1Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes our brother,
2to the church of God which is at Corinth. You have been made holy in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints. We write also to all those everywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is their Lord and ours:
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I always thank my God for you, because of the grace of God that was given you through Jesus Christ.
5In him you have been made rich in every way, in all speaking and in all knowledge,
6just as the witness about Christ was made sure in you.
7So you lack no gift, while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come.
8He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you may be free from blame on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9God is faithful. By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10Now I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. Be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.
11For I have been told about you, my brothers and sisters, by those from the household of Chloe, that there are quarrels among you.
12What I mean is this: each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15so that no one can say that I baptized in my own 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 preach the gospel. And I do not preach it with clever words, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.
18For the message 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 is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of those who understand."
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolish?
21For in the wisdom of God, the world did not come to know God through its wisdom. So God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching.
22For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks look for wisdom,
23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks,
24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26Think about your calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong.
28God has chosen the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
29so that no human being may boast in his presence.
30But it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. God has made him our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness and our redemption.
31So, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."