1 Corinthians 2:16

1 Corinthians 2:16. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? The question is quoted from Isaiah 40:13 (as in LXX,).

But we have the mind of Christ. The meaning is, that though none can penetrate Jehovah's mind, yet since in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 3:3), if we have the mind of Christ, we know all of “the things of God” which a creature is permitted to know.

Note. The contrast here so sharply drawn between Divine and human wisdom is far-reaching, involving the great question of the rival claims of Reason and Revelation to be the supreme guide to the discovery of what man needs for the regulation of his life and the attainment of his highest bliss. The one light is from beneath, the other from above. In a profound sense, indeed, “the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27); but it has never of itself, in any age or any land, led man to the true knowledge of God and eternal life. Whereas, so soon as “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” we enter the region and breathe the air, become alive to the interests, kindle with the sympathies, and taste the joys, of all that is spiritual, seeing everything in its true light. Is it so? Then the deep diversities of Christendom cease to be stumbling. For the family of the spiritual dwell alone in the world. “Therefore the world knoweth them not, because it knew Him not” They know and recognise each other, yet they themselves are known of no men.

They are at home with each other at once, though meeting for the first time from the ends of the earth. The rude and the refined, the savage and the civilised, meet together as one; “the Lord is the maker of them all” in the highest sense. Their diversities are lost in their higher unity, and they can pour out their common hymn with one heart as with one voice, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us unto our God kings and priests, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”