Book of Common Prayer

Thankful for God’s grace

1 Paul, called by God’s will to be an apostle of Messiah Jesus, and Sosthenes our brother; ² to God’s assembly at Corinth, made holy in Messiah Jesus, called to be holy, with everyone who calls on the name of our Lord, Messiah Jesus, in every place—their Lord, indeed, as well as ours! ³ Grace to you and peace from God our father and Messiah Jesus the Lord.

⁴ I always thank my God for you, for the grace of God that was given to you in Messiah Jesus. ⁵ You were enriched in him in everything, in every kind of speech and knowledge, ⁶ just as the messianic message was established among you, ⁷ so that you aren’t missing out on any spiritual gift as you wait eagerly for our Lord, Messiah Jesus, to be revealed. ⁸ He will establish you right through to the end, so that you are blameless on the day of our Lord, Messiah Jesus. ⁹ God is faithful! And it is through God that you have been called into the fellowship of his son, Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

Beware of divisions!

¹⁰ Now I must appeal to you, my brothers and sisters, through the name of Messiah Jesus our Lord, that you should all be in agreement, and that there should be no divisions among you. Instead, you should be fully equipped with the same mind and the same opinion.

¹¹ You see, my dear family, Chloe’s people have put me in the picture about you—about the fact that you are having quarrels. ¹² What I’m talking about is this. Each one of you is saying, “I’m with Paul!” “I’m with Apollos!” “I’m with Cephas!” “I’m with the Messiah!”

¹³ Well! Has the Messiah been cut up into pieces? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into Paul’s name?! ¹⁴ I’m grateful to God that I didn’t baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so that none of you could say that you were baptized into my name. ¹⁶ (All right, I did baptize Stephanas and his household as well. Apart from that, I don’t know if I baptized anybody else.) ¹⁷ This is the point, you see: the Messiah didn’t send me to baptize; he sent me to announce the gospel! Not with words of wisdom, either, otherwise the Messiah’s cross would lose its power.

God’s folly

¹⁸ The word of the cross, you see, is madness to people who are being destroyed. But to us—those who are being saved—it is God’s power. ¹⁹ This is what the Bible says, after all:

The preaching of John the Baptist

1 This is where the good news starts—the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son.

² Isaiah the prophet put it like this (“Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of me; he will clear the way for you!”):

³ “A shout goes up in the desert: Make way for the Lord! Clear a straight path for him!”

⁴ John the Baptizer appeared in the desert. He was announcing a baptism of repentance, to forgive sins. ⁵ The whole of Judaea, and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, went out to him; they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. ⁶ John wore camel-hair clothes, with a leather belt round his waist. He used to eat locusts and wild honey.

⁷ “Someone a lot stronger than me is coming close behind,” John used to tell them. “I don’t deserve to squat down and undo his sandals. ⁸ I’ve plunged you in the water; he’s going to plunge you in the holy spirit.”

Jesus’ baptism

⁹ This is how it happened. Around that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. ¹⁰ That very moment, as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit coming down like a dove onto him. ¹¹ Then there came a voice out of the heavens: “You are my son! You are the one I love! You make me very glad.”

¹² All at once the spirit pushed him out into the desert. ¹³ He was in the desert forty days, and the satan tested him there. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.