1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, a community fracturing over whose rhetorical skill and philosophical pedigree it should follow. He is drawing a hard line between two modes of perception before the one who has the Spirit and the one who does not.

The words — ψυχικὸς (psuchikos) is the adjective of ψυχή (soul, breath); Paul uses it to mark a person whose highest governing faculty is the soul rather than the Spirit, not merely "natural" in a neutral sense. δέχεται (dechetai), present active, frames the refusal as a continuous posture, not a single act of rejection.

The thread — 1 Corinthians 1:18 calls the cross "foolishness to those who are perishing"; 1 Corinthians 2:15 immediately reverses the picture with the spiritual man who "judges all things." Romans 8:5 and Matthew 13:11 supply parallel contrasts between two mindsets and between those given mysteries and those not.

Why it lands — The verse describes a cognitive limitation, not a moral failing; the "natural man" is not unintelligent but oriented along a different axis. It asks the reader to stop treating the gospel as a proposition to be evaluated by human standards and to recognize that the barrier is the absence of the very faculty required to receive it.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Romans 8:5 Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Matthew 13:11 He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.
1 Corinthians 15:46 The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.
Jude 1:19 These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit.
James 3:15 Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 10:26 But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe.