1 Corinthians 2

EasyEnglish Bible

How Paul taught God's message

2 Christian friends, I came to tell you God's true message. I did not use clever words when I spoke to you. I did not try to make you think that I was very wise. ² While I was with you, I decided to teach you only about Jesus Christ. I taught you about his death on a cross. I wanted to forget everything else.

³ I lived among you as someone who felt weak. I was very afraid. ⁴ When I spoke to you and when I taught you God's message, I did not use clever words. I did not want you to believe me because you thought I was wise. Instead, it was the power of God's Holy Spirit that showed you that my message was true. ⁵ As a result, you now believe because of God's power. You do not believe because of human ideas.

⁶ But we do speak about wise thoughts to those of you who know Christ very well. But those wise thoughts do not belong to this world. They are not the ideas that the rulers of this world think are important. Those rulers will not be powerful for long. ⁷ No, the wise thoughts that we speak about belong to God. He has hidden them from people until now. But before God made the world, he decided to let us know these secrets. He wanted us to enjoy his glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this world understood God's wise plan. If they had understood, they would not have killed Jesus on a cross. He is the Lord who rules heaven and earth. ⁹ This is written in the Bible:

¹⁰ But God has sent his Spirit to show these secrets to us. God's Spirit looks carefully into everything. He even knows God's secret thoughts. ¹¹ Only a person's own spirit can know everything that is in his thoughts. And it is the same with God. Only God's Spirit knows everything that is in God's thoughts. ¹² We have received God's own Spirit, not a spirit that belongs to this world. As a result, we can understand all the good things that God has given to us. ¹³ Those are the things that we speak about. We do not use clever words to speak about human ideas. Instead, we speak the message that God's Spirit has taught us. In that way, we explain a spiritual message to people who have God's Spirit.

¹⁴ If someone does not believe in God, they cannot accept the message that comes from God's Spirit. They think that God's message is silly. They cannot even understand those things. Only God's Spirit can explain them to people. ¹⁵ But we have God's Spirit with us. So we can understand the true value of all things. But other people cannot truly understand us, who belong to God. ¹⁶ As it says in the Bible: