1. Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I told you the secret truth of God. But I did not use fancy words or great wisdom.
2. I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
3. When I came to you, I was weak and shook with fear.
4. My teaching and my speaking were not with wise words that persuade people. But the proof of my teaching was the power that the Spirit gives.
5. I did this so that your faith would be in God’s power, not in human wisdom.
6. We teach wisdom to people who are mature, but the wisdom we teach is not from this world. It is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world, who are losing their power.
7. But we speak God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden from everyone until now. God planned this wisdom for our glory. He planned it before the world began.
8. None of the rulers of this world understood this wisdom. If they had understood it, they would not have killed our great and glorious Lord on a cross.
9. But as the Scriptures say, “No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” Isaiah 64:4
10. But God has shown us these things through the Spirit. The Spirit knows all things. The Spirit even knows the deep secrets of God.