The apostle Paul in the first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, suggest the existance of three types of man: the spiritual man, the rational man and the natural man. In the first prevails the spirit, in the second prevails the soul and in the last prevails the body.
The bible teach to us about the good, the evil and an intermediate state between good and evil. When two opposites belong to the same genre there is necessarily and intermediate state. To this intermediate state belongs the rational man.
This text of Paul has a certain similarity with the gnostic christianity.
In this context "gnosis" would be the conversion of the rational man in spiritual man. The spiritual man is the man full of the holy spirit: "The spiritual man makes judgments of all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment" 1 Corinthias 2:15
This difference between the flesh and the spirit is due to the perception of the "logical aspect of God": the beatitudes.
The beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12 and Luke 6:20-26) are an inmaterial object, they constitute the "regulatory principle of the universe", because they distribute awards, prizes and bliss on one hand and curses on the other. Prizes for the progressive, the edifyng, the righteous and punishments for the chaotic, the unjust and the involutive. By the law of the return: "your reap what you sow", the beatitudes tends to balance and correction. The beatitudes orders, regulates, balances, corrects, teaches.
To understand a physical object we need the physical senses, but to understand the intangibles and immaterial objects we need the inner teacher.
The natural man lacks the spirit, that is needed to capture the things of God. This is why the apostle Paul says: "The natural man does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14
The good and the evil are mentalities, ways of discerning, to this is the opposition between the spiritual man and the natural man.
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