1 Corinthians 2:14 - "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Thoughts on today's verse:

Paul talks about the natural and spiritual man a fair amount in his writings. Here, the focus is on the man without the Spirit, or in other words - the natural man. Who is he?

"The natural man belongs to the world, while the spiritual man belongs to God. The one is an unbeliever and the other a believer; the one lacks the Spirit while the other has the Spirit; the one follows natural instincts (Jude 19), the other follows the Lord." (BNTC: 1 Corinthians, Kistemaker, p. 92)

Paul says to the Corinthians that the one who is unsaved does not accept as true, spiritual realities; and not only does he not accept them as true, he percieves them as foolishness and they are unintelligible to him because in order to understand them, one must have the Spirit of God indwelling him, which only occurs upon Salvation. We see Paul expounding on this idea in another letter that he wrote to the Romans, where he stated that the unsaved professed to wise and in doing so, they were cementing their own foolishness (Romans 1:22). You see, no person would admit that they cannot discern or properly understand the Word of God, so they mock it and consider it foolish and write about it as such, claiming to be wise. All along, however, they are merely confirming their foolishness before God.

Friend, if today, you are privileged to be able to discern spiritual truth, it is because of the Spirit of God in you, testifying to the truth you are reading, and that you have born from above.