²⁷ But you have received the Holy Spirit,^[a] and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit^[b] teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

²⁰ But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit,^[a] and all of you know the truth.

¹⁷ Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.

⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

¹⁴ But people who aren’t spiritual^[a] can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. ¹⁵ Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.

¹⁰ Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant.

¹¹ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secret^[a] of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, ¹² so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables?