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The First Letter to the Corinthians 1

1 I, Paul, write this letter to you, and Sosthenes our fellow believer is with me. God chose to send me to represent the Messiah Jesus, because that is what God wanted. 2 I send this letter to you who are part of the groups of believers belonging to God, which are in the city of Corinth. God has set you apart for himself by uniting you to the Messiah Jesus, and he has chosen you to be his own people. You are part of the group of believers who worship our Lord Jesus the Messiah in many countries and cities. Jesus the Messiah is their Lord and our Lord. 3 May God, who is our Father, and the Lord Jesus the Messiah continue to be kind to you and make you peaceful.

4 I often thank my God about you. I do this because I know how God is acting kindly towards you by uniting you to the Messiah Jesus. 5 When I say that God has acted kindly towards you, I mean that he has abundantly blessed you by uniting you to the Messiah in every area of your lives, including whatever you say and whatever you know. 6 God has blessed you because he has proved to you that what we told you about the Messiah was true. 7 God has done these things for you so that you are completely equipped spiritually during this time when you confidently expect our Lord Jesus the Messiah to return. 8 Just as he proved our message to be true, God will also prove your trust in the Messiah true until your earthly lives end. Because of this, he will judge you not guilty when our Lord Jesus the Messiah returns to earth. 9 God always does what he promises, and he is the one who has specially chosen you to share everything with his Son, Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

10 My fellow believers, as one whom our Lord Jesus the Messiah has authorized, I appeal to you, asking that all of you agree with one another. I ask that you do not split up into rival groups but that you reconcile with each other by agreeing in what you think and by agreeing in what you decide to do. 11 I appeal to you because some members of Chloe’s household have talked to me about you, my fellow believers. They said that you quarrel among yourselves. 12 What I am talking about is how many of you are claiming that you belong to Paul’s group, for example, or that you belong to Apollos’ group, or that you belong to Cephas’ group, or that you belong to the Messiah’s group. 13 No one has split the Messiah into pieces, so you also should not split into pieces. No one crucified Paul in your behalf, and no one baptized you so that you belong to Paul. 14 I give thanks to God that I baptized no people who belong to your group except for two individuals: Crispus and Gaius. 15 Because I baptized so few of you, no person is able to claim that I baptized you, so that you belong to my group. 16 Oh yes, I remember that I also baptized those who live in the house of Stephanas. Other than that, I do not think that I baptized any other people in your group. 17 The reason I baptized so few of you is that the Messiah did not commission me to baptize people. Rather, he commissioned me to proclaim the good news. I do this without using words that are wise by human standards. That way, I do not destroy the power of the message about the Messiah dying on the cross.

18 I do not use wise words, because the message that I proclaim about the death of the Messiah on the cross sounds foolish to people who are bringing destruction on themselves. However, God works powerfully in this message for us whom he is rescuing. 19 You can tell that this is true, because the prophet Isaiah wrote,

“I will render useless the wise things that wise people think,

and I will make the intelligent things that intelligent people think worthless.”

20 So then, wise people are not really wise, and experts are not really experts, and people who are good at arguing are not really good at it, as they all belong to the current world system. In fact, God has shown that what seems to be wise in this current world is not wise at all. 21 Here is how God has done this. Just as God wisely chose, unbelievers did not get to know God by means of their wise thinking. So, God decided to rescue those who have faith in the Messiah by means of the foolish message that believers proclaim. 22 On the one hand, many Jewish people want to see powerful deeds. On the other hand, many Greek people search for wise thinking. 23 We, however, proclaim that the Messiah died on a cross. Many Jewish people find this message offensive, and many non-Jewish people think that this message is foolish. 24 We, however, whom God has chosen, whether we are Jewish people or Greek people, have learned that God works powerfully and wisely through this message about the Messiah. 25 This is because what God does that seems foolish is wiser than anything that humans do, and what God does that seems weak is stronger than anything that humans do.

26 For proof that this is so, think about the fact that God chose you the way you are, fellow believers. From a human perspective, most of you did not think wisely, do powerful deeds, or belong to important families. 27 Rather, God decided to use what seems foolish to humans to humble those who think wisely. God decided to use what seems weak to humans to humble those people and things that act powerfully. 28 God decided to use what seems unimportant to people and what people look down on. It is as if these things do not even exist, but God decided to use them to make the things that everyone knows about insignificant. 29 God did these things with the goal that no humans would say great things about themselves in God’s sight. 30 It is God who has united you to the Messiah Jesus. By working through the Messiah, God has made us wise. He has declared us innocent, chosen us to be his own people, and delivered us from evil powers. 31 So, because God is the one who does all these things, we should do what the prophet Jeremiah wrote:

“If people want to say great things about something, they should say those great things about the Lord.”

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