As a question of method and not of content, notice how chapter 2 does not hold together as a unit. Who knows what was in the mind of the person who was allowed to divide up 1 Corinthians!  My point is that the original author did not divide his work into sentences and paragraphs, let alone chapters.  Paul would have had no concept that he was writing a book with chapters and verses.  Although the chapters and verses are helpful to find a passage, when you are reading, you must imagine that there are no chapters and verses.  The chapters and verses are helps like the section titles in the NIV.  Also, translators decide where each paragraph and sentence should begin and end.  Mostly they agree, but sometimes they do not.  This means that each of us has a responsibility to look at the text individually and then try to make sense of it in community.  I think that is the beauty of God’s plan.

1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 2

 ¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2}For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Wisdom From the Spirit

 ⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹However, as it is written:
   “No eye has seen,
      no ear has heard,
   no mind has conceived
   what God has prepared for those who love him”^[b]— ¹⁰but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
      The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²We 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. ¹³This 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.^{[c] 14}The man without the Spirit 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. ¹⁵The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
 ¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord
      that he may instruct him?”^[d] But we have the mind of Christ. 

1 Corinthians 2

 ¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2}For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Wisdom From the Spirit

 ⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹However, as it is written:
   “No eye has seen,
      no ear has heard,
   no mind has conceived
   what God has prepared for those who love him”^[b]— ¹⁰but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
      The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²We 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. ¹³This 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.^{[c] 14}The man without the Spirit 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. ¹⁵The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:
 ¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord
      that he may instruct him?”^[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

Questions

1. With what did Paul not come?
2. What does Paul speak among the mature?
3. How does the opening of chapter 2 connect with chapter 1?
4. Do you start afresh at each chapter?  How can you make sure you are more aware of the flow of the original author?
5. Read chapter two again, but this time think of it as a personal letter to you.

Going Deeper

Observation

1. Apart from what did Paul profess to know nothing?
2. From what is Paul’s message distinct?
3.  What has God revealed to us by his Spirit?
4. Paul does not speak words of human wisdom/sophistry.  What does he speak?
5. What mind do Paul and the Corinthians have?

Interpretation       

1. When did Paul come to the Corinthians?
2. What acts of power spoke louder than Paul’s words?
3. Didn’t Paul’s secret wisdom sound like Gnosticism?  Why communicate like a Gnostic?
4. Are the rulers of this age demonic or human?
5. Isn’t it self-righteous for a spiritual man to be judged by no-one and to judge everything?

Application

Choose one of the above questions, or another of your own, and post your response on this site.  Joining  WordPress is free and doesn’t generate any spam as far as I can tell.