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

Viewing Multiple Passages

1 Corinthians 1

1 From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes -
2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
4 I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus.
5 For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge.
6 The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you
7 that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.
10 By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose.
11 For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you.
12 Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Peter"; and another, "I follow Christ."
13 Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.
15 No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples
16 (Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.)
17 Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.
18 For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power.
19 The scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars."
20 So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!
21 For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called "foolish" message we preach, God decided to save those who believe.
22 Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.
23 As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;
24 but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Now remember what you were, my friends, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing.
27 God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.
28 He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.
29 This means that no one can boast in God's presence.
30 But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.
31 So then, as the scripture says, "Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, my friends, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning.
2 For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.
3 So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear,
4 and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit.
5 Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.
6 Yet I do proclaim a message of wisdom to those who are spiritually mature. But it is not the wisdom that belongs to this world or to the powers that rule this world - powers that are losing their power.
7 The wisdom I proclaim is God's secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made.
8 None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as the scripture says, "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him."
10 But it was to us that God made known his secret by means of his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the hidden depths of God's purposes.
11 It is only our own spirit within us that knows all about us; in the same way, only God's Spirit knows all about God.
12 We have not received this world's spirit; instead, we have received the Spirit sent by God, so that we may know all that God has given us.
13 So then, we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit.
14 Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them, and they seem to be nonsense, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.
15 Whoever has the Spirit, however, is able to judge the value of everything, but no one is able to judge him.
16 As the scripture says, "Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice?" We, however, have the mind of Christ.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

1 Corinthians 3

1 As a matter of fact, my friends, I could not talk to you as I talk to people who have the Spirit; I had to talk to you as though you belonged to this world, as children in the Christian faith.
2 I had to feed you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready for it,
3 because you still live as the people of this world live. When there is jealousy among you and you quarrel with one another, doesn't this prove that you belong to this world, living by its standards?
4 When one of you says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos" - aren't you acting like worldly people?
5 After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God's servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do:
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow.
7 The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow.
8 There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done.
9 For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.
10 Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build.
11 For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.
12 Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw.
13 And the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone's work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.
14 If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward.
15 But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.
16 Surely you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you!
17 God will destroy anyone who destroys God's temple. For God's temple is holy, and you yourselves are his temple.
18 You should not fool yourself. If any of you think that you are wise by this world's standards, you should become a fool, in order to be really wise.
19 For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, "God traps the wise in their cleverness";
20 and another scripture says, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless."
21 No one, then, should boast about what human beings can do. Actually everything belongs to you:
22 Paul, Apollos, and Peter; this world, life and death, the present and the future - all these are yours,
23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

1 Corinthians 4

1 You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths.
2 The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master.
3 Now, I am not at all concerned about being judged by you or by any human standard; I don't even pass judgment on myself.
4 My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I am really innocent. The Lord is the one who passes judgment on me.
5 So you should not pass judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment must wait until the Lord comes; he will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden purposes of people's minds. And then all will receive from God the praise they deserve.
6 For your sake, my friends, I have applied all this to Apollos and me, using the two of us as an example, so that you may learn what the saying means, "Observe the proper rules." None of you should be proud of one person and despise another.
7 Who made you superior to others? Didn't God give you everything you have? Well, then, how can you boast, as if what you have were not a gift?
8 Do you already have everything you need? Are you already rich? Have you become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we could be kings together with you.
9 For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.
10 For Christ's sake we are fools; but you are wise in union with Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! We are despised, but you are honored!
11 To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;
12 we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
13 when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!
14 I write this to you, not because I want to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children.
15 For even if you have ten thousand guardians in your Christian life, you have only one father. For in your life in union with Christ Jesus I have become your father by bringing the Good News to you.
16 I beg you, then, to follow my example.
17 For this purpose I am sending to you Timothy, who is my own dear and faithful son in the Christian life. He will remind you of the principles which I follow in the new life in union with Christ Jesus and which I teach in all the churches everywhere.
18 Some of you have become proud because you have thought that I would not be coming to visit you.
19 If the Lord is willing, however, I will come to you soon, and then I will find out for myself the power which these proud people have, and not just what they say.
20 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words but of power.
21 Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in a spirit of love and gentleness?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.