In this passage, Paul explains that Christians have Christ’s mind within them. He has just said that the gospel is foolishness to unbelievers. Now, he proceeds to explain that he does speak wisdom to mature believers. This wisdom is not a worldly wisdom, but it is God’s wisdom, and is contained in a mystery, which is revelation that was concealed in the Old Testament, but was revealed to the apostles. Furthermore, this wisdom was not understood by the Jewish or Roman rulers. If they had understood it, they would not have crucified Christ. Finally, this wisdom has not been revealed to everyone, but only to those who love God.

In verse 10, Paul explains how God revealed this revelation: through God’s Spirit. The reason for this is that the Spirit seeks out everything. This is because, just as a person’s spirit is the only part of the person that knows his thoughts, so the Spirit is the only person who knows God the Father’s thoughts. Therefore, since Christians have the Spirit within them, they may know what God has given them. Paul speaks these things with words that the Spirit teaches him, so that he may express the Father’s thoughts in words.

In contrast to believers, in verse 14, Paul says that natural men, who do not have the Spirit, do not accept what the Spirit teaches people because they seem to be foolishness to them. Furthermore, they cannot understand them, because they require spiritual judgment, which requires the indwelling of the Spirit. On the other hand, spiritual men, or those with the Spirit, judge everything, but are not correctly judged by anyone. According to verse 16, this is because they have Christ’s mind, so they cannot be understood by natural men.