1 Corinthians 2
2
My Message: Jesus Christ on the Cross
1Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I told you the secret truth of God. But I did not use fancy words or great wisdom. 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 human wisdom.
God’s Wisdom
6We teach wisdom to people who are mature, but the wisdom we teach is not from this world. It is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world, who are losing their power. 7But we speak God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden from everyone until now. God planned this wisdom for our glory. He planned it before the world began. 8None of the rulers of this world understood this wisdom. If they had understood it, they would not have killed our great and glorious Lord on a cross. 9But as the Scriptures say,
“No one has ever seen,
no one has ever heard,
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. The Spirit even knows the deep secrets of God. 11It is like this: No one knows the thoughts that another person has. Only the person’s spirit that lives inside knows those thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit. 12We received the Spirit that is from God, not the spirit of the world. We received God’s Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us.
13When we say this, we don’t use words taught to us by human wisdom. We use words taught to us by the Spirit. We use the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help. 15We who have the Spirit are able to make judgments about all these things. But anyone without the Spirit is not able to make proper judgments about us. 16As the Scriptures say,
“Who can know what is on the Lord’s mind?
Who is able to give him advice?” Isaiah 40:13
But we have been given Christ’s way of thinking.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
1 Corinthians 2
2
1And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not in excellency of word, or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. 2For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling; 4and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; 5that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power.
6But we speak wisdom among the perfect; but wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who come to nought. 7But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory: 8which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;) 9but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, 10but God has revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God. 12But we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God: 13which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means. 14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned; 15but the spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one. 16For who has known the mind of the Lord, who shall instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.