THE SPIRITUAL MAN IS UNNATURAL MAN
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Proverbs
[GW] 3:5-7 Trust the LORD with all your heart, and do not
rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will
make your paths smooth. Do not consider yourself wise. Fear the LORD, and turn
away from evil.
1Corinthians,
chapters 1 & 2
We call it the
New Testament, but how much of what it says is new information? Much of the NT,
including Jesus’ words recorded therein, refers to and explains the OT in new
terms and/or illustration (parables et al). The initial chapters of Paul’s
first letter to the assembly at Corinth is an example of this. Paul, using “natural
man” and comparative “spiritual man” speaks of the same truth of Proverbs 3:5;
truth he originally realized on the road to Damascus. (Act.9:1-6)
Reading
1Corinthians chapters 1 & 2 we see that the natural man is a person blinded
by measuring what God says by this world’s yardstick; familial, community
cultural, prior philosophy and education. This natural man is the blind
individual that Jesus refers to in John 3:3, Nicodemus being another exemplary
before and after model.
Both Nicodemus
and Paul were highly educated and contemplative men, howbeit blind to true edification.
One does not however have to be elite. We can be illiterate or somewhere in
between on literate knowledge scale, and still not have blessed vision of the
spiritual man. (Ps.1)
If I read and
contemplate God’s Word, living (Jn.1:1, 14; 2Pet.3:5-7) and written (Ps.119;
Jn.17:17; 2Tim.3:16-17) . . . and compare, measure by what I previously know .
. . I am not a spiritual person, I am a natural unregenerate in contemplation .
. . and consequently in deed.
Nicodemus and
Paul especially exemplify the problem of religious education prior to confrontation
by the Word. The same text they had head knowledge of, but as natural men obviously
did not understand until trusting the word and gaining John 3:3 spiritual
vision.
Who, what, is a
spiritual man?
EBB4
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