06/12/2025
Comparing Spiritual with Spiritual, Part 1
By: Chris McCann
Hello and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Sunday afternoon Bible stud. Today we are going to look at a passage in 1Corinthians, chapter 2. We are going to focus on the Bible’s direction to the reader of the Bible of comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I am going to read 1Corinthians 2:6-16:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, *even* the hidden *wisdom,* which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known *it*, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed *them* unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 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. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know *them, * because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
I will stop reading there. I think it is important for us to carefully go through this passage, even though it is a principal that many of us are aware of and understand. One of the reasons is that it is so important for this time period that this command by God (to compare spiritual things with spiritual) be carried out.
When we look at the corporate church’s approach to the Bible (as well that of many ministries) in comparison to the way God’s elect children approach the Bible, this passage really highlights the difference. It shows the distinction between proper Bible study and all other Bible study that is improper.
For example, when the churches say, “You are to come to the Bible and just look for the plain, literal meaning and seek no other meaning,” they are going contrary to what we are told to do in 1Corinthians, chapter 2, as far as comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Of course, if you ask them, they think they are doing that as they compare one theologian to another theologian or as they compare their church’s confessions and creeds with the Bible verse that is the topic of their study. They have no real idea about how to go about obeying the direction God gives us in comparing spiritual with spiritual. They are ignorant of it and they lack understanding.
This is the reason that when EBible Fellowship was thinking about a good slogan to put on a bumper sticker to sum up our ministry (like Family Radio used to use “Sound of the New Life”), it occurred to me that a good slogan would be, “Comparing Spiritual with Spiritual.” The word “thing” is not in the Greek text; the translators added the word “thing.” So, “Comparing Spiritual with Spiritual” sums up the ministry of EBible Fellowship and it is what we selected to put on our bumper stickers, along with the website address.
Again, this is important because this methodology is so opposed. It is really curious that the corporate churches that are open to tongues and other charismatic leanings and that accept practically any kind of hermeneutic to arrive at truth, reject and oppose the hermeneutic of “spiritualizing.” That is what they call it. I do not feel that is an offensive word at all. When people say, “You are spiritualizing,” if you understand the proper definition of it, that is exactly what we are doing: comparing spiritual things with spiritual or “spiritualizing.” Of course, they have a negative view and they see it as reading something in to the Bible that is not there. The problem is, for them, it is not there because they cannot see it, hear it or perceive it. That is why this method of Bible study is so bothersome to them and, also, because it develops doctrines that they abhor, like the end of the church age or the setting of a date for the Great Tribulation and Judgment Day, and so forth. Therefore, they hate it and they do not want their people to get near that kind of Bible interpretation. As a result, they are blind and deaf congregations, and that is the case in all the church world.
Let us get started by reading, again, 1Corinthians 2:6-8:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, *even* the hidden *wisdom, * which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known *it*, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God moved the Apostle Paul to write down these words. God is referring to the people of God (of whom Paul was a pattern), and He said, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world.” Notice that God does not refer to the “wisdom of national Israel” (and by extension, the wisdom of the corporate church); that is, He is not contrasting the wisdom of God in the Bible through true and right interpretation to that of those entities.
It is not like what we often do in our day, where we would say, “The church teaches this and now this is what the Bible teaches, and we sort of identify it as “corporate church wisdom” or the teachings of men within the church institution that is contrary to the teaching of the Bible and God Himself. No – God does not use a word like “Israel” or “church” to make that kind of contrast, but He contrasts it with “the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world.” It even says in verse 8: “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ? The Romans did, but they are not in view by this reference to the “princes of this world.” It was the leaders of Israel, which were the scribes, Pharisees and chief priests. They are the one that delivered Christ over to be crucified. When Pilot wanted to let Him go, they were the ones that encouraged the people to cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They are the “princes of this world.” Again, God is indicating that they are of the world and their wisdom is of the world, no matter how often they talk about Bible books and Bible verses; and no matter how many times they take the Word of God in their mouths and say wonderful things about God and Jesus or the Bible. No matter how often they try to “dress it up,” their doctrine is of the world. It is a worldly doctrine because it is a lie. God is saying that this is the difference between His wisdom and the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of God is true. It is absolute truth. The wisdom of the world is a lie. Remember what Jesus said to the Jews (that are a representation of the corporate church). He said in John 8:43:
Why do ye not understand my speech? *even* because ye cannot hear my word.
Could they hear what He had just said? Yes – they heard all His other sayings and they heard this one, too. Jesus did not mean they could not hear with their physical ears. They could hear His words physically (or we could say, plainly and literally), but they could not understand His intent, which was the deeper spiritual meaning. He went on to say in John 8:44-45:
Ye are of *your* father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell *you* the truth, ye believe me not.
He said they were of their father, the devil, who was a liar. And, therefore, they would not believe the truth. This is very significant when it comes to the wisdom of God because the wisdom of God is the truth. When unsaved people that find themselves within the churches (for whatever reason) hear the wisdom of God, the truth, they do not believe it. They do not believe it because it is the truth and they are of another spirit. They are of another following. They are of their father, the devil, who is a liar. That is who they have “ears to hear” and “eyes to see.” They have the ability to believe the lie, to trust the lie and to follow the lie as the truth. In other words, the lie appears to them to be true and that is what they love. They do not love the truth. They despise it. They do not have the “ears” to perceive the voice of truth, but when they hear a lie they will follow it. And they can be very zealous and even give up their lives for that lie, while thinking that they are pleasing and serving God. They have even killed people with the thought in mind that it is pleasing to God. That is just how much they can follow the lie and be deceived in to thinking they are doing service to God. That is because the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and it naturally goes after that which is untrue – the falsehoods and the lies. There may be elements of truth in the lie or even much truth, but there will a pollution or perversion in some point that will lead to a lie and allow the natural man to follow. This is the difference between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world.
We know the world has its own doctrines apart from the churches, like the doctrine of evolution. And evolution is a lie. It is complete fabrication and it is really a ridiculous lie. It is so foolish and ridiculous that it is amazing that anyone in the world would believe it and, yet, you have entire countries, governments and brilliant scientists that follow evolution like it is Gospel truth. They will not even allow for debate. To them, it is a closed case. And, again, it is absolutely ridiculous. There is no logic or reasonableness to it. It is basically a “religious tenet” that must be adhered to in the world and no one is allowed to dispute it.
But in this passage, wisdom has to do with comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And that means that it has to do with the Bible. What this means is that some people come to the Bible and they say, “Yes, I believe in creation.” They have a right understanding of this because God plainly declared that He spoke and created the world, so they can hold to that because it is on the surface – it is directly stated and, therefore, natural-minded people can recognize that truth and even hold onto that truth. And, yet, that is not what is in view in this passage. It has to do with the deeper teaching of the Word of God, the Bible, and the Bible is full of deeper teaching in every verse.
Let us go back, again, to 1Corinthians 2:6-7:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, *even* the hidden *wisdom, * which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
It says we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The Greek word translated as “mystery” is always translated that way. It is pronounced “moos-tay-ree-on.” Just as it has come to be known in the English language, a mystery is that which is unclear and cannot be solved. It is a mystery. It is something that holds us in suspense and we just do not know the answer. It is a riddle. That is what a mystery is. When you hear that word, you know there is a very significant truth and, yet, it is a riddle that must be deciphered and discovered.
That is what God says regarding His wisdom that we speak, the “wisdom of God in a mystery.” That is what we speak, according to God: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:” That is how far back our wisdom in God goes – it was before this world came in to existence. God had already worked it all out. All His wisdom was settled before the mountains were brought forth, according to Proverbs, chapter 8. We know it relates to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we speak this wisdom of God in a mystery. In the first instance, this would refer to the Apostle Paul being moved by God to write down these things in the Epistles. It is the Word of God or the Scriptures that are being spoken; and they are spoken in a “mystery.”
If we look up this word “mystery,” and by the way, do not look in a dictionary or even the more up-to-date way of “Googling” the word to find a definition. We can never do that with the Bible and this is part of the reason we are looking at this chapter, because God explains how to define Biblical words. It is through the definition of Biblical words that we come to learn their meaning. When we learn the meaning of Biblical words, then we can learn the meaning of Bible verses, passages, chapters and books of the Bible.
We learn the ABCs and how to use letters to put together words in our language. Then we learn the definition of the words and how to use them in sentences we speak or write. This is how people learn languages. It is how we learn the Bible’s language. The Bible’s language is a spiritual language that is foreign to us in the beginning. Just think of an earthly language that you cannot imagine yourself speaking. For me, that language would be Chinese. When I hear Chinese spoken or when I see the letters of the Chinese alphabet and Chinese words, I think I could never learn that. It seems so difficult and complicated. It is probably one language that I would says I do not have the ability to learn. Maybe I am wrong, but the point is that it is difficult (in my mind) to learn that language – it is a foreign language to me. English seems much easier and much more natural, but the Chinese language is very hard. So, you can multiply the difficulty of the Chinese language by a billion for some idea of the difficulty of learning spiritual language for the natural-minded person. All mankind is conceived as natural-minded individuals, dead in our souls. We grew up in a world that is natural-minded. We have learned how to naturally think and naturally approach language and everything else we learn.
Then we must come to the Bible that operates in a whole other realm of existence. It is not “natural.” The only thing natural about the Bibles in front of us is the fact that God moved prophets of old and they wrote down His Words on pages with ink, which was compiled in to a book over the course of time. So, we have a natural Bible, in the sense that it has a physical nature in that it has paper, ink and it is very nicely laid out; and we can turn the pages and that comforts us. That is probably the reason so many people want to possess a Bible and, yet, they never read it. They have gone as far as they can go in this world as they try to learn about God. They have a book of God in their possession. It is a natural book that they can put on their natural shelf and look at it and its title that says, “Holy Bible.” That probably makes them feel good, but that has nothing to do with reading it with understanding.
Yes – mankind can understand plain, moral teachings and plain, literal statements. We can understand that Jesus lived about two thousand years ago. We can understand the history of Israel and the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We can see the Ten Commandments that teach us not to kill or steal or lie, and so forth. These are wonderful things, but the deep things of the wisdom of God lie in another dimension and on another plateau, and it is “spiritual.” And man’s problem is that he is dead in his spirit or soul existence and, therefore, he is “dead” to the true God, who is Spirit. Man is dead to the kingdom of God, which is spiritual. Man is dead to the language of the true God and His kingdom. It is the foreign language of “spiritualizing.” It is a spiritual language and mankind is dead to it. He has no spiritual understanding, so how can he learn a language that he is dead to? And because he is dead, he cannot really see it or hear it – it is an impossible language for him to learn and understand.
This is the reason people go to seminaries, with the best of intentions in mind; they want to serve God and they want to learn the Bible and teach the Bible. They want to become a pastor and they are taught by many professors the subjects that the seminary thinks are necessary for a pastor to learn. They teach them the “natural” methodology of approaching the Bible. It is a natural hermeneutic, and they cannot teach how to spiritually discern the Word of God. Yes – it is possible, if they would allow it, to develop a course on the spiritual interpretation of the Bible, laying out the Bible’s own methodology or hermeneutic. That could be done. But if the student is unsaved…and, by the way, all in the churches today would be characterized that way because God has ended the church age and left the churches to the “tares.” Those in their sins cannot properly follow God’s Biblical hermeneutic of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” because it is more than following a step-by-step guide. The person needs to have the spirit of God within them and be led by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit must have saved them and given them life in their own spirit before they can perceive the things that the proper methodology would open to them. In other words, if they did not have the Spirit of God within them, they could follow the correct methodology and Biblical hermeneutic, but they would still get it wrong, time after time, and they would not come to truth.
This is one of the problems with some people that were closely related to Family Radio for so long and they had some understanding because of their close relationship to the truth. They came out of the churches (for whatever reason) and, typically, they may have just been independent-minded people. They were trying to operate outside of the churches and, yet, they were unsaved, so they had no true understanding of the timeline, the Great Tribulation or of Judgment Day beginning May 21, 2011. These things were spiritual, so after a while some of them went back to churches and others stayed outside the churches, but they lack understanding of key doctrines that God graciously opened to His people at the time of the end. They may put forth some comparison of Scriptures, but they come up with wrong conclusions that are just as far off as those that follow the “plain, literal” Bible hermeneutic. We might wonder why they are off in their conclusions, even though they seemed to understand the principal of “comparing spiritual with spiritual.” Again, they do not have the Holy Spirit within and they do not have a new resurrected soul and life in the spirit to perceive spiritual truth. They may follow the right step-by-step guide, but they take wrong turns here and there because arriving at truth is something that God does on behalf of His people – it is something He grants us as He opens our minds to understand the Bible as we follow the Biblical hermeneutic of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” He will not open the understanding of someone that is not saved. How could He? It would be a contradiction. How can He open the spiritual understanding of someone that is dead in spirit? They follow in a much different way and when that kind of follower is put to the test or put to the fire, they will draw back, showing they had no real spiritual understanding of the thing they professed to follow.
As we look to the Bible to understand the word “mystery,” we find that Jesus spoke the parable of the sower and He said in Matthew 13:9:
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
And this is also a parabolic statement. We must understand what Christ means by this. But the disciples were curious, and it goes on to say in Matthew 13:10:
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Have you ever wondered about that? Have you ever asked that question? Why did Christ speak in parables? It is not the easiest or best way to communicate to ensure that your hearers understand what you are saying. That is why it was a foolish thing when natural-minded theologians developed the idea that we must “place ourselves in the first century A. D. and consider what it meant to them.” That is just an idiotic idea. Who cares what it meant to them? It was a parable that they could not understand. And Christ spoke in parables.
God would not have us to attempt to understand the wisdom of God by placing ourselves in the shoes of people in the world in the first century or in any past time. Again, it is a natural-minded idea that was devised by theologians that possessed natural minds and did not understand the things they were reading. You know, the Bible is really wisdom that is far, far above their ability to grab hold of and, yet, they found themselves in roles of teachers, professors or a doctor of the law. So, they feel they must help others understand and, yet, they themselves do not understand the very “basics” of Bible interpretation. They are “dead” in their soul existence and they cannot teach anyone how to understand a spiritual book.
I know I am being very blunt, but it is a fact. It is the truth. And this is why the churches are in the condition they are in, as they have elevated masses of individuals to roles as professors, teachers and theologians that have written and taught a great deal that is all on the “natural” plateau; it is all on the worldly level, based on natural-minded thinking.
Let us ask the question again: Why did Jesus speak in parables? We know the Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word was God. We know the Word was made flesh. This is extremely important. Christ is that Word, who was God and who was made flesh, so when Christ spoke it was the Word of God speaking. And Christ spoke in parables. We will read later that it says, “and without a parable he did not speak.”
Christ spoke to people in parables. Probably, after He would speak to big crowds and give them a parable, there would be individuals in the crowd that would interact with a disciple. This is speculation, but just knowing the nature of people, they would come to a disciple after hearing Jesus speak a parable and they would ask, “What did He say? What did He mean? What was His point? Why does He speak in parables? Why does He not just speak plainly?” The disciples often would not understand (at least, initially) the parable themselves, so they would not have an answer. So, they decided, “Let us ask Him, so we will have something to say when people come up to us.” So, they asked Him, “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?” They could have added, “Would it not be easier to speak plainly and say exactly what you mean? That would be the best mode of communication if you want the people to understand you. You have to speak in a way that they can understand.”
Of course, the key here is whether the Lord wanted the people to understand. And, in fact, God did not want the people to understand. This is what Jesus went on to answer, in Matthew 3:11:
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Wow! That is an incredible statement. The disciples are asking the Word, “Why do you speak in parables?” It is as though they are asking the Bible that question. They are asking God why He has written the Bible in the way He did: “Lord, why have you written the Bible in a parable? Why is the Bible so hard to understand? Would it not be better if you had written the Bible in a much simpler way? Just say things very directly and plainly. Just lay it out on the surface so people do not have to dig for it. Would that not clear things up? Then we would not have all these false gospels that result because the Bible is not that clear. Would it not help to have Bible doctrine that is very clear and very directly stated, so there are not ‘fifty ways to get baptized’ or several ways to observe the Lord’s Table? You could make things crystal clear by speaking plainly.”
However, it was never God’s purpose to do so in this world to cause unsaved, natural-minded individuals to comprehend the Word of God, the Bible. As a matter of fact, He does not want them to understand the Bible. God does not want the wicked that are dead in their souls to understand the deeper, spiritual things of the Word of God, the Bible. And, therefore, they cannot. They are not able to do so because it is not given to them to understand and that is why Christ spoke in parables.
It is given to the disciples, that are a picture of all those God saved as they come to the Bible. It is given to the elect of God to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but for all the non-elect, it is not given. Therefore, only the elect children of God will know the wisdom of God. Only a remnant out of the whole will know that wisdom.
Amazingly, if we look at the history of Israel, even after they saw evidence as the living God saved them out of Egypt, they made the “golden calf.” Or, after God blessed them with so many blessings as He established the nation of Israel in the land of Canaan, they continually set up their “high places” and worshipped false gods, again, and again and again. And God’s wrath would come down upon them, because it was not given to them to have spiritual wisdom, but in the nation of Israel there was the remnant, the few of God’s elect that understood the wisdom of God. It was the same way throughout the church age and throughout history. The wisdom of God is only understood by the few.
So, at the time of the end the Lord opened the Scriptures to reveal tremendous amounts of true and faithful doctrines of the Bible. Let us just look at one, like the end of the church age. God opened up this information to His people and had them proclaim what was spiritually discerned through comparing spiritual things with spiritual. For instance, when we read Matthew 24 it refers to some kind of strange creature called “the abomination of desolation.” Then it says that when we would see this abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, we were to flee to the mountains. The natural-minded individual had no ability to understand because these things were parables and Christ was speaking in parabolic language, giving information that He would seal and hide from all until the time of the end. Then He removed the seals of the book and opened the understanding of the minds of His people. And we would follow that proper Biblical hermeneutic of “comparing spiritual with spiritual” and because we had the Holy Spirit as our guide and life in our souls, we responded, “The abomination of desolation is not some monster creature, but it is Satan; the holy place is a reference to the corporate church; Judaea is another reference to the churches; the mountain is a reference to God and His Word, the Bible. Therefore, we knew we must flee or leave the churches. It was spiritually discerned, and God’s people would act upon it when God moved in them to will and to do of His good pleasure by leaving the congregations.
It was through the opening up of a spiritual truth that could only be spiritually discerned that God brought to pass the separation of the wheat and the tares. Or, we could say that God brought to pass the separation of the spiritual and the natural. The tares are all natural-minded. It does not matter what they profess or whether they are a Doctor of the Law or a pastor, elder or deacon. None of that makes one spiritual. They were all natural-minded and, therefore, they viewed the true Bible hermeneutic of comparing spiritual with spiritual (Scripture with Scripture) as foolishness. They did not believe it because it was the truth and they had no ability to perceive the truth. They see the truth as a lie. Instead, they followed what their pastors said.
Some of the people heard those things under the hearing of Family Radio and Mr. Camping, and I remember that many people would say, “How come only a handful of people are saying the church age has come to an end, but my pastor and all these other pastors say it has not? Why is it that they do not see this in the Bible, if God has done this? Would He not reveal it to everyone?” But Matthew 13 tells us that He would not reveal it to everyone: “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” It was given to the few, but to the masses it was not given. The Bible says that though Israel be as the sand of the sea for number, only a remnant would be saved. And although there were about two billion professed Christians in the churches, it was not given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. They could not “solve the riddle.” They could not understand the mystery that God had written. And it remains a mystery to them. Of course, they try to understand things by looking at the context in the first century A.D. and they say, “Oh, it all happened then, when the Romans took over Juda and Jerusalem.” They are natural-minded, and it is all perceived as earthly or historical. They naturally go in that direction and they are a million miles away from the truth.
Lord willing, when we come back to this subject again in our Sunday study, we will pick up this passage. This is a key passage for us to go over to see what God has done as far as the writing of the Bible and the interpretation of the Bible, which is the most important thing. We must understand how to properly interpret the Word of God, and God has laid that out in this chapter.
