3 I came to youo in weaknessp 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

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,u but not the wisdom of this agev or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.w 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mysteryx that has been hiddeny and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this agez 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

10 these are the things God has revealedc to us by his Spirit.d

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughtse except their own spiritf within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spiritg of the world,h but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdomi 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 Godj but considers them foolishness,k and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.