1 Corinthians · Chapter 2
1 Corinthians 2
Berean Standard Bible · Public domain · Source credits
Paul’s Message by the Spirit’s Power
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
4My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
5so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Spiritual Wisdom
(Ephesians 1:15–23)
6Among 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.
7No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He 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.
9Rather, 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.”*
10But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11For 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.
12We 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.
13And 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.*
14The 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.
15The 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.*
Source notes
- 2:7 Or we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery
- 2:9 Isaiah 64:4 Read Isaiah 64:4
- 2:13 Or to spiritual people
- 2:16 Isaiah 40:13 (see also LXX) Read Isaiah 40:13
Old Testament references
References from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Text from the Berean Standard Bible.
Isaiah 64:4From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 40:13Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?
Exodus 4:10“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Jeremiah 1:6“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”
Jeremiah 1:7But the LORD told me: “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ For to everyone I send you, you must go, and all that I command you, you must speak.
Isaiah 8:20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Judges 14:15So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”
Judges 16:5The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
2 Samuel 14:17And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’”
2 Samuel 14:18Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied.
2 Samuel 14:19So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say.
2 Samuel 14:20Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.”
2 Samuel 15:2He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone had a grievance to bring before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out and ask, “What city are you from?” And if he replied, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,”
2 Samuel 15:3Absalom would say, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king has no deputy to hear you.”