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
1 Corinthians 2
2
1-2You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.
3-5I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
6-10a We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:
No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.
But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.
10b-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.
14-16The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.