1 Corinthians 2
GOD’S WORD Translation
2 Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn’t speak about God’s mystery [a] as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom. 2 While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject—Jesus Christ, who was crucified. 3 When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous. 4 I didn’t speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power 5 so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.
6 However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn’t belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow. 7 We speak about the mystery of God’s wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began. 8 Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as Scripture says:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
10 God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, especially the deep things of God. 11 After all, who knows everything about a person except that person’s own spirit? In the same way, no one has known everything about God except God’s Spirit. 12 Now, we didn’t receive the spirit that belongs to the world. Instead, we received the Spirit who comes from God so that we could know the things which God has freely given us. 13 We don’t speak about these things using teachings that are based on intellectual arguments like people do. Instead, we use the Spirit’s teachings. We explain spiritual things to those who have the Spirit.[b]
14 A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. He can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them. 15 Spiritual people evaluate everything but are subject to no one’s evaluation.
16 “Who has known the mind of the Lord
so that he can teach him?”
However, we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2
The Voice
2 My brothers and sisters, I did not pose as an expert with all the answers. I did not pretend to explain the mystery of God with eloquent speech and human wisdom. 2 I claimed to know nothing with certainty other than the reality that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who was crucified on our behalf. 3 I was moved to utter despair during my time with you. I would find myself trembling in dread and fear. 4 The sermons I preached were not delivered with the kind of persuasive elegance some have come to expect, but they were effective because I relied on God’s Spirit to demonstrate God’s power. 5 If this were not so, your faith would be based on human wisdom and not the power of God.
Christianity is not merely a set of ideas and propositions. One can agree with all the truths in the Bible and still miss the power of God. Paul knows the brothers and sisters in Corinth might attempt to reduce Christianity to a new philosophy based on human understanding, but the power of God cannot be fully grasped by our eight-pound brains. We must approach God humbly as creations, not as those aspiring to fully explain the Creator of the universe.
6 However, in the presence of mature believers, we do impart true wisdom—not the phony wisdom typical of this rebellious age or of the hostile powers who rule this age. Despite what you may think, these ruling spirits are losing their grip on this world. 7 But we do impart God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom. Before the ages began, God graciously decided to use His wisdom for our glory. 8 This wisdom has not been grasped by the ruling powers of this age; if they had understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. 9 But as the Scriptures say,
No eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard
and it has never occurred to the human heart
All the things God prepared for those who love Him.[a]
10 God has shown us these profound and startling realities through His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep mysteries of God. 11 Who can see into a man’s heart and know his thoughts? Only the spirit that dwells within the man. In the same way, the thoughts of God are known only by His Spirit. 12 You must know that we have not received the spirit of this rebellious and broken world but the Spirit that comes from God, so that we may experience and comprehend the gifts that come from God. 13 We do not speak of these gifts of God in words shaped by human wisdom; we speak in words crafted by the Spirit because our collective judgment on spiritual matters is accessible to those who have the Spirit. 14 But a person who denies spiritual realities will not accept the things that come through the Spirit of God; they all sound like foolishness to him. He is incapable of grasping them because they are disseminated, discerned, and valued by the Spirit. 15 A person who walks by the Spirit examines everything, sizing it up and seeking out truth. But no one is able to examine or size up that kind of spiritual person, 16 for the Scripture asks, “Does anyone know the mind of the Lord well enough to become His advisor?”[b] But we do possess the mind of the Anointed One.
Footnotes
1 Corinthians 2
New American Standard Bible
Paul’s Reliance upon the Spirit
2 And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I (A)did not come as someone superior in [a]speaking ability or [b]wisdom, as I proclaimed to you (B)the [c]testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except (C)Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I also was with you in (D)weakness and (E)fear, and in great trembling, 4 and my [d]message and my preaching were (F)not in persuasive words of [e]wisdom, but in demonstration of (G)the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not [f]rest on the [g]wisdom of mankind, but on (H)the power of God.
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are (I)mature; a wisdom, however, not of (J)this age nor of the rulers of (K)this age, who are (L)passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a (M)mystery, the hidden wisdom which God (N)predestined before the (O)ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom (P)which none of the rulers of (Q)this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified (R)the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written:
“(S)Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the human heart,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 [h](T)For to us God revealed them (U)through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the (V)depths of God. 11 For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the (W)spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we (X)have not received the spirit of (Y)the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, (Z)not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, [i]combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But [j]a (AA)natural person (AB)does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are (AC)foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But the one who is (AD)spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is [k]discerned by no one. 16 For (AE)who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But (AF)we have the mind of Christ.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 2:1 Lit speech
- 1 Corinthians 2:1 Or cleverness
- 1 Corinthians 2:1 One early ms mystery
- 1 Corinthians 2:4 Lit word
- 1 Corinthians 2:4 Or cleverness
- 1 Corinthians 2:5 Lit be
- 1 Corinthians 2:5 Or cleverness
- 1 Corinthians 2:10 One early ms But
- 1 Corinthians 2:13 Or interpreting spiritual things for spiritual people
- 1 Corinthians 2:14 Or an unspiritual
- 1 Corinthians 2:15 Or judged
1 Corintios 2
Nueva Biblia de las Américas
Predicando a Cristo crucificado
2 Por eso, cuando fui a ustedes, hermanos, proclamándoles el testimonio[a] de Dios(A), no fui con superioridad de palabra o de sabiduría(B). 2 Porque nada me propuse saber entre ustedes excepto a Jesucristo, y Este crucificado(C). 3 Estuve entre ustedes con debilidad(D) y con temor y mucho temblor(E), 4 y mi mensaje[b] y mi predicación no fueron con palabras persuasivas de sabiduría(F), sino con demostración del Espíritu y de poder(G), 5 para que la fe de ustedes no descanse[c] en la sabiduría de los hombres, sino en el poder de Dios(H).
La revelación por el Espíritu de Dios
6 Sin embargo, hablamos sabiduría entre los que han alcanzado madurez(I); pero una sabiduría no de este siglo(J), ni de los gobernantes de este siglo(K), que van desapareciendo[d](L), 7 sino que hablamos sabiduría de Dios en misterio, la sabiduría oculta(M) que, desde antes de los siglos(N), Dios predestinó(O) para nuestra gloria. 8 Esta sabiduría que ninguno de los gobernantes de este siglo ha entendido(P), porque si la hubieran entendido no habrían crucificado al Señor de gloria(Q); 9 sino como está escrito:
«Cosas que ojo no vio, ni oído oyó,
Ni han entrado al corazón del hombre,
Son las cosas que Dios ha preparado para los que lo aman(R)».
10 Pero Dios nos las reveló(S) por medio del Espíritu, porque el Espíritu todo lo escudriña(T), aun las profundidades de Dios(U). 11 Porque entre los hombres, ¿quién conoce los pensamientos de un hombre, sino el espíritu del hombre(V) que está en él? Asimismo, nadie conoce los pensamientos de Dios, sino el Espíritu de Dios. 12 Y nosotros hemos recibido, no el espíritu del mundo, sino el Espíritu que viene de Dios(W), para que conozcamos lo que Dios nos ha dado gratuitamente, 13 de lo cual también hablamos, no con palabras enseñadas por sabiduría humana, sino con las enseñadas por el Espíritu(X), combinando pensamientos espirituales con palabras espirituales[e].
14 Pero el hombre natural[f](Y) no acepta las cosas del Espíritu de Dios(Z), porque para él son necedad(AA); y no las puede entender, porque son cosas que se disciernen[g] espiritualmente(AB). 15 En cambio, el que es espiritual(AC) juzga todas las cosas; pero él no es juzgado por nadie. 16 Porque ¿quién ha conocido la mente del Señor, para que lo instruya(AD)? Pero nosotros tenemos la mente de Cristo(AE).
Footnotes
- 1 Corintios 2:1 Algunos mss. antiguos dicen: misterio.
- 1 Corintios 2:4 Lit. mi palabra.
- 1 Corintios 2:5 Lit. sea.
- 1 Corintios 2:6 O van pasando.
- 1 Corintios 2:13 O interpretando cosas espirituales a hombres espirituales.
- 1 Corintios 2:14 O no espiritual.
- 1 Corintios 2:14 O se examinan.
Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God’s Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Nueva Biblia de las Américas™ NBLA™ Copyright © 2005 por The Lockman Foundation