The point is this: unbelievers reject Jesus. They do not love Him, and they care little if anything about Him. They are not interested in seeing or knowing Jesus. The result is natural:⇒ They do not see the spiritual world or know it; therefore, they do not see or know the Spirit of that world.⇒ They are unaware of the spiritual world; therefore, they are unaware of the Spirit of that world.⇒ They do not know and love Jesus; therefore, they do not “know” the Spirit of Christ.(Note this contrast between the “Spirit of the world” and the “Spirit of God,” 1 Co. 2:12–14.)“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Co. 2:14; see vv.12–13).c. The believer does know the Holy Spirit. The believer knows the Spirit both by experience and by His presence.⇒ The Holy Spirit “dwells with” the believer: giving assurance, looking after, caring, guiding, and teaching.⇒ The Holy Spirit is in the believer: communing, fellowshipping, sharing, and conforming the believer to the image of Christ.“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (Jn. 14:17).“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (Jn. 16:7).“For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say” (Lu. 12:12). “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Ro. 8:9).“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Ro. 8:14).“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Ro. 8:16). “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Ga. 4:6).“That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Ti. 1:14).“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Co. 2:12).“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Co. 3:16).“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Co. 6:19).“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 Jn. 2:27).“And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us” (1 Jn. 3:24).“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he is us, because he hath given us of his Spirit” (1 Jn. 4:13).“It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” (1 Jn. 5:6).“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Eze. 36:27).
