1 Corinthians 2
CHAPTER 2
And I brothers, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; 5 so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
True wisdom
6 We speak wisdom, however, among them that are mature. Yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even that which was hidden, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which not one of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: Things which eye saw not and ear heard not and which did not enter into the heart of man, whatever things God prepared for them that love Him, 10 God revealed them to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For who among men knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God nobody knows, save the Spirit of God. 12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, so that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13 Which things also we speak about, but not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but in words that the Spirit teaches, combining spiritual things with spiritual. 14 Now the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judges all things; and he is ultimately judged by no man. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Commentary
2:4 The power of persuasion is in the Gospel itself, especially in the message of the cross (v. 2). Converts are not won by the slickness of the presentation, but by the power of the message.
2:6 If the rulers of this world are "coming to nothing", we shouldn't place our hopes in politicians, but rather in the politics of God's coming Kingdom on earth at the return of Jesus.
2:9 God has "prepared" an individual place for us in eternity; we will each as it were have our own especially prepared room in God's eternal house (Jn. 14:1-3).
2:13 We combine spiritual things with spiritual by comparing the various parts of God's word, which was written by His Holy Spirit; and by making sense of God's Spirit working in our lives, combining this experience with the teaching of the words of His Spirit in the Bible.
2:14 It shouldn't surprise us, therefore, that many people just 'don't get' our message of Christ to them.
2:15 People do judge us; but our attitude should be that it means nothing to us, and in this sense we cannot be judged by them.
