1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Here the student is — I. INSTRUCTED IN THE SUBLIMEST REALITIES. "Deep things of God." Things, not words, not theories, "deep things," deep because undiscoverable by human reason, and deep because they come from the fathomless ocean of Divine love. They are the primary elements of the gospel, and the necessary condition of soul restoration, and are — 1. The free gifts of heaven. "Freely given to us of God." 2. Freely given to be communicated. "Which things also we speak," &c. He who gets these things into his mind and heart is bound to tell them to others. II. TAUGHT BY THE GREATEST TEACHER. "The Spirit of God." This teacher — 1. Has infinite knowledge. "The Spirit searcheth all things." "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." He knows them in their essence, number, issues, bearings, relations, &c. 2. Is no other than God Himself (ver. 11). The implication is that this Spirit is as truly God as man's mind is mind. III. MUST DEVELOP HIS HIGHER NATURE (ver. 14). Man has a threefold nature — body, soul and spirit. The first is the animal, the second is the mental, and the third, the moral or spiritual. This is the conscience with its intuitions and sympathies, and this is the chief part of man, nay, the man himself. Now this part of the man alone can receive the "things of the Spirit of God." Set these things before the "natural man," his mere body, they are no more to him than Euclid to a brute. Set them before the mere psychical or intellectual man, and they are "foolishness unto him." Sheer intellect cannot understand love nor appreciate right. It concerns itself with the truth or falsehood of propositions, and the advantages and disadvantages of conduct, nothing more. Moral love only can interpret and feel the things of moral love, the "deep things of God." Hence this spiritual nature must be roused from its dormancy, and become the ascendant nature before the "things of the Spiritcan be "discerned," and then the man shall judge all spiritual things, whilst he himself will not be judged rightly by any "natural man(ver. 16). Who thus uninstructed can "know the mind of the Lord"? (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. |
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