1 Corinthians 1; 1 Corinthians 2; 1 Corinthians 3; 1 Corinthians 4

1 Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and our brother Sosthenes:

2 To God's church at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord-theirs and ours.

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

4 I always thank my God for you because of God's grace given to you in Christ Jesus,

5 that by Him you were made rich in everything-in all speaking and all knowledge-

6 as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you,

7 so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

9 God is faithful; by Him you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

11 For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe's household, that there are quarrels among you.

12 What I am saying is this: each of you says, "I'm with Paul," or "I'm with Apollos," or "I'm with Cephas," or "I'm with Christ."

13 Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul's name?

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

15 so that no one can say you had been baptized in my name.

16 I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't know if I baptized anyone else.

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-not with clever words, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied [of its effect].

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

19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts.

20 Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?

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

22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and God's wisdom,

25 because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers, consider your calling: not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

27 Instead, God has chosen the world's foolish things to shame the wise, and God has chosen the world's weak things to shame the strong.

28 God has chosen the world's insignificant and despised things-the things viewed as nothing-so He might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something,

29 so that no one can boast in His presence.

30 But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who for us became wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.

2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

4 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power,

5 so that your faith might not be based on men's wisdom but on God's power.

6 However, among the mature we do speak a wisdom, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

7 On the contrary, we speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory.

8 None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man's heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him.

10 Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.

11 For who among men knows the concerns of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the concerns of God except the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God.

13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

14 But the natural man does not welcome what comes from God's Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to know it since it is evaluated spiritually.

15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.

16 For: who has known the Lord's mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.

2 I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able,

3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like ordinary people?

4 For whenever someone says, "I'm with Paul," and another, "I'm with Apollos," are you not [typical] men?

5 So, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

8 Now the one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

9 For we are God's co-workers. You are God's field, God's building.

10 According to God's grace that was given to me, as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it,

11 because no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid-that is, Jesus Christ.

12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13 each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work.

14 If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

16 Don't you know that you are God's sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

17 If anyone ruins God's sanctuary, God will ruin him; for God's sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

18 No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness -

20 and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are futile.

21 So no one should boast in men, for all things are yours:

22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come-all are yours,

23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God.

1 A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God's mysteries.

2 In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one be found faithful.

3 It is of little importance that I should be evaluated by you or by a human court. In fact, I don't even evaluate myself.

4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. The One who evaluates me is the Lord.

5 Therefore don't judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: "Nothing beyond what is written." The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.

7 For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn't receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn't received it?

8 Already you are full! Already you are rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us-and I wish you did reign, so that we also could reign with you!

9 For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

10 We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!

11 Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless;

12 we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

13 when we are slandered, we entreat. We are, even now, like the world's garbage, like the filth of all things.

14 I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

15 For you can have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but you can't have many fathers. Now I have fathered you in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

16 Therefore I urge you, be imitators of me.

17 This is why I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

18 Now some are inflated with pride, as though I were not coming to you.

19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk but the power of those who are inflated with pride.

20 For the kingdom of God is not in talk but in power.

21 What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?