The Necessity of the Spirit to the Understanding of the Things of God
Dean Goulburn. 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man… The Scripture cannot be perfectly understood except by the guidance of the same mind that inspired it. It is an outward revelation, and we need, in order to make it plain, an inward revelation also. It resembles a sundial, which is in itself perfect, but the indispensable condition of whose usefulness is light. The Scripture is the chart to glory, on which everything necessary is marked with unerring accuracy; but the one indispensable condition of its answering its end is that the Spirit, while we read it, shall be shining upon it (Psalm 43:3). Or to put the matter in another way: Without some kind of sympathy with the mind of a poet, without the poetical turn, it would be impossible to appreciate poetry. And each distinct species of poetry can only be so far understood as the reader finds in himself some taste for it. The literature may stimulate the taste, but there must be the taste in the first instance. So then it would not be consonant even with reason that Holy Scripture should be exempted from the operation of a law which applies to poetry, and indeed every class of literature; that it should be feasible to enter into its significance, without having inherited their spirit. (Dean Goulburn.) Parallel Verses KJV: For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. WEB: For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God's Spirit.