¹⁵lest anyone should say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(Now I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that I do not know if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, not with clever speech^d, lest the cross of Christ be emptied.

Christ Crucified, the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 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 the intelligence of the intelligent I will confound.”^e

²⁰Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. ²²For indeed, Jews ask for sign miracles and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a cause for stumbling, but to the Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,^f and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.^g

Boast in the Lord

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers, that not many were wise according to human standards,^h not many were powerful, not many were well born. ²⁷But the foolish things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world God chose in order that he might put to shame the strong, ²⁸and the insignificant of the world, and the despised, God chose, the things that are not, in order that he might abolish the things that are, ²⁹so that all flesh may not boast before God. ³⁰But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹so that, just as it is written, “The one who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”ⁱ

Read in Logos

1 Corinthians 1:17: For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Footnotes

dLiterally “wisdom of word”
eA quotation from Isa 29:14
fLiterally “man”
gLiterally “man”
hLiterally “according to flesh”
iA quotation from Jer 9:24