320 The Spiritual Man
spiritual ones know the mind of the Lord for they have a responsive
intuition. But the soulical cannot know because their intuition is not
operative; hence they enjoy no fellowship with God. The meaning
here is that the soulical can neither know the mind of the Lord nor
that of those spiritual ones who are fully committed to Him.
“But we.. .” indicates that the “we” is different from those
soulical people. “We” includes all the saved believers, many of
whom perhaps continue to be fleshly. “But we have the mind of
Christ.” We who have been regenerated, whether babes or grownups,
possess the mind of Christ and discern His thoughts. Because we
have a resurrected intuition we are able to know and have known
already what Christ has prepared for us in the future (v.9). The
soulical do not know, but we, the regenerate, do know. The
difference is in having or not having the spirit.
The Spiritual and the Fleshly“But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as
men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid
food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready”
(3.1-2). These words are closely related to the preceding verses and
their teaching follows the line laid down above which speaks of the
spirit of man. Now we all recognize that the dividing of the
Scriptures into chapters and verses was contrived for the convenience
of the readers and was not something at all revealed by the Holy
Spirit. These words of verses 1 and 2 of 1 Corinthians 3 should be
read in connection with those of the preceding chapter.
How incisive is Paul’s spiritual sense. He is acquainted with all
his readers, whether they are spiritual or fleshly, whether wholly
controlled by the spirit or frequently governed by the flesh. He does
not therefore disregard the condition of his reader’s receptivity and
pour out his thoughts at random simply because he is speaking of
spiritual affairs. He will only communicate “spiritual things with