Paul's Message, the Spirit's Power

1And I, having come unto you, brethren, came — not in superiority of discourse or wisdom — declaring to you the testimony of God, 2for I decided not to know any thing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified; 3and I, in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, was with you; 4and my word and my preaching was not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power — 5that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit of God

6And wisdom we speak among the perfect, and wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age — of those becoming useless, 7but we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a secret, that God foreordained before the ages to our glory, 8which no one of the rulers of this age did know, for if they had known, the Lord of the glory they would not have crucified;

9but, according as it hath been written, ‘What eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and upon the heart of man came not up, what God did prepare for those loving Him —’

10but to us did God reveal [them] through His Spirit, for the Spirit all things doth search, even the depths of God, 11for who of men hath known the things of the man, except the spirit of the man that [is] in him? so also the things of God no one hath known, except the Spirit of God. 12And we the spirit of the world did not receive, but the Spirit that [is] of God, that we may know the things conferred by God on us, 13which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, with spiritual things spiritual things comparing,

14and the natural man doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for to him they are foolishness, and he is not able to know [them], because spiritually they are discerned; 15and he who is spiritual, doth discern indeed all things, and he himself is by no one discerned; 16for who did know the mind of the Lord that he shall instruct Him? and we — we have the mind of Christ.