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.

For my own part, friends, when I came to you, it was with no display of eloquence or philosophy that I came to tell the hidden purpose of God;

2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

for I had determined that, while with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ – and him crucified!

3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

Indeed, when I came among you, I was weak, and full of fears, and in great anxiety.

4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

My message and my proclamation were not delivered in the persuasive language of philosophy, but were accompanied by the manifestation of spiritual power,

5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

so that your faith should be based, not on the human wisdom, but on the power of God.

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)

Yet there is a philosophy that we teach to those whose faith is matured, but it is not the philosophy of today, or of the leaders of today – whose downfall is at hand. (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)

No, it is a divine philosophy that we teach, one concerned with the hidden purpose of God – that long hidden philosophy which God, before time began, destined for our glory. (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)

This philosophy is clearly not known to any of the leaders of today, since, had they known it, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord! (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.”

It is what scripture speaks of as – “What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered people’s minds – all these things 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.

Yet to us God revealed it through his Spirit; for the Spirit fathoms all things, even the inmost depths of God’s being.

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.

For what person is there who knows what a person is, except the person’s own spirit within them? So, also, no one comprehends what God is, except the Spirit of God.

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.

And as for us, it is not the spirit of the world that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, so that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

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.

And we speak of these gifts, not in language taught by human philosophy, but in language taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things in spiritual words.

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.

The merely intellectual person rejects the teaching of the Spirit of God; for to them it is mere folly; they cannot grasp it, because it is to be understood only by spiritual insight.

15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one.

But the person with spiritual insight is able to understand everything, although they themselves are understood by no one.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

For who has so comprehended the mind of the Lord as to be able to instruct him? We, however, have the mind of Christ.