1 Corinthians 2:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 2:13

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The apostle means we the apostles, and the New Testament prophets. The Scriptures took over as the apostolic word was written down, the Scriptures were complete. ‘Which things also we speak’: they preached these things, or we have them in written revelation. The spirit of the world rejects revelation. This is a marvellous sentiment and again it has two levels at which you must understand it. The word translated ‘comparing’ more means judging, or even combining. Some people prefer the sense, which is included in the word connecting, but it's all for the purpose of making a judgement. Comparing, combining for the purposes of weighing and judging, spiritual things with spiritual. What does the apostle mean? What are spiritual things? Well, that is easy in the context: we are talking about the word of God, the things that the Holy Spirit teaches, that the apostles preach, the word. So ‘spiritual things’ is the word of God. ‘Comparing spiritual things’, combining the teaching of the word of God with what? Spiritual. Spiritual what? Tell us, Paul. Spiritual what? He does not tell us. So we have got to make up our minds. What is he referring to? Combining the spiritual truths of the word of God with spiritual … Some people say, he meant to say, ‘words’, ‘with spiritual words.’ So, they say, what the apostle is saying is this: the preacher takes the Scriptures, and he unites it with his own words, and his own words must do justice to the Scriptures. His task is to explain, expound, and apply the Scriptures, but he better not stray from them, because he must connect and weigh the spiritual words of Scripture with everything he says as he converts them into a sermon, with application. Does it mean that: comparing, judging, connecting the spiritual things of the word of God with spiritual words spoken by the preacher? Or does he mean something else? Comparing the spiritual words of Scripture with the spiritual words of Scripture. Well, what could that mean? Comparing, connecting spiritual words with spiritual words. But this second meaning is this: that when we expound any part of Scripture we must compare and check and weigh our understanding with other Scriptures which speak about the same thing: comparing Scripture with Scripture. It is a very similar point to one which is extracted from Romans 12:6. The Reformers used to call this the analogy of faith. (The church of Rome uses that term, but in quite a different sense.) The analogy of faith means this: there is a sameness, a uniformity, an agreement in all parts of the Scripture. The Scripture never contradicts itself, and the same principles and truths and instructions are given in more than one place, in many places quite often. So our understanding of any one passage must be informed by other passages speaking about the same thing: comparing spiritual words with spiritual words. So did the apostle have in mind the preacher who is to compare the Scripture and connect it very closely with what he says, so that he must not depart from it? Or is it talking about how we understand the Scripture: always comparing one Scripture with another? Well, both. That is why the apostle does not say. ‘Comparing spiritual things with spiritual’: he leaves the door open for both understandings, both are true.

Application

Supposing you read Hebrews chapter 6, a famous chapter of Hebrews. The first time I ever read it – and it is true with many people – I got a bit of a shock, because it gave me the impression that a child of God can lose his salvation. Ah but you see, when you compare Scripture with Scripture, you realise you have got it wrong, because other Scriptures that are unassailable and incontrovertible tell us about the perseverance of the saints, and the absolute security of the person who is truly saved. So I had understood Hebrews 6 wrongly. When I looked at it again more closely, I saw where I had gone wrong. I saw how I had read it only superficially; I saw it could not possibly say what I first thought it said. What corrected me was the principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture. It works this way also: if you take all the unassailable basic truths and doctrines of the word of God out of the Scripture, you can form a systematic theology. Have you studied botany? The botany textbook is about trees and flowers. It does not look at nature like we look at nature. We see a great profusion and variety of all kinds of flowers and plants, and it is beautiful. But the botany textbook just takes out individual families of plant, and puts them into a systematic order. If you arrange the garden like that, it would not look beautiful at all. But the botany textbook takes out all the families in an orderly manner, and you study each one separately. Now that is what we mean by systematic theology. It takes the wonderful profusion of teaching of the Bible and it organises that teaching under doctrinal headings. It gives all the texts but it focuses on one doctrine at a time. We will look at this doctrine, and then at another doctrine, until you have reproduced the Bible, hopefully, but in a systematic manner with all the doctrines set out one after the other. Now the Bible itself is much, much better of course for us. Systematic theology is not competing with the Bible, but it has a purpose. If you have all the doctrines summarised and set before you, then any understanding of the Scripture can be checked against the body of doctrine. Thomas Watson's grand puritan book on doctrine which everybody should read is called ‘A Body of Divinity’. You have got all the main heads of doctrine teased out and identified and listed in a systematic way. And this applies here: ‘Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.’ Check your understanding against the body of incontrovertible doctrines, so clearly taught, so many times, and it keeps you on the straight and narrow.

Every major error that is ever committed in Christendom among the churches is due to this principle not being applied. Somebody has gone to a text and said, it means this, and they have not compared it with the other texts on the same subject, and they have misunderstood it, and they have built a denomination on it sometimes, or whole movements, and misled thousands. Every error can be traced down to a failure of comparing Scripture with Scripture. So the apostle gives us here, a great rule of interpretation, so that we can be clear on what the Scripture actually teaches.

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1 Corinthians 2:13 Commentary and Bible Study