¹⁰I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with each other and not be split into groups. I beg that you be completely joined together by having the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. ¹¹My brothers and sisters, some people from Chloe’s family have told me quite plainly that there are quarrels among you. ¹²This is what I mean: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another says, “I follow Apollos”; another says, “I follow Peter”; and another says, “I follow Christ.” ¹³Christ has been divided up into different groups! Did Paul die on the cross for you? No! Were you baptized in the name of Paul? No! ¹⁴I thank God I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius ¹⁵so that now no one can say you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(I also baptized the family of Stephanas, but I do not remember that I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷Christ did not send me to baptize people but to preach the Good News. And he sent me to preach the Good News without using words of human wisdom so that the cross ⁿ of Christ would not lose its power.

Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom

¹⁸The teaching about the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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

ncross Paul uses the cross as a picture of the Good News, the story of Christ’s death and rising from the dead for people’s sins. The cross, or Christ’s death, was God’s way to save people.