1 Corinthians 2

As Paul answers the Corinthians, he reminds them -

"...I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom..." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:1)

In fact -

"....I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom..." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:3 - 4)

Paul continues to explain how the gospel of Jesus Christ is not to be taught according to the wisdom of the world -

"...but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:4 - 5)

The Greeks were known for their great philosophers and their, so called, love of wisdom. It is this wisdom, the wisdom of men, the wisdom of the world that Paul challenged, saying -

"Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory..." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:6 - 7)

For the wisdom of God, which is a mystery to those of the world, only comes by the Holy Ghost as Paul explains that -

"...God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:10 - 13)

And those who receive not the Spirit is the natural man and -

"...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:14)

President Joseph F. Smith warned in 1914 that there were three threatening dangers facing the membership of the Church saying -

“There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are flattery of prominent men in the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity.” (Gospel Doctrine, pp. 312–13.)

These three seemed to be the same issues Paul addressed with the Corinthians in his day. Jacob taught -

"...O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish." (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 9:28)

It is important to understand that "the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom" only comes by preaching by the power the Holy Ghost. In considering again the words of Paul -

"...my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power..." (New Testament 1 Corinthians 2:4)

I follow with the teachings of Elder Bruce R. McConkie -

“There was of old, there is now, and to all eternity there shall be only one approved and proper way to preach the gospel—Preach by the power of the Spirit. Anything short of this is not of God and has neither converting nor saving power. All the religious learning, of all the professors of religion, of all the ages is as nothing compared to the Spirit-born testimony of one legal administrator. . . .if there is any truth of salvation that Deity has made imperishably clear, it is the first and last, in all ages, now and forever, among the learned and the ignorant for all races and peoples, and for that matter on all the endless worlds of the great Creator, there is one formula and one formula only for conveying saving truth to men—Preach by the power of the Spirit.” (McConkie, DNTC, 2:318.)