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14 But people who aren’t spiritual[a] can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For,

“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
    Who knows enough to teach him?”[b]

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:14 Or who don’t have the Spirit; or who have only physical life.
  2. 2:16 Isa 40:13 (Greek version).

14 The unbeliever[a] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The one who is spiritual discerns[b] all things, yet he himself is understood[c] by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him?[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 2:14 tn Grk “natural person.” Cf. BDAG 1100 s.v. ψυχικός a, “an unspiritual pers., one who merely functions bodily, without being touched by the Spirit of God.”
  2. 1 Corinthians 2:15 tn Or “evaluates.”
  3. 1 Corinthians 2:15 tn Or “is evaluated” (i.e., “is subject to evaluation”); Grk “he himself is discerned,” that is, the person without the Spirit does not understand the person with the Spirit, particularly in relation to the life of faith.
  4. 1 Corinthians 2:16 sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.