1 Corinthians 2
2
Paul’s Approach to Ministry in Corinth
1 And I, when I#*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“came”) which is understood as temporal came to you, brothers, did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony#Some manuscripts have “mystery” of God. 2For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling, 4and my speech and my preaching were not with the persuasiveness#Some manuscripts have “with persuasive words” of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, 5in order that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
The Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
6Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but wisdom not of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing, 7but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
and have not entered into the heart of man,
all that#Some manuscripts have “which” God has prepared for those who love him.”#A quotation from Isa 64:4
10For#Some manuscripts have “But to us God has revealed them” to us God has revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? Thus also 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 who is from God, in order that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13things which we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.#Or “in spiritual words” 14But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15Now the spiritual person discerns all things, but he himself is judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord; who has advised him?”#A quotation from Isa 40:13 But we have the mind of Christ.
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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.