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My fellow believers, I also {acted according to this pattern} when I visited you and told you about what God has now revealed to us. I did not speak in more powerful ways than others do. I did not argue in wiser ways than others do. 2 {I did this} because I chose {to speak and act as if} the only things I understood while I was with you were Jesus the Messiah and how he died on the cross. 3 I also {lived according to this pattern} when I was staying with you. I was sick, I was afraid, and I frequently shivered and shook. 4 I did not speak wisely and persuasively {according to human standards} when I talked {to you} and shared my message {with you}. Instead, I proved that God’s Spirit works powerfully {through me when I shared my message}. 5 {I shared my message in this way} in order that you might trust {in God} because he acts powerfully, not because humans spoke wise words {to you}.6 Despite {what I have said,} we {who proclaim the good news} do speak wisely when we are with spiritually mature people. However, people who think only in human ways and people who rule right now do not think that we speak wisely. {Soon,} these people will no longer rule. 7 No, we speak wisely {because we proclaim} the things that God has revealed to us. God concealed these things {until now}, although he had already decided to do them before he created anything. {He has done all of this} so that he might honor us. 8 The people who rule right now did not know about these wise things. {You can tell that} they did not know, because they killed our glorious Lord on the cross. 9 Rather, {how they acted} fits with what the prophet Isaiah wrote:
“God has ready for the people who love him
things that no one witnessed before
and things that no one heard about before
and things that no human even imagined before.”
10 God has made these things known to us by the {power of God’s} Spirit. {God works by the power of his Spirit} because God’s Spirit explores all people and things. He even explores things about God that are very difficult to understand. 11 {You can tell that God’s Spirit explores everything about God,} because everyone knows that only each human being understands everything about himself or herself. In the same way, only God’s Spirit understands everything about God. 12 We did indeed receive the Spirit who comes from God. We did not receive a spirit that belongs to the current world. {We received God’s Spirit} in order that we might understand everything that God has done for us. 13 These are the very things that we also talk about. We do not use words that humans wisely teach. Instead, we use words that the Spirit teaches, so that we explain spiritual truths with spiritual words. 14 Now, people who do not have God’s Spirit reject the things that God’s Spirit gives and teaches. {They reject these things,} because they think that they are foolish. They cannot know about {the things that God’s Spirit gives and teaches,} because only people who have God’s Spirit can judge rightly about them. 15 On the other hand, people who have God’s Spirit {can} judge rightly about everything. However, no {other} person {can} judge rightly about them. 16 This fits with {what the scripture says}:
“No human knows what the Lord is thinking.
No human can teach him about anything.”
We, however, can think the same things that the Messiah is thinking.