1 Corinthians 1-6

Common English Bible

Greeting

1 From Paul, called by God’s will to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Sosthenes our brother.

² To God’s church that is in Corinth:

To those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus, who are called to be God’s people.

Together with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place—he’s their Lord and ours!

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

Thanksgiving for the Corinthians

⁴ I thank my God always for you, because of God’s grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge, ⁶ in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed with you. ⁷ The result is that you aren’t missing any spiritual gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also confirm your testimony about Christ until the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rival groups in Corinth

¹⁰ Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Agree with each other and don’t be divided into rival groups. Instead, be restored with the same mind and the same purpose. ¹¹ My brothers and sisters, Chloe’s people gave me some information about you, that you’re fighting with each other. ¹² What I mean is this: that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” “I belong to Apollos,” “I belong to Cephas,” “I belong to Christ.” ¹³ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul’s name? ¹⁴ Thank God that I didn’t baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so that nobody can say that you were baptized in my name! ¹⁶ Oh, I baptized the house of Stephanas too. Otherwise, I don’t know if I baptized anyone else. ¹⁷ Christ didn’t send me to baptize but to preach the good news. And Christ didn’t send me to preach the good news with clever words so that Christ’s cross won’t be emptied of its meaning.

Human wisdom versus the cross

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. ¹⁹ It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent.^{[a] 20} Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish? ²¹ In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. ²² Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. ²⁴ But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. ²⁵ This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordinary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not many were from the upper class. ²⁷ But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. ²⁸ And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing. ²⁹ So no human being can brag in God’s presence. ³⁰ It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. He became wisdom from God for us. This means that he made us righteous and holy, and he delivered us. ³¹ This is consistent with what was written: The one who brags should brag in the Lord!^[b]

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. ² I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. ³ I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking. ⁴ My message and my preaching weren’t presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. ⁵ I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.

Definition of wisdom

⁶ What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn’t a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today’s leaders who are being reduced to nothing. ⁷ We talk about God’s wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory. ⁸ It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory! ⁹ But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being.^{[c] 10} God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God. ¹¹ Who knows a person’s depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God’s Spirit. ¹² We haven’t received the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God. ¹³ These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. ¹⁴ But people who are unspiritual don’t accept the things from God’s Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can’t be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way. ¹⁵ Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren’t understood by anyone. ¹⁶ Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him?^[d] But we have the mind of Christ.

Wisdom applied to divisions in the church

3 Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ. ² I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren’t up to it yet. ³ Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren’t you unspiritual and living by human standards? ⁴ When someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and someone else says, “I belong to Apollos,” aren’t you acting like people without the Spirit? ⁵ After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants who helped you to believe. Each one had a role given to them by the Lord: ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. ⁷ Because of this, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the only one who is anything is God who makes it grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters work together, but each one will receive their own reward for their own labor. ⁹ We are God’s coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ I laid a foundation like a wise master builder according to God’s grace that was given to me, but someone else is building on top of it. Each person needs to pay attention to the way they build on it. ¹¹ No one can lay any other foundation besides the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² So, whether someone builds on top of the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or hay, ¹³ each one’s work will be clearly shown. The day will make it clear, because it will be revealed with fire—the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work survives, they’ll get a reward. ¹⁵ But if anyone’s work goes up in flames, they’ll lose it. However, they themselves will be saved as if they had gone through a fire. ¹⁶ Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, because God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.

¹⁸ Don’t fool yourself. If some of you think they are worldly-wise, then they should become foolish so that they can become wise. ¹⁹ This world’s wisdom is foolishness to God. As it’s written, He catches the wise in their cleverness.^{[e] 20} And also, The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are silly.^{[f] 21} So then, no one should brag about human beings. Everything belongs to you— ²² Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things in the present, things in the future—everything belongs to you, ²³ but you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Paul’s role as an apostle

4 So a person should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and managers of God’s secrets. ² In this kind of situation, what is expected of a manager is that they prove to be faithful. ³ I couldn’t care less if I’m judged by you or by any human court; I don’t even judge myself. ⁴ I’m not aware of anything against me, but that doesn’t make me innocent, because the Lord is the one who judges me. ⁵ So don’t judge anything before the right time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring things that are hidden in the dark to light, and he will make people’s motivations public. Then there will be recognition for each person from God.

⁶ Brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit. I’ve done this so that you can learn what it means not to go beyond what has been written and so none of you will become arrogant by supporting one of us against the other. ⁷ Who says that you are better than anyone else? What do you have that you didn’t receive? And if you received it, then why are you bragging as if you didn’t receive it? ⁸ You’ve been filled already! You’ve become rich already! You rule like kings without us! I wish you did rule so that we could be kings with you! ⁹ I suppose that God has shown that we apostles are at the end of the line. We are like prisoners sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle in the world, both to angels and to humans. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ, but you are wise through Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ Up to this very moment we are hungry, thirsty, wearing rags, abused, and homeless. ¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are insulted, we respond with a blessing; when we are harassed, we put up with it; ¹³ when our reputation is attacked, we are encouraging. We have become the scum of the earth, the waste that runs off everything, up to the present time.

¹⁴ I’m not writing these things to make you ashamed but to warn you, since you are my loved children. ¹⁵ You may have ten thousand mentors in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. I gave birth to you in Christ Jesus through the gospel, ¹⁶ so I encourage you to follow my example. ¹⁷ This is why I’ve sent Timothy to you; he’s my loved and trusted child in the Lord; he’ll remind you about my way of life in Christ Jesus. He’ll teach the same way as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Some have become arrogant as if I’m not coming to see you. ¹⁹ But, if the Lord is willing, I’ll come to you soon. Then I won’t focus on what these arrogant people say, but I’ll find out what power they possess. ²⁰ God’s kingdom isn’t about words but about power. ²¹ Which do you want? Should I come to you with a big stick to punish you, or with love and a gentle spirit?

Confronting sexual immorality in the church

5 Everyone has heard that there is sexual immorality among you. This is a type of immorality that isn’t even heard of among the Gentiles—a man is having sex with his father’s wife! ² And you’re proud of yourselves instead of being so upset that the one who did this thing is expelled from your community. ³ Though I’m absent physically, I’m present in the spirit and I’ve already judged the man who did this as if I were present. ⁴ When you meet together in the name of our Lord Jesus, I’ll be present in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ At that time we need to hand this man over to Satan to destroy his human weakness so that his spirit might be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your bragging isn’t good! Don’t you know that a tiny grain of yeast makes a whole batch of dough rise? ⁷ Clean out the old yeast so you can be a new batch of dough, given that you’re supposed to be unleavened bread. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, ⁸ so let’s celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread of honesty and truth, not with old yeast or with the yeast of evil and wickedness.

⁹ I wrote to you in my earlier letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ But I wasn’t talking about the sexually immoral people in the outside world by any means—or the greedy, or the swindlers, or people who worship false gods—otherwise, you would have to leave the world entirely! ¹¹ But now I’m writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls themselves “brother” or “sister” who is sexually immoral, greedy, someone who worships false gods, an abusive person, a drunk, or a swindler. Don’t even eat with anyone like this. ¹² What do I care about judging outsiders? Isn’t it your job to judge insiders? ¹³ God will judge outsiders. Expel the evil one from among you!^[g]

Confronting lawsuits in the church

6 When someone in your assembly has a legal case against another member, do they dare to take it to court to be judged by people who aren’t just, instead of by God’s people? ² Or don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial cases? ³ Don’t you know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary things? ⁴ So then if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint people as judges who aren’t respected by the church? ⁵ I’m saying this because you should be ashamed of yourselves! Isn’t there one person among you who is wise enough to pass judgment between believers? ⁶ But instead, does a brother or sister have a lawsuit against another brother or sister, and do they do this in front of unbelievers? ⁷ The fact that you have lawsuits against each other means that you’ve already lost your case. Why not be wronged instead? Why not be cheated? ⁸ But instead you are doing wrong and cheating—and you’re doing it to your own brothers and sisters.

⁹ Don’t you know that people who are unjust won’t inherit God’s kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Those who are sexually immoral, those who worship false gods, adulterers, both participants in same-sex intercourse,^{[h] 10} thieves, the greedy, drunks, abusive people, and swindlers won’t inherit God’s kingdom. ¹¹ That is what some of you used to be! But you were washed clean, you were made holy to God, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Avoid sexual immorality

¹² I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful. I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything. ¹³ Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, and yet God will do away with both. The body isn’t for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ God has raised the Lord and will raise us through his power. ¹⁵ Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of Christ? So then, should I take parts of Christ and make them a part of someone who is sleeping around?^[i] No way! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that anyone who is joined to someone who is sleeping around is one body with that person? The scripture says, The two will become one flesh.^{[j] 17} The one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Avoid sexual immorality! Every sin that a person can do is committed outside the body, except those who engage in sexual immorality commit sin against their own bodies. ¹⁹ Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? ²⁰ You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body.