The Mind of Christ

The Natural Person and the Spiritual Person in 1 Corinthians 2

If you don't mind remaining standing, let us read 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 6. And yeah, we're in the series in community, and this is the final message we'll be having from 1 Corinthians. We've been going through and we're going to end here in 1 Corinthians 2.

However, Josh is going to bring a couple messages in the next few weeks about related passages having to do with community and unity, Acts 2, Psalm 133, which is the psalm that we've been singing at the beginning of each service.

So it's not over yet, but this is the final passage in 1 Corinthians. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depth of God, for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of the person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

And then today's text. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is his mind of Christ?

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come together to hear about this great truth, having the mind of Christ, I pray that you would open our eyes, you would open our ears to receive all that you have for us.

I pray that by your Spirit we would have the mind of Christ and that it would help us to be more like your Son and that it would draw us closer together in unity. I pray that your will would be accomplished among us this morning, that it would be on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. So I'd like to start off by asking you to think of a time when you ever felt judged, judged by someone, for something that wasn't sinful, right, when someone was being judgmental towards you.

Okay, hopefully you can think of one. I'll go ahead and share with you one of my own. A week or two ago I was speaking with a friend and he asked me what I thought about the book of Genesis. And I'm not sure what exactly he was asking for, but I start off by telling him that I thought the world was relatively young, that it was only several thousand years old.

And he was flabbergasted. He was shocked. He just kind of stood there, opened his mouth, and he said, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make fun of you. I just wasn't ready for that. He considered my beliefs to be very foolish.

And he didn't mean harm. I didn't take great offense, but the fact of the matter is that I had been judged for my beliefs. Let me tell you about another time, because it doesn't just happen between a believer and unbeliever.

Why Unbelievers Cannot Judge Spiritual Things

It also happens between Christians. I was at church and I overheard someone talking about how they don't think that people should be wearing flip-flops to church. And I was one who regularly wore flip-flops to church.

And I knew what kind of person this person I overheard was talking about. And so maybe you believe that wearing flip-flops to church is sinful. I do not, and I still don't. So he didn't mean great harm and I didn't take great offense.

But the fact of the matter was that there was a judgment that was being passed. This problem of judgmentalism is a great problem. Most people recognize it as a problem. And it's why a lot of people avoid churches, because they're afraid that this is going to be a place where I'm going to receive judgment for some particular thing that doesn't deserve judgment.

Well, Paul has an answer to this problem here for us in this passage. And that answer is the mind of Christ. By the mind of Christ, we can make right judgment. By the mind of Christ, we can be above judgment.

So in the previous passage that we looked at last week, we saw how the Holy Spirit opens people's eyes, the Holy Spirit communicates God's truth, the wisdom of God, and that by that people understand the gospel.

In this passage, we'll be looking at how that has serious implications for how we think about ourselves and how we think about others that we may be receiving judgment from. And so it really addresses the problem of judgmentalism directed either towards us or from us directed towards others.

So as we look at this passage, we're going to be comparing the natural person and the spiritual person, the one without the spirit and the person with the spirit. The person without the spirit is not in a position to judge, and the person with the spirit cannot be judged.

And this all comes together to determine how the one who has the spirit should think about themselves and thinking about others who have the spirit. So let us go ahead and begin here in verse one. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

So as I've just stated, the natural person here is someone who does not have the spirit, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as we've been talking about, third person of the Trinity, is the presence of Christ in a believer's life who radically transforms them so that despite their corruption, they can understand the gospel, believe it, and begin in a way that is sort of antithetical to the idea of supernatural.

Someone who has the spirit has a supernatural principle operating in them. The natural person does not have a supernatural principle. They are only natural. Now, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

These things of the Spirit of God refer to the wisdom of God that we were talking about in the previous passages. And if you remember last week, we looked back through the different uses of the word wisdom in chapters two and one, and we saw that wisdom was used specifically to refer to Jesus Christ and to his gospel.

This is not just some generic wisdom, but this is particularly talking about the wisdom of Jesus Christ and his gospel that many people consider foolishness. The idea that Jesus Christ has died for sins and because of that, we can be right with God, because of that, we can live forever, many people consider this foolish.

They would imagine a Savior being different than that. They would imagine the problems of the world being different than sin. There's all kinds of things that people find foolish about this. But this explains, they do not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are folly to them.

And they don't understand it because those things are spiritually discerned. You see, it makes it very plain why it is that unbelievers cannot believe because they don't have the Spirit of God. They do not have the spiritual capacity in order to understand.

Now, there may be, when we say understand, I don't mean that they can't consider the fact of the matter and what it means. And I also don't mean that they couldn't temporarily believe for a season, but to accept it the way this is talking about, to really know that truth requires actually being forgiven by God, experiencing the goodness of Christ in a way that you know that goodness and you do fully accept it.

Apart from experientially knowing that goodness is immediately communicated by the Spirit of God, someone cannot understand. And when I say immediately, what I mean by that is without mediation. If I tell you that Jesus is good and then you believe it because I'm a trustworthy guy, you know that by immediately experiencing his goodness and his mercy and forgiveness and having your sins removed.

And it's only by that goodness that someone can really, really accept the things of the Spirit of God. You see, in addition to that, in addition to not having experienced that goodness, every person is born in sin and because of that corruption, rejects the things of the Spirit of God.

They reject truth. Romans 1 says that people suppress the truth and their unrighteousness. They know God, but they do not honor him as God. And so everyone is geared toward rejecting the truth by some mechanism or another, by some means or another.

Some people may accept some aspects of the truth, but they'll always deny something critical so that they do not have to honor God as God. And it's only by the Spirit changing our hearts that we can begin to submit to God and actually believe his truth, that he is who he is and his son is who his son is.

And so if this is the case, it has real implications for how we think about those who don't believe. You know, I often would get frustrated when I would talk to someone who doesn't believe and I couldn't convince them otherwise.

Right? Maybe you've had this experience where you have a friend or family member and why can't they just see that this is true? Or maybe, maybe it's the case that you get discouraged because so few people believe.

And what does that say? Does that mean that, you know, I'm in the wrong because so few people believe? Well, if you believe this passage, there is no reason to be discouraged by either of these things because the matter is simply explained.

It's not that they haven't considered the matter deeply enough. It's not that the truth is not evident. It's the fact that to accept these things, they cannot be accepted. And so there should be no frustration, no discouragement when the world does not accept things of the Spirit of God because the world cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God.

For they are folly to them. You know, if you are one who does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, know the reason why. And it's not because you can Christians have theirs and so you have valued certain things that have made you consider the matter differently.

The core issue is that apart from the Spirit of God, you will not believe. And so you must have the Spirit of God in order to accept the things of the Spirit of God. Now as we face the world having this truth, being judged for having this truth, how should that affect the way we take this?

Do we take it personally? How do we take it? Well, you wouldn't trust someone with no sense of smell to judge a perfume. You wouldn't trust a blind person to judge a painting, a deaf person to judge a musical composition.

You wouldn't trust any of these people without senses to judge these things. So why would you trust a person who does not have the Spirit of God to judge the things of the Spirit of God? There is no reason to take these things personally.

There is no reason to get upset and offended as though it is yourself that is being judged. The unbeliever is not in a position to judge these things. Apart from having those spiritual faculties, they cannot.

They are just like the blind person who would try to judge a painting. And this truth has to encourage us and has to keep us going despite any kind of persecution, any kind of hostility that we might face.

The Spiritual Person Judges All Things

Now, in contrast to the natural person who cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God, the spiritual person judges all things. So here, the spiritual person is the one who has the Holy Spirit, the one who has been saved by Christ.

Christ has died for their sins, but they have been given the Spirit so that they can begin to know who Jesus is and so that they can discern the gospel. Now, a little bit on this word, judges. So, judges here is the word in Greek, anakrino.

The word for judge is just krino. Anakrino is a slightly different word. And you might be a little misled by the ESV here because the word used before was discerned. This is actually the same word. It's anakrino before.

And so, be seen, discerned, and judged, the emphasis may be a little different by the context, but these are actually the same words that's being used. So, this word, which means to examine or appraise, it's not specifically talking about condemnation.

It's talking about examining and appraising things. Appraising the gospel as either being good or being not good, being foolish or being wise. So, just like the natural person cannot discern the gospel, cannot appraise it correctly, the spiritual person can appraise it correctly.

In fact, it says the spiritual person judges all things. Now, what does it mean by all things? Well, I don't think this makes me an expert in every field. I cannot judge a gymnastics tournament because I do not know much about gymnastics.

It gives no guarantee of that. However, I believe this is referring to a future reality that Paul gets to later in 1 Corinthians 6, too, where he says that the saints will judge the world, that in a moral capacity, the saints will judge all things as either aligning with God or not, as being part of his kingdom or being not part of his kingdom.

We will judge all things. We will, as it were, come, leave the stand, I guess, and move to the bench. I think those are the right court term, terminology. We will move to the bench and judge the world.

However, while we are fallible in this life, we still have this mind of Christ. We still have the Spirit of God. And so, consider them and how they align with the Word of God and how they align with this gospel.

And this is something that we ought to do. People say that you shouldn't judge because Jesus said, I don't judge. That's misunderstanding. Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't examine and appraise things.

Jesus is saying that we should not condemn by some standard other than which we would want applied to ourselves. And that is what Jesus' point is there. But as we are examining and appraising the world and the things in the world, we should do so by the Spirit.

I'm often shocked at how many Christians are willing to offload this burden onto others. You know, think about how many secular commentators on current events are just held so highly. And I'm not saying that you can't learn a whole lot from them.

I think you can. But moral matters are best judged by someone who has the Spirit of God, someone who has access to the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And so often, people are willing to offload that burden onto someone else just because they can speak well.

Right? If I have, if there's a house on fire and someone's inside needs to be saved and there's a fireman with all the training and all the gear, and then there's someone else without training and without gear, who should go in?

Obviously, it's the fireman. Yet so many people are willing to let, make sure you're listening to whatever you end up considering. Make sure you're also listening to someone who has the Spirit of God.

Make sure that you, as one who has the Spirit of God, are not just deferring to others who do not, but are, as one who may not be extraordinarily gifted in any worldly sense, but having the Spirit of God, are able to come to the Word of God and understand it and understand what it says about the world around you.

Do not offload this burden. Consider this matter. You have the mind of Christ. Do not be negligent in this duty of considering things as you should, as one who does have the mind of Christ. Now, it continues, but he himself is judged by no one.

So, not only does a spiritual person judge all things, but he is judged by nothing. There's a sense in which the spiritual person is invincible. Now, that doesn't mean that someone who has the Spirit of God isn't subject to correction.

They are always subject to correction because they are fallible people. However, this means that as much as someone is aligned with God's Spirit, they cannot be judged. Now, this is something that's accomplished by the gospel on two points.

One is the one that we typically talk about week after week, which is that Jesus Christ, dying for sins, has covered them so that this person who believes in him is no longer subject to any kind of condemnation.

If you trust in him alone for salvation. So in this sense, the spiritual person cannot be judged. Now, in addition to that, there is a second thing that it means when it says that the spiritual person cannot be judged.

And that is that in having the mind of Christ, they are not subject to the condemnation of the world for their statements that are in line with Christ. Anyone who would say that this person is foolish because he believes the gospel, they are above that level of judgment.

This person does not have the capacity to judge them. They, having the mind of Christ, cannot be judged. Now, that is the case. Also, it's important to recognize here that if the spiritual person cannot be judged, then as we ourselves consider judging spiritual people, judging other brothers and sisters, then we should understand that there is the pointlessness of mixing natural wisdom with actual discernment of the gospel.

And what I mean by that is, think about this context. Think about what chapter one said about Paul and Apollos and Cephas. They were being judged based on their way of speaking. Some were considered better than others because of the way they spoke.

And so the church was dividing up underneath these different camps. I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. And so he's being judged based on natural elements of wisdom.

Human wisdom that says, you know, this is what good speech looks like. This is how someone should present the truth. However, if people have the spirit of God, and the gospel is something infinitely more valuable than other things, then there is a great danger in mixing our natural judgment with spiritual judgment.

Think about how often people divide over things that are just natural judgments, that are not matters of the gospel. I hear about, I think they're called mommy wars, where moms get together who are good friends, and now they have children, and they get into arguments about whether or not they should breastfeed or use formula, or whether or not they should let their children cry it out and learn to stay in bed by themselves or go comfort the child.

And moms end up fighting about these things and dividing. And so I assume there have been many Christian moms who have considered these such disturbing matters that they have divided over these things.

And I'm sure that there are biblical principles involved in each one of these considerations. However, essentially what is going on here is natural wisdom being elevated to the level of the wisdom of God, as though it is something to divide over.

Think about this pandemic and all the different sensibilities that exist around it. There's different sensibilities about just how dangerous the virus is. There are different sensibilities about just how much to what degree we should trust the different institutions that tell us about the virus.

There are different sensibilities about how much risk we should be willing to take in our lives. Once again, there are biblical principles that come to bear. But much of the matter is elements of human wisdom.

And people mix these and elevate them up to being as though they are matters of spiritual wisdom. And they end up baptizing their own human wisdom ideas with biblical language often so that they can use them to bludgeon others.

And, you know, it's been difficult. It's been difficult going through this. I'm sure you've had difficulty with others. And, you know, I thank you for bearing with me because I'm certain that I have a different view than just about everyone else here because everyone is different.

And we all are going to have different sensibilities about the level of risk is and what level of risk we should be willing to take. And so while we bring biblical principles to bear, we should not divide over elements of natural wisdom, elements of human wisdom.

We should recognize the pointlessness of bringing these things to the table as being of the same kind of value, as doing what the Corinthians were doing when they were evaluating Paul and Apollos and Cephas, judging them on matters that were not directly related to the gospel and not just not directly related to the gospel, but simply matters of secular wisdom.

And by secular wisdom, I hope it's clear. I'm not saying things that are necessarily good or bad. I'm saying that things that are not guaranteed by the Spirit of God. You know, the Spirit of God doesn't guarantee to align us all in what we believe about, exactly how much risk you should be willing to take for what kinds of things.

But the Spirit of God does align us on the gospel. And that is what we need to be united around. And so all these truths have been put forward here, but I think they come together in a nice way in verse 13.

So Paul's pretty much said everything he's going to say. But in verse 13, he says it in a way that I find especially profound. He says, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

Excuse me, I just read the wrong verse, not verse 13, verse 16, the end of our passage. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Now, what's being said here should be straightforward enough, this quotation from I 13.

For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? God is omniscient. He knows all things, but no one fully comprehends his mind because it's infinite and we are finite. And so no one can instruct God and tell him otherwise.

Now, I think it's plain enough here, but Paul cites Isaiah 40, 13, and another passage, and he does it with a little more elaboration, so I think it will be helpful to look at it there as well. So if you turn over to Romans 11, in verse 33.

So in Romans 11, 33, he says, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? For who has been his counselor?

For who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. You know, this first verse here, verse 33, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

You know, here it's talking about the wisdom of God. It's talking about all this that God knows, but also his gospel. How unsearchable are his judgments. How inscrutable his ways. You know, when God says that something is right, who are we to judge him?

When God says that something is, when God does something, who are we to scrutinize, scrutinize what he has done? Now, when it says that we have the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2, this is saying that what applies to God, no one has understood his mind, applies to us.

This is not saying, you know, the but I think can be a little hard to read. It says, but we have the mind of Christ. It might be saying, oh, so we can instruct the Lord. No, it's not saying so we can instruct the Lord.

It's saying so that we also cannot be instructed. We also cannot be judged. It cannot be scrutinized. You would not walk into a courtroom and proceed to then pronounce judgments on the judge. You would hopefully walk into God's throne room and pronounce judgments against God.

But that is what people do all the time when they go to a believer and judge them in their alignment to the gospel. When they say that this thing is foolishness or they elevate other things above the level of the gospel and judge them on that.

If you have the mind of Christ, while you are not God, God in granting to you many blessings, granting you access to his mind, puts you in a position where you are like him above judgment. This is a profound truth.

Who has understood the mind of the Lord so has to instruct him. You cannot tell God what is right or wrong, but we have the mind of Christ. Not to deny that we are fallible, but in as far as that we are led by the spirit, we are entirely above judgment just as God is above judgment.

That is a wonderful, incredible truth that should guard us from all feelings of discouragement when we are judged and all feelings of judgmentalism toward others. We should not have this attitude about anything.

If this is the case, if we cannot be judged and also we cannot judge our brothers and If we cannot, as Romans 14 says, judge the servant of another, that is a great ground for unity that has been accomplished in the gospel.

In the gospel, God has not only forgiven us, but he has united us together with a foundation for unity, the mind of Christ that keeps us from pronouncing such judgments on each other based on these things that are just elements of natural wisdom.

Not only is someone who is filled with the spirit going to be willing to bear with brothers and sisters who have different sensibilities about things, different human wisdoms as every person is different, but just the opposite.

Because the mind of Christ is not just the mind that bears with such things. The mind of Christ is the mind that serves. Paul explains the mind of Christ more in Philippians 2. He says in Philippians 2, Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

That same command was given at the beginning in 1 Corinthians 1. It said, be of one mind, have the same judgment. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. This mind that you have in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, this is his mind.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of the servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is the mind of Christ. It is not only a mind that does not pronounce judgments based on natural wisdom against others, but it is also a mind that serves those who are in many ways intolerable by standards.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ loved his church so much that he was willing to do that. Now, when you find offense at someone else in the body of Christ and pronounce a judgment on them in your mind, you say, this person is this way, and that's no good, and you have that attitude towards them, do you have the mind of Christ by the Spirit, or do you not?

We should not regress to pronouncing natural judgments, but we should have the mind of Christ, be willing to bear with others in their differences, and even in their sinful offenses against us, if they have been bought and paid for by Christ's blood, not only do they have the mind of Christ, they have his forgiveness, and he should have ours as well, because who are we?

As you think about this, I would encourage you not only to be led by the Spirit and to think according to this and to not pronounce natural judgments against people and mix and match spiritual judgments with natural judgments that cause you to condemn a fellow brother or sister.

I would ask you to, if you're really interested in this topic of unity, keep reading 1 Corinthians. It's not just these two chapters that are about unity. All the books of the Bible have different themes, but few of them have very concentrated themes.

Sometimes it's very broad. I feel like Corinthians is one of those books that has a very concentrated theme. Really, from cover to cover, it is a book about unity. I would encourage you to continue reading this and thinking about this.

The Gospel, the Holy Spirit, and the Basis for Christian Unity

As we consider this, if you are not one who has been taught by Christ, who has not been taught by the Spirit, who does not have the mind of Christ, not only do you not have a foundation for unity, and not only are you subject to judgment, but there is a great judgment that one day will occur when Christ will judge.

When I said earlier that He forgives, etc., those are those whom He has died for, those who trust in Him. If you are not one who trusts in Him, there will be a great judgment and He will judge. God is so merciful.

If you turn to Him in repentance, He will forgive. I'm praying that this will be accomplished in people's lives, anyone who does not know Him. As you consider this, as you consider what was accomplished in the Gospel, accomplished in Christ's death and resurrection, it was not just our forgiveness, but it was granting us the Holy Spirit by whom we have the mind of Christ, by whom we are like God, like God Himself in being above being judged, having access to His mind, and we have the grounds for unity so that we do not have to divide the way the world divides over matters of human wisdom, but can, with the mind of Christ, despite our differences, come together on biblical principles and on the wisdom of God, which is Jesus Christ, and His good news of forgiveness.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you would lead us by your Spirit, you would teach us by the Spirit, and that we would have the mind of Christ. We thank you for this wonderful thing that you have given us in the Gospel.

You have not merely forgiven us, but you have given us your Holy Spirit and that He leads us and guides us and teaches us all things. I ask that this reality would become more and more real in our lives and in our church, and that we, as we become more like Christ, would put aside natural judgments that would divide us as we consider others who are different from ourselves, but that we would come together in unity around this one Gospel and this one figure.

In Jesus' name, amen.