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.'

4 Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert. The devil tried to make Jesus do wrong.

² Jesus did not eat anything for forty days and forty nights. Then he was very hungry.

³ The one who tries to make people do wrong came and said to him, `If you are God's Son, tell these stones to be changed into bread.'

⁴ But Jesus answered him, `The holy writings say, "Man cannot live on bread only. He needs to live by every word that God says." '

⁵ Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city. He put him on a high part of the temple.

⁶ The devil said to him, `If you are God's Son, jump down. The holy writings say, "God will tell his angels to take care of you. They will hold you up in their hands so that you will not knock your foot on a stone." '

⁷ Jesus answered him, `The holy writings say, "You must not test the Lord your God." '

⁸ The devil took Jesus to a very high hill. He showed him all the countries of the world and how great they were.

⁹ He said to Jesus, `I will give you all these if you kneel down and worship me.'

¹⁰ But Jesus answered him, `Get away, Satan. The holy writings say, "You must worship the Lord your God. and he is the only one you are to worship." '

¹¹ Then the devil left Jesus. Angels came and took care of him.