Referring to the things given to us by God, Paul goes on to say in verse 13, “Which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual things.” The Greek word rendered communicating literally means mixing or putting together, as interpreting or expounding. It is common in the Septuagint, found in verses such as Genesis 40:8; 41:12, 15. The thought here is to speak spiritual things by spiritual words. The stress is not on the person to whom the speaking is done, but rather on the means by which the spiritual things are spoken. The apostle speaks the spiritual things, which are the deep things of God concerning Christ, by the spiritual things, which are the spiritual words taught by the Spirit.
Paul says that he did not speak the spiritual things in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit. This means that he did not speak in the words of Greek philosophy or wisdom. Rather, he communicated spiritual things by spiritual words. In this verse, Paul uses the same term with two meanings. First, spiritual things refers to the spiritual things themselves, the deep things of God concerning Christ. Second, the expression refers to spiritual words. Spiritual things are designated by spiritual words. These spiritual words are spiritual things used to designate spiritual things. For example, the word table denotes an object called a table. Because the word table is a designation of an actual table, we should not regard the word as one thing and the table as another. The speaking that is according to Greek wisdom is not spiritual. But the words taught by the Spirit of God are truly spiritual things. Thus, spiritual things are both the things given to us by God concerning Christ as our portion and also the words taught by the Spirit of God. Like Paul, we need to speak spiritual things by spiritual things.
The believers at Corinth talked about Christ not in spiritual words, but in the words of Greek philosophy and wisdom. As a result, they impressed others with philosophy, not with Christ. Paul, however, did not use philosophical terms when he spoke concerning Christ. Instead, he spoke spiritual things by spiritual things. He used spiritual words which are equal to the spiritual things themselves. In verse 13 Paul seems to be saying to the Corinthians, “I cannot use words of Greek wisdom to communicate spiritual things. These are words taught by man’s wisdom. As such, they are not spiritual things, and they are of no avail in communicating spiritual things. If I used the wisdom of words admired by you Greeks, I would not be able to speak spiritual things to you.”
We all should learn from Paul not to try to speak in the common expressions of the people. This means that we should not lower the standard of our preaching to the standard of common human expression. Ordinary human expression is not adequate to convey spiritual things. As soon as we depart from the standard of Spirit-taught language to the words taught by human wisdom, we shall no longer be able to convey spiritual things to others. For this reason, in my speaking and writing I endeavor to remain in the words taught by the Spirit.
We must resist the temptation to lower the spiritual standard. Instead, we must seek to bring others up to this standard. Having seen the vision of God’s economy, we must maintain the standard of this vision, even when others encourage us to come down to their level with the claim that they cannot understand what we say. This kind of demand has come to me many times and from many different directions. Nevertheless, I refuse to descend to the level of human wisdom. On the contrary, I encourage others, by God’s mercy, to come up to His standard. We simply cannot communicate spiritual things by means of Greek philosophy, Chinese ethics, or with the expressions common to American culture. Spiritual things can be communicated only by spiritual things, that is, by spiritual words. This is an important lesson for us to learn.
Those who translated the Bible into Chinese learned the importance of using spiritual words to communicate spiritual things. For example, the New Testament often uses the expression “in Christ.” However, in the Chinese language there was no way to express the fact that one person could be in another person. The translators did not change the expression “in Christ.” They did not try to adapt to the limitations of the Chinese language in this matter. Instead, they invented a new Chinese expression to convey the thought of being in Christ. Later, this expression became popular in the spoken Chinese language. This illustrates the fact that if we communicate spiritual things by spiritual words, others will eventually learn and come up to God’s standard.