Greeting

¹Paul, acalled bby the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those csanctified in Christ Jesus, dcalled to be saints together with all those who in every place ecall upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

³dGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

⁴I fgive thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵that in every way gyou were enriched in him in all hspeech and all knowledge— ⁶even as ithe testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you jwait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸kwho will sustain you to the end, lguiltless min the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹nGod is faithful, by whom you were called into the ofellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers,1 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no pdivisions among you, but that you be united qin the same mind and the same judgment. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is rquarreling among you, my brothers. ¹²What I mean is that seach one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow tApollos,” or “I follow uCephas,” or “I follow Christ.” ¹³vIs Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you wbaptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except xCrispus and yGaius, ¹⁵so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I did baptize also zthe household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and anot with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

¹⁸For the word of the cross is bfolly to cthose who are perishing, but to us dwho are being saved it is ethe power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

f“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰gWhere is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? hHas not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach2 to save those who believe. ²²For iJews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ jcrucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ kthe power of God and lthe wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: mnot many of you were wise according to worldly standards,3 not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But nGod chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; oGod chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even pthings that are not, to qbring to nothing things that are, ²⁹so rthat no human being4 might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰And because of him5 you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us swisdom from God, trighteousness and usanctification and vredemption, ³¹so that, as it is written, w“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”