“But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from the Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.” (1 Corinthians 2:14 CSB)
Devotional
You tried to share something that had genuinely helped you, a verse, a thought from church, something you heard in a podcast, and the person you shared it with just kind of… looked at you. Maybe they were polite about it. Maybe they weren’t. But there was this gap, this sense that you were speaking two completely different languages, and it left you feeling either frustrated or deflated or both.
I have been there more times than I can count. With family members. With friends I love. I have explained things carefully, I have tried different angles, I have probably pushed harder than I should have, as if the right combination of words was eventually going to unlock something. And Paul, very gently here, is telling us why that approach has a ceiling.
The things of God’s Spirit are spiritually discerned. That means they are not primarily understood through intelligence or logic or even a well-constructed argument. They are received. And the one who does the receiving, the one who opens eyes and softens hearts, is the Holy Spirit. Not us. That is not a discouraging truth, it is actually a freeing one. Our job was never to convince anyone. Our job is to love people, to live honestly, to share what is real for us, and then to pray. The rest belongs to God.
It also flips the lens back on us. Most of us who follow Jesus had a season where this stuff sounded like foolishness too. Someone was patient with us. Someone kept praying. Someone loved us without making us feel like a project. The Spirit moved, and something shifted. We did not argue our way into faith. We were drawn.
So if you are carrying the weight of someone who does not understand, or who is not there yet, let this verse give you permission to set that weight down. Pray for them. Love them well. Trust the Spirit to do what only the Spirit can do.
Reflection
I think about the people I love who are not where I am yet, and I notice how easily I slip into trying to fix that myself. I want to loosen my grip on that today and trust that God loves them more than I do. I need to remember that I was once the one who could not see, and someone was patient with me. That patience was a gift. I want to give it.
Prayer
Father, thank You that You are the one who opens eyes, because we are not capable of doing that for each other. Give us the grace to love people well without making that love feel like pressure. Help us to pray more and push less, and to trust that Your Spirit is already working in ways we cannot see. Amen.