Apostle Paul is still redressing the Corinthians Christians, who are proud of the gifts of knowledge and teaching, the gifts they were given upon receiving the Holy Spirit when they first believed. Paul introduces the topic of the office and work of the Holy Spirit in verses 10-16, which he will maintain and build upon in the rest of the letter.
Jesus’ words to the knowledgeable Jewish rabbi Nicodemus, “Israel’s teacher”, are related to those of Apostle Paul in these verses, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8)
God gives us the Spirit, which communicates to us spiritually, “that we may understand” by experiencing God through Him, “what God has freely given to us”, that is God, the very essence of the eternal most high God, within and a part of ourselves. “We had the mind of Christ.” (16)
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gave us this promise, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you… When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” (John 14:26, 15:26) Read also John 16:5-15. Believe Jesus when he says the Spirit within us, testifying spiritually to us, is a very good thing, though it his hard to understand.
