Chapter 2 – One God Translation

1 Corinthians

   2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with excellence in speech or human wisdom, as I proclaimed the testimony of God to you. 2 For I was determined to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Messiah, and him crucified. [1007] 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear and much trembling. 4 My speech and my Gospel proclamation were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power. 5 In this way your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on the power of God.
    6 We do speak wisdom, however, among those of us who are full-grown believers, yet it is a wisdom not of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a now-revealed mystery,[1008] the wisdom which had been hidden, which God predetermined before the ages[1009] for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age has understood this wisdom. If they had, they would not have crucified the lord of glory. [1010] 9 But as it is written, “Things that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, things which have not occurred to human minds; all these God has prepared for those who love Him.” [1011] 10 To us God revealed these things through the spirit, because the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
    11 Among human beings, who knows the things of a person except the spirit of that person, which is in him? In the same way no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. 12 We did not receive the spirit of the world, but the spirit which comes from God, so that we may know the things that are graciously given to us by God. 13 And we speak these things not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by spirit, explaining spiritual truths with spiritual words.
    14 Now an unconverted person does not receive the things of the spirit of God, because they are stupidity to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The person who is spiritual evaluates all things,[1012] but he himself is not subject to evaluation by anyone. 16 For “Who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to teach Him?” But we have the mind of Messiah. [1013]

1 Corinthians

[1007]

This of course does not mean that he omitted the resurrection of Jesus or the Kingdom of God from the content of his Gospel.

[1008]

The unfolding immortality program which God planned for human beings, the mystery of the Kingdom of God preached first by Jesus (Heb. 2:3; cp. Acts 8:12; 19:8; 20:24-25; 28:23, 31).

[1009]

Cp. “In the beginning was the word or wisdom” (Jn. 1:1), God’s creative immortality plan for the world. Cp. William Tyndale’s translation and others which preceded the KJV of 1611. These translated logos as “word,” not “Word.”

[1010]

It is the epitome of insanity to kill the only one who has the solutions to all man’s problems and who announced the secret of gaining immortality! Jesus at his return to the earth will reorganize the world on godly principles (Isa. 2:1-4), assisted by the saints who are now the royal family, the aristocracy of the future world system, in training. They will rule and reign with Jesus on the earth (Rev. 5:9-10; Dan. 7:18, 22, 27, etc).

[1011]

The things of the future including rewards for the faithful are prepared by God and “with Him,” meaning that they are presently stored up with GOD. Jesus asked to be rewarded with the glory which was stored up in God’s promise, and which Jesus thus “had” before the foundation of the world (Jn. 17:5). Matt. 6:1 speaks likewise of a reward which believers “have” stored up with God in His plan.

[1012]

1 Thess. 5:21

[1013]

The Hebrew of Isa. 40:13 cited here has “spirit” and the LXX which Paul cites has “mind.” This shows that mind and spirit (and often “heart”) are more or less synonymous. The spirit is never a third Person in the NT. The spirit never sends greetings and is never worshiped. If Christians have the mind of Messiah they ought to sound like him and act like him, reflecting his words and thoughts and teachings based on the Gospel of the Kingdom. Any theology which tries to remove the words and mind of Jesus from believers is dangerously deceptive. A typical example is the attempt to remove the eschatological teachings of Jesus in Matt. 24 from believers! Jesus was not just talking to Jews! They were disciples and through the apostles Jesus speaks to us. There is no PRE-Tribulation rapture in Matt. 24, nor in any passage of the NT. A major error is to separate Jesus from his words (Jn. 12:44ff), as illustrated by C.S. Lewis’ amazing claim that the Gospel is not in the gospels (Introduction to J.B. Phillips, Letters to Young Churches, p. 9).