“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.” (1 Corinthians 2:12)
Gordon’s best friend sometimes keeps secrets that he doesn’t want him to know. Gordon can’t read his mind, so he will never know those secrets. Nobody can know his friend’s mind except the friend himself (and God). Nobody knows God’s mind except for God.
So how are we ever supposed to know what God wants?
God has not given us the spirit of the world. If He gave us the spirit of the world we would never know what we need to know. God has given us the Spirit of God so we can know the mind of God. We will never know everything God knows, but we can know the things that are “given to us” from God. We can know everything we need to know.
God has given us knowledge about how to live, how to behave, how to treat our neighbors, and how to love each other. We can know how to help friends in need and how to respect our parents. God has “freely” given us all that knowledge.
God gave us the Spirit so we can know Him.
My Response:
» Do I act like I have the Spirit of God or the spirit of the world?