1 Corinthians 2
2
The new wisdom
1So I never thought in coming amongst you to be able by my own persuasiveness, logic or rhetoric to make a message of God, a revelation of the mystery of His being, understood by you. It could never have come to you through such human means as that. 2And so I judged that to know nought but Jesus Christ and him crucified was the way, the only way of this Gospel, which is demonstrated divinely by the Spirit and by power, not by persuasive preaching. 3I was as nothing in myself, only conscious of my weakness, and full of deep reverence and fear, 4yes, even of what I had to say, which could not express itself in clever words; 5and so your faith was built not on any man’s personal influence and wisdom, but on divine power and its demonstration. 6Yet it is a wisdom that I speak, a deep and holy wisdom known to the perfect, unknown to the passing world of the flesh, and unknown to the powers that control that world, powers and influences which even now, are breaking up and vanishing. 7This wisdom of God is spoken by me in a mystery. Unknown to the former generations of the world, it was to be our glory, our light, and God’s fore-ordination of it preceded all other things. 8Unknown too to all powers of the mortal state, for they crucified its Lord. Had they known this hidden delectable wisdom, would they have crucified him? 9They knew it not, “for eye,” says the scripture, “hath not seen it, ear hath not heard it, the heart of mankind has not received the things that God makes ready for those that love Him.” (Isa. 44:4.)
Deep things can only be apprehended spiritually
10So it was through the Spirit, through revelation that we learned them. The very depths of God are searched by the Spirit, which also sheds light on all things; and the Spirit alone can know and reveal them, nought else; 11no more than one can tell any man’s thoughts that he thinks in himself [none can tell them save the thinker himself], so none knoweth God’s thoughts, but God Himself, the Spirit. 12And in our hearts and minds there now doth work not that spirit, which is the influence and animal intelligence of the world, but the divine Spirit, and this it is which reveals to us those things that are bestowed on man by God. 13It is that legacy which passes from God to man, those messages and bestowals which man receives from God which I teach you of, and how can I make it known by an utterance invented in the schools of learning, how can I teach it except as the Spirit teaches it, representing spiritual things in a spiritual method, to be spiritually discerned? Only thus can it be taught, for the materially minded man, who thinks through the senses, is totally and utterly ignorant of God’s spiritual messages. They are to him absolute foolishness, and he cannot reach them, for they are only made known to the spiritual character. 14Now the true spiritual man has all experience at his feet to dispose of, to reject or accept according to the dictates of the Spirit, he himself being beyond the reach of the things wherein this judgment operates. 15For it is as spiritual beings, and not carnal, that we possess the mind of Christ. None teacheth us or judgeth us. 16“Who has known the mind of the Lord or being His counsellor hath taught Him?”
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 2
2
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1#1Co 1:17; 2:4Brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. 2#Gal 6:14For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3#2Co 13:4I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4#Ro 15:19; 1Co 4:20My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5#2Co 4:7; 6:7so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Revelation by God’s Spirit
6#1Co 1:28; Heb 5:14Yet we speak wisdom among those who are mature, although not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7#Ro 16:25–26; 2Ti 1:9But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. 8#Ac 7:2; Jas 2:1None of the rulers of this age knew it. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9#Isa 64:4; Mt 25:34But as it is written,
“Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”#Isa 64:4.
10#Jn 14:26; Eph 3:3But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11#Pr 20:27; Jer 17:9For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Likewise, 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 which is of God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. 13#1Co 1:17; 2:4These things also we proclaim, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14#1Co 1:18; Jude 1:19But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15#1Co 3:1; 14:37But he who is spiritual judges all things. Yet he himself is not judged by anyone. 16#Jn 15:15; Ro 11:34 For
“who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct Him?”#Isa 40:13.
But we have the mind of Christ.
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Military Bible Association