The Mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2:12-16 (NIV)
¹² We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
¹⁴ 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.
¹⁵ The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
¹⁶ "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

How is it that many in the world ignore or ridicule believing in Jesus and the things of God?  Here we are told that without the Holy Spirit it is impossible to make sense of anything beyond the natural world.  The Holy Spirit is available for all, but only if one responds to that offer.  The Holy Spirit comes and opens the eyes of the one that looks beyond the self.  Until then, the things of God are like water poured out on a flat rock.  There is no chance of penetration, of understanding for a heart is hardened by the ways of the world. 

The one who realizes he or she is not complete and lost is ready to believe in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is then given to the believer, opening the way to the inexhaustible riches of God.  We are connected and have within us the Lord’s own Spirit.  That is why we are able to spiritually respond to and discern the things that the natural man finds foolish. It is given to us to understand the world as it truly is, from God’s revelation and is why it is said that we are not subject to any man’s judgment.  God’s Spirit provides insight and judgment beyond that of a person without the Spirit. 

This adds to our understanding of being one with Christ, just as He is one with the Father. There is one Holy Spirit through Whom we are joined together.  It is this Spirit that gives us the mind of Christ; God’s own Son with Whom He was well pleased.  We become brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of the same Father.