1 Corinthians 2
2
Paul’s Proclamation
1When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery#2:1 Other mss read testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance#1Tm 2:2 of speech#Col 4:6 or wisdom. 2I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.#1Co 1:23–24; Gl 6:14 3I came to you in weakness,#2Co 11:30 in fear,#Rv 11:11 and in much trembling.#Php 2:12 4My speech#Mt 12:37 and my preaching were not with persuasive#Php 1:25 words of wisdom#2:4 Other mss read human wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.#Mk 5:30; Lk 1:35; 6:19; Ac 19:11; 2Co 13:4; 2Tm 1:7; Rv 11:17
Spiritual Wisdom
6We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature,#Mt 5:48 but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers#Lk 12:58 of this age, who are coming to nothing.#Heb 2:14 7On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined#Eph 1:5 before the ages for our glory.#Lk 24:26; 1Pt 5:1,4 8None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.#Ps 24:7 9But as it is written,
What no eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no human heart has conceived —
God has prepared these things for those who love him. # 2:9 Is 52:15; 64:4 #
Is 52:15; 64:4; Lk 10:27; 1Jn 4:20
10Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything,#Ps 17:3; Jn 14:26 even the depths of God.#Rm 8:39; 11:33; Eph 3:18 11For who knows a person’s thoughts#2:11 Or things except his spirit#Rm 1:9 within him? In the same way, no one knows#1Jn 4:8 the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13We also speak these things, not in words#Mt 12:37 taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.#2:13 Or things with spiritual words 14But the person without the Spirit#2:14 Lit natural person does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated#2:14 Or judged, or discerned, also in v. 15 spiritually. 15The spiritual person, however, can evaluate#2:15 Or judge, or discern everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16For
who has known the Lord’s mind,
that he may instruct him? # 2:16 Is 40:13 #
Is 40:13
But we have the mind of Christ.#Col 2:2
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1 Corinthians 2: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
1 Corinthians 2
2
1-2You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.
3-5I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
6-10a We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:
No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.
But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.
10b-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.
14-16The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.