shall choose.”

(139) “ La pure verite du Seigneur;” — “The pure truth of the Lord.”

(140) “ Mais yci il establit et conferme la science de roy, laquelle les eleus recoyuent de Dieu;” — “But here he establishes and confirms the science of faith, which the elect have received from God.”

(141) “ Et expresse;” — “And exact.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(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.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

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.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But the spiritual one (pneumatikos) judges all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.’

The second part of this verse is a quotation from Isa 40:13, ‘who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor has taught him?’ Or in LXX, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? And who has been his counsellor, to instruct him?’ Note how LXX equates the ‘mind of the Lord’ with the MT ‘Spirit of the Lord’. The point behind the words is that God’s thoughts are above man’s thoughts, so that man can neither understand His ways, know His mind, nor teach or direct Him. In context it puts His wisdom and knowledge as above and beyond all men.

‘But he who is spiritual judges all things, and he himself is judged of no man.’ Most see this as meaning that in contrast with the natural man who cannot spiritually judge them, the spiritual man can judge all ‘the things of the Spirit of God’, because he has the Spirit, and yet he cannot himself be judged by any man, that is, by any natural man. This is because the mind of the Lord cannot be known by the natural man, nor is man able to instruct Him. Thus the natural man cannot judge what is known by the spiritual man. However, in contrast, the spiritual man actually has the mind of Christ, because he has received the Spirit (note how the Spirit and the mind are equated by LXX). He therefore does himself know the mind of the Lord. He has entered into an understanding of spiritual things, because through the Spirit he has the mind of Christ.

As long as we do not apply the ideas in the verse too strictly this gives us a sound meaning. The spiritual man (literally ‘the spiritual one’), in contrast with the natural man, discerns the things of the Spirit, understands the things of the Spirit and stands beyond the world’s judgment on such matters, because he has the mind of Christ through His Spirit, so that he can, at least to some extent, know the mind of the Lord. This can only, of course, be seen as true ‘ideally’, and many would thus apply it strictly only to the knowledge and understanding of the word of the cross.

But the fact that it actually seems to fit ill with what is actually said comes out in that some therefore try to interpret it as referring to spiritual Christians as opposed to fleshly Christians (1Co 3:1). They are unhappy with the suggestion that it can apply to every Christian person, and thus they have to look for an alternative. But the whole idea of the passage is against such a change, for the contrast is between those who have the Spirit and those who do not. And the former must mean all Christians, for ‘if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His’ (Rom 8:9).

So the question must be asked as to whether, in view of the strength of the language, which commentators agree is difficult and which has to be argued around, this fully explains the significance of the verse. Can every spiritual man, even granted that he has received the Spirit, ‘judge (or discern) all things’, even if we mean all things spiritual, when it is to Jesus alone that ‘all things’ have been made known (see 1Co 2:10; Mat 11:27; Luk 10:22; Joh 3:35; Joh 4:25; Joh 5:20; Joh 13:3; Joh 16:30). The answer can only be ‘potentially’, and that is not really satisfactory, especially in view of the words of Scripture that follow. It is true that the Apostles were to have ‘all things’ that Jesus had spoken to them revealed to them (Joh 14:26); and that Jesus had made known to them ‘all things’ that He had heard from His Father (Joh 15:15), but this was to the Apostles alone and had a specialist meaning. This was spoken to them in their unique position as those who had to remember and pass on the words of Jesus, and it had in mind what Jesus had taught them. It is also true that to the new man in Christ ‘all things’ become new (2Co 5:17), but that refers to the whole of their lives, and while including spiritual awareness does not suggest spiritual awareness of ‘all things’. So these are not really identical. In fact the only verses in which an unqualified ‘all things’ in relation to knowledge is described, apart from those speaking of Jesus above, are 2Ti 2:7, where Timothy was to be given understanding in ‘all things’, and 1Jn 2:20 where those ‘with an anointing from the Holy One’ know ‘all things’. The latter is fairly close to this. However it there referred to the church as a whole and not to every individual Christian. It is doubtful if John would have suggested that each believer knew all things. Timothy was clearly seen as an exception. Thus the idea that every Christian is ‘spiritual’ and as such can unequivocally judge ‘all things’ would, if it were correct, be unique to this passage. For although it is true that ‘all things’ might mean ‘all the things of the Spirit of God’ which the natural man cannot receive (1Co 2:14), without qualification its very starkness seems to suggest more than that. To Paul there is no limit. On the other hand the verses cited above demonstrate that this  is  clearly true of Jesus.

Furthermore can we in fact say that every spiritual man is not judgeable by ‘any man’? For while in the passage ‘man’ has tended to signify the natural man in contrast to the Spirit, the thought here again seems so stark as to mean any man at all. Both ideas seem all-inclusive. Able to judge/discern all and themselves unjudgeable. Surely this is not true of every individual Christian.

And when we add to this that this one not only knows the mind of the Lord, but can also ‘instruct’ Him, we must pause and ask ourselves, of whom could this be true? And we must surely reply, ‘this can only be true of God alone’.

Thus it would seem that here Paul does one of his quick switches whereby he comes to a climax by introducing Christ Himself into the exposition. It would suggest that it is He Who is ‘the Spiritual One’, in Whom we then partake of ‘spirituality’. For the verse goes on to suggest quite firmly that in fact no one can know the mind of the Lord or instruct the Lord, and this would be true of all; other, of course, than the Lord Himself. Thus it would seem that here he is turning attention to the only true Spiritual One, the Crucified One in His glory, He Who alone judges all things, He Who alone can be judged by none, He Who alone knows the mind of the Lord, He Who alone can even ‘instruct’ Him, having had all things delivered into His hands (Joh 13:3; Joh 16:15; Mat 11:27). This would then explain the change from ‘mind of the Lord’ to the ‘mind of Christ’, as the latter would then be a direct application of the idea to us, directly connecting us with Christ ‘the Spiritual One’, having made Him the main person in the equation.

The thought then is that in contrast to the natural man (seen as a whole as in chapter 15 compare also Rom 5:12-21) is the Spiritual One. This then ties in with the expansion of such a thought in 1Co 15:44-49 where the ‘natural’ is again contrasted with the ‘spiritual’, Adam is natural, Christ is spiritual (1Co 15:44-45), the first man is natural, the second man is spiritual (1Co 15:46-47). So in Paul’s mind the contrast with the natural man is not spiritual men, but Christ, the second man, the spiritual man. Once that is established as true here the conclusion then follows that because we are ‘in Him’ (1Co 1:2; 1Co 1:5), because we are made one with Him, united in His body in which He was crucified, we are in Him made spiritual and have His mind, and are thus able to discern what none other can discern. We are ‘spiritual’ in Him, enjoying discernment through His Spirit. This then fits in well with why at the same time the Corinthians can be ‘fleshly’ (1Co 3:1) when they should be revealing their ‘spiritual’ side which they have in Christ, and why Paul can immediately judge them, having declared them unjudgeable.

Taking ‘He Who is the Spiritual One’ as Christ then reminds us that He alone is the One Who is ‘spiritual’ in the fullest sense, the One Who was ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (Luk 4:1), the One to Whom the Spirit was given without measure (Joh 3:34), the One in Whom thus dwells all the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and all the fullness of the Godhead (Col 2:9), the One Who Himself sends the Holy Spirit to His own and baptises with the Holy Spirit. And thus He is put beyond man’s judgment or ability to examine, for they do not and cannot know the mind of the Lord in order that they might instruct Him, or indeed condemn Him. And because He is the truly spiritual One He can judge all things, and will Himself judge men at the last day (Joh 5:22; Joh 5:27; Joh 12:48).

‘We have the mind of Christ.’ But what is true of them is also true of His own. ‘We.’ That is ‘we who have received the Spirit and who truly proclaim Christ and Him the crucified One, and who are one with Him in His body as the crucified One.’ ‘Have the mind of Christ.’ This means the mind of Christ communicated to us by the Spirit, and illuminated by the Spirit, so that we are able to understand the things of Christ. It is imparted to us by the Spirit, signifying thus that because Christ Himself is in us we can know the unknowable mind of the Lord (compare Eph 3:17-19). This reminds us that, whichever interpretation we follow, all Christians are to be seen as joined with Him because they have been given His mind through the Spirit. Thus they enter into all He enters into.

It hardly need to be pointed out that here the mind of Christ is equated with the mind of the Lord of the Old Testament, the mind of Yahweh, in such a way as to indicate their oneness. Paul is in no doubt concerning the full Godhood of Jesus.

So we conclude that however we interpret ‘the spiritual one’ the basic idea of the verse is the same for we can only have the mind of Christ, and thus be spiritual ones, when we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection (1Co 10:16-17; 1Co 12:12-13; Rom 6:5; compare Eph 1:19 to Eph 2:10), that is, when we have received the word of the cross. It is only the emphasis which is different. But it seems to me that the best contrast with ‘the natural man, the Adamic man, is Christ as the second man, the spiritual man in Whom all His own find their own spirituality.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 2:15 . He who is spiritual, on the other hand, judges all things, but is for his own part ( ) judged by no one ; so lofty is his position, high above all the , to whom he is a riddle, not to be read by their unenlightened powers of judging, to which are folly!

] he who stands under the influence of the Holy Spirit, enlightened and led by Him. Comp on in 1Co 2:14 .

] (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 (Ewald: “all the deepest and most salutary divine truths”), the of which, on the part of the , 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 (1Th 5:21 ) for all that offers itself to him to be judged. How often has Paul himself displayed this , 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.; Phi 4:11 ff.

] namely, who is not also . This follows necessarily from the foregoing . . 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 , 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 s. vere collustratis dignoscere possum” (Pott); or : “Convincere quemlibet profanum erroris potest” (Nsselt, Rosenmller). Were the reading genuine, and masculine, it is only the first of these renderings that would be admissible; for, according to ver. 14, . cannot mean erroris convincere (against Nsselt), and to restrict to the profane would be entirely unwarranted by the context, as is plain from in ver. 14 (against Nsselt 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.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1943
ADVANTAGES OF THE SPIRITUAL MAN

1Co 2:15-16. He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself 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.

TO claim, in the behalf of any person, a pre-eminence and distinction which does not belong to him, is invidious and unwise; but to prefer such a claim in behalf of persons on account of some peculiarity in their religious sentiments or feelings, would be an act of palpable impiety. In proclaiming, therefore, the advantages of a spiritual man above those who are only carnal, I would proceed with extreme caution, lest I should appear to arrogate in his behalf what does not truly and properly belong to him. Yet we must not dissemble, that the Scriptures do paint in very bright colours the privileges of the true Christian; and that he is represented as a child of light, whilst others are children of darkness; yea, and as a child of God too, whilst others are declared to be the children of the wicked one.
It is evident that there is in the passage before us a comparison drawn between the natural and the spiritual man. The natural man is he who has nothing but what he possesses by nature, or has acquired by his natural powers: the spiritual man is one who has been enlightened and renewed by the Spirit of God. The former, in all his views, desires, and pursuits, is circumscribed by the things of time and sense: the latter soars to spiritual things, and lives, as it were, in a sublimer atmosphere, the element of heaven.
Of these latter the Apostle speaks in the words which I have just read; which will lead me to set before you,

I.

The advantage which the spiritual man enjoys above all others

He judges all things
[Of course, we must understand this observation as relating to those things only which come properly before him as a spiritual man: for, in relation to arts and sciences, or indeed to any thing which is within the reach of the natural man, he has no advantage whatever. Solomon speaks in the same unqualified terms: Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord, understand all things [Note: Pro 28:5.] St. John also uses nearly the same language: Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things [Note: 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27.]. But common sense, as well as experience, shews, that we must limit the assertion to those things which pertain to the salvation of the soul. And here I might enumerate a great variety of things: but I will content myself with specifying two, which will carry their own evidence along with them.

The spiritual man, then, discerns (that is the meaning of the word, which we translate judgeth, and it is so translated in the margin of our Bibles) wherein true happiness consists: he sees it, knows it, feels it, and has his judgment completely made up upon it. He discerns that his happiness, as a rational and immortal being, is bound up in communion with God as a reconciled God and Father, and in a conformity to his image. By this view of happiness, all earthly things are cut off at once from any share of this honour, any further than they are made subservient to the bringing of Almighty God nigh unto us, or to the transformation of our souls into his likeness. In forming this judgment, the spiritual man inquires what constituted the happiness of man in his first creation. And here he has no more doubt than he has about the happiness of the heavenly hosts. And with this agrees his own experience. For he can have no comfort in his soul whilst he is in doubt whether God is reconciled to him, or whilst the light of Gods reconciled countenance is hid from him. Nor can he find any true comfort whilst he feels within him any reigning sin, or any unmortified lust whatever

Next, he discerns the means by which alone this happiness can be attained. He sees that it can be attained only by the simple exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by that only that he can obtain reconciliation with God, or a sense of the Divine favour in his soul. It is by that alone that he can obtain the witness of the Spirit, or the earnest of the Spirit, or the sealing of the Spirit, which are necessary to elevate his soul above all earthly things: as the Apostle has said; This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith [Note: 1Jn 5:4.]. It is by that, too, that he attains the Divine image on his soul, even by the faith that purifieth the heart [Note: Act 15:9. 2Co 3:18.]. In a word, it is by the simple exercise of faith that he receives every thing out of the fulness that is in Christ, and is filled with that love of Christ that constrains him, as a mighty torrent, to live no more unto himself, but unto Him who died for him, and rose again [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.].]

But he himself is judged and discerned of no man
[The natural man does not discern these things. However he may speculate upon such things, there is not a natural man in the whole world that truly and practically discerns them, so as to hare the same fixed judgment in relation to them that the spiritual man has. The natural man knows not how to estimate the spiritual man, either in relation to his principles or conduct. Judge him indeed he will, and confidently enough; setting him down for a weak enthusiast, if not for a designing hypocrite. But, to form a just estimate of him, he has no power. He has no idea of spiritual enjoyment; no conception of the efficacy of faith: consequently the experience of the spiritual man appears to him a mere delusion, a fanatical conceit. His pretensions to joys which the natural man never experienced, appear as wild as if he claimed the possession of a sense which none but himself and a few other favoured persons had ever exercised. Suppose, for instance, when all the world besides were destitute of some one of the senses that we enjoy; say, of sight, or hearing, or smelling; and one were to profess that he was enabled by that particular organ to distinguish things which the others could not perceive; would they not account him a deceiver? Just so do the ungodly world account the true Christian, who by faith discerns the excellency of those things which never were discerned by the eye of sense: they are ready to exclaim, as Felix to Paul, Thou art beside thyself: much learning (or much conceit) hath made thee mad. But Paul was not mad: nor are they mad who seek their happiness in the way before described. If they appear so, it is because their principles and conduct are not duly appreciated. Not that he has any new sense: for that he certainly has not. But a new perception he has [Note: Php 1:9-10. See the Greek, .]: and by means of that he is enabled to judge of these things as they are. At the same time, he himself is judged of no man; because no natural man does view things as they are; he never takes eternity sufficiently into his account: if he did, he would see, at once, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do thereafter: the praise of it endureth for ever [Note: Psa 111:10.].]

Let me now proceed to point out,

II.

The true source of his superiority

The natural man possesses not that kind of knowledge whereby to instruct him
[What, I would ask, is the standard of true wisdom? Is it not the mind of the Lord? Is there a man in all the world that believes in a divine revelation, and will, for a moment, controvert this truth? Let this, then, be settled in our minds: let this be admitted as a point agreed upon by all parties: let this be laid down as an axiom, which admits of no doubt:
The mind of the Lord is the only standard of true wisdom.
Now then, I will ask, What natural man knows that mind? There are but two ways in which he can know it; namely, either by the written word alone, or by a special revelation of it to his soul. But by the written word alone (whether with human instruction, or without) he cannot understand it; as we are told in the words before my text: 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 [Note: ver. 14.]. As for a spiritual revelation of them to his soul, that is out of the question: for if he had that, he would already have become a spiritual man: but, not having received that, he neither knows, nor can know, the mind of the Lord; and consequently cannot instruct the spiritual man, either in a way of refutation, or of more accurate and enlarged information. If he attempt to dogmatize on such subjects, he will only betray his own ignorance, which even a babe, if taught of God, will discover.]

But the spiritual man possesses that very knowledge which is requisite for his guidance in the divine life
[He has the mind of Christ: he has it revealed to his soul by the Spirit of God: as St. Paul has said, God hath given him the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of his Son [Note: Eph 1:17-18.]. Nay, he is himself one spirit with Christ [Note: 1Co 6:17.], and has in him the very mind that was in Christ [Note: Php 2:5.]. He has, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, the very law of God himself written in his heart [Note: Jer 31:33.]; so that he may be seen and known of all men to be an epistle of Christ, written, not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God [Note: 2Co 3:3.]. True, indeed, he always needs fresh instruction from above; and will, even to his dying hour, have occasion for that prayer, What I know not, teach thou me. At first he is only a babe, and unskilful in the word of righteousness: and it is not till after his spiritual senses have been long exercised to discern both good and evil [Note: Heb 5:13-14.], that he attains the fuller mind of Christ. But, even as a babe, he has opened to his view things which are hid from the wise and prudent [Note: Mat 11:25.]; and an inward monitor, saying, This is the way, walk thou in it [Note: Isa 30:21. with Mat 12:34-35.]. Hence, therefore, whatever superiority a natural man may have over him in relation to the things of time and sense, he is himself superior to the natural man in reference to the things of the Spirit; nor can the natural man either add any thing unto him, or correct him.]

What then shall I say? I will say to every one that is taught of the Spirit,
1.

Regard not the ridicule of an ignorant and ungodly world

[They will ridicule you; and they will despise you; and they will represent all your pursuits as folly: but they know not what they say; nor do they understand whereof they affirm. Nay, they themselves have a secret consciousness, that, at least in the main you are right. This do then: Ask them if they are right: ask them on what their own conduct is founded, whether on the commands of God, or on the dictates of the world. Ask them which is the more likely to issue well at last, a life of worldly conformity, or a life devoted to God. I mean not by this to encourage any thing that is really enthusiastic or absurd. You must doubtless walk in wisdom towards them that are without, and give no occasion to any one to speak reproachfully: but you must nevertheless maintain a holy and consistent conduct; and, if reproached or persecuted for righteousness sake, you must rejoice [Note: Mat 5:11-12.], and bless God, who has counted you worthy of such an honour [Note: Act 5:41. with 1Co 4:3.].]

2.

Study diligently the mind of God in his word

[That, as we have observed, is the one only standard either for faith or practice; and from that alone can the mind of God be ascertained. Though the Spirit is necessary for your guidance into truth, it is only by and through the word that he will instruct you. He will not bring to your minds any one truth that is not there revealed. Study, therefore, the word; and study it with fervent prayer to God for the teaching of his good Spirit: and never adopt, either in sentiment or practice, any one thing which may not be clearly proved by Gods written word.]

3.

Let your pretensions to the mind of Christ be justified by your conformity to his example

[if you have indeed the mind of Christ, you will undoubtedly walk as he walked [Note: 1Jn 2:6.]. He came, not only to redeem you by his blood, but also to set you an example, that you should follow his steps [Note: 1Pe 2:21.]. Let it be seen, then, that Christ is with you of a truth: that in all your tempers and dispositions you resemble him; in your deadness to the world; in your devotedness to God; in your meekness and patience, your kindness and benevolence, your purity and holiness, your self-denial and zeal. It is by this only that the world can judge of your pretensions to a superior knowledge of his mind: and by this will your improvement of your advantages be tried in the last day. Shew that, in these respects, you are one with Christ now [Note: Joh 17:21.]; and doubt not but you shall be one with him, to all eternity, in a better world.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

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.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

15. ] But (on the contrary) the spiritual man (he, in whom the rules: and since by man’s fall the is overridden by the animal soul, and in abeyance, this always presupposes the infusion of the Holy Spirit, to quicken and inform the so that there is no such thing as an unregenerate ) judges of all things (Meyer, reading , 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 as masc. sing., “convincere potest quemlibet profanum,” as Rosenm., is against the context, which speaks of things , ., besides that would not be used absolutely, for ‘every man,’ but either , as Col 1:28 , or ), but himself is judged of by none (who is not also , see ch. 1Co 14:29 ; 1Jn 4:1 , where such judgment is expressly attributed to Christian believers). , , . Chrys. Hom. vii. p. 57.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

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 , the Divine power creatively working in the man and imparted to him, the 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 ; 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] ). (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 (the man of character), , ; Plato, De Rep. , iii., 409 [442] (quoted by Ed [443] ), ascribes the same universally critical power to . Paul’s judges in virtue of a Divine, all-searching Presence within him; Aristotle’s , in virtue of his personal qualities and attainments. Paul admirably displays in this Ep. the powers of the as . There are, of course, limits to the exercise of the , in the position and opportunities of the individual.

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

[441] plural.

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

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

, “while he himself is put on trial by none,” since none other possesses the probe of truth furnished by the ; the 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 (1Co 3:1 ), his spiritual judgment is vitiated; to that extent he puts himself within the measure of the ( cf. 1Jn 3:1 ; 1Jn 4:5 ). If , after , 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. , 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.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

judgeth = discerneth.

judged. As discerned, above.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

15.] But (on the contrary) the spiritual man (he, in whom the rules: and since by mans fall the is overridden by the animal soul, and in abeyance, this always presupposes the infusion of the Holy Spirit, to quicken and inform the -so that there is no such thing as an unregenerate ) judges of all things (Meyer, reading , 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 as masc. sing.,-convincere potest quemlibet profanum, as Rosenm.,-is against the context, which speaks of things, .,-besides that would not be used absolutely, for every man, but either , as Col 1:28, or ), but himself is judged of by none (who is not also , see ch. 1Co 14:29; 1Jn 4:1, where such judgment is expressly attributed to Christian believers). , , . Chrys. Hom. vii. p. 57.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 2:15. ) There is great beauty here in the addition of the article [the spiritual man]; [a natural man] is without the article.-, 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.-) he himself.- , by no) natural man.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 2:15

1Co 2:15

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things,-He that is endowed with the Spirit discerns and discriminates what is of God, and teaches all things God reveals.

and he himself is judged of no man.-Those not endowed with the presence of the divine Spirit are not capable of discriminating and determining whether the things taught by the inspired men are of God or not. An inspired man alone could judge of the fidelity of inspired men in teaching the will of God. This refers to the original revelations. Men now test all teaching by the truths delivered by the inspired men. They instruct us to believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1Jn 4:1).

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

he that: 1Co 3:1, 1Co 14:37, Gal 6:1, Col 1:9

judgeth: or, discerneth, 2Sa 14:17, 1Ki 3:9-11, Psa 25:14, Pro 28:5, Ecc 8:5, Joh 7:17, Eph 4:13, Eph 4:14, Phi 1:10,*Gr: 1Th 5:21, Heb 5:14, 1Jo 4:1

yet: 1Co 4:5, 2Sa 12:16-23, Act 15:1-5, Act 16:3, Gal 2:3-5

judged: or, discerned

Reciprocal: 1Sa 17:29 – General 2Sa 12:21 – What thing 2Ki 18:22 – whose high places Neh 6:12 – I perceived Job 34:3 – the ear Pro 8:9 – General Isa 36:7 – is it not Mat 16:23 – thou savourest Mar 2:16 – How Luk 7:35 – General Joh 7:8 – I go not Joh 8:15 – judge Joh 11:31 – She goeth 1Co 4:3 – it is 1Co 14:24 – he is convinced Col 1:28 – in all 1Jo 2:20 – and ye

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT

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

1Co 2:15

It is sometimes said that the evidence for the revelation made to man by our heavenly Father must be in all reason and justice precisely the same as the evidence on which we accept any other truth. Yet 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.

I. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees truths which are not seen by men who have no such hunger or 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 he has this within him, facts which are clear to him, and as time goes on become ever clearer, which are not perceived and cannot be perceived by others that are unlike him as he perceives them, perhaps are not perceived and cannot be perceived at all. 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 he cannot be content with them. When 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.

II. 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; not the blackest sin shall shut out the sinner from the power of believing, provided there still remain the power of longing for higher things, even though that longing be of the faintest and feeblest. But if that be absolutely gone, and cannot be revived, of what value would any revelation be to the soul? The revelation of God matches and meets the aspiration of man.

III. If now it be asked what judgment can be formed of those who notwithstanding have come to the conclusion 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. It is conceivable that it may still be alive and yet have lost its power to apply itself to such questions as these. It is conceivable that the circumstances of life may have allowed it to remain dormant in the soul. It is strange, but yet it seems to be true, that sometimes the absence of all grave temptation, and consequently of all need for serious spiritual conflict, has a tendency to lull the highest of all faculties to sleep. 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.

Archbishop Temple.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 2:15. He that is spiritual–he who does take such a spiritual view of these subjects coming through the Spirit of God, as set forth in the preceding verse, will be able to realize what they mean, which is denoted by the phrase judgeth [“discerneth”] all things. He himself is judged [“discerned”] of no man. The last word means the natural man described in verse 14. Such a man will not recognize the spiritual truths possessed by the man described in the first phrase of this verse.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 2:15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all thingsnot only those spiritual things which the natural man cannot judge, but also those which belong to the natural mans own domain, and which he only views in their true light.

Yet he himself is judged of no man (who is not spiritual).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

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.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

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, , 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.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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 , to judge. In virtue of the sway exercised by the , 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 , 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 , some Mjj. read , which would here designate the totality of things, absolutely speaking. It is more natural to read without the article: All things, each as it presents itself. Several commentators make this 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 , 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 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.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

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

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

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 Gods 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 Gods 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.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 15

Judgeth all things; understandeth all things, that is, all spiritual truths.–Is judged of no man; his character and motives are not appreciated or understood by mankind in general.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

1Co 2:15. The spiritual man: 1Co 3:1; Gal 6:1 : whose inner and outer life is ruled by the Spirit of God, in contrast to one ruled by his animal nature.

All things: men and things; see 1Co 1:27. So far as we are under the influence of the Spirit of God do we sift the men and things around us and discover their real moral worth. Thus the Spirit within us casts a light on objects around us. So 1Jn 2:20.

By no one; i.e. destitute of the Spirit. While the spiritual man, from his higher point of view, looks through and understands the purposes and motives of worldly men, his own purposes and motives are to them an insoluble mystery. And this in proportion as he is guided by the Spirit.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

2:15 {14} But he that is spiritual {r} judgeth all things, yet {15} he himself is judged of {s} no man.

(14) He amplifies the matter by opposites.

(r) Understands and discerns.

(15) The wisdom of the flesh, Paul says, determines nothing certainly, no not in its own affairs, much less can it discern strange, that is, spiritual things. But the Spirit of God, with which spiritual men are endued, can by no means be deceived, and therefore be reproved by any man.

(s) Of no man: for when the prophets are judged of the prophets, it is the Spirit that judges, and not the man.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

In contrast to the natural man stands the spiritual (Gr. pneumatikos) man. He or she is a mature Christian (cf. 1Co 3:1). One of the things the spiritual person is able to do is appraise or make judgments (Gr. anakrino) regarding all things. In other words, the spiritual person has discernment. This affects his values and decisions. For this very reason he is a puzzle to the natural man. The profane person cannot understand holiness, but the holy person can understand the depths of evil. Even carnal fellow believers cannot fully understand the spiritually mature person. That is all right, in one sense, because the spiritual person’s judge is ultimately God, not other people. [Note: See Charles C. Ryrie, "What Is Spirituality?" Bibliotheca Sacra 126:503 (July-September 1969):204-13, or idem, Balancing the Christian Life, pp. 12-23.]

This verse is not saying believers are responsible only to God but that the Christian is answerable to God alone ultimately (cf. 1Co 4:3-4). Paul recognized the value of church discipline (1Co 5:3-8), constructive criticism (1Co 11:17-18), and self-judgment (1Co 11:31) as having immediate value.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)