1 Corinthians 2
Paul’s Proclamation
1When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.23I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.45I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.67My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,89so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.10Spiritual Wisdom
11We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.1213On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.1415None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.1617But 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.1819Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.2021For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.2223Now 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.2425We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.2627But the person without the Spirit 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 spiritually.2829The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.3031For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.32