1st Corinthians 1

 

1 Paul called (into fellowship with and) to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

2 To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified (from death) in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, (which are all those) that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their Lord and ours:

3 (His) grace strengthen you, and (serve you with) peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace (and strength) of God (for you to appear in His life and likeness) which is given you by Jesus Christ;

5 So that in everything you are (fully supplied and) enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

6 Even as the testimony of (God in) Christ was confirmed in your heart (when you called upon His name):

7 So that you come behind in nothing pertaining to (the gift of His) life and Godlikeness, (where you rest from your dead works) waiting (patiently) for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

8 Who will also confirm you (and keep your heart) to the end, so that you may be blameless (from death’s accusation, exactly as He has chosen us to be) in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (in His return).

9 Faithful is God (our Father) by whom you were called into fellowship with (the Spirit of the Son which cries Abba Father through the faith of) His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I implore you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak these same things, and that there be no divisions among you (pertaining to the way unto life); so that you would be perfectly knit together in (the unity of the faith with) the same mind and in the same judgment (the Father has given us in the Son).

11 Because it has been said to me of you, my brothers, by those which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions (and disputes) among you.

12 I mean to say, that each of you has said, I am of Paul; and I am of Apollos; and I am of Cephas; and I am of Christ.

13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (God forbid).

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

15 So that none of you might say that I had baptized you in my own name.

16 And I also baptized the household of Stephanas: but besides that, I do not know whether I baptized any others.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel (that declares our salvation from death unto life): not with wisdom of (men’s) words, lest the cross of Christ (which is the gospel) should be made of no effect.

18 For the preaching of the cross (of Christ) is to them that (are perishing from the wisdom which the serpent planted in the world, which wisdom will also) perish, foolishness; but to us which are saved Christ and Him crucified is (the wisdom and) the power of God (unto salvation from death and bodily immortality in His return),

19 For it is written (in Isaiah) I will destroy the wisdom of the wise (which wisdom brought death into the world) and will (confound and) bring to nothing the understanding of their prudent (men).

20 Where is the wise (man)? Where is the scribe? where is the disputer (and defender) of this world’s wisdom (which is impotent to serve with life and always ends in death)? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For since through the wisdom of God (it revealed that) the world by (their own) wisdom did not know (or recognize) God, it pleased God that through the foolishness of preaching (the cross of Christ), to save them (to the uttermost) that believe (being fully persuaded by the way unto life it revealed).

22 For the Jews require a sign (that they might believe), and the Greeks seek after wisdom (as the way unto life):

23 But we preach Christ crucified (the testimony which the Father has given in the Son), to the Jews a stumbling block (which causes them to stumble at the truth), and to the Greeks foolishness (being nonsense to the carnal mind);

24 But to them which are called (into fellowship with His Son, being made conformable to His death that they may know the power of His resurrection), both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God (unto life and immortality in the flesh).

25 Because (what seems like) the foolishness of God is wiser than (the wisdom of) men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For you see the (way unto life revealed in Him as) calling (you into fellowship with His suffering and the death that He died to the world), brothers, how that there are not many wise men according to (the world’s wisdom and the preservation of) the flesh, not many mighty (men of renown), not many noble (men of the world), that will heed that call:

27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (according to the flesh); and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things (in the world) which are (considered) mighty;

28 But the ignoble (and lowborn) of the world and the things which are despised (by the world) has God chosen, even the things which are not (considered wise or noble according to the world), to bring to nothing the things that are (in the world, seeing as its wisdom capitulates upon itself in destruction):

29 So that no flesh should glory (in his own wisdom and strength) in His presence.

30 But of Him (and by His strength alone) are you in Christ Jesus, who is from (the heart of) God (the Father, His testimony to us, and in Him) is revealed to us, all wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption (from death):

31 So that, according as it is written (by the prophet Jeremiah), He that glories, let him glory in the Lord (who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth).