Paul’s Message by the Spirit’s Power

1And I, brethren, having come unto you, came not in the excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming unto you the testimony of God. 2For I determine to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him having been crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and the power: 5in order that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Spiritual Wisdom
(Ephesians 1:15–23)

6But we speak wisdom among the perfect: not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nought: 7but we speak the wisdom of God having been hidden in a mystery, which God predestinated before the ages unto our glory: 8which no one of the princes of this age knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9But, as has been written, the things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

10But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who of men knows the things of man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? so indeed no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. 12But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God; in order that we may know the things which have been graciously given unto us from God. 13Which things indeed we speak, not in the teachable words of human wisdom, but in the teachable words of the Spirit, expounding spiritual things to spiritual people.

14But the intellectual man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; and he is not able to know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But the spiritual man discerns all things, and is himself discerned by no one. 16For who knows the mind of the Lord, who shall give him counsel? But we have the mind of Christ.