1 Corinthians 2:12

He called the spirit of this world human wisdom. It is not this wisdom that we received, lest it render our preaching vain and useless; no, our teacher was the Spirit "from God," that is, a being consubstantial with God, proceeding from His essence. The …

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world - This spirit is not properly received; for the men of the world always had it. But Christians receive the Spirit of God, which before they had not.

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By his Spirit - Who intimately and fully knows them. For the Spirit searcheth even the deep things of God - Be they ever so hidden and mysterious; the depths both of his nature and his kingdom. For what man knoweth the things of a man - All the inmost recesses of his mind; although men are all of one nature, and so may the more easily know one another.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world,....

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world - We, who are the genuine apostles of Christ, have received this Spirit of God, by which we know the deep things of God; and, through the teaching of that Spirit, we preach Christ crucified. We have not therefore received the spirit of the world - of the Jewish teachers, who are all looking for a worldly kingdom and a worldly Messiah, and interpret all the scriptures of the Old Testament which relate to Him in a carnal and worldly sense.

we . . . received, not . . . spirit of . . . world--the personal evil "spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph 2:2). This spirit is natural in the unregenerate, and needs not to be received. Spirit which is of God--that is, which comes from God.

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THE course of our fallen race has been a succession of failures. Whenever there has been an apparent rise, it has been followed by a real fall. Into ever-increasing darkness the human mind seems resolved to plunge itself in its struggles after a false light. When men have been fools, they have danced in a delirium of sin. When they have been sober, they have given themselves up to a phantom wisdom of their own, which has revealed their folly more than ever. It is a sad story, the story of mankind!

THE course of our fallen race has been a succession of failures. Whenever there has been an apparent rise, it has been followed by a real fall. Into ever-increasing darkness the human mind seems resolved to plunge itself in its struggles after a false light. When men have been fools, they have danced in a delirium of sin. When they have been sober, they have given themselves up to a phantom wisdom of their own, which has revealed their folly more than ever. It is a sad story, the story of mankind! Read it in the light of God's Word and it will bring tears from your very heart. The only hope for man was that God should interpose. And He has interposed, as though He began a new creation, or worked a resurrection out of the kingdom of death. God has come into human history and here the bright lights begin. Where God is at work in Divine Grace, abounding sin is conquered, hope begins and good becomes perceptible. This better state is always markedly the effect of a break in the natural course of things—a supernatural product which would never have been seen in this poor world had it been let alone. See yonder avalanche rushing down the steep mountainside—such is humanity left to itself. Lo, God in Christ Jesus throws Himself in the way. He so interposes as to be crushed beneath the descending rocks. But, Beloved, He rises from the dreadful burial. He stops the avalanche in its terrible path. He hurls back the tremendous mass and changes the whole aspect of history. In this Divine interposition, of which the Bible gives us the best record— to which, I trust, our experience has added a happy appendix—we behold and adore the almighty Grace of God. In the interposition of Omnipotent Grace we note that the Lord so works as to preserve His own glory. He takes care that no flesh shall glory in His Presence. He might have used the power of the great but He has not.

Now we have received - We who are Christians; and especially we, the apostles. The following verse shows that he had himself and the other apostles chiefly in view; though it is true of all Christians that they have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God. Not the spirit of this world - Not the wisdom and knowledge which this world can give - not the learning and philosophy which were so much valued in Greece. The views of truth which we have, are not such as this world gives, but are such as are communicated by the Spirit of God. But the Spirit which is of God - We are under the teaching’s and influence of the Holy Spirit. That we might know - That we might fully understand and appreciate. The Spirit is given to us in order that we might fully understand the favors which God has conferred on us in the gospel. It was not only necessary that God should grant the blessings of redemption by the gift of His Son, but, such was the hardness and blindness of the human heart, it was needful that he should grant His Holy Spirit also, so that people might be brought fully to see and appreciate the value of those favors. For people do not see them by nature; neither does anyone see them who is not enlightened by the Holy Spirit of God. The things that are freely given us - That are conferred on us as a matter of grace or favor. He here refers to the blessings of redemption - the pardon of sin, justification, sanctification, the divine favor and protection, and the hope of eternal life - These things we Know; they are not matters of conjecture; but are surely and certainly confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit. It is possible for all Christians to know and be fully assured of the truth of those things, and of their interest in them.