Inspire: 1 Corinthians through 2 Thessalonians - Flipbook - Page 9
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God has united you
with Christ Jesus.
For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with
God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the
Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”
Paul’s Message of Wisdom
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words
and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. 2 For I decided that
while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one
who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And
my message and my preaching were very plain.
2
Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches,
I relied only on the
power of the Holy Spirit.
I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom,
but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this
world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery
of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our
ultimate glory before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not
understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.
9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
5
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
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But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.
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He
mad e us
pure
HOLY,
and
He
FReeD
us
from sin.
For his Spiritsearches out everything
and shows us God’s deep secrets.
No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no
one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received
God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God
has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human
wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s
words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t re
ceive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they
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1
C orinthians
1:30
