Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness^(A) to those who are perishing,^(B) but to us who are being saved^(C) it is the power of God.^(D)

¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God^(A) but considers them foolishness,^(B) and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel,^(A) because it is the power of God^(B) that brings salvation to everyone who believes:^(C) first to the Jew,^(D) then to the Gentile.^(E)

¹⁰ and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.^(A) They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.^(B)

³ And even if our gospel^(A) is veiled,^(B) it is veiled to those who are perishing.^(C)

²³ but we preach Christ crucified:^(A) a stumbling block^(B) to Jews and foolishness^(C) to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called,^(D) both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God^(E) and the wisdom of God.^{(F) 25} For the foolishness^(G) of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness^(H) of God is stronger than human strength.

²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world^(A) through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save^(B) those who believe.^(C)

¹⁵ For we are to God the pleasing aroma^(A) of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.^{(B) 16} To the one we are an aroma that brings death;^(C) to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?^(D)

¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness^(A) in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”^[a];^(B)