Beginning

Paul Gives Thanks to God

1 From Paul. I was called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus because that is what God wanted. Also from Sosthenes, our brother in Christ.

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those people who have been made holy in Christ Jesus. You were called to be God’s holy people with all people everywhere who trust in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

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

⁴ I always thank my God for you because of the grace that God has given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ In Jesus you have been blessed in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge. ⁶ The truth about Christ has been proved in you. ⁷ So you have every gift from God while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again. ⁸ Jesus will keep you strong until the end. He will keep you strong, so that there will be no wrong in you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. ⁹ God is faithful. He is the One who has called you to share life with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Problems in the Church

¹⁰ I beg you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I beg that all of you agree with each other, so that you will not be divided into groups. I beg that you be completely joined together by having the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. ¹¹ My brothers, some people from Chloe’s family have told me that there are arguments among you. ¹² This is what I mean: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another says, “I follow Apollos”; another says, “I follow Peter”; and another says, “I follow Christ.” ¹³ Christ cannot be divided into different groups! Did Paul die on the cross for you? No! Were you baptized in the name of Paul? No! 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 do not remember that I myself baptized any others.) ¹⁷ Christ did not give me the work of baptizing people. He gave me the work of preaching the Good News, and he sent me to preach the Good News without using words of worldly wisdom. If I used worldly wisdom to tell the Good News, the cross^[a] of Christ would lose its power.

Christ Is God’s Power and Wisdom

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 It is written in the Scriptures:

²⁰ Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the philosopher^[b] of our times? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. ²¹ The world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe it. ²² The Jews ask for miracles as proofs. The Greeks want wisdom. ²³ But we preach Christ on the cross. This is a big problem to the Jews. And it seems foolish to the non-Jews. ²⁴ But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks. ²⁵ Even the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Even the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶ Brothers, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. 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 he chose what the world thinks is not important. He chose 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 man can brag before him. ³⁰ It is God who has made you part of Christ Jesus. Christ has become wisdom for us from God. Christ is the reason we are right with God and have freedom from sin; Christ is the reason we are holy. ³¹ So, as the Scripture says, “If a person brags, he should brag only about the Lord.”^[c]

The Message of Christ’s Death

2 Dear brothers, when I came to you, I did not come as a proud man. I preached God’s truth, but not with fancy words or a show of great learning. 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 the wisdom of a man.

God’s Wisdom

⁶ Yet I speak wisdom to those who are mature. But this wisdom is not from this world or of the rulers of this world. (These rulers are losing their power.) ⁷ But I speak God’s secret wisdom, which he has kept hidden. God planned this wisdom for our glory, before the world began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this world understood it. If they had, they would not have killed the Lord of glory on a cross. ⁹ But as it is written in the Scriptures:

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

The Spirit knows all things, even the deep secrets of God. ¹¹ It is like this: No one knows the thoughts that another person has. Only a person’s spirit that lives in him knows his thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows the thoughts of God. Only the Spirit of God knows God’s thoughts. ¹² We did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit that is from God. We received this Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us. ¹³ When we speak, we do not use words taught to us by the wisdom that men have. We use words taught to us by the Spirit. We use spiritual words to explain spiritual things. ¹⁴ A person who is not spiritual does not accept the gifts that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish. He cannot understand the Spirit’s gifts, because they can only be judged spiritually. ¹⁵ But the spiritual person is able to judge all things. Yet no one can judge him. The Scripture says:

But we have the mind of Christ.

Following Men Is Wrong

3 Brothers, in the past I could not talk to you as I talk to spiritual people. I had to talk to you as I would to people of the world—babies in Christ. ² 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 spiritual. You have jealousy and arguing among you. This shows that you are not spiritual. You are acting like people of the world. ⁴ One of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos.” When you say things like this, you are acting like worldly people.

⁵ Is Apollos important? No! Is Paul important? No! 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 of the teaching in you, 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 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. Others are building on that foundation. But everyone should be careful how he builds. ¹¹ The foundation has already been built. No one can build any other foundation. The foundation that has already been laid is Jesus Christ. ¹² Anyone 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^[d] will make it plain. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test every man’s work. ¹⁴ If the building that a man puts on the foundation still stands, he will get his reward. ¹⁵ But if his building is burned up, he will suffer loss. The man will be saved, but it will be as if he escaped from a fire.

¹⁶ You should know that you yourselves are God’s temple. God’s Spirit lives in you. ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him, because God’s temple is holy. You yourselves are God’s temple.

¹⁸ Do not fool yourselves. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this world, he should become a fool. Then he can become truly wise, ¹⁹ because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. It is written in the Scriptures, “He catches wise men in their own clever traps.”^{[e] 20} It is also written in the Scriptures, “The Lord knows what people think. He knows they are just a puff of wind.”^{[f] 21} So you should not brag about men. All things are yours: ²² Paul, Apollos and Peter; the world, life, death, the present, and the future—all these things are yours. ²³ And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Apostles of Christ

4 This is what people should think about us: We are servants of Christ. We are the ones God has trusted with his secret truths. ² A person who is trusted with something must show that he is worthy of that trust. ³ I do not care if I am judged by you or if I am judged by any human court. I do not even judge myself. ⁴ I know of no wrong that I have done. But this does not make me innocent. The Lord is the One who judges me. ⁵ So do not judge before the right time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light things that are now hidden in darkness. He will make known the secret purposes of people’s hearts. Then God will give everyone the praise he should get.

⁶ Brothers, I have used Apollos and myself as examples. I did this so that you could learn from us the meaning of the words, “Follow only what is written in the Scriptures.” Then you will not be proud of one man and hate another. ⁷ Who says that you are better than others? Everything you have was given to you. And if this is so, why do you brag as if you got these things 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 be kings together with you. ⁹ But it seems to me that God has given me and the other apostles the last place. We are like men sentenced to die. We are like a show for the whole world to see—angels and people. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake. But you think you are very wise in Christ. We are weak, but you think you are strong. You receive honor, but we are hated. ¹¹ Even now we still do not have enough to eat or drink or enough clothes. We are often beaten. We have no homes. ¹² We work hard with our own hands for our food. People curse us, but we bless them. They hurt us, and we accept it. ¹³ They say evil things against us, but we say only kind things to them. Even today, we are treated as though we are the garbage of the world—the dirt of the earth.

¹⁴ I am not trying to make you feel ashamed. I am writing this to give you a warning as if you were my own dear children. ¹⁵ For though you may have 10,000 teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Through the Good News I became your father in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ So I beg you, please be like me. ¹⁷ That is why I am sending Timothy to you. He is my son in the Lord. I love Timothy, and he is faithful. He will help you remember the way I live in Christ Jesus. This way of life is what I teach in all the churches everywhere.

¹⁸ Some of you have become proud, thinking that I will not come to you again. ¹⁹ But I will come very soon if the Lord wants me to. Then I will see what those who are proud can do, not what they say. ²⁰ I want to see this because the kingdom of God is not talk but power. ²¹ Which do you want: that I come to you with punishment, or that I come with love and gentleness?