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Speaking As Unto
By John R. Gavazzoni
The apostle Paul, in his first epistle to the church in Corinth, wrote, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." (1Cor. 3:1 KJV) This statement contains a key to understanding what often seems to be a contradiction as to the different manner in which scripture speaks to, and of, God's people.
On one hand, we have Paul, in Ephesians, assuring believers that they have been raised up together with Christ and made to sit in the heavenlies with Him, and yet that same apostle, to some in the church in Corinth, he confronts them regarding how their understanding is idiotic on the subject of the resurrection. [Yes, the Greek is that strong; he called them idiots or stupid fellows: reference Jonathan Mitchell's translation of 1Co. 15: 36] Much headway will be made in skillfully handling the word of truth, if we will keep in mind that key: speaking as unto.
It is an inadequate example in the natural dimension, but imagine a father advising his son who is reaching adulthood and has begun to earn some income: "Son, as the wise son that you are, I know you will spend less than you earn, and save and invest the difference in your future." In that case, the father is speaking to his son as unto a wise son.
But a different mode of communication is called-for in the case of a son who has shown a stubborn propensity for unwise thinking and acting, so that we would have the father speaking as unto an unwise son: "Son, don't do as you're prone with the money you're earning. Don't spend impulsively for instant gratification, or you'll be sorry in the future." Two different modes of speaking to address two different states of being. The scriptural equivalent of the latter would be along the line of, "to be carnally-minded is death..." while of the former, "to be spiritually-minded is life and peace."
Regarding this matter "speaking as unto," I received an explanation of a difference in my relationship with God, i.e., the difference of God relating to me as my Father, or/and relating to me as my Creator. I remember so clearly the Lord arresting my attention with the following explanation that has become pivotal to my understanding re: those two modes of communication, particularly from scripture. I heard as clearly as I've ever heard from Him; "you are the fruit of my loins, and the work of my hands." As I said, that became pivotal to my understanding of in what "mode" I find God "speaking as unto" me.
We find John "speaking as unto" the one begotten of God, that he, from the KJV, "sinneth not." From 1 Jn. 5:18, "And we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not." (KJV) Also from John in that same epistle, chapter 3, verse 9: "Whosoever is born of God doth not sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, for he is born of God." (KJV)
It is in the same sense that Paul explains, "They that are led of the Spirit; they are the sons of God." It is native to a son of God to be led of the Spirit, because they are born of God, BUT it is only AS born of God (of the fruit of His loins) that they are led of the Spirit, NOT as the work of His hands, for the creature that we are, with all creation is subject to vanity, i.e., futility. When scripture speaks of, and to, us with words of confrontational correction, it is as the work of His hands, not as of the fruit of His loins.
This matter of those born of God not sinning, not able to sin, the explanation that it is because their seed remains in them, is what Peter was referring to when he wrote that we are born, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible Seed. That Seed is the nature of God which is incorruptible and incapable of sin. The Greek verb tense in John's statements is the tense conveying continuance. In the Greek text, whosoever is born of God does not sin, and that, continually so.
Yet, John, in the opening of that same epistle, warns of not saying we have no sin, for if we do, we deceive ourselves. In effect, John is saying, as it were, "as you read further regarding your non-sinning Seed-nature, keep in mind that while I affirm in the most emphatic way that reality of you as born of God, you also, in your creaturehood mode of existence most certainly can sin.
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