God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 2:14 Spiritual things
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, November 17, 2022
14 But the unspiritual man does not accept the thoughts that come from the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined.
It was not very long ago that the concepts of reason and rational thought were nearly supreme concepts in the world. If a subject could not be reasonably explained, it was discarded. If a topic was not rational, it was a curiosity, a dabbling in spiritualism and communicating with the dead through mediums, a thing for 19th century women of certain circles to explore, or so their husbands and fathers quipped, but no truly “intelligent” person would explore such things. For a while, lingering fascination with horoscopes was the only remnant of this, until in the 1980s the money-making possibility of pay-per-call spiritualism woke a dying monster, and the whole craze got started up again.
Today, theologians must wrestle in a new arena. The world thinks that “being spiritual” is an appropriate thing for any educated person to say, so much so that many Christians are easily lured into the path of “being spiritual” rather than the path of Christ, and they truly don’t know the difference. If we can recognize the devil’s usual tactic of flipping everything upside down, then we can understand that Paul’s words about unspiritual persons includes everyone who says that they are “spiritual” by today’s standards. The world wants to define “spiritual” as connecting with “something” higher, especially with the goal of finding meaning to life. It allows for Christian faith, but like a camel sticking its nose into the tent, it soon reveals that it would rather shove Christ outside to make room for (who else, but) the individual, the creature rather than the Creator. Therefore, since the world is trying to change the definition of what spiritual means, we will refer to Paul’s use of “spiritual” by the term “truly spiritual” where necessary.
Paul says that “the unspiritual man does not accept the thoughts that come from the Spirit of God.” God’s revelation in his Word is the only principle of perceiving and understanding the true religion and theology. Jesus showed this clearly when he said, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). Jesus’ word for “know” is epiginosko (ἐπιγινώσκω), which means to know or recognize someone or something. A man cannot even recognize God the Father if he does not believe what Christ has said and done. Any attempt to be “spiritual” apart from Christ is idolatry.
When man employs reason to religion, he uses his intellect as a tool. It is not as if theology or religion is a tool or a guest. For example, the human reason of some might imagine that the “word of God,” or God’s speaking in the creation account, is nothing but the divine command, and that the “spirit of God” could be (since ruach also means “wind, breath or air” besides meaning “spirit”) nothing but the air or wind moving over the created world on the first day, and therefore neither the word of God nor the spirit of God is a Person of the Trinity (this was an argument of the Socinians and might well be made by the Unitarians today).
A pastor answers: “Neither air nor wind existed on the first day of creation. Furthermore, God did not employ wind in the creation of light, or use any creature. Also, why is the wind called the ‘wind of God,’ but heaven is not called the ‘heaven of God’ or earth the ‘earth of God’? Since creation, a most excellent work, is ascribed to the Word and the Spirit of God, personality cannot be denied to them. For the works of creation are works of self-subsistent beings. The leading of the Israelites out of Egypt bears witness to the Trinity of divine persons. God the Father led the Israelites out of Egypt through the angel as guide (Exodus 14:19). The ancient rabbis called him Metatron—the one who marks or leads the way. He is not a created angel, but uncreated. Certainly he is the Son of God.”
We must also see that there is a difference between the reason of the regenerate person (who has faith) and the unregenerate (who does not). The believer (the regenerate person) recognizes and understands God’s Word. “(God strengthens you with power) to grasp how wide, how long, and how deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:16,18). “In reading this, the mystery made known by revelation, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:3 and 3:4).
In any case, reason must remain a servant, a tool used by faith and not the other way around. “Reason is not the leader of theology,” Pastor Hollaz says, “but a humble follower. Let Hagar serve her mistress as her servant, let her not command; when she presumes to command, she must be banished from the sacred home.”
The truly spiritual person grasps what the Scriptures say on account of his faith reigning in his mind, silencing the childish chattering of his reason when necessary in order to listen to the truly spiritual words of Christ. This is God working in his heart and mind, above and beyond the limits of the flesh, because faith is a gift that sinful man is unable to grasp on his own. “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven’” (Matthew 16:17).
Cherish your faith, and cherish the incomparable blessing of the holy Scriptures. They are the source of all doctrine, all teaching about salvation. To paraphrase Luther, the Scriptures were written so that even uneducated people might have a clear account of the Gospel. So hold onto the Scriptures and your faith like a candle and its flame: the Bible, and my faith in the Bible. You have both. Praise God from whom such blessings flow.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.