1 Corinthians 2
2
Chapter 2
How Paul taught God's message
1Christian friends, I came to tell you God's true message. I did not use clever words when I spoke to you. I did not try to make you think that I was very wise. 2While I was with you, I decided to teach you only about Jesus Christ. I taught you about his death on a cross. I wanted to forget everything else.
3I lived among you as someone who felt weak. I was very afraid. 4When I spoke to you and when I taught you God's message, I did not use clever words. I did not want you to believe me because you thought I was wise. Instead, it was the power of God's Holy Spirit that showed you that my message was true. 5As a result, you now believe because of God's power. You do not believe because of human ideas.
6But we do speak about wise thoughts to those of you who know Christ very well. But those wise thoughts do not belong to this world. They are not the ideas that the rulers of this world think are important. Those rulers will not be powerful for long. 7No, the wise thoughts that we speak about belong to God. He has hidden them from people until now. But before God made the world, he decided to let us know these secrets. He wanted us to enjoy his glory. 8None of the rulers of this world understood God's wise plan. If they had understood, they would not have killed Jesus on a cross. He is the Lord who rules heaven and earth. 9This is written in the Bible:
‘Nobody ever saw or heard anything about this.
Nobody ever thought that it could happen.
But these are the things that God has prepared for his people who love him.’ #2:9 See Isaiah 64:4.
10But God has sent his Spirit to show these secrets to us. God's Spirit looks carefully into everything. He even knows God's secret thoughts. 11Only a person's own spirit can know everything that is in his thoughts. And it is the same with God. Only God's Spirit knows everything that is in God's thoughts. 12We have received God's own Spirit, not a spirit that belongs to this world. As a result, we can understand all the good things that God has given to us. 13Those are the things that we speak about. We do not use clever words to speak about human ideas. Instead, we speak the message that God's Spirit has taught us. In that way, we explain a spiritual message to people who have God's Spirit.
14If someone does not believe in God, they cannot accept the message that comes from God's Spirit. They think that God's message is silly. They cannot even understand those things. Only God's Spirit can explain them to people. 15But we have God's Spirit with us. So we can understand the true value of all things. But other people cannot truly understand us, who belong to God. 16As it says in the Bible:
‘Nobody can know what the Lord God is thinking.
Nobody can tell him what he should do.’ #2:16 See Isaiah 40:13.
But we think about these things in the same way that Christ thinks.
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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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