The Sommelier Who Could Not Read

In 2012, a documentary called Somm followed four candidates preparing for the Master Sommelier exam — one of the hardest tests in the world, with a pass rate under four percent. The candidates studied obsessively: flash cards, maps, chemistry, history. They could name a wine's region, grape, and vintage from a single sip.

But here is what fascinated viewers most. When asked how they identified a wine, the sommeliers struggled to explain it. They would swirl, sniff, and taste — and simply know. Years of training had moved their knowledge from the intellect into something deeper, almost instinctive. The tongue knew what the textbook could not teach. No amount of reading about Burgundy could substitute for the moment the wine touched the palate.

Paul tells the Corinthians something similar about spiritual truth. He did not come with "lofty speech or wisdom." The deepest realities of God are not accessed through intellectual gymnastics or polished rhetoric. They are spiritually discerned — revealed by the Holy Spirit to those who have tasted and found the Lord good.

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

You can read every theology book ever published and still miss the living God. But when the Spirit opens your eyes, you know — the way the tongue knows the wine. Not because you studied harder, but because the Almighty Himself gave you the taste.