But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 2:15 Go To 1 Corinthians 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things. He is called spiritual, as we have seen, who follows faith and wisdom and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who has the Holy Spirit as the ruler of his soul. So Chrysostom, Anselm, S. Thomas.
Judgeth all things1. Hence Calvin and the Anabaptists make the private and fanatical spirit of each spiritual Prayer of Manasseh , i.e, each one of the faithful, the arbiter of controversies of faith, and the interpreter of Scripture; but wrongly, for all Christians are not spiritual, but only the perfect, as was said at ver14.
2. Others cannot know whether a man has this spirit, whether he is spiritual, nay, whether he is even faithful. Therefore this private and secret spirit cannot be the public judge of all things; but this is the province of Councils and the Pope. For it is known that these are spiritual, that they are governed by the Holy See, who appointed them teachers, and by them governs and teaches the Church.
3. The Fathers were spiritual to a high degree, and yet they sometimes erred.
4. It is evident that the simple need the pastors and teachers whom God has placed in the Church to teach others ( Ephesians 4:11).
I answer, then, that this passage means that the spiritual man judges things in general, spiritual things, Divine and heavenly things, natural, earthly, and easy things; while the natural man judges natural things only. This is that there may be a distribution proportioned to classes of individuals, and not to individuals of different classes. So we say, "I live on every kind of food," i.e, on any kind.
In the second place, to "judge all things" is to examine, confute, and sift questions, according to the rules of the faith, and of the Divine wisdom which the spiritual man has. Of course this is in questions in which he has been sufficiently instructed from above, as, e.g, in clear and ascertained matters of faith he judges everything according to the articles of the faith. But if any new question in faith or morals should arise, and it is obscure or doubtful, wisdom itself dictated to the spiritual Prayer of Manasseh , who in this question is not yet spiritual, or sufficiently taught by the Spirit, to have recourse to his superiors, as the same Spirit teaches him, to the doctors, to his mother, the Roman Church, that she may decide and define this question for him. For she, according to the teaching of the Apostle, is plainly spiritual, and judges all things by the direction and assistance of the Spirit. For Christ promised this to Peter, and in him to his successors (S. Matt. xviii18; S. Luke xxii32). They, then, are highly spiritual, and they judge all things, It is different with those beneath them, who, though they be spiritual, yet should often seek the judgment of their superiors. Otherwise he who is spiritual would never have to obey the decision of his father, or his teacher or his bishop. In so far, then, as the spiritual man follows the leading of the Spirit, either teaching him directly, or sending him to the doctors of the Church, he cannot err. In the same way S. John says that he that is born of God cannot sin ( 1 John 3:9); i.e, so far as he that is born of God abides in Him. So S. Thomas, Ambrose, Anselm, Theophylact, Chrysostom. S. Paul"s meaning, then, is that the spiritual man judges well about the hidden mysteries of the faith, and about things in general, and if he doubts, he knows what to do, whom he ought to consult, so as to receive instruction. So Aristotle (Ethics iii4) says. "A good man rightly judges in all cases, and the virtuous man is the rule and measure of all human things," i.e, says S. Thomas, because he has a will ordered judgment and good desires, obedient to law and reason, Still, in difficult cases he ought to consult those who are wiser and more skilled in the law.
Yet he himself is judged of no Prayer of Manasseh , i.e, is confuted or condemned by to one, in so far as he judges spiritually, as S. Chrysostom says. For if otherwise, he is reproved as S. Peter was by S. Paul ( Galatians 2:11). On the other hand the natural man is spiritually examined and judged by the spiritual, even though he does not know it or understand it. For in this passage the whole endeavour of the Apostle is to exclude human and worldly wisdom by spiritual, and to contrast the spiritual with the natural, and to put it first, since the Corinthians did the opposite and therefore put Apollos before Paul. He implies, therefore, that the Corinthians are natural, because they sought after "enticing words of man"s Wisdom of Solomon ," such as they admired in the eloquence of Apollos; and he says that they cannot judge about spiritual things, and the spiritual wisdom of Paul, but that he and men like him ought to judge both spiritual and natural wisdom. This and nothing else is what the Apostle is aiming at.
