1 Corinthians 1

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, together with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, because in him you were enriched in everything, in all speech and all knowledge, just as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you lack no gift as you eagerly await the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also keep you firm to the end, blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For Chloe’s people have informed me about you, my brothers, that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I to Apollos,” or “I to Cephas,” or “I to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? I give thanks that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say you were baptized into my name. I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of speech, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the discerning.” Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human beings, and the weakness of God is stronger than human beings. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And God chose the lowborn and despised things of the world, the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast before God. But because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Rights and attribution