1When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written,
“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,
which didn’t enter into the heart of man,
these God has prepared for those who love him.”
10But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34), a prayer of intercession in behalf of those who were responsible for this death.
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23:43), a promise given to one of the two criminals who were crucified with him, who had implored of Jesus, "Remember me when you come in your kingdom (Lk 23:42).
"Woman, behold, your son! . . . Behold, your mother!" (Jn 19:26-27), a word of concern, spoken to Jesus' mother and to "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (traditionally identified with the apostle John.
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ("Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?" Matt 27:46; Mk 15:34), either an appalling and mysterious word of desolate loneliness (quoted from Ps 22:1) or a shout of triumph.
"I thirst" (Jn 19:28), a pathetic cry of physical anguish and helplessness.
"It is finished" (Jn 19:30), a word of accomplishment and victory.
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Lk 23:46), a prayer of confidence and trust.