Paul’s Proclamation
1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance t of speech u or wisdom. 2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. v 3 I came to you in weakness, w in fear, x and in much trembling. y 4 My speech z and my preaching were not with persuasive a words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power. b
Spiritual Wisdom
6 We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, c but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers d of this age, who are coming to nothing. e 7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined f before the ages for our glory. g 8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. h 9 But as it is written,
What no eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no human heart has conceived—
God has prepared these things for those who love him. ,i
10 Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, j even the depths of God. k 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit l within him? In the same way, no one knows m the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words n taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For
who has known the Lord’s mind,
that he may instruct him? ,o
But we have the mind of Christ. p
2:1–5. Finally, Paul concludes his critique of wisdom by referring to the way in which he initially announced “the mystery of God” (i.e., God’s activity in and through Jesus Christ and him crucified) among the Corinthians (2:1a). Once more Paul draws a contrast, this time between, on the one hand, the “demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (2:4) evident in Paul’s preaching despite his weakness, fear, and trembling (2:3), and on the other hand, eloquence, “persuasive words,” and wisdom (2:1b, 4).
2:6–9. Paul now turns to a wisdom he can commend. It is a wisdom that is different in focus (2:6–9), that differently authenticates itself and its possessors (2:10–3:4), and that is different in its purpose and effect within the Christian community (3:5–17). On the basis of these contrasts, Paul clearly differentiates the Christian wisdom he commends from the wisdom that he has criticized in the preceding section.
2:10–13. Over against the demonstrated ignorance of the rulers with respect to true wisdom stands Paul’s assertion that “God has revealed these things to us” (2:10). The Spirit of God is an adequate guide to such wisdom, for the Spirit is able to understand all aspects of the wise plan of God, just as the same capacity to understand our own plans and intentions belongs only to the spirit within us (2:10–11). Paul describes the process by which the Spirit’s knowledge is communicated. As persons called into fellowship with God through faith in Christ, we have received the Spirit so that we may “understand what has been freely given to us by God,” namely, a knowledge of the divine intent, God’s “thoughts” and plan for salvation, past, present, and future (2:12). This wisdom is what we speak, and even the words in which it is conveyed are a product of the Spirit’s inspiration (2:13; cf. 2:4).
2:14–16. The last and largest part of this section (2:14–3:4) carefully restricts Christian wisdom to the spiritual person, for the person without the Spirit cannot understand its importance or accept its validity, because it is spiritually discerned (2:14–15a). However, the spiritual person’s grasp of Christian wisdom “cannot be evaluated by anyone” (2:15b); since no one has fully known the mind of the Lord, judgment can belong only to the Lord himself (2:16a; cf. 4:3–4). Nonetheless, as recipients of God’s Spirit, we have the assurance that we know at the very least the mind of Christ (2:16b).