1 Corinthians 2
2
Paul’s Approach to Ministry in Corinth
1 And I, when I#*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“came”) which is understood as temporal came to you, brothers, did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony#Some manuscripts have “mystery” of God. 2For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling, 4and my speech and my preaching were not with the persuasiveness#Some manuscripts have “with persuasive words” of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, 5in order that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
6Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but wisdom not of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing, 7but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
and have not entered into the heart of man,
all that#Some manuscripts have “which” God has prepared for those who love him.”#A quotation from Isa 64:4
10For#Some manuscripts have “But to us God has revealed them” to us God has revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? Thus also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13things which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.#Or “in spiritual words” 14But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15Now the spiritual person discerns all things, but he himself is judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord; who has advised him?”#A quotation from Isa 40:13 But we have the mind of Christ.
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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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