I Corinthians 1-2

I Corinthians 1

¹Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, and Sosthenes the brother,

²To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been made holy in Christ Jesus, saints by the selection of God, with all those who in every place give honour to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

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

⁴I give praise to my God for you at all times, because of the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus;

⁵So that in him you have wealth in all things, in word and in knowledge of every sort;

⁶Even as the witness of the Christ has been made certain among you:

⁷So that having every grace you are living in the hope of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

⁸Who will give you strength to the end, to be free from all sin in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is true, through whom you have been given a part with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰Now I make request to you, my brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will all say the same thing, and that there may be no divisions among you, so that you may be in complete agreement, in the same mind and in the same opinion.

¹¹Because it has come to my knowledge, through those of the house of Chloe, that there are divisions among you, my brothers.

¹²That is, that some of you say, I am of Paul; some say, I am of Apollos; some say, I am of Cephas; and some say, I am Christ's.

¹³Is there a division in Christ? was Paul nailed to the cross for you? or were you given baptism in the name of Paul?

¹⁴I give praise to God that not one of you had baptism from me, but Crispus and Gaius;

¹⁵So that no one may be able to say that you had baptism in my name.

¹⁶And I gave baptism to the house of Stephanas; but I am not certain that any others had baptism from me.

¹⁷For Christ sent me, not to give baptism, but to be a preacher of the good news: not with wise words, for fear that the cross of Christ might be made of no value.

¹⁸For the word of the cross seems foolish to those who are on the way to destruction; but to us who are on the way to salvation it is the power of God.

¹⁹As it says in the holy Writings, I will put an end to the wisdom of the wise, and will put on one side the designs of those who have knowledge.

²⁰Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

²¹For because, by the purpose of God, the world, with all its wisdom, had not the knowledge of God, it was God's pleasure, by so foolish a thing as preaching, to give salvation to those who had faith in him.

²²Seeing that the Jews make request for signs, and the Greeks are looking for knowledge:

²³But we give the good news of Christ on the cross, a hard thing to the Jews, and a foolish thing to the Gentiles;

²⁴But to those of God's selection, Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.

²⁵Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men.

²⁶For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble:

²⁷But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong;

²⁸And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are:

²⁹So that no flesh might have glory before God.

³⁰But God has given you a place in Christ Jesus, through whom God has given us wisdom and righteousness and salvation, and made us holy:

³¹So that, as it is said in the holy Writings, Whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord.

I Corinthians 2

¹And when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come with wise words of knowledge, putting before you the secret of God.

²For I had made the decision to have knowledge of nothing among you but only of Jesus Christ on the cross.

³And I was with you without strength, in fear and in doubt.

⁴And in my preaching there were no honeyed words of wisdom, but I was dependent on the power of the Spirit to make it clear to you:

⁵So that your faith might be based not on man's wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶But still we have wisdom for those who are complete in knowledge, though not the wisdom of this world, and not of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing:

⁷But we give the news of the secret wisdom of God, which he had kept in store before the world came into existence, for our glory;

⁸Of which not one of the rulers of this world had knowledge: for if they had, they would not have put the Lord of glory on the cross:

⁹But as it says in the holy Writings, Things which the eye saw not, and which had not come to the ears or into the heart of man, such things as God has made ready for those who have love for him.

¹⁰But God has given us the revelation of these things through his Spirit, for the Spirit makes search into all things, even the deep things of God.

¹¹For who has knowledge of the things of a man but the spirit of the man which is in him? in the same way, no one has knowledge of the things of God but the Spirit of God.

¹²But we have not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may have knowledge of the things which are freely given to us by God.

¹³And these are the things which we say, not in the language of man's wisdom, but in words given to us by the Spirit, judging the things of the spirit by the help of the Spirit.

¹⁴For the natural man is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit.

¹⁵But he who has the Spirit, though judging all things, is himself judged by no one.

¹⁶For who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord, so as to be his teacher? But we have the mind of Christ.