1 Corinthians 1–2

Salutation

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

²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord^a and ours:^*

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.^*

⁴I give thanks to my^b God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—⁶just as the testimony of^c Christ has been strengthened among you^*—⁷so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.^{* 8}He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.^*

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.^{* 11}For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹²What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?^{* 14}I thank God^d that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,^{* 15}so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.^{* 17}For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.^*

Christ 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.^{* 19}For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?^{* 21}For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.^{* 22}For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,^{* 24}but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,^e not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.^{* 27}But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;^{* 28}God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, ²⁹so that no one^f might boast in the presence of God.^{* 30}In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,^{* 31}in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in^g the Lord.”^*

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

²When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony^h of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.^{* 2}For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdomⁱ but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,^{* 5}so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

The True Wisdom of God

⁶Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.^{* 7}But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the human heart conceived,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—^*

¹⁰God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.^{* 11}For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.^{* 12}Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. ¹³And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.^j*

¹⁴Those who are unspiritual^k do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.^{* 15}Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.^*