1 Corinthians 2:12-16

2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. 2:13 And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. ¹  2:14 The unbeliever ²  does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 2:15 The one who is spiritual discerns ³  all things, yet he himself is understood ⁴  by no one. 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? ⁵  But we have the mind of Christ.

¹ tn Or “combining spiritual things with spiritual words” (i.e., words the Spirit gives, as just described).

² tn Grk “natural person.” Cf. BDAG 1100 s.v. ψυχικός a, “an unspiritual pers., one who merely functions bodily, without being touched by the Spirit of God.”

³ tn Or “evaluates.”

⁴ tn Or “is evaluated” (i.e., “is subject to evaluation”); Grk “he himself is discerned,” that is, the person without the Spirit does not understand the person with the Spirit, particularly in relation to the life of faith.

⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.