Ian & Jocelyn Barker

Many Jews believed that understanding God’s will came from knowing the Law (Rom. 2:18; 10:2). It was the goal of all Jews to follow the Law of the Lord in obedience. David wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8). But David also prayed, “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness” (143:10).

David understood that the full counsel of the will of God was in the synergy of the word of God and His spirit given to David by faith. A surer knowledge of His will flows from the inner transformation and renewal of our minds by the Holy Spirit.

It is to this reality that Paul is pointing when he asks for “all spiritual wisdom and understanding”. He is contrasting the wisdom of the flesh with the wisdom of the Spirit in anticipation of his rebuttal of those teachings that are contrary to Christ (cf. 2:13). In 1 Corinthians he writes, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (2:12-13).

There is a war between the Spirit and the flesh (Matt. 26:41; Jn. 3:6), because flesh does not understand the will of God. But we have been given the “mind of Christ” in order to understand His will (1 Cor. 2:16).