1 My fellow believers, when I came to you, I proclaimed to you the message that God had revealed to me. But I did not proclaim it using eloquent words that would make people think highly of me, nor did I argue in a way that unbelievers would think was very wise. 2 I did that because I decided that I would speak only about Jesus Christ. Specifically, I told you what he accomplished for us when he was killed by being nailed {when they killed him by nailing him} to a cross. 3 Furthermore, when I was with you, I felt that I was not adequate to do what Christ wanted me to do. I was afraid that I would not be able to do it, and because of that I was trembling very much. 4 When I taught you and preached to you, I did not speak words that unbelievers would consider [IRO] wise in order to convince them that my message was true. Instead, God’s Spirit showed that it was true by enabling me to powerfully perform miracles. 5 I taught and preached that way in order that you might believe my message, not because you heard words that people considered to be [IRO] wise, but because you recognized God’s power.

6 I do teach a message that people who are spiritually mature consider to be wise. But I do not teach a message that unbelievers consider to be wise. I also do not teach a message that unbelieving rulers in the world consider to be wise. What they think about it does not matter, because some day ◄they will lose their power/not be ruling any more►. 7 Instead, I teach about what God planned wisely long ago. It is something that people did not know about previously because God did not reveal it previously. But God determined before he created the world that he would greatly benefit us by his wise plan. 8 None of those who rule this world knew that wise plan. If they had known it, they would not have nailed our wonderful Lord to the cross. 9 But we believers need to remember these words that a prophet wrote in the Scriptures:

10 God has caused his Spirit to reveal those things to us (inc) believers. His Spirit can do that because he knows thoroughly the meaning of all things. He even knows the things about God that are very difficult to understand. 11 Only a person himself (OR, a person’s spirit) knows what he is thinking. Similarly, only God’s Spirit knows what God is thinking. 12 It was not the ideas that unbelievers teach that we accepted. Instead, it was the Spirit who came from God that we received, in order that we might know the things that God has freely done for us. 13 Those are the things that I tell you about. As I do that, I do not tell you things that someone whom others thought was [IRO] wise taught me. Instead, I tell you truths that God’s Spirit taught me, and I explain those spiritual truths to people whose thinking is guided by God’s Spirit (OR, I teach spiritual truths to spiritual people). 14 Those who are unbelievers reject the truths that God’s Spirit teaches us (inc), because they consider those truths to be foolish. They cannot understand them, because it is God’s Spirit who enables us to evaluate those truths correctly, and those people do not have God’s Spirit. 15 We who have God’s Spirit can judge correctly the value of all truths that the Spirit reveals, but unbelievers cannot evaluate us correctly. 16 As one of our prophets wrote: