Paul’s Message by the Spirit’s Power

¹ When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved^* to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴ My message^* and my preaching were not with persuasive words^* of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Spiritual Wisdom

⁶ Among the mature,^* however, we speak a message of wisdom — but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers^* of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined^* for our glory before time began.^{* 8} None of the rulers^* of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ Rather, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no heart has imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

¹⁰ But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

¹⁴ The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. ¹⁶ “For who has known the mind^* of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind^* of Christ.^*