Spiritual Wisdom
Among the mature, Paul says, the apostles do speak wisdom, but it is not the passing wisdom of this age. It is God's hidden wisdom, prepared beforehand for glory, unknown to the rulers who crucified the Lord of glory, and now revealed to believers by the Spirit.
A6mong the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom — but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9Rather, as it is written: 10But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.
Just as only a person's own spirit knows that person's thoughts, so only the Spirit of God knows God's thoughts. Because believers have received that Spirit rather than the spirit of the world, they can understand what God has freely given and speak of it in words taught by the Spirit.
11The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
The natural person does not receive the things of God's Spirit because they must be spiritually discerned, but the spiritual person is able to discern rightly. Paul closes by saying that believers possess the mind of Christ, which gives the section its deepest claim about understanding.
14The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.