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, having come unto you, brethren, came — not in superiority of discourse or wisdom — declaring to you the testimony of God,
2for I decided not to know any thing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified;
3and I, in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, was with you;
4and my word and my preaching was not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power —
5that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6And wisdom we speak among the perfect, and wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age — of those becoming useless,
7but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a secret, that God foreordained before the ages to our glory,
8which no one of the rulers of this age did know, for if they had known, the Lord of the glory they would not have crucified;
9but, according as it hath been written, ‘What eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and upon the heart of man came not up, what God did prepare for those loving Him — ’
10but to us did God reveal [them] through His Spirit, for the Spirit all things doth search, even the depths of God,
11for who of men hath known the things of the man, except the spirit of the man that [is] in him? so also the things of God no one hath known, except the Spirit of God.
12And we the spirit of the world did not receive, but the Spirit that [is] of God, that we may know the things conferred by God on us,
13which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, with spiritual things spiritual things comparing,
14and the natural man doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for to him they are foolishness, and he is not able to know [them], because spiritually they are discerned;
15and he who is spiritual, doth discern indeed all things, and he himself is by no one discerned;
16for who did know the mind of the Lord that he shall instruct Him? and we — we have the mind of Christ.
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