1And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[1]2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
God’s wisdom revealed by the Spirit
6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.7No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.9However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love him – (Isa 64:4)10these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.11For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[2]14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.15The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,16for, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ. (Isa 40:13)
6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. (1Co 1:28; 1Co 3:1; Php 3:15; Jas 3:15)7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. (Ro 16:25; Eph 3:5; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26; 2Ti 1:9)8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (Ps 24:7; Lu 24:20; Ac 3:17; Ac 7:2; Ac 13:27; Jas 2:1)9But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— (Isa 64:4; Mt 25:34; Jas 1:12)10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. (Mt 16:17; Joh 14:26; Ga 1:12; Ga 1:16; Eph 3:3; Eph 3:5; Re 2:24)11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (Pr 20:27)12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (Ro 8:15; 1Jo 4:4)13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.[4] (1Co 1:17; 1Co 2:1; 1Co 2:4; 2Co 10:12)14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (Ro 8:7; 1Co 1:18)15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. (Pr 28:5; 1Co 3:1; 1Co 14:37; Ga 6:1)16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (Isa 40:13; Joh 15:15; Ro 11:34)