THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 2

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the [a]testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 And my word and my preaching were not with [b]persuasive words of human wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not be based on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Spiritual Wisdom

6 Now we speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing. 7 On the contrary, we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God foreordained for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this wisdom, for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

and no heart has imagined

[c]what God has prepared for those who love him.”

10 [d]Now God has revealed these things to us through [e]his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might understand what God has freely given us. 13 We speak about this, not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the [f]Holy Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.

14 The natural man does not accept what comes from the Spirit of God, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it because it is spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual makes judgments about all things, and yet he himself is not subject to any man's judgment. 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to advise him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

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