NET Bible | International Standard Version |
1When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. | 1When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come and tell you about God's secret with rhetorical language or wisdom. |
2For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. | 2For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified. |
3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling. | 3It was in weakness, fear, and great trembling that I came to you. |
4My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, | 4My message and my preaching were not accompanied by clever, wise words, but by a display of the Spirit's power, |
5so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God. | 5so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God's power. |
6Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. | 6However, when we are among mature people, we do speak a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are passing off the scene. |
7Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory. | 7Instead, we speak about God's wisdom in a hidden secret, which God destined before the world began for our glory. |
8None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. | 8None of the rulers of this world understood it, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. |
9But just as it is written, "Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him." | 9But as it is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him." |
10God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. | 10But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God. |
11For who among men knows the things of a man except the man's spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. | 11Is there anyone who can understand his own thoughts except his own inner spirit? In the same way, no one can know the thoughts of God except God's Spirit. |
12Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. | 12Now, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we can understand the things that were freely given to us by God. |
13And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. | 13We don't speak about these things with words taught us by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual things to spiritual people. |
14The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. | 14A person who isn't spiritual doesn't accept the things of God's Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can't understand them because they are spiritually evaluated. |
15The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. | 15The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else's evaluation. |
16For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ. | 16For "Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can advise him?" However, we have the mind of the Messiah. |
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