| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. | 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 to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. | 2For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. |
| 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, | 3I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. |
| 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, | 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. |
| 5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. | 5I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. |
| 6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. | 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. |
| 7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. | 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. |
| 8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. | 8But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. |
| 9But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— | 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.” |
| 10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. | 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. |
| 11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. | 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. |
| 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. | 12And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. |
| 13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. | 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. |
| 14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. | 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. |
| 15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. | 15Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. |
| 16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. | 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. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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