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.
God reveals many things to all men through the natural world. But there are some things we can only know if God reveals it especially to us. The Apostle Paul refers to these things in our verse for today as “the things of the Spirit of God,” and he also refers to them as the “secret and hidden wisdom of God,” (1 Corinthians 2:7). The Bible contains these special revelations, including the Gospel message concerning Jesus Christ.
Although God’s secret wisdom is revealed to people through Scripture, not all will accept what has been revealed. Not everyone, for example, accepted Jesus or the Gospel message. Paul says, “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” (1 Corinthians 2:8). Although Jesus and the Gospel message were revealed to them, they could not understand them for what they truly were.
The reason why they could not understand was that each of them was a “natural person.” That is, they were people devoid of the Holy Spirit. They were people who lived in the natural strength and wisdom of their own flesh rather than in the supernatural strength and wisdom of the Spirit. The wisdom they had was the “wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away,” (1 Corinthians 2:6). According to this fallible and transient human wisdom, God’s wisdom was mere folly.
In order to accept and understand revelation of the secret wisdom, a person must be given the Holy Spirit, for these things are “spiritually discerned.” Because of the sin that is present in all of us, our minds have been corrupted and cannot properly understand God’s wisdom. But when the Holy Spirit enters our lives, He opens our minds to the truth. Specifically, it is the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8) born of the Spirit that opens our minds to understand the truth of God.
Today, let us ask God to fill us with the Spirit and open our minds to the fullness of the truth He is revealing to us.
