Limitless Word

1 Corinthians 2

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📖 1 Corinthians introduction

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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. ✦ 2For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. ✦ 3I came to you in weakness—timid and 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. ✦ 5I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. ✦ 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. ✦ 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. ✦ 8But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. ✦ 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.” ✦ 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. ✦ 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. ✦ 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. ✦ 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. ✦ 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. ✦ 15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. ✦ 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. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Where this chapter connects

1 Cor 2 ·151 Cor 1 ·12Rom 8 ·72 Cor 4 ·71 Jn 2 ·6John 16 ·6Acts 18 ·51 Pet 1 ·5

Christ at the center

Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.

How 1 Corinthians 2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

  • ★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical

    130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)

Commentaries & study tools

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