Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
The “spirit of the world” is the one by which different people are possessed. It does not know the truth but can only guess at it, and therefore it both deceives others and is itself deceived by appearances. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God. He contrasts the spirit of the world with the Spirit which is of God, claims the latter for himself and the Apostles, and assigns the other to the wise men of this world. The spirit of the world, therefore, is that which id infused by the world, by worldly and carnal Wisdom of Solomon , which aspires after worldly, earthly, and carnal goods, and makes men worldly and carnal. In the other hand the Spirit of God is that which is infused by God and Divine Wisdom of Solomon , which makes us pursue heavenly and Divine goods, and makes men spiritual and heavenly. Therefore the Apostle adds—
That we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. On this passage the heretics found their peculiar belief that each Christian knows for a certainty that he ought by heavenly faith to believe that he has through Christ had given to him by God the forgiveness of his sins, with grace and righteousness, and as Ca...
