Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 [13-16]

Paul has described his role as one sent to proclaim the message about the cross. For outsiders, that message appears foolish, but for those who have faith, it demonstrates the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:17–25). As he continues his argument, Paul describes his own ministry among the Corinthians, continuing this contrast between human and divine wisdom.

Paul’s ministry (1 Corinthians 2:1–5)

Paul first reminds the Corinthians about the way he preached and taught when he arrived in their city. Proclaiming the testimony that has come from God, he did not use “superior speech or wisdom” (verse 1) or “persuasive words of wisdom” (verse 4). Instead, he came in humility and reverence, even in weakness. 

He concentrated not on his own skill as a speaker, but on the content of his message, “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (verse 2). This unadorned delivery and controlled self-presentation were of one piece with the message of the cross. It was not personal charisma or smooth elegance that supported his message, but the power of the Spirit. As a result, the Corinthians can base their faith not on skillful rhetoric or on human wisdom, but on the power of God (verse 5). 

God’s plan (1 Corinthians 2:6–10a)

A shift from the past tense to the present and from the singular to the plural marks off this discussion of Paul’s initial ministry at Corinth from what follows. Although he has set the world’s wisdom in contrast to the foolishness of proclamation (1:21–25) and his own practice (2:1–5), he now asserts that he and others who proclaim this message do teach wisdom, “though not a wisdom of this age” (verse 6). But they teach that wisdom only “among the mature” (verse 6). With that short phrase, Paul rebukes those Corinthian believers who value the world’s wisdom. 

In the ancient world, it was common for philosophers to teach students at different levels, reflecting different levels of progress in moral insight. There was one level of knowledge for beginners, another for those who were making progress, and a third for those who had reached the level of maturity. In a similar way, we divide our own education into different levels—elementary, intermediate, and advanced. 

In stressing that he teaches wisdom to the mature, Paul suggests that the Corinthians are apprentices, not masters. He later describes them as “fleshly, as infants in Christ” (3:1). As a result, he has not yet taught them in detail about God’s wisdom, a wisdom he describes as a mystery or a secret that God had for a time hidden away but has now revealed (Daniel 2:18–19, 27–28).

Paul here draws on the language of apocalyptic thought, contrasting this present age and the coming age of God’s rule and reign. In this age, the Corinthians live in the Roman Empire, under the control of rulers who do not know God’s designs and plans. These governing powers have “crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). But those powers are transitory, on the verge of destruction (verse 6). The coming age will bring God’s plan of salvation to fruition, as the Lord of glory will glorify believers and liberate them from “every ruler and every authority and power,” even their last enemy, death (15:24–26).

God has revealed this plan to Paul and others “through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). To support that claim, Paul quotes an unknown Jewish apocalyptic text that draws on prophetic texts like Isaiah 64:4. In this wise plan, God uncovers realities beyond human imagination “for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

The Spirit’s revelation (1 Corinthians 2:10b–16)

As a result, knowledge of God’s plan does not come from study or human insight but from God, who reveals it by the Spirit. Only the Spirit knows the things of God, and so the Spirit alone knows this secret plan now revealed.

But Paul and the others who proclaim the message of the cross have received God’s Spirit. As a result, they may understand all that God has freely given, including knowledge of the mystery, God’s plan for the coming age. They speak of these things in words “not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (verse 13). Those who do not have the Spirit do not understand their teaching but perceive it as foolishness (verse 14). They may hear the words, but they do not grasp them. They are like people who speak only their native tongue and who hear speech in another language: Such speech sounds to them like gibberish. In the same way, those who do not know the language of the Spirit find the message about the cross and God’s plan for the ages incomprehensible.

But Paul and those who bear the message of the cross do understand and teach these things. Although the question of Isaiah 40:13 (“For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”) remains vital counsel against human arrogance, there now stands another truth. The gift of the Spirit enables Paul and others to understand the things that God bestows, so Paul can affirm, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

These verses open up several avenues for faithful proclamation. Preachers may choose to explore the need for coherence between their message and the presentation of that message: A cruciform message requires a cruciform proclamation and a cruciform life. They may focus on the way the message of the cross unfolds God’s plan of redemption over against the pretense of the governing powers of this present age. They may choose to expand on the insight that God prepares that unimaginable gift not for those who know God, but “for those who love him” (verse 9)—Paul’s first use of this key word in the letter (8:3; 13:1–13). 

All these possibilities, of course, will build on the contrast between self-aggrandizing human wisdom and God’s lavishly gracious wisdom, a mystery now revealed by God’s own Spirit, the message of the cross.