1 Corinthians 1:15–31

¹⁵so that no one can say you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶I did, in fact, baptize the household ^dof Stephanas; ^ebeyond that, I don’t know if I baptized anyone else. ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with clever words, so that the cross ^fof Christ will not be emptied of its effect.

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. ^g19For it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. ^hi

²⁰Where is the philosopher? ^jWhere is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? ^kHasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? ²¹For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. ²²For the Jews ask for signs ^land the Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, ^ma stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. ⁿ²⁴Yet to those who are called, ^oboth Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, ²⁵because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Boasting Only in the Lord

²⁶Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, ^pnot many powerful, ^qnot many of noble birth. ²⁷Instead, God has chosen ^rwhat is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. ²⁸God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world ^s—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, ²⁹so that no one ^tcan boast in His presence. ^u30But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, ^vsanctification, ^wand redemption, ^x31in order that, as it is written: ^yThe one who boasts must boast in the Lord. ^za