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And this was the way it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I didn't come with fancy words or human wisdom. I preached to you the truth about God's love. 2 My goal while I was with you was to talk about only one thing. And that was Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3 When I came to you, I was weak and very afraid and trembling all over. 4 I didn't preach my message with clever and compelling words. Instead, my preaching showed the Holy Spirit's power. 5 This was so that your faith would be based on God's power. Your faith would not be based on human wisdom. 6 The words we speak to those who have grown in the faith are wise. Our words are different from the wisdom of this world. Our words are different from those of the rulers of this world. These rulers are becoming less and less powerful. 7 No, we announce God's wisdom. His wisdom is a mystery that has been hidden. But before time began, God planned that his wisdom would bring us heavenly glory. 8 None of the rulers of this world understood God's wisdom. If they had, they would not have nailed the Lord of glory to the cross. 9 It is written that
‘no eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no human mind has known.’ (Isaiah 64:4)
God has prepared these things for those who love him.
10 God has shown these things to us through his Spirit.
The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. 11 Who can know the thoughts of another person? Only a person's own spirit can know them. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows God's thoughts. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world. We have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit helps us understand what God has freely given us. 13 That is what we speak about. We don't use words taught us by people. We use words taught us by the Holy Spirit. We use the words taught by the Spirit to explain spiritual truths. 14 The person without the Spirit doesn't accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. These things are foolish to them. They can't understand them. In fact, such things can't be understood without the Spirit's help. 15 The person who has the Spirit can judge all things. But no human being can judge those who have the Spirit. It is written,
16 ‘Who can ever know what is in the Lord's mind?
Can anyone ever teach him?’ (Isaiah 40:13)
But we have the mind of Christ.
2:1–16 Paul was an example to the Corinthians of how God works through weak people. Paul didn't act smart and clever with them. He taught them about God's love and Jesus' death on the cross. It wasn't Paul's words or the way he spoke that made the Corinthians have faith. They had faith in God because they saw the Holy Spirit's power working through Paul. Without God's power Paul was weak. Paul explained how God's power and wisdom are different from the world's power and wisdom. He was talking about human authorities who think that they have a lot of power. They try to control others and make them do things by force. It was rulers like this who had Jesus killed. They didn't understand the mystery of Christ. They didn't understand that Jesus is the Son of God and is the true Lord. They didn't understand that Jesus is the leader who serves others. He sacrificed himself for others. This message about Jesus can't be understood based only on the way human beings think. People need the help of God's Spirit to understand spiritual things. The Holy Spirit teaches God's wisdom to believers. This way they can think and act like Jesus. They can do what God wants them to do. That is what it means to have the mind of Christ.