Greeting and Thanksgiving

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

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

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

⁴ I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which has been given to you through Jesus Christ. ⁵ By Him you are enriched in everything, in all speech and in all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift while waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, and by Him you were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ Now I ask you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak in agreement and that there be no divisions among you. But be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. ¹² Now this is what I mean: Every one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. ¹⁶ I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides them, I do not know whether I baptized any other. ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:

²⁰ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of this world foolish? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. ²² For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. ²³ But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. ²⁴ But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶ For observe your calling, brothers. Among you, not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty men, and not many noble men were called. ²⁷ But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. ²⁸ And God has chosen the base things of the world and things which are despised. Yes, and He chose things which did not exist to bring to nothing things that do, ²⁹ so that no flesh should boast in His presence. ³⁰ But because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”^[b]