UNROLL
A single clay oil lamp burning with a small steady flame on a bare stone ledge in a dark room.

The Book of

1 Corinthians 2

Corinth loved clever speakers. Paul came with no polish and one message, and the Spirit’s power did the rest.

16 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–4DivisionsChrist crucified, not rival leadersChapter 2
  2. 5–6A holy peopleDiscipline, lawsuits and the body
  3. 7–10Your questionsMarriage, food and freedom
  4. 11–14Worship togetherThe Supper, gifts and love
  5. 15–16Raised with ChristResurrection hope; the collection

Paul’s Message by the Spirit’s Power

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

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For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2

I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.

so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:4–5

Question

Quick question

Corinth was a city that prized polished speakers. Paul arrived with something very different.

What did Paul resolve to know while he was with the Corinthians?

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Reflect

What God has prepared

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard” what God has prepared, and yet Paul says, “God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.” What has God shown you of His love in Christ that you could never have worked out on your own? Write it down, and thank Him for it.

A wide sky at first light over the Gulf of Corinth, low dark hills below and the water faintly shining.

For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

0:18

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:16

Pray

Teach me by Your Spirit

Paul says we have received “the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes as you read His Word, to keep the cross at the center, and to shape your thinking until it looks more like the mind of Christ.

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1 Corinthians 2

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A verse to carry with you

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

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