THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
We know the nature of present things and the dignity of future things. We know what will happen to the world hereafter, what punishment sinners will suffer, and what the righteous will enjoy.
We know that present goods have no worth, and we expose their nothingness. To judge means also to expose. The things to come are eternal and unchanging.
The spiritual man knows all this. He knows what punishment the natural man will suffer in the life to come. He also knows what the believer will enjoy after departing from here.
But the natural man knows nothing of this. Therefore, to explain what has been said, the Apostle adds: "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16).
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That is, we know what is in the mind of Christ, what He wills, and what He has revealed to us.
Since the Apostle said above that the Spirit revealed it to us, lest anyone reject the Son, he adds that Christ also revealed it.
He does not mean that we know everything Christ knows. He means that all our knowledge is not human and therefore subject to doubt, but is knowledge of the mind of Christ and is spiritual.
The mind that we have in this matter is Christ's. That is, the knowledge we have concerning the things of faith is spiritual knowledge.
Therefore, truly, no one can judge us, since the natural man cannot know divine things.
For this reason the Apostle said, "For who has known the mind of the Lord?" He affirms that our mind concerning these things is His mind.
And he did not add the words, "that he may instruct Him," without purpose. He added them in accordance with the words above: "the spiritual man is judged by no one."
If no one can know the mind of God, much less can anyone teach or correct it. This is what the words "that he may instruct Him" mean.
Do you see how variously he refutes external wisdom and shows that the spiritual man knows more and better?
The reasons already given might not have seemed very persuasive, strong, necessary, or useful to unbelievers. These reasons were: "that no flesh should glory," "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise," and "lest the Cross of Christ be made of no effect."
Therefore he finally brings forward the chief reason. Only in this way can we see and know things that are high, mysterious, and above us.
Reason proved insufficient because by worldly wisdom we cannot comprehend what is above us. Is it not evident how useful it is to receive teaching from the Spirit?
Such teaching is both the easiest and the clearest. "But we have the mind of Christ," that is, a spiritual and divine mind, having nothing human in it.
Christ communicated to our reason not the mind of Plato or Pythagoras, but His own.
Let us be ashamed, beloved, and let us conduct a virtuous life. Christ Himself presents as a sign of great friendship the fact that He revealed the mysteries to us.
"I no longer call you servants," He says, "but I have called you friends, because I have told you all things that I heard from My Father" (Jn 15:14-15). That is, He entrusted them to you.
If trust alone is a sign of friendship, consider what love He showed by entrusting the mysteries to us. He did this not in words only, but by communicating them to us in reality.
Let us be ashamed, then. If Gehenna does not greatly terrify us, let this be more fearful to us than Gehenna: to prove ungrateful and thankless toward such a friend and benefactor.
Let us do everything not as hired slaves, but as sons and free men, out of love for the Father. Let us cease clinging to the world, so that we may put the Gentiles to shame.
Now, when I desire to contend with them, I fear that while refuting them by words and by the truth of doctrine, we may incur great ridicule because of our life.
For they, though in error and believing none of our teachings, practice philosophy. We do exactly the opposite.
Nevertheless I will speak. Perhaps, while striving to refute them, we shall also strive to prove better than they are in life itself.
Earlier I said that the Apostles would never have thought of preaching what they preached if they had not had the grace of God.
I said that they not only would not have accomplished so great a work, but would not even have undertaken it. Let us speak now about the same subject.
Let us show that it would have been impossible for them to undertake or even conceive it if Christ had not been with them.
This was not only because they, being weak, went out against the strong. Nor was it only because a few went against many, the poor against the rich, and the unlearned against the wise.
It was also because the power of prejudices was great. You know that nothing among men is stronger than long-standing custom.
Therefore, even if they had not been twelve men and had not been so despised, this would still have been difficult.
Even if another whole world had been on their side, and a number of men equal to their opponents, or even far greater, it would still have been difficult.
Custom helped their opponents, while novelty hindered the Apostles. Nothing so disturbs the soul as the introduction of something new and extraordinary, even if it is useful.
This is especially true when it concerns worship and reverence for God. I will explain later how strong this obstacle was.
But first I will say that there was another obstacle on the side of the Jews. Among the Gentiles the Apostles overthrew their gods and all their teaching.
With the Jews, however, they did not reason in the same way. They rejected much of their teaching, yet commanded them to worship God the Lawgiver.
Commanding them to honor the Lawgiver, they said, "Do not obey in everything the law given by Him." This applied to the keeping of the Sabbath, circumcision, the offering of sacrifices, and similar matters.
Thus, among the Jews, it was not only the sacrifices that were an obstacle. There was also the fact that, while commanding them to worship God, the Apostles commanded them to leave many of His laws.
Among the Gentiles, the force of custom was great.