1 Corinthians 2
1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
My fellow believers, when I came to you, I proclaimed to you the message that God had revealed to me. But I did not proclaim it using eloquent words that would make people think highly of me, nor did I argue in a way that unbelievers would think was very wise.
2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I did that because I decided that I would speak only about Jesus Christ. Specifically, I told you [what he accomplished for us when] he was killed by being nailed {[when they] killed him by nailing him} to a cross.
3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
Furthermore, when I was with you, I felt that I was not adequate [to do what Christ wanted me to do]. I was afraid [that I would not be able to do it], and because of that I was trembling very much.
4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
When I taught you and preached to you, I did not speak words that [unbelievers would consider] [IRO] wise in order to convince them that my message was true. Instead, [God’s] Spirit showed that it was true by [enabling me to] powerfully [perform miracles].
5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
[I taught and preached that way] in order that you might believe [my message], not because you heard words that people [considered to be] [IRO] wise, but [because you recognized] God’s power.
6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. (aiōn g165)
I do teach a message that people who are [spiritually] mature [consider to] be wise. But I do not teach a message that unbelievers [consider to be] wise. I also do not teach a message that unbelieving rulers in the world consider to be wise. [What they think about it does not matter], because [some day] (they will lose their power/not be ruling any more). (aiōn g165)
7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, (aiōn g165)
Instead, I teach about what God planned wisely [long ago]. It is something that people did not know about previously because [God] did not reveal it previously. But God determined before he created the world that he would greatly benefit us by his wise plan. (aiōn g165)
8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. (aiōn g165)
None of those who rule this world knew that wise plan. If they had known it, they would not have nailed our wonderful Lord to the cross. (aiōn g165)
9 But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”
But [we believers need to remember these words that a prophet] wrote [in the Scriptures]: Things that no one has ever seen, things that no one ever heard, things that no one ever thought could happen, those are the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
God has caused his Spirit to reveal those things to us [(inc)] believers. His Spirit can do that because he knows thoroughly the meaning of all things. He even knows the things about God that are very difficult to understand.
11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit.
Only a person himself (OR, a person’s spirit) knows what he is thinking. Similarly, only God’s Spirit knows what God is thinking.
12 But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.
It was not the ideas that unbelievers teach that we accepted. Instead, it was the Spirit who came from God that we received, in order that we might know the things that God has freely done for us.
13 We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
Those are the things that I tell you about. As I do that, I do not tell you things that someone [whom others thought] was [IRO] wise taught me. Instead, I tell you truths that [God’s] Spirit taught [me], and I explain those spiritual truths to people whose thinking is guided by God’s Spirit (OR, I teach spiritual [truths to] spiritual [people]).
14 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Those who are unbelievers reject the truths that [God’s] Spirit teaches us [(inc)], because they [consider those truths to be] foolish. They cannot understand them, because it is God’s Spirit who enables us to evaluate those truths correctly, [and those people do not have God’s Spirit].
15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one.
We who have God’s Spirit can judge correctly the [value of] all truths [that the Spirit reveals], but [unbelievers] cannot evaluate us correctly.
16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
As [one of our prophets wrote: ] No human [RHQ] has known what the Lord is thinking. No human [RHQ] is able to instruct him. But we believers are able to think about things [MTY] in the way that Christ thinks about them.
