1 Corinthians 2-3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony^[a] of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.^{(A) 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^[b] but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,^{(B) 5} so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

The True Wisdom of God

⁶ Yet 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.^{(C) 7} But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

¹⁰ God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.^{(E) 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.^{(F) 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. ¹³ And 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.^[c](G)

¹⁴ Those who are unspiritual^[d] 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.^{(H) 15} Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

But we have the mind of Christ.^(I)

On Divisions in the Corinthian Church

3 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people but rather as fleshly, as infants in Christ.^{(J) 2} I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,^{(K) 3} for you are still fleshly. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling^[e] among you, are you not fleshly and behaving according to human inclinations?^{(L) 4} For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not all too human?^(M)

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor.^{(N) 9} For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.^(O)

¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Let each builder choose with care how to build on it.^{(P) 11} For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.^{(Q) 12} Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³ the work of each builder will become visible, for the day^[f] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.^{(R) 14} If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. ¹⁵ If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?^{[g](S) 17} If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.^{(T) 19} For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

²⁰ and again,

²¹ So let no one boast about people.^[h] For all things are yours,^{(V) 22} whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.^(W)