Bible Gateway passage: 1 Corinthians 2 - New International Version (2024)

2And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom^(A) as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2}For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.^{(B) 3}I came to you^(C) in weakness^(D) with great fear and trembling.^{(E) 4}My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,^(F) but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,^{(G) 5}so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.^(H)

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,^(I) but not the wisdom of this age^(J) or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.^{(K) 7}No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery^(L) that has been hidden^(M) and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age^(N) understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.^{(O) 9}However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”^[b]—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—^(P)

¹⁰these are the things God has revealed^(Q) to us by his Spirit.^(R)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts^(S) except their own spirit^(T) within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²What we have received is not the spirit^(U) of the world,^(V) but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom^(W) but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^{[c] 14}The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God^(X) but considers them foolishness,^(Y) and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵The person with the Spirit^(Z) makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”^[d](AA)

But we have the mind of Christ.^(AB)

Footnotes

1. 1 Corinthians 2:1 Some manuscripts proclaimed to you God’s mystery
2. 1 Corinthians 2:9 Isaiah 64:4
3. 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual
4. 1 Corinthians 2:16 Isaiah 40:13

Cross references

1. 1 Corinthians 2:1 : ver 4, 13; 1Co 1:17
2. 1 Corinthians 2:2 : Gal 6:14; 1Co 1:23
3. 1 Corinthians 2:3 : Ac 18:1-18
4. 1 Corinthians 2:3 : 1Co 4:10; 9:22; 2Co 11:29, 30; 12:5, 9, 10; 13:9
5. 1 Corinthians 2:3 : S 2Co 7:15
6. 1 Corinthians 2:4 : ver 1
7. 1 Corinthians 2:4 : S Ro 15:13
8. 1 Corinthians 2:5 : 2Co 4:7; 6:7
9. 1 Corinthians 2:6 : Eph 4:13; Php 3:15; Col 4:12; Heb 5:14; 6:1; Jas 1:4
10. 1 Corinthians 2:6 : ver 8; S 1Co 1:20
11. 1 Corinthians 2:6 : Ps 146:4
12. 1 Corinthians 2:7 : ver 1
13. 1 Corinthians 2:7 : Ro 16:25
14. 1 Corinthians 2:8 : ver 6; S 1Co 1:20
15. 1 Corinthians 2:8 : Ps 24:7; Ac 7:2; Jas 2:1
16. 1 Corinthians 2:9 : Isa 64:4; 65:17
17. 1 Corinthians 2:10 : S Mt 13:11; 2Co 12:1, 7; Gal 1:12; 2:2; Eph 3:3, 5
18. 1 Corinthians 2:10 : Jn 14:26
19. 1 Corinthians 2:11 : Jer 17:9
20. 1 Corinthians 2:11 : Pr 20:27
21. 1 Corinthians 2:12 : Ro 8:15
22. 1 Corinthians 2:12 : 1Co 1:20, 27; Jas 2:5
23. 1 Corinthians 2:13 : ver 1, 4; 1Co 1:17
24. 1 Corinthians 2:14 : Jn 14:17
25. 1 Corinthians 2:14 : S 1Co 1:18
26. 1 Corinthians 2:15 : 1Co 3:1; Gal 6:1
27. 1 Corinthians 2:16 : Isa 40:13; S Ro 11:34
28. 1 Corinthians 2:16 : Jn 15:15