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Do you listen in on God’s council(A)
    and restrict wisdom to yourself?

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13 For who knows God’s counsel,
    or who can conceive what the Lord intends?(A)

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13 Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
    or instructed him as his counselor?(A)

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18 Now, who has stood in the council of the Lord,
    to see him and to hear his word?
    Who has heeded his word so as to announce it?(A)

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11 Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.[a]

14 Now the natural person[b] does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment[c] by anyone.

16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2:13 In spiritual terms: the Spirit teaches spiritual people a new mode of perception (1 Cor 2:12) and an appropriate language by which they can share their self-understanding, their knowledge about what God has done in them. The final phrase in 1 Cor 2:13 can also be translated “describing spiritual realities to spiritual people,” in which case it prepares for 1 Cor 2:14–16.
  2. 2:14 The natural person: see note on 1 Cor 3:1.
  3. 2:15 The spiritual person…is not subject to judgment: since spiritual persons have been given knowledge of what pertains to God (1 Cor 2:11–12), they share in God’s own capacity to judge. One to whom the mind of the Lord (and of Christ) is revealed (1 Cor 2:16) can be said to share in some sense in God’s exemption from counseling and criticism.