[English Bible study] chapter 2

1Co. 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence

or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony

about God. [Some manuscripts: as I proclaimed to you God’s

mystery]

1Co. 2:2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except

Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1Co. 2:3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much

trembling.

1Co. 2:4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and

persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s

power,

1Co. 2:5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on

God’s power.

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1Co. 2:6 We 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.

1Co. 2:7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has

been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time

began.

1Co. 2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had,

they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Co. 2:9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who

love him” — [Isaiah 64:4]

1Co. 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches

all things, even the deep things of God.

1Co. 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the

man’s spirit within him? In the same way no-one knows the

thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1Co. 2:12 We 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.

1Co. 2:13 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. [Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual

truths to spiritual men]

1Co. 2:14 The man without the Spirit 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.

1Co. 2:15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he

himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

1Co. 2:16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may

instruct him?” [Isaiah 40:13] But we have the mind of Christ.