Book of Common Prayer

1 I am Paul. God called me to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. He did this because he wanted to.

² Our Christian brother Sosthenes and I send greetings to the people who are the church of God in the city of Corinth. You are people whom Christ Jesus has made holy. You, too, are chosen to be God's people. And we send greetings to all the people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is their Lord, just as he is our Lord.

³ May God show you his kindness and peace which come from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I am always thanking God for the blessings he has given you through Jesus Christ.

⁵ He has made you rich in all ways, in all that you say and in all you know.

⁶ Christ has done for you just what he promised to do.

⁷ You have every blessing you need while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again.

⁸ And right to the end Jesus Christ will surely keep you safe. Then no one will find anything wrong about you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes.

⁹ God never fails anyone. It is he who called you to belong to his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰ My Christian brothers, I beg you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, agree in what you say. Do not divide into groups. You should all think in the same way and decide to do the same things.

¹¹ My brothers, I say this because I have been told by some of Chloe's family that you are quarrelling.

¹² This is what I mean. Some of you say, `I belong to Paul.' Others say, `I belong to Apollos.' And others say, `I belong to Cephas'. And yet others say, `I belong to Christ.'

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul nailed to the cross for you? No! Were you baptized in Paul's name? No!

¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you but Crispus and Gaius.

¹⁵ So no one can say you were baptized in my name.

¹⁶ (However, I also baptized the people of the house of Stephanas. I do not know of any one else that I baptized.)

¹⁷ Christ did not send me to baptize people, but he sent me to tell the good news. I must not tell it with the clever words of this world. That would not show what the death of Christ on a cross truly means.

¹⁸ When people who are turning away from God hear about the cross, they say, `That is foolish!' But for us who are being saved, the cross is the power God uses to save us.

¹⁹ God says in the holy writings, `I will fool the wise people. I will bring to nothing the understanding of the clever people.'

1 This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God's Son.

² The men of God, called prophets, long ago wrote about it this way: God said, `See, I send my man ahead of you to tell about you. He will make the way ready for you.

³ A man is calling out in the desert, "Make the way ready for the Lord. Make the road straight for him." '

⁴ John baptised people in the desert. He told them to stop doing wrong things and be baptised, and God would forgive them for the wrong things they did.

⁵ People from all the land of Judea and all the city of Jerusalem went out to John. He baptised them in the Jordan River when they told about the wrong things they did.

⁶ John wore clothes made of camel's hair and a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷ He told the people, `Another person is coming. He is greater than I am. I am not good enough to bend down and untie his shoe strings.

⁸ I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.'

⁹ At that time Jesus came from the town of Nazareth in the country of Galilee. John baptised him in the Jordan River.

¹⁰ As soon as he came up out of the water, Jesus saw the sky open. He saw God's Holy Spirit come down on him like a bird called a dove.

¹¹ A voice from the sky said, `You are my dear Son. I am very pleased with you.'

¹² Right away, the Spirit made Jesus go into the desert.

¹³ Jesus was in the desert for forty days. All that time Satan tried to make Jesus do wrong. Jesus was with wild animals. Angels came and took care of him.