Natural man vs spiritual man

by Ivan Ho 23 Oct 2020

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
I Corinthians 2:14 

 

A natural man (or woman) is one who relies on his natural senses to make judgement on things. He is basically a soulish person rather than spiritual irregardless of whether he is a believer of Christ or not.

Every day we are bombarded with information from the natural world that influences our mindsets and emotions. Unfortunately a soulish person’s thinking and emotion is dictated by what he sees, what he feels, what he analyses through his natural senses. Eve “saw” that the tree was good for food, that it was “pleasant to the eyes”, and a tree “desirable” to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6). A soulish person like Eve is easily misled by the enemy who feeds her with information to influence her soul. A natural person is easily swayed by the things he sees and listens to in the physical realm.

The bible says that the natural man or woman does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. Even when God speaks to him, he cannot respond accurately because he does not receive the word in his spirit. A natural man cannot discern whether the information he receives is from God or from other sources because he uses only his natural senses to decipher the information.

When a natural person fails to receive the things of the Spirit of God, he can only conduct his life and make decisions based on what he gathers in the natural world, irrespective of its sources such as books, tv, internet etc.

A spiritual person, on the other hand, is a man or woman who is able to receive, retain and respond accurately to the things of the Spirit of God. He is able to discern and make judgments accurately because his spirit is in tune with the Spirit of God. He is also able to discern whether or not the word or thoughts that come to him is of God or not.