1 T his letter is from Paul. I have been chosen by God to be a missionary of Jesus Christ. Sosthenes, a Christian brother, writes also.

Paul, summoned by the will and purpose of God to be an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 I write to God’s church in the city of Corinth. I write to those who belong to Christ Jesus and to those who are set apart by Him and made holy. I write to all the Christians everywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ. He is our Lord and their Lord also.

To the church (assembly) of God which is in Corinth, to those consecrated and purified and made holy in Christ Jesus, selected and called to be saints (God’s people), together with all those who in any place call upon and give honor to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 M ay you have loving-favor and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul Gives Thanks for Their Faith

Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I am thankful to God all the time for you. I am thankful for the loving-favor God has given to you because you belong to Christ Jesus.

I thank my God at all times for you because of the grace (the favor and spiritual blessing) of God which was bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,

5 H e has made your lives rich in every way. Now you have power to speak for Him. He gave you good understanding.

that in Him in every respect you were enriched, in full power and readiness of speech and complete knowledge and illumination.

6 T his shows that what I told you about Christ and what He could do for you has been done in your lives.

In this way witnessing concerning Christ (the Messiah) was so confirmed and established and made sure in you

7 Y ou have the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you need while you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to come again.

That you are not falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace '> the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating in your souls by the Holy Spirit], while you wait and watch for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and being made visible to all.

8 C hrist will keep you strong until He comes again. No blame will be held against you.

And He will establish you to the end guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

9 G od is faithful. He chose you to be joined together with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Church in Corinth Is Divided

God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 C hristian brothers, I ask you with all my heart in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to agree among yourselves. Do not be divided into little groups. Think and act as if you all had the same mind.

But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony and full agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in your opinions and judgments.

11 M y Christian brothers, I have heard from some of Chloe’s family that you are arguing among yourselves.

For it has been made clear to me, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions and wrangling and factions among you.

12 I hear that some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul,” and “I am a follower of Apollos,” and “I am a follower of Peter,” and “I am a follower of Christ.”

What I mean is this, that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas (Peter), or I belong to Christ.

13 H as Christ been divided? Was Paul put on a cross to die for your sins? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Is Christ (the Messiah) divided into parts? Was Paul crucified on behalf of you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

14 I am thankful to God that I baptized Crispus and Gaius only.

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

15 N o one can say that you were baptized in the name of Paul.

Lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name.

16 I remember I did baptize the family of Stephanas, but I do not remember baptizing any others.

I did baptize the household of Stephanas also. More than these, I do not remember that I baptized anyone.

17 C hrist did not send me to baptize. He sent me to preach the Good News. I did not use big sounding words when I preached. If I had, the power of the cross of Christ would be taken away. Christ Is the Power and Wisdom of God

For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect).

18 P reaching about the cross sounds foolish to those who are dying in sin. But it is the power of God to those of us who are being saved from the punishment of sin.

For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the the power of God.

19 T he Holy Writings say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise people. I will put aside the learning of those who think they know a lot.”

For it is written, I will baffle and render useless and destroy the learning of the learned and the philosophy of the philosophers and the cleverness of the clever and the discernment of the discerning; I will frustrate and nullify and bring to nothing.

20 W here is the man who is wise? Where is the man who thinks he knows a lot? Where is the man who thinks he has all the answers? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.

Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world’s wisdom?

21 I n His wisdom, He did not allow man to come to know Him through the wisdom of this world. It pleased God to save men from the punishment of their sins through preaching the Good News. This preaching sounds foolish.

For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believed (who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him).

22 T he Jews are looking for something special to see. The Greek people are looking for the answer in wisdom.

For while Jews ask for signs and miracles and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom,

23 B ut we preach that Christ died on a cross to save them from their sins. These words are hard for the Jews to listen to. The Greek people think it is foolish.

We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block, and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense.

24 C hrist is the power and wisdom of God to those who are chosen to be saved from the punishment of sin for both Jews and Greeks.

But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.

25 G od’s plan looked foolish to men, but it is wiser than the best plans of men. God’s plan which may look weak is stronger than the strongest plans of men. God’s Wisdom—Human Wisdom

because the foolish thing God is wiser than men, and the weak thing from God is stronger than men.

26 C hristian brothers, think who you were when the Lord called you. Not many of you were wise or powerful or born into the family of leaders of a country.

For consider your own call, brethren; not many wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth.

27 B ut God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise. He has chosen what the world calls weak to shame what is strong.

for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

28 G od has chosen what is weak and foolish of the world, what is hated and not known, to destroy the things the world trusts in.

And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

29 I n that way, no man can be proud as he stands before God.

So that no mortal man should boast in the presence of God.

30 G od Himself made the way so you can have new life through Christ Jesus. God gave us Christ to be our wisdom. Christ made us right with God and set us apart for God and made us holy. Christ bought us with His blood and made us free from our sins.

But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, our Righteousness, and our Consecration, and our Redemption.

31 I t is as the Holy Writings say, “If anyone is going to be proud of anything, he should be proud of the Lord.”

So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord.