1 Corinthians 2:15

SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT

‘But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.’

1 Corinthians 2:15

It is sometimes said that the evidence for the revelation made to man by our heavenly Father must be in all reason and justice precisely the same as the evidence on which we accept any other truth. Yet we find the revelation which we have received distinctly declining to submit its claims for recognition to these conditions. It appeals to a distinct faculty from those which decide on the truth or falsehood of assertions concerning the laws of nature. It insists that the spiritual man who accepts its teaching, while still keeping all his natural faculties and capable as ever of judging all questions which those natural faculties can handle and determine, has in him a faculty of judging of spiritual truth which is either wanting or dormant or possibly dead in others.

I. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees truths which are not seen by men who have no such hunger or thirst.—He not only knows better what is meant by the beauty of self-sacrifice, of holiness, of unearthliness, but he knows too and sees as others do not see the eternity and supremacy of these things. And he has this within him, facts which are clear to him, and as time goes on become ever clearer, which are not perceived and cannot be perceived by others that are unlike him as he perceives them, perhaps are not perceived and cannot be perceived at all. And the perception of these facts makes an enormous difference in the inferences which he perpetually draws from the sum total of the facts before him. He draws different inferences because he takes into account different premises. He sees that the inferences drawn from the partial premises which alone are within the reach of bodily observation are of necessity incomplete, and he cannot be content with them. When it is seen that religious men decide differently from other men questions which have to be decided on evidence, there is nothing in this that is contrary to reasonable expectation. They are, of course, liable to make mistakes in the inferences, just as all men are liable to make mistakes. But the difference in their conclusion is not due to the fact that they reason differently from others, and set aside the ordinary canons of inference.

II. The revelation was never intended to work mechanically without any demand on the moral action of those to whom it was made. It was intended to be effectual on those who were willing to use it, and, therefore, it was made to be appreciated in accordance with that willingness. It was offered to all, but it was offered without relieving or being intended to relieve any from responsibility for his own life. The responsibility of every individual moral being is a fundamental religious truth never to be set aside. And in order that this responsibility may be complete, it must extend not only to action in obedience to revelation when accepted, but to the act of acceptance itself. Men shall not be prevented from accepting it because they have sinned; not the blackest sin shall shut out the sinner from the power of believing, provided there still remain the power of longing for higher things, even though that longing be of the faintest and feeblest. But if that be absolutely gone, and cannot be revived, of what value would any revelation be to the soul? The revelation of God matches and meets the aspiration of man.

III. If now it be asked what judgment can be formed of those who notwithstanding have come to the conclusion the revelation is not true, the answer is plain: no judgment can be formed by us. We are speaking all this time not of the application of the laws of the spiritual world to individual men, but of the laws as they are in themselves. It is conceivable that a man’s spiritual faculty may be palsied by the concentration of his mind on the phenomena of sensible things. It is conceivable that it may still be alive and yet have lost its power to apply itself to such questions as these. It is conceivable that the circumstances of life may have allowed it to remain dormant in the soul. It is strange, but yet it seems to be true, that sometimes the absence of all grave temptation, and consequently of all need for serious spiritual conflict, has a tendency to lull the highest of all faculties to sleep. The possibilities travel beyond our conceptions, and leave us unable to say what exceptions to His general rules our Heavenly Father may make. Of this we are sure, to begin with, that His justice is absolute, and we are told expressly that when all secrets are revealed this also shall be plainly seen. But until that day we must be content, in spite of apparent contradictions, to leave all judgment on men’s souls absolutely to Him.

—Archbishop Temple.