1 Corinthians 2

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, ▼
▼ Or  brothers and sisters
 b did not come proclaiming to you c the testimony ▼
▼ Some manuscripts mystery (or secret)
 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except e Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And f I was with you g in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of h the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men ▼
▼ The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women
 but j in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

6 Yet among k the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not l a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age m who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God n which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of o the rulers of this age understood this, for p if they had, they would not have crucified q the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

r “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has s prepared t for those who love him”—

10 these things u God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even v the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts w except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now x we have received not y the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this z in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit aa interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. ▼
▼ Or  interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language, or comparing spiritual things with spiritual

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are ac folly to him, and ad he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The ae spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16  af “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But ag we have the mind of Christ.

Copyright information for ESV