1Cor 1 | Mont | STEP | Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, his brother.

‏ 1 Corinthians 1

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, his brother. 2 to the Church of God at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all, wherever they are, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. 3 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I am always thanking God on your behalf, for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus; 5 that in everything you have been enriched in him, in all speech, and in all knowledge 6 (for thus my witness for Christ was confirmed among you); 7 so that you lack no divine gift, while you are waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also keep you perfectly stedfast unto the end, so that you will be unreprovable in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 Faithful is the God by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I beg you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to speak in accord, all of you, and to have no divisions among you, but to be knit together in a common mind and temper. 11 For it has been plainly told me concerning you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are dissensions among you. 12 I mean by this that one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul"; another, "I of Apollos"; another, "I of Cephas"; another, "I of Christ." 13 Has Christ been divided? Paul, was he crucified for you? or was it into the name of Paul that you were baptized?

14 I am thankful to God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say you were baptized in my name. 16 Yes, I did baptize the house of Stephanas also, but I do not think I baptized any one else.

17 For Christ did not think I baptized any one else. For Christ did not send me forth to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel; and that not in philosophic words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made an empty thing. 18 For the message of the Cross is indeed for those on their way to destruction, foolishness; but for us who are on our way to salvation it is the power of God. 19 For thus it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the philosophers, And the prudence of the prudent will I confound. 20 Sage, rabbi, skeptic of this present age - where are they all? Has not God made foolish the philosophy of the world? 21 For when, in the wisdom of God, the world by its philosophy knew not God, the world by its philosophy knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save those who believe. 22 Jews continue to ask for miracles and Greeks are ever wanting philosophy, 23 but we come preaching a crucified Messiah - to Jews a stumbling- block, to Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your own calling, brothers, that not many wise in earthly wisdom, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, have been called. 27 No, God has chosen the world’s folly to confound its philosophy; and the world’s weakness to confound its strength. 28 The world’s base things has God chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are; 29 so that no mortal man should glory in his presence. 30 It is of him that you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that as Scripture says, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.