1When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony Other mss read mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance 1Tm 2:2 of speech Col 4:6 or wisdom.

2For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1Co 1:23-24; Gl 6:14

3I came to you in weakness, 2Co 11:30 in fear, Rv 11:11 and in much trembling. Php 2:12

4My speech Mt 12:37 and my proclamation were not with persuasive Php 1:25 words of wisdom Other mss read human wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit,

5so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power. Mk 5:30; Lk 1:35; 6:19; Ac 19:11; 2Co 13:4; 2Tm 1:7; Rv 11:17

6However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, Mt 5:48 but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers Lk 12:58 of this age, who are coming to nothing. Heb 2:14

7On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined Eph 1:5 before the ages for our glory. Lk 24:26; 1Pt 5:1,4

8None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Ps 24:7

9But as it is written:

10Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, Ps 17:3; Jn 14:26 even the depths of God. Rm 8:39; 11:33; Eph 3:18

11For who among men knows the thoughts Or things of a man except the spirit Rm 1:9 of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows 1Jn 4:8 the thoughts Or things of God except the Spirit of God.

12Now 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.

13We also speak these things, not in words Mt 12:37 taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. Or things with spiritual words

14But the unbeliever Or unspiritual; lit natural does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated Or judged, or discerned spiritually.

15The spiritual person, however, can evaluate Or judge, or discern everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated Or judged, or discerned by anyone.

16For