Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, not figured out through human reasoning. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that only the Holy Spirit can reveal them to a believer’s mind. It takes a new nature to receive them, not sharper logic.
What Does “Spiritually Discerned” Mean?
To discern something means to see it clearly enough to judge what it actually is. Paul tells the Corinthian church that God’s truth cannot be reached the way a person reaches other knowledge.
It has to be given, not figured out.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
That verse is simple enough for a child. But Paul is talking about something deeper than simple facts. He is talking about a whole way of understanding God that human effort cannot produce on its own. Let’s take a look at what Paul has to say in 1 Corinthians 2: 6-16.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: (6)
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: (7)
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (8)
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (9)
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (10)
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (11)
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (12)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (13)
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (14)
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (15)
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (16)
In verse 14 Paul calls the person without the Holy Spirit “the natural man.” That is not an insult. It simply means a person operating on human reasoning alone, without God’s Spirit to guide them.
Verse 9 says no eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared. Human senses can’t find it. Verse 10 answers the problem directly: God reveals it by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches the deep things of God the way a person’s own spirit knows their own thoughts. No one else reads your mind from outside. In the same way, no human mind can read God’s mind without God’s own Spirit doing the revealing.
Why Can’t Human Reasoning Understand the Things of God?
Verse 14 gives the reason plainly. The natural man cannot receive spiritual things because they are foolishness to him. It is not that he refuses to try.
He genuinely cannot process what he’s looking at, the way a blind man cannot process color. This is not about intelligence.
Brilliant scholars have read the Bible and walked away confused, while a farmer with no formal training has read the same page and wept in worship. The difference was never education.
Why Is the Cross the Hardest Thing to Understand Without the Spirit?
The cross sits at the center of it all. Nothing offends human reasoning more than a Savior who dies like a criminal.
(1 Corinthians 1:18-25)
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (18)
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (19)
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (20)
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (21)
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: (22)
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (23)
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (24)
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (25)
Notice the word Paul uses twice: foolishness. To the natural mind, a crucified Savior looks weak, not powerful. Salvation by grace instead of good works looks careless, not merciful.
The message of the cross only makes sense once the Spirit opens a person’s eyes to it. Before that, it reads as nonsense or an insult. After that, it reads as the only thing that ever made sense.
Do You Have to Be Born Again to Discern Spiritual Things?
From the scripture I just quoted, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, it is painfully obvious that for the natural man, saved, or not, spiritual discernment is an impossibility. It requires a different starting point altogether.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)
Nicodemus was a religious scholar. Jesus told him his education couldn’t get him there. Being born again means receiving new spiritual life from God, not improving the old one.
Without that new birth, the kingdom of God stays hidden no matter how many hours a person spends studying the text, memorizing verses, or attending church every week. Study alone won’t open it.
Spiritual discernment can’t be taught like a class subject. You can memorize every verse in the Bible and still miss what they mean, because the missing piece was never information — it was life.
Why Can’t Unbelievers See the Truth of the Gospel?
Scripture does not stop at saying the natural man is confused. It names an active cause working against him.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Paul calls Satan “the god of this world.” He is not neutral about whether people see the gospel clearly. He works to keep the truth hidden, the way a hand held over someone’s eyes blocks out light.
That blinding is real. It isn’t a metaphor for laziness or stubbornness. A person can be sincere, intelligent, and still carry a real obstruction over their understanding, planted there by an enemy who doesn’t want them to see Christ.
What Changes When Someone Turns to Christ?
The blinding Paul describes is not permanent for everyone. Something happens the moment a person turns to the Lord.
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:14-16)
A veil is a covering. It hides what’s behind it.
👉 Paul says a veil sits over the mind of anyone reading Scripture apart from Christ, and it stays there no matter how carefully they study.
The veil does not come off through more effort. It comes off the moment someone turns to the Lord.
Discernment is not a reward for trying hard enough. It is what happens the instant the obstruction is removed.
Does Spiritual Discernment Work All the Time, or Only Once?
Being born again opens the door, but discernment is not a switch you flip once and forget. It describes what governs your mind day by day.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)
A “carnal mind” means a mind set on the flesh — human effort and self-focused thinking — instead of the Spirit. That mindset stays hostile to God. Paul says it resists God even in a believer, whenever it takes the wheel.
A Christian can still slip into carnal thinking, or never stepping out it, after being born again. Discernment sharpens when a believer’s mind is set on the Spirit and dulls when it drifts back toward the flesh.
It is a daily condition, not a one-time certificate.
Do Believers Need Someone to Teach Them Everything?
Discernment depends on the Spirit, not on human effort. That changes what a believer actually needs in order to grow.
But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. (1 John 2:20)
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27)
An anointing here means the Holy Spirit’s presence living inside a believer, teaching from the inside rather than the outside. Pastors and teachers still matter.
Scripture never says otherwise, but the final source of understanding is the Spirit himself, working in a person who belongs to Christ.
That should bring real comfort to anyone who feels like they lack the training to understand the Bible. The Spirit was never waiting on a degree.
Can You Grow in Spiritual Discernment?
Discernment is present in every believer from the moment of new birth, but Scripture treats it as something that can deepen. Paul prayed for exactly that among the Ephesians.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of his glory in the inheritance of the saints. (Ephesians 1:17-18)
Paul was praying for people who were already saved. If discernment could not grow, that prayer would make no sense.
Asking God for a deeper spirit of wisdom and revelation isn’t begging for something you lack entirely. It’s asking for more light, not more proof.
Anyone wanting to go deeper has somewhere to start. The place to begin is why you need the Spirit to read Scripture at all.
Isn’t This Just a Way to Dismiss Anyone Who Disagrees With You?
If anyone who disagrees with a certain interpretation can be labeled “unspiritual,” then the whole idea is a trap with no exit. Nobody could ever be proven wrong, because every disagreement gets waved away as spiritual blindness instead of examined on its own terms.
That objection deserves a straight answer, not a dodge. Paul is not claiming spiritual people are always right about every detail or that disagreement itself proves someone lacks the Spirit.
Believers disagree with each other on plenty of things and remain genuinely born again.
What Paul actually describes is narrower and specific. The natural man’s inability centers on receiving the message of the cross itself, the core claim that a crucified Savior is the power and wisdom of God.
That rejection has a named cause behind it: the god of this world blinding minds so the light of the gospel cannot shine through.
That is not a vague accusation. It targets one truth and one named enemy working against it, nothing broader than that.
The test was never “do you agree with me.” It is whether a person has turned to Christ and had the veil over that one truth removed.
Someone can be sharp, sincere, and well-read, and still find the cross foolish. The Spirit has to do that work. Once the veil lifts, the same person who once mocked the cross will build their whole life on it.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and no amount of reasoning will get you there on your own. Set your own reasoning down. Turn to Christ crucified, and ask the Spirit to open your eyes to what he’s already shown you.
