1 Corinthians 2:11-12 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man… 1. There are certain instincts in our common humanity by which every man has a sympathy with his fellow-man. No other creature but man can possess it. Mind strangely echoes mind. 2. Again every one is conscious of secret thoughts and depths in his own soul which only himself can fathom. He has feelings within feelings, which no other person can ever thoroughly understand, but which, to his own consciousness, make his individuality and his whole being. 3. Put these two truths together, and you arrive at a double analogy. As only "man" knows "man," and as only one's self knows one's self, "even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." I. Only God knows God. 'The Holy Ghost is God. Therefore the Holy Ghost "knows God." But he WHO IS "BORN OF GODHAS THE HOLY GHOST IN HIM, AND HE, AND HE ONLY, CAN "KNOW GOD." It is not your reading, reasoning, listening, philosophy, piety, or prayers that will enable you to know God, but only the Holy Ghost in you. We live in the midst of two worlds, equally real, equally definite. The one is that material universe which we see, and feel, and touch. The other is — 1. A veiled world till a touch of Omnipotence opens it. You may walk in the midst of it all your life, and yet never know that it is there. To another — at your very side — these things are, at this moment, more real and more distinct than your world is to you. 2. A spiritual world, made up of spiritual pleasures, pains, conflicts, tastes, friendships, services. It is here. But it wants a new faculty to see it. Suppose, at this moment, another bodily sense were added to your five senses, what new channels of thought and enjoyment that sixth sense would add to you! And this unseen system requires a new sense before it can be perceived. 3. A much higher world. The natural world is very lovely; but it is only the shadow of that spiritual world. What if you should find, at last, that all along you have been contented with the shadow, and that you have never grasped the substance of life, because your eyes were never opened to see it? II. IF, THEN, EVERYTHING IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE DEPENDS ON THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST, THE GREAT QUESTION IS, HOW CAN I ENJOY IT? Only by union with Christ. Only the grafted branch can get the sap. Only the united member partakes of the life's blood. The first act of union takes place by the free working of the grace of God. This is conversion; the new life. After that, many things will promote its increase — specially the Word of God, and prayer, and good works. Then, through union, comes the Holy Ghost; through the Holy Ghost, the knowledge of God; through the knowledge of God, the image of God; through the image of God, God; and through God, heaven. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. |
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