1 A nd when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2 F or I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

4 a nd my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 s o that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

6 Y et we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;

7 b ut we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

8 t he wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

9 b ut just as it is written, “ Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

10 F or to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

11 F or who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

12 N ow we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

13 w hich things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

14 B ut a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

15 B ut he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.

16 F or who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him ? But we have the mind of Christ.