1 Corinthians 2:13-16

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.