1 Corinthians 2:1–12

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom^m 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.^{n 3}I came to you^o in weakness^p with great fear and trembling.^{q 4}My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,^r but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,^{s 5}so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.^t

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,^u but not the wisdom of this age^v or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.^{w 7}No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery^x that has been hidden^y and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age^z understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.^{a 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—^b

¹⁰these are the things God has revealed^c to us by his Spirit.^d

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts^e except their own spirit^f 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^g of the world,^h but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.