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

1 Corinthians 1

1 From Paul, called by God's will to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Sosthenes our brother.

2 To God's church that is in Corinth: To those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus, who are called to be God's people. Together with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place— he's their Lord and ours!

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

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

5 That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge,

6 in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed with you.

7 The result is that you aren't missing any spiritual gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

8 He will also confirm your testimony about Christ until the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Agree with each other and don't be divided into rival groups. Instead, be restored with the same mind and the same purpose.

11 My brothers and sisters, Chloe's people gave me some information about you, that you're fighting with each other.

12 What I mean is this: that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul,""I belong to Apollos,""I belong to Cephas,""I belong to Christ."

13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul's name?

14 Thank God that I didn't baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius,

15 so that nobody can say that you were baptized in my name!

16 Oh, I baptized the house of Stephanas too. Otherwise, I don't know if I baptized anyone else.

17 Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the good news. And Christ didn't send me to preach the good news with clever words so that Christ's cross won't be emptied of its meaning.

18 The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved.

19 It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent.

20 Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today's debaters? Hasn't God made the wisdom of the world foolish?

21 In God's wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn't come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching.

22 Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

24 But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's power and God's wisdom.

25 This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordinary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not many were from the upper class.

27 But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

28 And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing.

29 So no human being can brag in God's presence.

30 It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus. He became wisdom from God for us. This means that he made us righteous and holy, and he delivered us.

31 This is consistent with what was written: The one who brags should brag in the Lord!

1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn't come preaching God's secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom.

2 I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified.

3 I stood in front of you with weakness, fear, and a lot of shaking.

4 My message and my preaching weren't presented with convincing wise words but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

5 I did this so that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of people but on the power of God.

6 What we say is wisdom to people who are mature. It isn't a wisdom that comes from the present day or from today's leaders who are being reduced to nothing.

7 We talk about God's wisdom, which has been hidden as a secret. God determined this wisdom in advance, before time began, for our glory.

8 It is a wisdom that none of the present-day rulers have understood, because if they did understand it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory!

9 But this is precisely what is written: God has prepared things for those who love him that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven't crossed the mind of any human being.

10 God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, including the depths of God.

11 Who knows a person's depths except their own spirit that lives in them? In the same way, no one has known the depths of God except God's Spirit.

12 We haven't received the world's spirit but God's Spirit so that we can know the things given to us by God.

13 These are the things we are talking about—not with words taught by human wisdom but with words taught by the Spirit—we are interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.

14 But people who are unspiritual don't accept the things from God's Spirit. They are foolishness to them and can't be understood, because they can only be comprehended in a spiritual way.

15 Spiritual people comprehend everything, but they themselves aren't understood by anyone.

16 Who has known the mind of the Lord, who will advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3

1 Brothers and sisters, I couldn't talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ.

2 I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren't up to it yet.

3 Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren't you unspiritual and living by human standards?

4 When someone says, "I belong to Paul," and someone else says, "I belong to Apollos," aren't you acting like people without the Spirit?

5 After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants who helped you to believe. Each one had a role given to them by the Lord:

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow.

7 Because of this, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the only one who is anything is God who makes it grow.

8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together, but each one will receive their own reward for their own labor.

9 We are God's coworkers, and you are God's field, God's building.

10 I laid a foundation like a wise master builder according to God's grace that was given to me, but someone else is building on top of it. Each person needs to pay attention to the way they build on it.

11 No one can lay any other foundation besides the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 So, whether someone builds on top of the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or hay,

13 each one's work will be clearly shown. The day will make it clear, because it will be revealed with fire—the fire will test the quality of each one's work.

14 If anyone's work survives, they'll get a reward.

15 But if anyone's work goes up in flames, they'll lose it. However, they themselves will be saved as if they had gone through a fire.

16 Don't you know that you are God's temple and God's Spirit lives in you?

17 If someone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person, because God's temple is holy, which is what you are.

18 Don't fool yourself. If some of you think they are worldly-wise, then they should become foolish so that they can become wise.

19 This world's wisdom is foolishness to God. As it's written, He catches the wise in their cleverness.

20 And also, The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are silly.

21 So then, no one should brag about human beings. Everything belongs to you—

22 Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things in the present, things in the future—everything belongs to you,

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

1 Corinthians 4

1 So a person should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and managers of God's secrets.

2 In this kind of situation, what is expected of a manager is that they prove to be faithful.

3 I couldn't care less if I'm judged by you or by any human court; I don't even judge myself.

4 I'm not aware of anything against me, but that doesn't make me innocent, because the Lord is the one who judges me.

5 So don't judge anything before the right time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring things that are hidden in the dark to light, and he will make people's motivations public. Then there will be recognition for each person from God.

6 Brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit. I've done this so that you can learn what it means not to go beyond what has been written and so none of you will become arrogant by supporting one of us against the other.

7 Who says that you are better than anyone else? What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it, then why are you bragging as if you didn't receive it?

8 You've been filled already! You've become rich already! You rule like kings without us! I wish you did rule so that we could be kings with you!

9 I suppose that God has shown that we apostles are at the end of the line. We are like prisoners sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle in the world, both to angels and to humans.

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

11 Up to this very moment we are hungry, thirsty, wearing rags, abused, and homeless.

12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are insulted, we respond with a blessing; when we are harassed, we put up with it;

13 when our reputation is attacked, we are encouraging. We have become the scum of the earth, the waste that runs off everything, up to the present time.

14 I'm not writing these things to make you ashamed but to warn you, since you are my loved children.

15 You may have ten thousand mentors in Christ, but you don't have many fathers. I gave birth to you in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

16 so I encourage you to follow my example.

17 This is why I've sent Timothy to you; he's my loved and trusted child in the Lord; he'll remind you about my way of life in Christ Jesus. He'll teach the same way as I teach everywhere in every church.

18 Some have become arrogant as if I'm not coming to see you.

19 But, if the Lord is willing, I'll come to you soon. Then I won't focus on what these arrogant people say, but I'll find out what power they possess.

20 God's kingdom isn't about words but about power.

21 Which do you want? Should I come to you with a big stick to punish you, or with love and a gentle spirit?