Beginning

Greeting and Thanksgiving

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother,

² To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours:

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

⁴ I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which has been given to you through Jesus Christ. ⁵ By Him you are enriched in everything, in all speech and in all knowledge, ⁶ even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift while waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, and by Him you were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ Now I ask you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak in agreement and that there be no divisions among you. But be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹ For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. ¹² Now this is what I mean: Every one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.”

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. ¹⁶ I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides them, I do not know whether I baptized any other. ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with eloquent words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For to those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:

²⁰ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of this world foolish? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. ²² For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. ²³ But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. ²⁴ But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶ For observe your calling, brothers. Among you, not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty men, and not many noble men were called. ²⁷ But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. ²⁸ And God has chosen the base things of the world and things which are despised. Yes, and He chose things which did not exist to bring to nothing things that do, ²⁹ so that no flesh should boast in His presence. ³⁰ But because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”^[b]

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 Brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴ My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

The Revelation by God’s Spirit

⁶ Yet we speak wisdom among those who are mature, although not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age knew it. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But as it is written,

¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. ¹³ These things also we proclaim, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things. Yet he himself is not judged by anyone. ¹⁶ For

But we have the mind of Christ.

Fellow Servants of God

3 Brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to worldly, even as to babes in Christ. ² I have fed you with milk and not with solid food. For to this day you were not able to endure it. Nor are you able now, ³ for you are still worldly. Since there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not worldly and behaving as mere men? ⁴ For while one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not worldly?

⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither is he who plants nor he who waters anything, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are laborers together with God: You are God’s vineyard; you are God’s building.

¹⁰ According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, but another builds on it. Now let each one take heed how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no one can lay another foundation than that which was laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble, ¹³ each one’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work which he has built on the foundation endures, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, still going through the fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. And you are His temple.

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness,”^{[e] 20} and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”^{[f] 21} Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The Ministry of the Apostles

4 Let a man so regard us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. ² Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. ³ But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by man’s judgment. I do not even judge myself. ⁴ For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this. But He who judges me is the Lord. ⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the purposes of the hearts. Then everyone will have commendation from God.

⁶ Brothers, I have figuratively applied these things to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, so that you may learn from us not to think of men above that which is written, and that not one of you would be arrogant for one against another. ⁷ For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

⁸ Now you are full, now you are rich; you have begun reigning as kings without us, and I wish to God you reigned, so that we also might reign with you. ⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us, the apostles, last, as if we were sentenced to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honorable, but we are despised. ¹¹ Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. ¹² We labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³ Being slandered, we encourage. We are made as the filth of the world, and are the refuse of all things to this day.

¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. ¹⁵ For if you were to have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. In Christ Jesus I have become a father to you through the gospel. ¹⁶ So I implore you, be followers of me. ¹⁷ Therefore I have sent Timothy to you. He is my beloved son and is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸ Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills. And I will know not only what those who are arrogant are saying, but also their power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. ²¹ What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?