Now, it ought to be obvious that the carnal mind (as Romans 8:7 says) is enmity against God. It lacks a quality for understanding the truth of God. Anything that is at war against God is not going to be open to accepting the Spirit of truth, nor the Word of truth. But such a mind, indeed, can come up with clever arguments that do nothing more than blur the situation.
Even though this person may be highly intelligent (having all kinds of letters behind his name, and before his name) - it does not mean a thing when we are dealing with spiritual things. And what is going to happen inevitably is that the person is going to come up with part of the truth, but they are not going to get enough of it, because they are not subject to it. It will be hidden from them. They simply do not have the tool that is necessary.
And thus it is that people of, we might say, lower intelligence level - but they nonetheless have the right childlike attitude and they have the Spirit of God, they have repented, they are obeying God as best they know how - these people will see it and get it.
God knows it; and a person having the Spirit of God can know it too. They can see it in themselves. But we have to be careful, because that spirit (that mind, that heart) still lurks in each of us. It can blur the matter too, because it wants to stick with that which is carnal.
There it is again - those who love Him. That is tied to understanding the Bible. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. In verse 9, basically what He is saying is that the things of the spirit are not discerned by human intelligence on its own. God is not saying that intelligence is not needful; but He is saying there has to be a quality (an entity) that is added to that human intelligence - because it is simply not carnally, or physically, discernible.
We have to remember that the carnal mind is alive and kicking within us. Even though we are baptized, and even though we have the Spirit of God, it is still there. It is exerting its influence. Romans 8:7 says that it is enmity against God.
You might remember the apostle Paul, who was certainly well-schooled in the Scriptures, as far as the Hebrew people could give to him. He studied under the feet of Gamaliel, it says. He was certainly a man very intelligent and incisive of mind, a man of conviction and determination. And yet, that same man had to be physically blinded and thoroughly humbled before he could see God. Even though he had a command of the Scriptures that few people in life ever have at the time of their calling, he had that command, yet he could not see God working in the infant Christian church at that time.
Christ, in a reproach, a mild rebuke, said to Paul when He converted him on the way to Damascus, Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? That is a question that we need to ask ourselves as well. It is telling you something there - that the carnal mind will reject the evidence that God gives, even though it is suffering with pain. It will reject the evidence. So God's calling, God's Word, God's predisposing so that we can see - so that we have that ability to identify with His Son - is of no avail unless His Word becomes integrated within us.
