1 Corinthians Chapter 2 Breakdown

1 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.

Paul says he did not come to those in Corinth speaking eloquently and using the wisdom of men to bring them the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

He simply came to them preaching Christ and what His crucifixion accomplished.

3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

Acts 18:8-10

And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. And the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city.

Paul was afraid during his time in Corinth during his preaching. Paul was rebuked by God for being afraid of teaching His truth.

4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Paul, again says he did not use human wisdom and persuasive words in his preaching. He used demonstrations of the Spirit. Men’s 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.

After all that, Paul says “But” meaning what he does next is not the same as what he was doing in the previous statements. He now says he does speak wisdom among the men who are mature in the Word. But not the same wisdom of the men of this world, but the wisdom of God.

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Paul, as well as the other Apostles, spoke to these men with the wisdom of God and in a mystery. The mystery hidden by God and unknown to the rulers of that current age. The mystery clearly pertained to the crucifixion of Christ because if they had known, they would not have killed Him. So, we can gather Paul was referring to the mystery of the death of Christ. That being said, we have to understand His death was a mystery, as in, why did He have to die?

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.”

Isaiah 64:4-5; 65:17

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. You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Paul quotes from the Prophet Isaiah and talks about how men have not seen or heard the things God had prepared for them who love Him. The context in which the quote is written in refers to men who remember God in His ways, and it is in those ways men need to continue to be saved. I do understand this is not a popular opinion of what Paul teaches, but this is what the Word says.

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

The mystery has been revealed to the Apostles through the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit who searches all things including the deeper things of God.

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.

Paul says it is the spirit of man who knows the things of a man. But only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. Basically, none of us have a chance to know the things of God unless His Spirit chooses to reveal it to us.

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.

Now, Paul says, they have received the Spirit form God, and they were revealed thing freely given to them. This included the mystery of the death of Yeshua, considering that is what was previously being discussed.

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.

The things of God are the things in which the Apostles were teaching, but not similarly to what men’s wisdom would teach. Paul would compare spiritual things with spiritual things.

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.

Men living by the desires of the flesh, which is in the carnal mind, will not receive the things of the Spirit, because the things of the Spirit seem like stupidity to them. Not only that, but these men cannot know them because they are spiritually determined.

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

God is spiritual and judges all things, but He himself is no judged by anyone, because He is perfected.

16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Isaiah 40:13

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him?

Paul again quotes from the Prophet Isaiah saying no one can instruct YHWH, because no one has His mind. But, the Apostles have the mind of Christ, which too was perfected. Paul is saying none of the teachers of that day had authority to instruct the Apostles, but they should be judged by the Apostles. Paul will be addressing some major concerns within the churches of Corinth in the coming pages of this letter.