Most of those believers who are baptized into a particular denomination are shaped, not according to Christ or the Bible, but according to that denomination. They speak and behave according to that particular denomination. Now that we are in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we should not be shaped by something other than Christ. We should have only Christ, not traditions or regulations. For example, there is a difference between a sister who does not wear makeup because she shapes herself according to the recovery and a sister who does not wear makeup because she lives Christ by walking in the spirit and calling on Him. Likewise, a brother may give up smoking because he is trying to conform himself to the practices of the recovery, or he may do so because he lives Christ and no longer has any desire to smoke. Instead of shaping ourselves according to the recovery, we should simply live Christ.
It is very common among Christians to have many things in place of Christ. Believers may have ethics, morality, culture, philosophy, doctrine, and tradition instead of Christ. In a very real sense, today’s Christianity is Christless. Among Christians almost anything can become a substitute for Christ.
The underlying concept of 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 is that we must drop everything except Christ. When Paul came to Corinth and preached Christ, he determined not to know anything among them except Jesus Christ and this One crucified. This indicates clearly that he forsook everything except Christ. As we read 1 Corinthians, we need to be deeply impressed with this underlying thought. We need to see that we must drop everything but Christ and genuinely take Christ as everything to us. Christ truly is all-inclusive; He is everything, even the depths of God.
In 2:11 Paul says, “For who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? So also the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God.” The spirit of man is the deepest part of his being. Its faculty can penetrate the innermost region of the things of man, whereas the mind of man is capable only of knowing superficial things. So also, only the Spirit of God can know the deep things of God.
The Greeks were famous for gymnastics and philosophy. Gymnastics were for the training and development of the body, and philosophy was for the development of the mind. Today there is also a strong emphasis on developing the body and the mind. The spirit, however, is altogether neglected. When we mention the spirit, some do not understand what we are talking about. To them the spirit denotes a demon or phantom. Even many Christians do not know the difference between the human spirit and the soul. Many Christians believe in dichotomy—the teaching that man is of two parts, body and soul—and only a minority follow the Bible to believe in trichotomy—the truth that man has three parts, spirit, soul, and body. The believers at Corinth knew how to exercise the body and the mind, but they were ignorant concerning the human spirit. Thus, in verse 11 Paul teaches them about the spirit and says that the spirit of man knows the things of a man. Those who do not exercise the human spirit cannot fully know the things of man. Just as only the spirit of man knows the things of man, so only the Spirit of God knows the things of God.
In verse 12 Paul continues, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us by God.” As those who have been born of God by His Spirit, we have received the Spirit of God. Hence, we are well able to know the deep things of God which He has freely given to us for our enjoyment.
Paul wanted the believers at Corinth to know that, as human beings, they had a spirit to know the things of man, and that, as believers in Christ, they had received the Spirit of God to know the things freely given by God. The Christians there lacked the proper knowledge of these two spirits. They had a keen mind and a strong soul, but they did not realize that they had a human spirit. Furthermore, they neglected the Spirit of God whom they had received. Thus, in verses 11 and 12 Paul reminds them of these spirits. He points out that they have a human spirit within them and that they have received the Spirit from God to know the things freely given by God. According to verse 9, these are the things prepared by God and ordained by Him. All these things are related to Christ. In order to know these things, the Corinthians had to pay attention to their human spirit and to the Spirit of God.