Beginning

1 Greetings from Paul. I was chosen to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. God chose me because that is what he wanted. Greetings also from Sosthenes, our brother in Christ.

² To God’s church in Corinth, you who have been made holy because you belong to Christ Jesus. You were chosen to be God’s holy people together with all people everywhere who trust in the Lord^[a] Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul Gives Thanks to God

⁴ I always thank my God for you because of the grace that he has given you through Christ Jesus. ⁵ In him you have been blessed in every way. You have been blessed in all your speaking and all your knowledge. ⁶ This proves that what we told you about Christ is true. ⁷ Now you have every gift from God while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again. ⁸ He will keep you strong until the end so that on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, you will be free from all blame. ⁹ God is faithful. He is the one who has chosen you to share life with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Stop Arguing With Each Other

¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg all of you to agree with each other. You should not be divided into different groups. Be completely joined together again with the same kind of thinking and the same purpose.

¹¹ My brothers and sisters, some members of Chloe’s family told me that there are arguments among you. ¹² This is what I mean: One of you says, “I follow Paul,” and someone else says, “I follow Apollos.” Another says, “I follow Peter,”^[b] and someone else says, “I follow Christ.” ¹³ Christ cannot be divided into different groups. It wasn’t Paul who died on the cross for you, was it? Were you baptized in Paul’s name? ¹⁴ I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵ I am thankful because now no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (I also baptized the family of Stephanas, but I don’t remember that I myself baptized any others.) ¹⁷ Christ did not give me the work of baptizing people. He gave me the work of telling the Good News. But he sent me to tell the Good News without using clever speech, which would take away the power that is in the cross^[c] of Christ.

God’s Power and Wisdom in Christ Jesus

¹⁸ The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those who are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say,

²⁰ So what does this say about the philosopher, the law expert, or anyone in this world who is skilled in making clever arguments? God has made the wisdom of the world look foolish. ²¹ This is what God in his wisdom decided: Since the world did not find him through its own wisdom, he used the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe it.

²² The Jews ask for miraculous signs, and the Greeks want wisdom. ²³ But this is the message we tell everyone: Christ was killed on a cross. This message is a problem for Jews, and to other people it is nonsense. ²⁴ But Christ is God’s power and wisdom to the people God has chosen, both Jews and Greeks. ²⁵ Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. Even the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, God chose you to be his. Think about that! Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence, and not many of you came from important families. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ And God chose what the world thinks is not important—what the world hates and thinks is nothing. He chose these to destroy what the world thinks is important. ²⁹ God did this so that no one can stand before him and boast about anything. ³⁰ It is God who has made you part of Christ Jesus. And Christ has become for us wisdom from God. He is the reason we are right with God and pure enough to be in his presence. Christ is the one who set us free from sin. ³¹ So, as the Scriptures say, “Whoever boasts should boast only about the Lord.”^[d]

My Message: Jesus Christ on the Cross

2 Dear brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I told you the secret truth of God. But I did not use fancy words or great wisdom. ² I decided that while I was with you I would forget about everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. ³ When I came to you, I was weak and shook with fear. ⁴ My teaching and my speaking were not with wise words that persuade people. But the proof of my teaching was the power that the Spirit gives. ⁵ I did this so that your faith would be in God’s power, not in human wisdom.

God’s Wisdom

⁶ We teach wisdom to people who are mature, but the wisdom we teach is not from this world. It is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world, who are losing their power. ⁷ But we speak God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden from everyone until now. God planned this wisdom for our glory. He planned it before the world began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this world understood this wisdom. If they had understood it, they would not have killed our great and glorious Lord on a cross. ⁹ But as the Scriptures say,

¹⁰ But God has shown us these things through the Spirit.

The Spirit knows all things. The Spirit even knows the deep secrets of God. ¹¹ It is like this: No one knows the thoughts that another person has. Only the person’s spirit that lives inside knows those thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit. ¹² We received the Spirit that is from God, not the spirit of the world. We received God’s Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us.

¹³ When we say this, we don’t use words taught to us by human wisdom. We use words taught to us by the Spirit. We use the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. ¹⁴ People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help. ¹⁵ We who have the Spirit are able to make judgments about all these things. But anyone without the Spirit is not able to make proper judgments about us. ¹⁶ As the Scriptures say,

But we have been given Christ’s way of thinking.

Teachers Are Only God’s Servants

3 Brothers and sisters, when I was there, I could not talk to you the way I talk to people who are led by the Spirit. I had to talk to you like ordinary people of the world. You were like babies in Christ. ² And the teaching I gave you was like milk, not solid food. I did this because you were not ready for solid food. And even now you are not ready. ³ You are still not following the Spirit. You are jealous of each other, and you are always arguing with each other. This shows that you are still following your own selfish desires. You are acting like ordinary people of the world. ⁴ One of you says, “I follow Paul,” and someone else says, “I follow Apollos.” When you say things like that, you are acting like people of the world.

⁵ Is Apollos so important? Is Paul so important? We are only servants of God who helped you believe. Each one of us did the work God gave us to do. ⁶ I planted the seed and Apollos watered it. But God is the one who made the seed grow. ⁷ So the one who plants is not important, and the one who waters is not important. Only God is important, because he is the one who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose. And each one will be rewarded for his own work. ⁹ We are workers together for God, and you are like a farm that belongs to God.

And you are a house that belongs to God. ¹⁰ Like an expert builder I built the foundation of that house. I used the gift that God gave me to do this. Other people are building on that foundation. But everyone should be careful how they build. ¹¹ The foundation that has already been built is Jesus Christ, and no one can build any other foundation. ¹² People can build on that foundation using gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw. ¹³ But the work that each person does will be clearly seen, because the Day will make it plain. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test everyone’s work. ¹⁴ If the building they put on the foundation still stands, they will get their reward. ¹⁵ But if their building is burned up, they will suffer loss. They will be saved, but it will be like someone escaping from a fire.

¹⁶ You should know that you yourselves are God’s temple.^[e] God’s Spirit lives in you. ¹⁷ If you destroy God’s temple, God will destroy you, because God’s temple is holy. You yourselves are God’s temple.

¹⁸ Don’t fool yourselves. Whoever thinks they are wise in this world should become a fool. That’s the only way they can be wise. ¹⁹ I say this because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He catches those who think they are wise in their own clever traps.”^{[f] 20} The Scriptures also say, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise. He knows that their thoughts are worth nothing.”^{[g] 21} So there is not a person on earth that any of you should be boasting about. Everything is yours: ²² Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, and the future—all these are yours. ²³ And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Apostles of Christ Jesus

4 You should think of us as servants of Christ, the ones God has trusted to do the work of making known his secret truths. ² Those who are trusted with such an important work must show that they are worthy of that trust. ³ But I don’t consider your judgment on this point to be worth anything. Even an opinion from a court of law would mean nothing. I don’t even trust my own judgment. ⁴ I don’t know of any wrong I have done, but that does not make me right. The Lord is the one who must decide if I have done well or not. ⁵ So don’t judge anyone now. The time for judging will be when the Lord comes. He will shine light on everything that is now hidden in darkness. He will make known the secret purposes of our hearts. Then the praise each person should get will come from God.

⁶ Brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself as examples for you. I did this so that you could learn from us the meaning of the words, “Follow what the Scriptures say.” Then you will not brag about one person and criticize another. ⁷ Who do you think you are? Everything you have was given to you. So, if everything you have was given to you, why do you act as if you got it all by your own power?

⁸ You think you have everything you need. You think you are rich. You think you have become kings without us. I wish you really were kings. Then we could rule together with you. ⁹ But it seems to me that God has given me and the other apostles the last place. We are like prisoners condemned to die, led in a parade for the whole world to see—not just people but angels too. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ, but you think you are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you think you are so strong. People give you honor, but they don’t honor us. ¹¹ Even now we still don’t have enough to eat or drink, and we don’t have enough clothes. We often get beatings. We have no homes. ¹² We work hard with our own hands to feed ourselves. When people insult us, we ask God to bless them. When people treat us badly, we accept it. ¹³ When people say bad things about us, we try to say something that will help them. But people still treat us like the world’s garbage—everyone’s trash.

¹⁴ I am not trying to make you feel ashamed, but I am writing this to counsel you as my own dear children. ¹⁵ You may have ten thousand teachers in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. Through the Good News I became your father in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ So I beg you to be like me. ¹⁷ That is why I am sending Timothy to you. He is my son in the Lord. I love him and trust him. He will help you remember the way I live in Christ Jesus—a way of life that I teach in every meeting of the church wherever I am.

¹⁸ Some of you are acting so proud, it seems as though you think I won’t be coming there again. ¹⁹ But I will come to you very soon, the Lord willing. Then I will see if these proud talkers have the power to do anything more than talk. ²⁰ God’s kingdom is not seen in talk but in power. ²¹ Which do you want: that I come to you with punishment, or that I come with love and gentleness?