Some Ideas About Mental Activity in Relation to God's Things

Some Ideas About What is Taught in 1 Corinthians 1 – 4 About Mental Activity in Relation to Learning About God’s Things.

(Chiefly a response to the idea amongst many Bible believers that systematic theology as used in Bible schools and seminaries and books published by such institutions is real Biblical scholarship.
We will start in verse 5 because the first 4 verses are greetings. )

Verses 5 - 7 It would seem that rich utterance and knowledge is information they got from the Spirit. I think this because of what he says in 1 Cor. 12:8 about how we get those things. In verse 7 he says that they don’t lack gifts as defined in the 12th chapter.

Verse 10 Admonition that they all hold to the same opinion. This opinion cannot be any that would be prohibited by Gal. 5:20-21 because what is being called for here is not an opinion that results in a division by heresy. This opinion has to be God’s opinion because God is telling them all to have it. It is the correct opinion. Normally when people disagree, either one or both of them are wrong. Here, if one who does not obey this admonition, disagrees with this opinion held by all who do obey it, he is definitely wrong. He has the wrong opinion. In order for us all to have the same opinion, a tremendous lot of other things must be in order. Or, it could be very simple: We could be submitted to the Spirit. If we all have the same opinion then there is no schism. In this way, the church is in failure and ruins if not in any other.

Verses 11 – 17 of chapter one and chapter 3:1 – 8 This tells us that there were people who did not obey that admonition. And they were dividing, taking names for their denominations from those who had ministered Christ to them. It is doubtful that those men, Paul, Apollos, Cephas or Christ held conflicting opinions to which the various sects polarized. It really does not say, but we would have to think that at least Paul and Christ were of the same mind since Paul is writing this by inspiration. He admonishes people who take the name of Christ for their sect but this obviously could not mean that the reason they were wrong was because they held the opinions Christ holds. He later says to all that they should let the mind be in them which was in Christ. So, these sects were dividing over arguments among themselves and saying that they were of Paul or of Christ, and the others, for reasons we cannot but guess at. At any rate, Paul calls this behavior carnal.
So, from this much we have the clear teaching that God wants all to agree on all the things he has given us whether they were formerly mysteries or of some other nature. God does not allow for there to be any other opinions about anything having to do with himself here. This teaches me that it precludes anyone using his own mind independent of the Spirit, as we learn later, to come up with any further truth than what has been revealed to the Apostles i.e. the words in the Bible. It does allow for ignorance of knowable things, but those who are ignorant should not hold opinions on what they do not understand.

Verses 17 – 25 is where Paul takes the time to explain to us how a true minister, himself as an example, dispenses that ministry. “Not in wisdom of words”. This phrase could mean anything. We need to find context here and other places so that we can understand what God means by this wrong way of ministering. The closest we can come to another use of any form of this phrase is in chapter 2, the first 4 verses. Here and in the part that follows in chapter 2 we have a contrast of man’s wisdom and God’s. So, it seems that “wisdom of words” is either identical or akin to this definition or else we are truly lost for a definition. Sort of like so many cases of Czech where if you take a phrase and separate the words and define them, you destroy the meaning of the phrase entirely. The Czechs tell me that this is true when they try it in English too.
So, in these verses we have God’s evaluation of the wise and the prudent. These words are not used lightly. What God says, he means. He really does mean that “the wise” in contrast with those who have God’s wisdom are destined to have that wisdom destroyed. It is clear from this context that the wisdom of the world or man’s wisdom does not bring a human being to a correct opinion of God’s things. It looks like you can equate the phrase “wisdom of words” with “enticing words of man’s wisdom” in v. 4.
Other words that are good to define are terms describing people as “wise” (sagacious, shrewd and clever); “prudent” (discerning, sagacious); “scribe”, ( in this case I think he means one who is skilled in the Jewish Law) “disputer” (a controversial reasoner) and the term “world,” (the “aggregate” of mankind) These people are the best that education can produce. They are experts and yet God says he will bring their wisdom to nothing. He will destroy it. He has made it foolish. Calling for these to come forward reminds me of Job where God challenged any who had been present when he created the world to come and argue with him about whether he had the right to do with it as he sees fit. “Where are these people? Let them come out and I will show them how much worth their wisdom has.”

At this point it may be a good idea to define Biblically the words “natural” and “spiritual” as well as Natural Wisdom and God’s Wisdom.
Natural: The closest we can come to a definition of the Greek word for this is (psuchikos); “of the soul”. The word “animal” is suggested by the lexicon. We know that Adam became a living soul by God breathing into his clay body. (The Old Testament word for spirit means the same thing as the N.T, word means: breath). This tells us that the “soulish” or natural is the human being that is merely alive by the act of God. We are not told what part God plays in the conception of humans today. But the babies that are born have souls as do animals. The O. T. word for soul is also translated “life”. This lends more understanding to the concept that the natural man is a live man. He is a soul.
Natural wisdom: Since man is born natural he can acquire the wisdom that is open to anyone. It can be, as we know, very deep and useful or it can be almost foolish. Because a man must be born again in order to have the Holy Spirit in him, a natural man who is NOT born again cannot have the wisdom of God. We can be sure from the contexts of these passages in early and later 1 Corinthians that God does not refer to born-again people as “natural”.
Spiritual: The Bible differentiates between that which is natural and that which is spiritual. A good place to read about this is in 1 Corinthians 15. The context of verse 44 tells us that Adam was a natural person. Then it tells us that the second Adam was spiritual. It is generally accepted that the second Adam is Christ. So Christ is a spiritual man. He is different from Adam in that he has the Spirit of God in him. When we get saved we know that we also get that Spirit in us. It is then that we become spiritual. According to the verses we have in 1 Corinthians, chapters 1 – 4, we know that Christians have the mind of Christ which is a spiritual mind because we have his Holy Spirit. And we still have our old natural mind as well. We are admonished to walk (behave) in the spirit and not in the flesh (old natural self).
God’s Wisdom: Once a natural person is born again he has the Holy Spirit living in his body. He is now a spiritual man (“in the spirit”, as it says in Romans 8:9) This enables him to have access to the mind of Christ. If we read the context of Romans 8:9 we find out more about the natural or fleshly or carnal mind and we find out that a Christian has a choice about which mind he uses. In order to have access to God’s wisdom, these verses seem to teach that electing to use the natural mind would keep a Christian from using God’s wisdom. Again, as in Galatians 5 where it says that if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and vice versa, because the two are in opposition. This principle is shown here in Romans 8 and in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 – 4.


Verses 26 – 31 It seems that here God contrasts the class of experts mentioned in verse 20 with the kind of people God calls to be Christians. The Christians are not who you would expect. They are a despised people by “the aggregate of mankind” (world) when it comes to wisdom . And then he begins to drum on the theme of chapter 2 which is that man cannot ever, by his natural “psychic” faculties, learn the mysteries of God. In 1 Tim. 3:16 and 4:1 he says that the mystery of Godliness is great (and then he summarizes it: A collection of facts known by those to whom they were “initiated” [biblical word] and by those who received it from them.) And, yet, it is given up by those who apostatize.

Chapter 2:1-5 Paul demonstrates how giving up one’s natural wisdom affects the human being. He says he was weak and afraid and trembling. He did this willingly. He did not want to come to the Corinthians speaking from man’s wisdom. He was unwilling that he would convince them by arguments that would come from his own wisdom. He wanted the Corinthians to have faith as a result of the power of God. This refers back to chapter 1:18 where he says that the gospel is the power of God for the saved. He says there that those who shun the gospel as foolish are perishing. So it would seem that the use of man’s wisdom brings one to a state of perishing. We are reminded that in the Psalms it says that there is a way that seems right to a man but the end of it is the way of death. This is the same concept. Paul came in fear and trembling and depended on the Spirit and he got a demonstration of the Spirit and the Spirit’s power. Paul makes it very clear that none of this came from within his own flesh, as he later says that in [his] flesh good does not dwell.

Verses 6-8 More definition of the two kinds of contrasting wisdom: God’s wisdom was a mystery hidden previously and included the means to give glory to the saved. As we learned before, a mystery is a truth that God must initiate humans into. They do not deduce it or conceive of it with the natural thought processes. God gave it into the prophets’ minds and gave them the words to describe it so that their brains could process that information. Then the prophets passed this information to us in their writings. If the leaders of the world would have known this truth they would not have crucified Christ. Why? We are not told precisely why they would not have done so.

Verses 9-13 The things which we know about God which include “the things of God” mentioned elsewhere are the things which he has prepared for us. The abodes in John 14, the reigning with him and the Kingdom of God, the promises of being his bride, the new heavens and new earth. All these things are information that has been imparted to us through the Bible, written by Apostles who were initiated into these mysteries. Even we, if we had not the Holy Spirit living in our bodies could not understand them were we to read them in the Bible. Paul says he speaks these things not in words which can be learned through the wisdom of man but only through the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit teaches these words to us using spiritual (not merely mental or intellectual) means. However, brain-dead people cannot know them so a brain is required.

Verses 14-16 The natural man is a man who is born and never born again. He has only human nature and is not a new creation. He is not able to understand the things of the Spirit. But a person who is spiritual has had his spirit quickened. He is functioning now in a spiritual capacity because his spirit is now in concert with God’s Holy Spirit. There is no verse that actually, in words, defines a spiritual man by distinguishing his composition from a natural man. We are trying to refrain from too much deduction here so we will say that the only definition is by character and behavior. There are many verses for this.
Collecting all the information from these verses tells us that the spiritual man acts according to the character of God, he is able to understand the things of God, he is one with others who have the Spirit of God and he manifests ministry by the Holy Spirit giving him what to say and do. When we look at the character and behavior of what God calls a spiritual man it is clear that he differs from the natural state in that he has an added feature. He has an additional capacity. Here in verse 15 it says that he understands things that the natural man cannot. And the key to this is found in verse 16: the spiritual man has the mind of Christ. Perhaps these are words that describe the compositional difference between the natural man and the spiritual man.
This statement, that we have the mind of Christ seems to open the door to saying that, as Christians, anything we want to consider, at least from the Bible, will result in God’s wisdom. We have to be careful here. Even though we have the mind of Christ and his Spirit, we still have sin and the flesh. The only way the Bible says that we can be sure that we are connected only to God via our and his Spirit is by an exercise of our will. We have to yield (dedicate, consecrate, put at disposal of, devote) ourselves to that Spirit. (See Romans 6 on this.) And we have to maintain that yielded state. Once thinking is started it is really easy for us to take back our minds and use them naturally. This is why there is so much trouble over understanding the controversial portions of the Bible.

Chapter 3:1 - 3 The carnal, fleshly, animal, natural mind caused the Corinthians to walk or behave in the manner of “men”. This is a significant term because it is in concert with the whole idea of being natural in the chapters before and in the next chapter.

Verses 4 – 9 Ministers give out material that they get from God. They read the Bible, define the words with their brains and then their minds begin to work on the material. They begin to think. This is the point (if not before) at which they need to be yielded to the Holy Spirit. Finally, through his reminding them of other verses and his leading them into truth, they come to an understanding. At this point they are not much different from those who do not minister.
At the leading and command of the Lord by means of his Spirit, these people can give what they now understand to others. And this is not done in their own strength either. Like Paul, they should be weak, fearful and trembling. In this way they can speak as the oracles of God. Oracles are the speakings of God given to men who relay them. This was what the prophets did when they said “Thus says the Lord….” It is taught here in these verses that no man can do God’s work without this supernatural demonstration. God gives the increase.

Verses 10 – 15 Though these verses do not explain anymore the methods and procedures for learning what God has for us in the Bible, they do tell us how the ministry must be performed if it expects to be rewarded.

Within this paper on how to learn from the Bible we have a small demonstration of how spiritual thinking is accomplished. It is here in these verses on wood hay and stubble. There are no verses here that say exactly what constitutes work that will abide or what sort will be burned. And yet, God expects us to understand from the passage what we should and should not do.
It is in taking the information in the previous verses and chapters and applying them to the subject here that we can come up with truth. The Holy Spirit is our guide as we see that the subject is ministry; we have just been told what God’s wisdom is and had Paul give testimony as to his experience when he gave ministry that would abide the fire of this passage. This is deduction but it is deduction using elements that are unmistakable in their meaning and application. It is deduction based only on what is actually said by God in the Bible.
We cannot teach from this passage, and the contextual passages before and after, that deduction can be useful outside the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are not given leave to think that our own minds can do this deduction using natural means because those means have been condemned earlier. We are left with dependence on the Holy Spirit who will use the mind of Christ within us to make the deduction that gold, silver and precious stones are symbols for good works.
I am born out by the majority of Christians that these symbols represent good works. There is really no general controversy about their meaning among Bible believers. On the contrary, there is lots of general controversy concerning things like a pre, post or mid-tribulation rapture. This proves to us that there are two ways of deducing. The deductions guided by the Spirit are easy. There is plenty of information for the Spirit to use to lead us into truth. On the other hand, when it comes to matters where pieces of the puzzle seem to be missing, men fall back on their natural methods of deduction and invent meanings and misuse symbols in order to produce an opinion that is convincing. When God, through Paul, said that he wanted all to have the same opinion, it was not an opinion produced this way. Therefore, I shall call attention to this paragraph I am just now here finishing, as a practical demonstration to men of how to use their minds when learning from God and then ministering to others.
Now let us go on:

Verses 16 – 23 The building we are engaged in is the temple of God. We are warned not to defile this building by putting in elements that are of man. Again the warning is against the wisdom of the world because this is the chief element that defiles the temple of God. Not only that but we have a stake in this building. We have ownership in it as well as does God.

Chapter 4:1 – 8 Not much needs to be said about this in regard to how to learn and how to minister. Paul (God) is telling us not to judge other people’s work. He says he doesn’t even judge his own. Jesus told Peter that what he wanted John to do was none of his business. In Romans 14 it says we should not judge each other because to his own master a servant stands or falls. (The previous sentences are an example of comparing scriptures and finding corroboration in two or three.) I should add here that there is plenty of admonition to us to avoid contentious and heretical persons. This would require a kind of judgment of their ministry. But for that kind of judgment, we have verses also and need not use our natural opinions in doing it. We had better not.
The Corinthians were judging their own works and each other’s. The result was that they had already decided what God’s judgment would be. They would reign. In fact they apparently had started to reign over the people already. This reflects the error Christ pointed out concerning stewards who, thinking the Lord is delaying, begin to beat their fellow servants. These Corinthians were not beating anyone but they were divided up, each thinking their sect was the true ministry. I know a group right at this very moment who used to fellowship with us who no longer do. They say that we are deceived. We again learn from verse 7 that we have nothing we didn’t receive from God, so again, the idea of the fruit of the natural mind being of any value is debunked.
The rest of chapter 4 has little to offer on the subject of this paper, so we will leave it right there. I hope that I have accomplished the little task that I believe God called me to do. I wanted to make a clear statement that systematic, deductive, imaginative thinking by the natural mind, unyielded to the Holy Spirit, is not profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness.