1 Corinthians 1:12-2:4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 What 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.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?(A) 14 I thank God[a] that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,(B) 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.(C) 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.(D)
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For 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.(E) 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where 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?(F) 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.(G) 22 For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,(H) 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,[b] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.(I) 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;(J) 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, 29 so that no one[c] might boast in the presence of God.(K) 30 In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,(L) 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in[d] the Lord.”(M)
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony[e] of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.(N) 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom[f] but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,(O)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.