Greeting to the church in Corinth
1Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes our brother, 2to the church of God in Corinth — to those consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all who anywhere call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: 3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I thank my God for you always, for the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, 5because in him you were made rich in everything, in all speech and all knowledge, 6just as the testimony about the Christ was confirmed among you. 7So you lack no gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will also hold you firm to the end, blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful, and he called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
No splits among you
10I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: agree among yourselves, let there be no splits among you, be knit together in one mind and one purpose. 11For Chloe’s people have told me about you, my brothers and sisters — that there is quarreling among you. 12What I mean is this: each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I to Apollos,” or “I to Cephas,” or “I to the Christ.” 13Has the Christ been carved up? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say you were baptized into my name. 16I did baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not recall baptizing anyone else. 17For the Christ did not send me to baptize but to announce the gospel, and not with wisdom of speech, or the cross of the Christ would be emptied of its power.
The folly of the cross
18The message of the cross is folly to those on their way to ruin, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.” 20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not turned the wisdom of the world into folly? 21Since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the folly of what we proclaim. 22Jews demand signs and Greeks go looking for wisdom, 23but we proclaim the Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, folly to the Gentiles, 24yet to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, the Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the folly of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Look at your own calling
26Look at your own calling, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many nobly born. 27But God chose what the world calls foolish to shame the wise; God chose what the world calls weak to shame the strong; 28God chose what the world thinks low and beneath notice, the things that are nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29so that no one at all may boast before God. 30It is thanks to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God: our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption, 31so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, let them boast in the Lord.”
