WPNT(i)
1 Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and brother Sosthenes,
2 to the church of God in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, along with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—ours, theirs and yours:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 Concerning you, I always thank my God because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus;
5 for in Him you were enriched in every way, in all speech and all knowledge,
6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
7 so that you lack no spiritual gift as you expectantly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be restored to the same mind and to the same purpose.
11 You see, my brothers, it has been reported to me concerning you, by some from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
12 What I mean is that you are individually saying: “I am of Paul”, or “I am of Apollos”, or “I am of Cephas”, or “I am of Christ”!
13 Has Christ been divided? It wasn’t Paul who was crucified for you, was it? You weren’t baptized into the name of Paul, were you?
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized into my own name.
16 O yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanus; besides them I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.
17 Because Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel —not with eloquent ‘wisdom’, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of power.
18 The message of the cross, you see, is foolishness to those who are being wasted, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and confound the shrewdness of the intelligent.”
20 Where is the wise one? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its ‘wisdom’ did not get to know God, it pleased God to save the believing ones through the ‘foolishness’ of what was preached—
22 since Jews request a sign while Greeks seek after wisdom,
23 but we proclaim a crucified Christ: an offense to Jews, foolishness to Greeks.
24 Now to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God,
25 because the ‘foolishness’ of God is wiser than men, and the ‘weakness’ of God is stronger than men.
26 Just look at your calling, brothers: not many are wise, not many are powerful, not many are of noble birth, by human standards;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might put the wise to shame, and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might put the strong things to shame;
28 and God has chosen the lowly things of the world and the despised things—even the ‘nothings’—that He might nullify the ‘somethings’;
29 so that no flesh should boast in God’s presence.
30 It is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God—also righteousness and sanctification and redemption —
31 so that, as it is written: “He who boasts, let him boast in the LORD.”