1 Corinthians 2
Names of God Bible
2 Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn’t speak about God’s mystery[a] as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom. 2 While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject—Yeshua Christ, who was crucified. 3 When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous. 4 I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power 5 so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.
6 However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow. 7 We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began. 8 Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as Scripture says:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
10 God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. 11 After all, who knows everything about a person except that person’s own spirit? In the same way, no one has known everything about God except God’s Spirit. 12 Now, we didn’t receive the spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we could know the things which God has freely given us. 13 We don’t speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirit’s teachings. We explain spiritual things to those who have the Spirit.[b]
14 A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. He can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them. 15 Spiritual people evaluate everything but are subject to no one’s evaluation.
16 “Who has known the mind of the Lord
so that he can teach him?”
However, we have the mind of Christ.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 2:1 Some manuscripts and translations read “testimony.”
- 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or “We explain spiritual things in spiritual words.”
1 Corinthians 2
Christian Standard Bible
Paul’s Proclamation
2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery[a] of God to you, I did not come with brilliance(A) of speech(B) or wisdom. 2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.(C) 3 I came to you in weakness,(D) in fear,(E) and in much trembling.(F) 4 My speech(G) and my preaching were not with persuasive(H) words of wisdom[b] but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.(I)
Spiritual Wisdom
6 We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature,(J) but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers(K) of this age, who are coming to nothing.(L) 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined(M) before the ages for our glory.(N) 8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.(O) 9 But as it is written,
What no eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no human heart has conceived—
God has prepared these things for those who love him.[c](P)
10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything,(Q) even the depths of God.(R) 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts[d] except his spirit(S) within him? In the same way, no one knows(T) the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now 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. 13 We also speak these things, not in words(U) taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.[e] 14 But the person without the Spirit[f] does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated[g] spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate[h] everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For
But we have the mind of Christ.(W)
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.