12 October 2025

Sunday School Special : 1 Corinthians - Lesson 14

Sunday School Special : 1 Corinthians - Lesson 14
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:13-16

Speaker:
Rev Dr Charles Tan
Series:
Sunday School Special : 1 Corinthians

Message Notes

Senior Sunday School 12 October 2025

Text: 1 Corinthians 2

Subject: “Comparing spiritual things with spiritual”

Lesson #14

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:13-16

1. The teachings of the Apostle Paul

a) His words may seem to be simple
b) But they contain deep spiritual truths

2. The special ministry of the Holy Spirit

a) The wisdom of man stands in contrast with the wisdom of the Spirit
b) Comparisons must be made appropriately
i) Spiritual with spiritual
ii) God’s word explains itself
iii) The Bible must never be made to sound contradictory
iv) One text cannot be used to counter another text
v) All texts must be in harmony with other texts

3. The natural man will not have comprehension of the Scriptures

a) The natural man cannot receive the spiritual things of the Spirit of God
b) To the natural mind the things of the Spirit sound foolish to him
c) The unregenerate man cannot discern spiritual truths for they must be discerned spiritually

4. The spiritual man

a) He is able to judge all things correctly
b) Yet, he is not judgmental
c) He cannot be faulted for the spiritual judgments he makes

5. The mind of the Lord God

a) Who can know His mind fully?
b) Can anyone instruct the Lord?

6. The mind of Christ

a) Paul affirms that the spiritually mature have “the mind of Christ”
b) We are “complete in Him”
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all [g]principality and power.
Colossians 2:6-10