Introductory remarks
1
📚Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God✭, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 📚✭To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:3 📚Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul expresses his thanksgiving
4 📚I always thank my God for you, for the grace of God which is given to you by Jesus Christ, 5 📚so that in everything you are enriched✭ by him, in all kinds of speaking and complete knowledge, 6 📚since the testimony of Christ was established among you, 7 📚so that you are not inferior in any gift✭, as you wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 📚He will establish you to the end✭, so that you may be blameless✭ in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 📚God is faithful✭, by whom you were called into the fellowship✭ of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The divided Corinthian church
10 📚✭Now I plead with you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak in agreement, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same purpose. 11 📚✭For it has been told me about you, my brethren, by those who are of the household of Chloe, that there are quarrels among you. 12 📚Now I say that all of you are speaking like this: “I am of Paul”, and another “I am of Apollos✭”, and another “I am of Cephas”, and another “I am of Christ✭”.
13 📚✭Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 📚✭I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, 15 📚so that no one should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 📚And also I baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides these, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 📚✭For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of no effect.
True wisdom and power
18 📚For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 📚For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise,
and will bring to nothing
the understanding of
the intelligent.
20 📚✭Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 📚✭For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the “foolishness” of what was preached✭ to save those who believe. 22 📚📚 For the Jews require a miraculous sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom✭, 23 📚but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block✭ to the Jews, and foolishness✭ to the Greeks, 24 📚but to those who are called✭, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 📚✭Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 📚✭For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 📚✭But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, 28 📚and lowly things of the world, and things which are despised, God has chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 📚so that no flesh should glory in God's presence. 30 📚✭But by him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, and righteousness✭, and sanctification✭, and redemption✭, 31 📚✭so that, according to what is written, he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.