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
Paul’s Proclamation
1When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony # Other mss read mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance # 1Tm 2:2 of speech # Col 4:6 or wisdom. 2For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. # 1Co 1:23-24; Gl 6:14 3I came to you in weakness, # 2Co 11:30 in fear, # Rv 11:11 and in much trembling. # Php 2:12 4My speech # Mt 12:37 and my proclamation were not with persuasive # Php 1:25 words of wisdom # Other mss read human wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, 5so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power. # Mk 5:30; Lk 1:35; 6:19; Ac 19:11; 2Co 13:4; 2Tm 1:7; Rv 11:17
Spiritual Wisdom
6However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, # Mt 5:48 but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers # Lk 12:58 of this age, who are coming to nothing. # Heb 2:14 7On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined # Eph 1:5 before the ages for our glory. # Lk 24:26; 1Pt 5:1,4 8None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. # Ps 24:7 9But as it is written:
What eye did not see and ear did not hear,
and what never entered the human mind —
God prepared this for those who love Him. # Is 52:15; 64:4; Lk 10:27; 1Jn 4:20 # Is 52:15; 64:4
10Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, # Ps 17:3; Jn 14:26 even the depths of God. # Rm 8:39; 11:33; Eph 3:18 11For who among men knows the thoughts # Or things of a man except the spirit # Rm 1:9 of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows # 1Jn 4:8 the thoughts # Or things of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now 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. 13We also speak these things, not in words # Mt 12:37 taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. # Or things with spiritual words 14But the unbeliever # Or unspiritual; lit natural does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated # Or judged, or discerned spiritually. 15The spiritual person, however, can evaluate # Or judge, or discern everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated # Or judged, or discerned by anyone. 16For
who has known the Lord’s mind,
that he may instruct Him? # Is 40:13 # Is 40:13
But we have the mind of Christ. # Col 2:2
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