1 Corinthians 1

¹Paul, a called apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother,

²to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as holy ones, together with all those calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

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

⁴I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus,

⁵that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge,

⁶even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you,

⁷so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁸who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹Faithful is God, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment.

¹¹For it was made known to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of Chloe, that there are quarrels among you.

¹²Now I mean this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas,' and 'I of Christ.'

¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵so that no one may say that you were baptized into my name.

¹⁶I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, not in wisdom of speech, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

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

¹⁹For it has been written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will set aside.'

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who believe.

²²Since Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

²⁵because the foolish thing of God is wiser than human beings, and the weak thing of God is stronger than human beings.

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: not many were wise according to the flesh, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

²⁷But 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,

²⁸and the low-born of the world and the despised God chose — even the things that are not — so that he might bring to nothing the things that are,

²⁹so that no flesh might boast before God.

³⁰But it is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God — righteousness and sanctification and redemption —

³¹so that, just as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'