(1 Cor 2 NKJV)  And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. {2} For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

 

 

(1 Cor 2 :3) I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. {4} And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

(1 Cor 2 :3) I was with you in weakness, [malady; frailty:--disease, infirmity, sickness, weakness.]

 

 

(2 Cor 11:24-27 NKJV)  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. {25} Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; {26} . . . {27} in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness;

 

(1 Cor 2 :3) I was with you in . . . fear, and in much trembling.”  -- Probably fear of failing to reach someone who was reachable.  He took his position seriously.

 

(1 Cor 2 :4) And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

 

 

(I Cor 2:5) that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. {6} However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

{7} But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

 

 

(I Cor 2:8) which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

 

 

(I Cor 2:9) But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

 

 

(Isa 64:4 NKJV)  For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

 

It’s pretty clear that the passage ends with a different thought:   (I Cor 2:9) The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  

(Isa 64:4) any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

 

It is almost  a blend of Isa 64:4 & Psa 31:19:

 

(Psa 31:19 NKJV)  Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You In the presence of the sons of men!

 

 

(2 Cor 12:2-4 NKJV)  I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago; whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows; such a one was caught up to the third heaven. {3} And I know such a man; whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows; {4} how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

 

I would assume that such a one would see things as well as hear “inexpressible words.”  I also believe it had to Paul who was involved because he says: “it is not lawful for a man to utter.”  How could anyone have told Paul what he heard if “it is not lawful for a man to utter” what was heard?

 

 

(Rom 8:18 NKJV)  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

(I Cor 2:10) But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

 

 

 (I Cor 2:11) For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. {12} Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

 

 

(I Cor 2:13) These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

 

 

(I Cor 2:14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

 

(Luke 16:27-31 NKJV)  "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, {28} 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' {29} "Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' {30} "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' {31} "But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"

 

 

{15} But he who is spiritual judges¹ all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

 

¹ανακρίνω  anakrinō  Thayer Definition:

1) examine or judge

1a) to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinize, sift, question

1a1) specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation

1a2) to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses

1b) to judge of, estimate, determine (the excellence or defects of any person or thing

 

It is our Christian obligation to check things out:

 

(1 Th 5:21 KJV)  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

 

 

(I Cor 2:15) “yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.”

 

Judged may well mean understood.

 

(1 Pet 4:3-4 NKJV)  For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles; when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. {4} In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

 

(I Cor 2:16) For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

 

For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" 

 

(Isa 55:8-9 NKJV)  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. {9} "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

 

Yet, there is a spiritual discernment which we have:

 

(I Cor 2:14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

The conclusion of the chapter:

 

(I Cor 2:16) But we have the mind of Christ.

We who are Christians should be different from the rest of world:

 

·     We should understand spiritual matters that the people of the world do not understand.

·     We should have a spiritual value system which the world does not have.

·     We should live lives which are noticeably different from those around us.

·     We have a hope of great things which the world does not understand.

·     We should do what we can to share our knowledge with a world that is without Christ.

 

  Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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