Verse 14 says, “But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he is not able to know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Verse 13 stresses the spiritual means, that is, the spiritual words by which the spiritual things are spoken. Verses 14 and 15 stress the spiritual object, that is, a spiritual man, not a soulish one, who is able to discern the spiritual things. Both the means and the object need to be spiritual. The spiritual things must be spoken by the spiritual words to the spiritual man.
A soulish man is a natural man, one living in his soul, not in his spirit. Such a man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Rather, he rejects them. The religious Jews who required signs and the philosophical Greeks who sought wisdom (1:22) were such natural men, to whom the things of the Spirit of God were foolishness (1:23).
The things of the Spirit of God in verse 14 refer to the deep things of God concerning Christ as our portion. A soulish man cannot know these things, for he does not have the constitutional capacity for spiritual perception. Hence, he is not able to know spiritual things. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, examined, and investigated by spiritual persons with spiritual means.
According to the context of 1 Corinthians, a soulish man is one who lives according to Greek culture. In principle, those who live according to their culture are soulish. If a Chinese believer lives according to Chinese ethics, he is soulish. Likewise, if an American brother lives according to modern American culture, he also is a soulish man. Hence, a soulish man is a person who lives in his culture.
In verse 14 Paul emphasizes the fact that the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned. If we would discern spiritual things, we must know that we have a spirit. Then we need to realize that the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit and go on to exercise our spirit to discern spiritual things in a spiritual way.
In verse 15 Paul says, “But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned by no one.” To be spiritual is to move, act, and live in our spirit by the Spirit of God, who dwells in our spirit. Those who do not exercise the spirit have no way to discern a spiritual man. Just as a cow has no appreciation of good music, so a soulish person cannot discern a spiritual person. Today many Christians can be compared to cows listening to music: they have no appreciation or discernment of what they hear. These Christians can readily understand worldly things or natural things, but they are not able to discern spiritual things or spiritual people.
Verse 16 is a conclusion to this portion of 1 Corinthians: “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” Because we are organically one with Christ, we have all the faculties He has. The mind is the intelligence faculty, the understanding organ. We have such an organ of Christ so we can know what He knows. We have not only the life of Christ but also His mind. Christ must saturate our mind from our spirit, making our mind one with His. When we are one with Christ, His mind becomes our mind. This should not merely be a doctrine to us; it must be both our experience and our practice.