1 Corinthians 1-4 (Contemporary English Version)

1 Corinthians 1

 ¹From Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from Sosthenes, who is also a follower.

    ²To God's church in Corinth. Christ Jesus chose you to be his very own people, and you worship in his name, as we and all others do who call him Lord.

    ³My prayer is that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!

    ⁴I never stop thanking my God for being kind enough to give you Christ Jesus, ⁵who helps you speak and understand so well. ⁶Now you are certain that everything we told you about our Lord Christ Jesus is true. ⁷You are not missing out on any blessings, as you wait for him to return. ⁸And until the day Christ does return, he will keep you completely innocent. ⁹God can be trusted, and he chose you to be partners with his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

   

Taking Sides

 ¹⁰My dear friends, as a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you to get along with each other. Don't take sides. Always try to agree in what you think. ¹¹Several people from Chloe's family ^[a] have already reported to me that you keep arguing with each other. ¹²They have said that some of you claim to follow me, while others claim to follow Apollos or Peter ^[b] or Christ. ¹³Has Christ been divided up? Was I nailed to a cross for you? Were you baptized in my name? ¹⁴I thank God ^[c] that I didn't baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵Not one of you can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶I did baptize the family ^[d] of Stephanas, but I don't remember if I baptized anyone else. ¹⁷Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the good news without using big words that would make the cross of Christ lose its power.

Christ Is God's Power and Wisdom

 ¹⁸The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. ¹⁹As God says in the Scriptures,

   "I will destroy the wisdom

   of all who claim

   to be wise.

   I will confuse those

   who think they know

   so much."

    ²⁰What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? ²¹God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.

   Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. ²²Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. ²³But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. ²⁴Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. ²⁵Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else.

    ²⁶My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.

    ²⁸What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important. ²⁹God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to him. ³⁰You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. ³¹So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord.

   

1 Corinthians 2

Telling about Christ and the Cross

 ¹Friends, when I came and told you the mystery ^[e] that God had shared with us, I didn't use big words or try to sound wise. ²In fact, while I was with you, I made up my mind to speak only about Jesus Christ, who had been nailed to a cross. ³At first, I was weak and trembling with fear. ⁴When I talked with you or preached, I didn't try to prove anything by sounding wise. I simply let God's Spirit show his power. ⁵That way you would have faith because of God's power and not because of human wisdom.

    ⁶We do use wisdom when speaking to people who are mature in their faith. But it isn't the wisdom of this world or of its rulers, who will soon disappear. ⁷We speak of God's hidden and mysterious wisdom that God decided to use for our glory long before the world began. ⁸The rulers of this world didn't know anything about this wisdom. If they had known about it, they would not have nailed the glorious Lord to a cross. ⁹But it is just as the Scriptures say,

   "What God has planned

   for people who love him

   is more than eyes have seen

   or ears have heard.

   It has never even

   entered our minds!"

    ¹⁰God's Spirit has shown you everything. His Spirit finds out everything, even what is deep in the mind of God. ¹¹You are the only one who knows what is in your own mind, and God's Spirit is the only one who knows what is in God's mind. ¹²But God has given us his Spirit. That's why we don't think the same way that the people of this world think. That's also why we can recognize the blessings that God has given us.

    ¹³Every word we speak was taught to us by God's Spirit, not by human wisdom. And this same Spirit helps us teach spiritual things to spiritual people. ^{[f] 14}That's why only someone who has God's Spirit can understand spiritual blessings. Anyone who doesn't have God's Spirit thinks these blessings are foolish. ¹⁵People who are guided by the Spirit can make all kinds of judgments, but they cannot be judged by others. ¹⁶The Scriptures ask, "Has anyone ever known

   the thoughts of the Lord

   or given him advice?"

   But we understand what Christ is thinking. ^[g]

1 Corinthians 3

Working Together for God

 ¹My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. ²So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, ³because you are not yet spiritual. You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves that you are not spiritual and that you are acting like the people of this world.

    ⁴Some of you say that you follow me, and others claim to follow Apollos. Isn't that how ordinary people behave? ⁵Apollos and I are merely servants who helped you to have faith. It was the Lord who made it all happen. ⁶I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow. ⁷What matters isn't those who planted or watered, but God who made the plants grow. ⁸The one who plants is just as important as the one who waters. And each one will be paid for what they do. ⁹Apollos and I work together for God, and you are God's garden and God's building.

   

Only One Foundation

 ¹⁰God was kind and let me become an expert builder. I laid a foundation on which others have built. But we must each be careful how we build, ¹¹because Christ is the only foundation. ^12-13Whatever we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. ¹⁴We will be rewarded if our building is left standing. ¹⁵But if it is destroyed by the fire, we will lose everything. Yet we ourselves will be saved, like someone escaping from flames.

    ¹⁶All of you surely know that you are God's temple and that his Spirit lives in you. ¹⁷Together you are God's holy temple, and God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple.

    ¹⁸Don't fool yourselves! If any of you think you are wise in the things of this world, you will have to become foolish before you can be truly wise. ¹⁹This is because God considers the wisdom of this world to be foolish. It is just as the Scriptures say, "God catches the wise when they try to outsmart him." ²⁰The Scriptures also say, "The Lord knows that the plans made by wise people are useless." ^21-22So stop bragging about what anyone has done. Paul and Apollos and Peter ^[h] all belong to you. In fact, everything is yours, including the world, life, death, the present, and the future. Everything belongs to you, ²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

1 Corinthians 4

The Work of the Apostles

 ¹Think of us as servants of Christ who have been given the work of explaining God's mysterious ways. ²And since our first duty is to be faithful to the one we work for, ³it doesn't matter to me if I am judged by you or even by a court of law. In fact, I don't judge myself. ⁴I don't know of anything against me, but that doesn't prove that I am right. The Lord is my judge. ⁵So don't judge anyone until the Lord returns. He will show what is hidden in the dark and what is in everyone's heart. Then God will be the one who praises each of us.

    ⁶Friends, I have used Apollos and myself as examples to teach you the meaning of the saying, "Follow the rules." I want you to stop saying that one of us is better than the other. ⁷What is so special about you? What do you have that you were not given? And if it was given to you, how can you brag? ⁸Are you already satisfied? Are you now rich? Have you become kings while we are still nobodies? I wish you were kings. Then we could have a share in your kingdom.

    ⁹It seems to me that God has put us apostles in the worst possible place. We are like prisoners on their way to death. Angels and the people of this world just laugh at us. ¹⁰Because of Christ we are thought of as fools, but Christ has made you wise. We are weak and hated, but you are powerful and respected. ¹¹Even today we go hungry and thirsty and don't have anything to wear except rags. We are mistreated and don't have a place to live. ¹²We work hard with our own hands, and when people abuse us, we wish them well. When we suffer, we are patient. ¹³When someone curses us, we answer with kind words. Until now we are thought of as nothing more than the trash and garbage of this world.

    ¹⁴I am not writing to embarrass you. I want to help you, just as parents help their own dear children. ¹⁵Ten thousand people may teach you about Christ, but I am your only father. You became my children when I told you about Christ Jesus, ¹⁶and I want you to be like me. ¹⁷That's why I sent Timothy to you. I love him like a son, and he is a faithful servant of the Lord. Timothy will tell you what I do to follow Christ and how it agrees with what I always teach about Christ in every church.

    ¹⁸Some of you think I am not coming for a visit, and so you are bragging. ¹⁹But if the Lord lets me come, I will soon be there. Then I will find out if the ones who are doing all this bragging really have any power. ²⁰God's kingdom isn't just a lot of words. It is power. ²¹What do you want me to do when I arrive? Do you want me to be hard on you or to be kind and gentle?