Book of Common Prayer

²⁰ Where are your wise people, the men who know books, the men who like to talk about the things of this world? God has shown that the clever things of this world are nothing.

²¹ God is wise. But the people of the world were not wise enough to know God. So he chose to save people who believe the good news that we tell them, even though the good news may seem to be foolish.

²² The Jews say, `We must see a sign.' Those who are not Jews say, `We want something we can understand.'

²³ But we tell people about Christ who died on a cross. The leaders of the Jews do not like this, and those who are not Jews laugh at it.

²⁴ But some have been called by God. They are chosen, both Jews and other people. Christ is God's power to save them. This shows how wise he is.

²⁵ When God seems foolish, he is more wise than men. When God seems weak, he is stronger than men.

²⁶ My brothers, remember what you were when God chose you. Not many of you were wise by the way people look at it. Not many of you had power. Not many of you came from a family with a big name.

²⁷ But God chose things that look foolish to the people of the world. He has used those foolish things to put the wise people to shame. God chose the weak things to put to shame the strong people.

²⁸ And God chose the small things, things that people despise. Yes, he chose even the things which seem to be nothing. He did this to destroy the big things.

²⁹ He did this so that people would not be proud before God.

³⁰ You are God's children through Christ Jesus. Christ came from God and made us wise. He put us right with God. He made us holy. He set us free from our wrong ways.

³¹ Just as the holy writings say, `No one should be proud of anything but of the Lord.'

¹² Jesus heard that John was put in prison, so he went to Galilee.

¹³ He left the town of Nazareth and went to live in the town of Capernaum. It is by the sea (of Galilee) in the district of Zebulun and Naphtali.

¹⁴ So what the prophet Isaiah said came true.

¹⁵ He talked about, `The country of Zebulun and the country of Naphtali, the road by the sea, the land on the other side of the Jordan River, Galilee where the people are not Jews.'

¹⁶ And he said, `The people who lived in darkness have seen a great Light. Light has come to those who lived in a land covered by the dark shadow of death.'

¹⁷ From then on, Jesus began to tell God's word to the people. He said, `Stop your wrong ways and turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven is here!'