| New Living Translation | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 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. | 1When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. |
| 2For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. | 2For I didn't think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. |
| 3I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. | 3I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. |
| 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. | 4My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, |
| 5I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. | 5so that your faith might not be based on men's wisdom but on God's power. |
| 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. | 6However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. |
| 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. | 7On the contrary, we speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. |
| 8But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. | 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. |
| 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.” | 9But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind-- God prepared this for those who love Him. |
| 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. | 10Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths 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. | 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. |
| 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. | 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. |
| 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. | 13We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. |
| 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. | 14But the unbeliever 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 spiritually. |
| 15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. | 15The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. |
| 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. | 16For who has known the Lord's mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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