The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
I say, then, that the Apostle is speaking in general terms of the gifts which were given to the Apostles and the Church, and of those gifts alone. He says in effect: “We received this Spirit that we, i.e., the Apostles, might know with what gifts and good things in general Christ has enriched us, i.e., His Church, viz., with what grace of the Spirit, what redemption, what virtues, and especially with how great glory;” for these were the things alluded to in ver. 9 ; and these things are, as he says in ver. 11, in God, i.e., by the free-will and predestination of God. “ We know, too, through the Holy Spirit and Revelation, that these things have been given by God to the Church ; for we speak of and teach these things as part of the faith. But that I am possessed of them, or a sharer in them, is not a matter of faith, but of conjecture : it is not to be publicly preached, but secretly hoped for.”
Again, the word know may be taken in a twofold sense : (1.) Objectively ; (2.) Subjectively.
1. Objectively, the Apostle knew, and all the faithful knew, from the prophecies, miracles, and from other signs from God, that He had promised to His congregation (i.e., His Church, which had been called together by the Apostles, and was afterwards to be called together), and that, according to His promises, He had given His grace, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and other gifts of free grace, and lastly a sure hope of eternal life. But all this was to His Church in common, not to this or that individual in it; for we cannot know in a particular case whether this one or that is faithful. In this sense the word know is the same as believe. For we believe that the Catholic Church is holy, and that in her there is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. God, therefore , has only revealed that His Church is holy, but not that I am holy. For although He has revealed and has promised to all in the Church, who rightly believe and repent, forgiveness of sins and righteousness, yet He has not revealed that I believe truly and repent; and therefore He has not revealed that my sins are forgiven , and that I am justified.
2. The word know may be taken subjectively : we Apostles know what wisdom and grace God has given us; and in this way the word know is the same as experience. For no one of the Apostles believed by faith from above that he had wisdom and grace ; but he experienced the acts and effects of grace in himself so vehemently, frequently, clearly, and surely, that he felt morally certain that he had true wisdom and grace from God. For the
Apostles were filled with grace and wisdom, and it behoved them to teach others the same, and wholly to long to bring the world to Christ. Although, then, the Apostles knew by experience that they had been justified and sanctified, still the rest of the faithful did not know it, nor do they know it now. They can only hope so, and conjecture it from the signs of an upright and good life. Yet neither the Apostles, nor they, believe it on the testimony of infused faith ; for experience of every kind merely generates human faith, not Divine : that springs from and depends on the revelation of God alone.
Ver. 13. — Which things also we speak , not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. I.e., not in words taught by Cicero, Demosthenes, or Aristotle, such as human wisdom teaches, but in words inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual In other words, we teach this spiritual wisdom from the Scriptures and other spiritual writings, and do not base it on philosophical, rhetorical, or earthly reasons, ideas, or speeches, as S. Chrysostom says. Œcumenius says: “If we are asked whether Christ rose on the third day, we bring forward testimony and proofs from Jonah. If we are asked whether the Lord was born of a Virgin, we compare His mother in her virginity to Anna and Elisabeth in their sterility, and thence prove it.” The Apostle here gives a priori the cause and reason why, at God's command, he refrained from using eloquence and human wisdom in his preaching. The reason is that Divine and human wisdom so widely differ. Since, then, speech should be fitted to the subject-matter, it was evidently right that that speech in which Divine wisdom was published, should be adapted to it, and should differ from the words of human wisdom — that is to say, that it should be simple, grave, efficacious, and Divine, as proceeding from the Holy Spirit, who would reject all rhetorical ornamentation. In this matter we are bidden to learn, forbidden to use ornament. For as words of human wisdom carry with them the wisdom and the spirit of the speaker, so do the words of the Holy Spirit bring into the soul the wisdom of God, and of His Spirit speaking by the Apostles.
Ver. 14. — The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Natural or animal is here applied to one who follows his senses and the unaided light of reason. He is one who is concerned with this life only, and thinks after the way of this life, who follows the objects of his sensations and the thoughts of his heart. Such were the Apostles before they received the Holy Spirit, and such were the Corinthians at this time, as they sought after eloquence. Now, too, there are many of the faithful, not bad men, who do not seek after higher things.
The word animal here comes from “anima,” and has a threefold application, (1.) It is applied to one who grows, takes nourishment, and needs food, as all animals do. So Adam, though created in grace, is called animal [natural] ( i Cor. xv. 45, 46). (2.) Secondly, to one who follows his nature, i.e., his lusts and desires. So the Jews are called animal or natural, as not having the Spirit
(3.) To one who follows after knowledge that is not spiritual and sublime, but open and easy to the mind and senses. This is the meaning here. Bernard, or whoever is the author of the treatise on the solitary life, says, a little after the beginning of it : “ The natural state is a mode of life subservient to the senses of the body, viz ., when the soul, as though going outside herself, pursues, of the bodily senses , the pleasure she finds in the bodies she loves , feeds on the enjoyment they give , and nourishes her own sensual disposition; or when, as though returning to herself on finding that she is unable to bring to the place where her incorporeal nature is the bodies to which she has joined herself by the powerful bonds of love and habit, she brings with her images of them, and holds friendly conversation with them . And when she has accustomed herself to them, she thinks that there is nothing save what she left behind her without, or herself brought within, Thenceforward, as long as she remains here, she finds her pleasure in living according to the pleasures of the body ; but when she is prevented from enjoying them, she has no thoughts but such as are images of bodily things.”
So he is called spiritual who lives in the Spirit :
1. As a spirit not needing food, so Christ lived after His resur-
2. As following the inspiration, direction, and movements of the Spirit