No Spirit, Know Nothing
On an episode of the 70's-80's tv show The Jeffersons, Florence(the Jeffersons' maid) becomes engaged to a dashing young preacher. When discussing their expected marital roles, Florence is incensed when he quotes I Cor. 11:3, "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." Her response before breaking off the engagement (and ostensibly the response of the show's left-wing creator, Norman Lear) is, "You may know the words, but you don't know what they mean!" From that day to this, Lear has yet to expound on what that meaning is. Maybe he should answer this question within himself before making the attempt: "Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor?" (Isa. 40:13)
At one point when writing to the church of Corinth, the apostle Paul addressed his insufficiency as a mere mortal to address the mysteries of God. He points out the necessity of the Spirit of God in approaching the type of understanding that seeks to transcend the superficial:
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. - 1 Cor. 2:14-16
Any seasoned believer who actively and consistently meditates on God's Word will tell you that no matter how many times you read it, there will always be something new to learn. This is because the Word is alive(John 1:1-2). No, I don't mean that bible you're holding is going to grow limbs and start doing jumping jacks! But it is the reason that every person who seeks to understand the wisdom of God through the words he has given to mankind absolutely must have the Holy Spirit living in them:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 2 Tim. 3:16-17
It is the man of God who becomes equipped...not the unbeliever who reads through it several times and then boastfully proclaims they know the Bible "better than most preachers", not the gay theologian seeking to justify a perverse dual existence, not the atheists striving to discredit belief in He whom they hate the most. The potential for full understanding of God's wisdom --I say "potential" because we will never learn it all in this life-- is made available to us one way and one way only...by being born again(read John ch. 3)!
In the verse above, we noted that scripture is God-breathed. A further point to note in relation to discerning the deepest wisdom of God is that the people meditating on it need to be "God-breathed" as well:
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." - John 20:21-22
More than a few seminaries today have become little more than liberal indoctrination centers in their desire to placate the PC crowd. Though I have no evidence to corroborate this, I tend to believe that the number of seminary graduates who are not born again is on the rise. Consequently, essential doctrines are taking a backseat in today's churches in favor of more zeitgeist-worthy pursuits. How desperately our age needs a fresh influx of servant leaders, full of the Spirit and of faith, who will reclaim the the halls of the church and its resources and say with boldness the words of Psalm 119: 98-100:
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,for I obey your precepts.










Reader Comments (3)
To all that you've pointed out up there, I say. AMEN.
Your point is so often missed by well-meaning conservatives, who, in an attempt to guard the gospel, insist on scriptural "inerrancy." What too many mean by that is a commonsense philosophy, where any unregenerate person can understand and believe the gospel by simply "reading the facts off the surface" of the text. A better way to go is the classical theological pairing: the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, he now illuminates them.