1 When I came to reveal to you the mystery of God’s plan I did not count on eloquence or on a show of learning.
2 I was determined not to know anything among you but Jesus, the Messiah, and a crucified Messiah.
3 I myself came weak, fearful and trem bling;
4 my words and preach ing were not brilliant or clever to win listeners.
5 It was, rather, a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might be a matter, not of human wisdom, but of God’s power.
The Spirit teaches us wisdom
6 In fact, we do speak of wisdom to the mature in faith, although it is not a wisdom of this world or of its rulers, who are doomed to perish.
7 We teach the mystery and secret plan of divine wisdom, which God destined from the beginning to bring us to Glory.
8 No ruler of this world ever knew this; otherwise they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
9 But as Scripture says: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned on the mind what God has prepared for those who love him.
10 God has revealed it to us, through his Spirit, because the Spirit probes everything, even the depth of God.
11 Who but his own spirit knows the secrets of a person? Similarly, no one but the Spirit of God knows the secrets of God.
12 We have not re ceived the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God and, through him, we un der stand what God in his goodness has given us.
13 So we speak of this, not in terms inspired by human wisdom, but in a language taught by the Spirit, explaining a spiritual wisdom to spiritual persons.
14 The one who remains on the psychological level does not understand the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness for him and he does not understand because they require a spiritual experience.
15 On the other hand, the spiritual person judges everything but no one judges him.
16 Who has known the mind of God so as to teach him? But we have the mind of Christ.
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Comments 1 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 2
• 2.1 I myself came weak, fearful and trembling. Paul indeed must have felt weak when for the first time he was bringing the Gospel to a brilliant Greek city well used to slavery and immorality. We experience the same feelings towards the evangelization of the modern world; preparation is important but what is it to prepare ourselves? Paul invites us to accept the mystery of the cross and to find there the strength of the Spirit.
It was a demonstration of Spirit and power (v. 5). The po wer of Spirit, the power of pra yer, the power of suffering. The Spirit is poured out after Jesus has suffered and died. With him, we can expect everything. Healings and miracles are worthless (and the devil takes advantage of them) unless they affirm faith in Jesus crucified, acting through the humble, and present in the poor.
• 6. Paul never intended to be con sidered a wise or eminent speaker by his audience. Yet he speaks of wisdom to the mature in faith (v. 6). The text says in more precise terms: “to the perfect ones.” At that time, several religions were calling “perfect” any believer who had received some secret information not given to all the members of the sect. In the Church also some considered them selves as belonging to a higher class of believers because of gifts of the Spirit they had received, especially if they were able to speak endlessly on matters of faith.
Paul opposes them with his own gifts as prophet and apostle. He is capable of teaching these essential truths which need few words but which can only be presented by those who have experienced the living God. What are these secrets? Firstly, what God is for us and what God wishes to give us (vv. 7and 12).
Christian faith proposes that which no human doctrine, no religion could have given us. At times, comparing ourselves with those who follow a spiritual way outside Christianity, it would seem that we are saying the same thing with different words. This is partly true regarding our attitudes and our choices in life, but we should not be afraid to confess the riches God has given us in Christ: his Spirit gives us what no one has ever penetrated.
Such knowledge is not intellectual, it is a gift of the Spirit that sows and develops in us the one and only truth. It is very difficult to give an explanation of a truly spiritual experience. We can only speak of wisdom to those who have attained a certain spiritual level. That is why Paul tells the Corinthians that most of them are unable to criticize him.
The one who remains on the psychological level (v. 14). (Paul says precisely: “the psychic man”) does not reach the truth of Christ. However the spiritual person, not necessarily the intellectual person, knows by gift of God the things of God.
The spiritual person judges everything and no one judges him. He who sees has no way of convincing the blind person that there are colors. He sees them, however, and knows that if the blind person does not see them, it is not because the thing is doubtful, but because the blind person has neither eyes nor criteria for that. It is the same with the spiritual person and the carnal one.