"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." - 1 Corinthians 2:14
We laughed!
And laughed!
And laughed!
One person said, "Is it true that if a jellyfish bites you that you should put tea on it?"
The other person said, "Why would you put tea on the jellyfish?"
The first person said, "On the bite, Silly! On the bite!"
We laughed and laughed and laughed.
Let's face it. Sometimes we get our wires crossed. And understanding comes not so easily. And you just have to laugh.
But there is something that's not so good to laugh at. And that would be "the things of the Spirit of God." In today's Bible verse, God says "the natural person" sees the things of God's Spirit as "folly," which is Biblical wording for "foolishness" and "something to be laughed at or mocked."
God neither wants us laughing in an unbelieving mockery, nor does God want us laughing in a "believing" resignation. A "believing resignation" is when someone says, "Aaaah, I'm not that smart. I just can't understand."
God wants us all to understand "the things of the Spirit of God." God plainly tells us this in today's Bible verse as God says the issue of understanding the things of God's Spirit is not about the size of your I.Q. or your score on a standard college test like the ACT.
The key factor in understanding the things of God's Spirit is whether you're a "natural person" or a "spiritual person." And let's get clear on "spiritual person" real quick because we have a country full of people who say they're "spiritual people" who don't go to church and don't read their Bible and don't tell anyone about Jesus and don't have the first twinge of longing for people who don't know Jesus and who, therefore, are in a heap of trouble when Jesus comes again.
A truly spiritual person cares about other people who don't know Jesus and who are spiritually dead. The truly spiritual person cares because God cares about people who don't know Jesus and who are spiritually dead, which is why God sent His Son, Jesus, and poured out His Holy Spirit!
I'd dare say that the books of the Bible are the books of the Bible because all sixty-six of them record God saying what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John, chapter three, which is that we all must be born again to understand the things of God's spirit. What's born of flesh is flesh. What's born of the spirit is spirit.
The flesh and the natural person says, "I'm so smart that I'm a spiritual person without ever spending time either with God's spiritual things or the Spirit of God."
The person born of the spirit, the truly spiritual person is smart enough to recognize and confess, "I don't stand a chance of understanding anything that matters forever if I never spend time with the God of forever. Teach me, Lord, teach me."
And God teaches us through His Word through which God gives us His Spirit (Ephesians 6) through which we are able to understand and "spiritually discern" (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Dear God, please help us so that today and everyday we might be born anew by your Spirit! Make us hungry for your word both to know you more personally and also so we can feed others who are hungry for your Spirit, too! Amen!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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