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Observe here, 1. The apostle declares what spirit they had not received, namely, the spirit they had not received, namely, the spirit of the world: We have not received the spirit of the world: that is, the spirit which suggests worldly wisdom, and savours only of worldly things: which acts and influences only worldly men. In the whole generation of worldly men there is the same worldly spirit, and this spirit of the world is an earthly spirit, it is a low, a little, and a narrow spirit: earthly things which are present and visible, such a soul gapes after, and grasps hard; but future and invisible things, which are far off and out of sight, are neither believed nor sought after.
Observe, 2. The apostle declares what spirit they had received, namely, the spirit which is of God, and of what use that Holy Spirit is unto them: it teaches them to know the things which are freely given them of God: that is, the Holy Spirit showeth us both what God is, and what the things of God are; we are enlightened with the knowledge of that grace and goodness of God which is discovered to us in the gospel, we know both divine mysteries and divine mercies, both what God hath done for us, and what he hath wrought in us, which are the things that are freely given us of God.
Observe, 3. The apostle declares how he preached these spiritual things after a spiritual manner, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth: that is, not in the words and after the manner now counted by the Gentile philosophers to be learned and wise, but in the very words, and after the very manner, which the Spirit of God teacheth us.
Where learn, That the holy apostles spake and wrote by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as well as the prophets of old time, and delivered nothing as from God but what God revealed to them by his Holy Spirit: and accordingly some interpret those words, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, that is, say they, comparing the things which were written by the Spirit in and under the Old Testament, with what is now revealed to us under the New.