| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. | 1When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. |
| 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. | 2For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. |
| 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. | 3I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. |
| 4My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, | 4And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. |
| 5so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. | 5I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. |
| 6Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. | 6Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. |
| 7No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. | 7No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God —his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. |
| 8None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. | 8But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. |
| 9Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” | 9That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” |
| 10But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. | 10But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. |
| 11For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. | 11No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. |
| 12We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. | 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. |
| 13And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. | 13When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. |
| 14The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. | 14But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. |
| 15The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. | 15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. |
| 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. | 16For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. |
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