1 Corinthians 2:1-16
2 * And I, brothers, when I came to you, came not announcing God’s testimony to you with a superior quality of language or wisdom;
2 for I decided not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified;
3 and I showed weakness and fear and much trembling while I was with you,
4 * and my language and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with proof by Spirit and power,
5 in order that your faith may not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.
6 But we do speak wisdom among those who are qualified; but a wisdom not of this world nor of this world’s supersedable rulers,
7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a secret knowledge, the wisdom hidden away, which God foreordained for our glory before time was;
8 which no one of this world’s rulers knows,—for if they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory,—
9 but, as it is written, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and man’s heart has not thought of, the things that God has prepared for those who love him;
10 for God has revealed them to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.
11 For who of men knows the things personal to a man except the man’s spirit which is in him? in the same way nobody knows the things personal to God except God’s Spirit.
12 And we received not the world’s spirit but the Spirit from God, in order that we might know the things granted to us by God;
13 which things we likewise speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in Spirit-taught, matching spiritual with spiritual.
14 But an animal man does not accept the things that belong to God’s Spirit; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are to be spiritually examined;
15 but the spiritual man examines everything and is himself examined by nobody.
16 * For “who knows the Lord’s mind and will instruct him?” And we have Christ’s mind.
Footnotes
^ 2:1 Var. announcing God’s secret to you
^ 2:4 Var. with persuasion by wisdom of words
^ 2:16 Lit. who knows the Lord’s mind that will instruct him
