²³ And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

⁶ And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”^(A)

⁷ This honor, then, is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,^[a]

⁸ and

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.^(B)

¹⁴ Those who are unspiritual^[a] 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.^(A)

³² Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^{(A) 33} as it is written,

¹⁴ He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over, a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^{(A) 15} And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”^(B)

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.^{(A) 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,^{(B) 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,^[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.^{(C) 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;^{(D) 28} God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are,

The Words of Eternal Life

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?^{(A) 62} Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?^{(B) 63} It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him.^{(C) 65} And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”^(D)

⁶⁶ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed^(A)