2 And so I, when I came to YOU, brothers, did not come with an extravagance * of speech+ or of wisdom declaring the sacred secret+ of God to YOU. 2 For I decided not to know anything among YOU except Jesus Christ,+ and him impaled. 3 And I came to YOU in weakness and in fear and with much trembling;+ 4 and my speech and what I preached were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of spirit and power,+ 5 that YOUR faith might be, not in men’s wisdom,+ but in God’s power.+ 6 Now we speak wisdom among those who are mature,*+ but not the wisdom+ of this system of things nor that of the rulers of this system of things,*+ who are to come to nothing.+ 7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a sacred secret,+ the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the systems+ of things* for our glory. 8 This [wisdom] not one of the rulers+ of this system of things came to know, + for if they had known [it] they would not have impaled+ the glorious Lord. 9 But just as it is written: “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, neither have there been conceived in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” + 10 For it is to us God has revealed+ them through his spirit,+ for the spirit+ searches into all things, even the deep+ things of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit+ of man that is in him? So, too, no one has come to know the things of God, except the spirit+ of God. 12 Now we received, not the spirit+ of the world, but the spirit+ which is from God, that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God.+ 13 These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, + but with those taught by [the] spirit,+ as we combine spiritual [matters] with spiritual [words]. *+ 14 But a physical* man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know [them],+ because they are examined spiritually. 15 However, the spiritual + man* examines indeed all things, but he himself is not examined + by any man. 16 For “who has come to know the mind of Jehovah,*+ that he may instruct him?”+ But we do have the mind + of Christ.*
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 05:47:11 +0000