1 Corinthians 2
2
The Message of Christ’s Death
1Dear brothers, when I came to you, I did not come as a proud man. I preached God’s truth, but not with fancy words or a show of great learning. 2I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3When I came to you, I was weak and shook with fear. 4My teaching and my speaking were not with wise words that persuade people. But the proof of my teaching was the power that the Spirit gives. 5I did this so that your faith would be in God’s power, not in the wisdom of a man.
God’s Wisdom
6Yet I speak wisdom to those who are mature. But this wisdom is not from this world or of the rulers of this world. (These rulers are losing their power.) 7But I speak God’s secret wisdom, which he has kept hidden. God planned this wisdom for our glory, before the world began. 8None of the rulers of this world understood it. If they had, they would not have killed the Lord of glory on a cross. 9But as it is written in the Scriptures:
“No one has ever seen this.
No one has ever heard about it.
No one has ever imagined
what God has prepared for those
who love him.” Isaiah 64:4
10But God has shown us these things through the Spirit.
The Spirit knows all things, even the deep secrets of God. 11It is like this: No one knows the thoughts that another person has. Only a person’s spirit that lives in him knows his thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows the thoughts of God. Only the Spirit of God knows God’s thoughts. 12We did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit that is from God. We received this Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us. 13When we speak, we do not use words taught to us by the wisdom that men have. We use words taught to us by the Spirit. We use spiritual words to explain spiritual things. 14A person who is not spiritual does not accept the gifts that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish. He cannot understand the Spirit’s gifts, because they can only be judged spiritually. 15But the spiritual person is able to judge all things. Yet no one can judge him. The Scripture says:
16“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been able to teach him?” Isaiah 40:13
But we have the mind of Christ.
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
1 Corinthians 2
2
1Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn’t speak about God’s mystery #2:1 Some manuscripts and translations read “testimony.” as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom. 2While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject—Jesus Christ, who was crucified. 3When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous. 4I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power 5so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.
6However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow. 7We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began. 8Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as Scripture says:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
10God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. 11After all, who knows everything about a person except that person’s own spirit? In the same way, no one has known everything about God except God’s Spirit. 12Now, we didn’t receive the spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we could know the things which God has freely given us. 13We don’t speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirit’s teachings. We explain spiritual things to those who have the Spirit.#2:13 Or “We explain spiritual things in spiritual words.”
14A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. He can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them. 15Spiritual people evaluate everything but are subject to no one’s evaluation.
16“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so that he can teach him?”
However, we have the mind of Christ.
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