The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 64

mnn, snn the ~pirit of man which is in him? Even so the thincrs of God lrnoweth no man, but tl,e ::Spirit of God." The implication is that this Spi~it is as truly God as man's mind is man. No one knows the things in man's mind but man himself; no one knows the "deep things of God" but God himself. "Who teachcth like God?" Ho "knows thoroughly the nature of the student, and how best to indoctrinate that naturu -with his own "deep things." III. That here the student MUST DEVELOP HIS HIGHER NATURE. "Dut the naturnl m:m receiYcth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they arc spiritually discerned." Man has a three- fold natur~, dcsign~ted by St. Paul ~s soma, psyche, and pneuma-body, soul, and spirit. Th~ ~rst 1s the a~mrnl, ~be ~ec~nd ~s. the mental, and the third the moral or spiritual. This 1s the consr,ience, with its mtmt10ns and sympathies, and this is the chief part of man, nay, tbe man himself, the core of his being, that which Paul calls" the inner man" the man of the man. Now, this part of the man alone can receive the "things of the Spirit of God." Set th~se things before the" natural man," his mere body; they are no more to him than Euchd to a brute. Set them before the mere psychical or intellectual ~1;1an,. and what are. th,~y? Puz_zles over which he will speculate; nay, they are fooli,;lmcss unto _him. Mere rntellect cannot understand love, cannot apprecjate -right .. It concerns itself with the tru~h or falsehood of propositions, and the advantfges 1111d disad,antages of conduct-nothrng more. Moral love only can interpret and feel the things of moral love, the "deep things of God." Hence thi~ moral pneuma this -spiritual nature, this conscience must be roused from its dormancy, and becom; the ascendant nature before the "things of the Spirit'' can be "discerned," and then the ·man shall judge all things, all spiritual things, whilst he himself will not be judged rightly by any "natural man." "For who hath known the mind of the Lord?" Who tl,us uninstructed, can "know the mind of the Lord"? '