1 Corinthians 1
1
Chapter 1
Paul says ‘Hello’
1This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. That is what he wanted. Our Christian friend Sosthenes is with me here as I write to you.
2I am sending this letter to you, the people of God's church in Corinth. God has made you clean because you belong to Christ Jesus. He has chosen you to be his special people. So you join together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is their Lord, as he is our Lord.
3I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
Paul thanks God
4I always thank God because of you. I thank him because he has been very kind to you. He has helped you like that because you belong to Christ Jesus. 5As a result, God has given you all the things that you need. You are able to speak everything that he wants you to speak. You are able to understand everything that he wants you to know. 6In that way, God has shown you that the message we told you about Christ is true. 7As a result, God has given you every spiritual gift that you need. God has blessed you with those gifts as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to return. 8God will also keep you safe and strong until the end. Then, on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns, you will not be guilty of anything wrong. 9God always does what he has promised to do. He has chosen you to be friends with his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.
Christians must not quarrel
10My Christian friends, I tell you this with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Please agree with each other. Do not become separate groups. Be united and think about things in the same way.’
11Some people from Chloe's house have told me news about you. My friends, they say that you are quarrelling among yourselves. 12It happens like this: One of you says, ‘I belong to Paul's group.’ Another person says, ‘I belong to Apollos's group.’ Another person says, ‘I belong to Peter's group.’ And another person says, ‘I belong to Christ's group.’
13You should not speak like that! It seems that you are breaking Christ into several parts. I, Paul, did not die on a cross to save you. When they baptized you, it was not on my behalf. 14I thank God that I myself did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. 15So none of you can say, ‘I belong to Paul's group because he baptized me.’ 16(Now I remember that I also baptized Stephanas and his family. I cannot remember that I baptized anyone else.) 17Christ did not send me to baptize people. But he did send me to tell God's good news to people. When I speak his message, I do not use clever words. It is Christ's death on the cross that has power to save people. I do not want to spoil that power with clever words.
Christ's death on the cross
18Some people think that the message about Christ's death on the cross is silly. Those people are destroying themselves. But it is different for us, the people that God is saving. The message about the cross shows us God's power to save us.
19It says in the Bible:
‘I, God, will destroy all the clever thoughts of wise people.
I will show that their clever ideas are useless.’ #1:19 See Isaiah 29:14.
20So the wise people in this world are not really important. The clever teachers of God's Law are not really important. People who know how to argue well are not really important. God has shown that the wise ideas that belong to this world have no value.
21God himself is wise. He has decided that people cannot know him just because they are wise in their own way. Instead, God uses the message about Jesus to save people. That message may seem to be silly to some people. But when we tell it to people, God saves them if they believe it.
22 Jewish people want to see God do a miracle. Then they will listen. Gentile people want to listen to a message that has clever ideas. 23But as for us, we tell people about how Christ died on a cross. That is a message that Jewish people refuse to accept as true. Gentile people think that it is a silly message. 24But it is different for us whom God has called to come to him. Some of us are Jews, and some of us are Gentiles. For us, Christ shows God's great power. He shows how wise God is. 25Christ's death on a cross may seem a silly thing for God to do. But really it shows that God is very wise. He is wiser than people with their clever ideas. Christ's death on a cross may seem to show that God is weak. But really he is stronger than any human power.
26Christian friends, remember the time when God called you to come to him. Think about what you were like. Not many of you were clever or powerful in the way that people think is good. Not many of you belonged to important families. 27Instead, God chose to use things that people think are silly. He did this so that clever people would be ashamed. Yes, God chose to use things that people think are weak. He did this so that powerful people would be ashamed. 28God chose to use things that people think are useless. People who belong to this world do not like those things. They think that they have no value. God did this so that the things that seem important would become unimportant.
29Because of all this, nobody can be proud of themselves in front of God. 30It is because of God's work that you now belong to Christ Jesus. As a result of Christ's death on the cross, we share in God's wise plan. Because we belong to Christ, God makes us right with himself. He makes us his own special people. He makes us free from the power of sin.
31Remember what is written in the Bible:
‘If you want to be proud about something,
be proud of what the Lord has done.’ #1:31 See Jeremiah 9:24.
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MissionAssist 2018
1 Corinthians 1
1
1Paul called to be an Apostle of Iesus Christ, through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2Vnto the Church of God, which is at Corinthus, to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus, Saintes by calling, with all that call on the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ in euery place, both their Lord, and ours: 3Grace be with you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Iesus Christ. 4I thanke my God alwayes on your behalfe for the grace of God, which is giuen you in Iesus Christ, 5That in all things ye are made rich in him, in all kinde of speach, and in all knowledge: 6As the testimonie of Iesus Christ hath bene confirmed in you: 7So that ye are not destitute of any gift: wayting for the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ. 8Who shall also confirme you vnto the ende, that ye may be blamelesse, in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ. 9God is faithfull, by whom ye are called vnto the fellowship of his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. 10Nowe I beseeche you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ, that ye all speake one thing, and that there be no dissensions among you: but be ye knit together in one mind, and in one iudgement. 11For it hath bene declared vnto me, my brethren, of you by them that are of the house of Cloe, that there are contentions among you. 12Nowe this I say, that euery one of you saith, I am Pauls, and I am Apollos, and I am Cephas, and I am Christs. 13Is Christ deuided? was Paul crucified for you? either were ye baptized into the name of Paul? 14I thanke God, that I baptized none of you, but Crispus, and Gaius, 15Lest any should say, that I had baptized into mine owne name. 16I baptized also the houshold of Stephanas: furthermore knowe I not, whether I baptized any other. 17For CHRIST sent me not to baptize, but to preache the Gospel, not with wisdome of wordes, lest the crosse of Christ should be made of none effect. 18For that preaching of the crosse is to them that perish, foolishnesse: but vnto vs, which are saued, it is the power of God. 19For it is written, I will destroy the wisedome of the wise, and will cast away the vnderstanding of the prudent. 20Where is the wise? where is the Scribe? where is the disputer of this worlde? hath not God made the wisedome of this worlde foolishnesse? 21For seeing the worlde by wisedome knewe not God in the wisedome of GOD, it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to saue them that beleeue: 22Seeing also that the Iewes require a signe, and the Grecians seeke after wisdome. 23But wee preach Christ crucified: vnto the Iewes, euen a stumbling blocke, and vnto the Grecians, foolishnesse: 24But vnto them which are called, both of the Iewes and Grecians, we preach Christ, the power of God, and the wisedome of God. 25For the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men, and the weakenesse of God is stronger then men. 26For brethren, you see your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. 27But God hath chosen the foolish thinges of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weake thinges of the worlde, to confound the mightie things, 28And vile things of the worlde and thinges which are despised, hath God chosen, and thinges which are not, to bring to nought thinges that are, 29That no flesh shoulde reioyce in his presence. 30But ye are of him in Christ Iesus, who of God is made vnto vs wisedome and righteousnesse, and sanctification, and redemption, 31That, according as it is written, Hee that reioyceth, let him reioyce in the Lord.
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