1 CORINTHIANS 2:13\u201316<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2026 nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned<\/i><\/p>\n
(1 Cor. 2:14)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Paul makes a final defense of his preaching against those who would discredit him and his doctrines as foolish by emphasizing the source of his teaching. He says that \u201cthese things we also speak.\u2026 comparing spiritual things with spiritual,\u201d or in other words, joining spiritual things to spiritual words, or, explaining the things of the Spirit in the words of the Spirit. Though the words Paul used did not impress the orators of Corinth and the philosophers of his day, they were the words taught to him by the Spirit.<\/p>\n
Natural men, those who do not have the Spirit, cannot discern the excellency, the truth, the beauty of such spiritual teaching, of the proclamation of Christ crucified. \u201cTo know God is to discern His truth and excellence; to know the truth is to apprehend it as true and good,\u201d Hodge wrote. \u201cThe wise are the good, that is, those who discern the truth and excellence of divine things. The fools are the wicked, those who are insensible to truth and goodness. What, therefore, the apostle here affirms of the natural or unrenewed man is, that he cannot discern the truth, excellence or beauty of divine things. He cannot do it. It is not simply that he does not do it; or that he will not do it, but he cannot.\u2026 That is because [the things of the Spirit] are discerned through the Spirit. Therefore those who have not the Spirit cannot discern them.\u201d Once again, Paul is talking about those hidden mysteries of the Gospel, not of those things that all men can speculatively know and are responsible for knowing. The unrenewed man cannot know the way of salvation in Christ, the work upon the Cross, the excellency of divine wisdom, and the glory of God in man\u2019s redemption. These things of the Spirit are foreign to the unrenewed mind.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the unbeliever has no ground, no authority, on which to judge the believer and his doctrine. Paul\u2019s critics judged his preaching as foolish, but in doing so they judged God Himself. To call Christian doctrine foolish is to call God foolish because Christians have the mind of Christ. \u201cThis teaches how firm a foundation the believer has for his faith,\u201d Hodge wrote, \u201cand how impossible it is for any one taught by the Spirit to give up his convictions to the authority of men.\u201d<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Leviticus 23\u201324<\/p>\n
Mark 2<\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Leviticus 25\u2013Numbers 2<\/p>\n
Mark 3<\/p>\n
Do you ever turn red-faced when someone criticizes Christianity? Do you ever feel slightly embarrassed that unbelievers think your beliefs are irrational, extreme, or even irrelevant? What kind of attitude and answer did Paul have for such criticisms? In what ways do you need to follow the example set by Paul?<\/p>\n
For further study: Isa. 40:12\u201314 \u2022 Rom. 8:1\u201311 \u2022 Phil. 2:5\u201311<\/i><\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 CORINTHIANS 2:13\u201316 \u2026 nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Paul makes a final defense of his preaching against those who would discredit him and his doctrines as foolish by emphasizing the source of his teaching. He says that \u201cthese things we also speak.\u2026 comparing spiritual things with … Continue reading “DISCREDITING THE CRITICS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}