1 Corinthians 2:16

“With the humble, more humble; with the proud, more proud,” says some one. Never did any one practise this maxim better than the Apostle Paul. Face to face with those who disparage him, he rises to an incomparable height. Jehovah, in Isaiah, addressing ignorant man, threw out this challenge: “Who hath measured the Spirit of the Lord? Who being His counsellor hath taught Him?” Such is the position which the apostle takes up as against his detractors. He quotes this saying after the LXX. (omitting the words of the middle clause, whereas he preserves them, Romans 11:34, while omitting the end), and says with them, who hath known? instead of, who hath measured? Just as the natural man is incapable of judging by his simple reason the ways of God in creation and the government of the world, so is he in no position to appreciate the procedure of the spiritual man. Why so? Because the latter, having the mind of the Lord, stands over against him in the same position as the Lord Himself.

The word συμβιβάζειν signifies strictly, to cause to walk together, and hence, to adjust, combine, conclude (Acts 16:10), to demonstrate (Acts 9:22); it is used in the classics only with the thing as object (to demonstrate a thing), while in the LXX. it is used with the person as object; and so in them it takes the sense of instructing, which it has here.

In the ἡμεῖς, we, there is a well-marked contrast to the ὑμεῖς, ye, of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. It is obvious how profoundly, in virtue of the revelation he has received, the apostle distinguishes himself from the Church. The term νοῦς, properly, understanding, and hence mind, is not synonymous with Spirit. It denotes the mind of God as to the destination of humanity and the best means of realizing it. The Spirit is the agent by whom this mind of God is communicated to the spiritual man.

Of the two readings, of the Lord and of Christ, the second seems to us preferable; the copyists have been naturally led to substitute Κυρίου (of the Lord) for Χρίστου (of Christ), to give this passage the form of a regular syllogism: “Who hath known the mind of God? But we know it; therefore no one can judge our mode of acting.” But Paul has substituted for, the mind of the Lord (of God), the mind of Christ, which he tacitly identifies with that of God, because the former is only the reflection of the latter in a human intelligence. By the ἔχομεν, we hold, we possess, the mind of Christ is identified in its turn with that of Paul, who knows it by the revelation of the Spirit. Thus the minister of a sovereign could say, after an intimate conversation with his king, I am in full possession of my master's mind. From this moment, therefore, to criticize the servant is to criticize the master.