1 Corinthians 1
1
1I am Paul, and this letter is from me. God wanted me to go and tell people about Jesus Christ, so he picked me to be his special worker. And Sosthenes is here with me. He is our Christian friend, and he is helping me write this letter.
2I’m sending this letter to you Christians there in Corinth city. God picked you to be his own special people, and he joined you to Jesus Christ. You are in God’s family now, along with everyone that says to Jesus, “You are my leader.” He is their leader, and he is our leader too.#Acts 18:1
3I’m asking God our father, and Jesus Christ our leader, to be good to you, and to make you feel happy and quiet inside yourselves.
God gives his people lots of good things
4I always thank God for you mob. You belong to Jesus Christ now, and God is really good to you.
5Yes, Jesus Christ gave you everything you need. He lets you know a lot of things, and he gives you the power to tell God’s message to people. 6That shows that the message we told you about Jesus Christ is true. 7You really want our leader, Jesus Christ, to come back from heaven, and while you are waiting for him, you have all the spiritual power that he gives us to do his work. 8God will keep you believing properly in our leader Jesus Christ, and you will stay strong for him until the day when he will come back from heaven. At that time, nobody will be able to blame you or say that you did anything wrong. 9God picked you to be friends of his son, our leader Jesus Christ. And you can trust God, he will keep you strong for Jesus.
Don’t split up to follow different Christian leaders
10My Christian friends, our leader Jesus Christ wants me to say this to you. All you Christians have to agree with each other and stay together. Don’t split up. Please think the same way as each other, and agree together about the right way to follow Jesus.
11You see, my friends, some of Chloe’s mob told me what is going on there in Corinth. They reckon that you are arguing too much with each other and you are splitting into different groups. 12They reckon some of you say, “Paul is our leader,” and others say, “That other man, Apollos, he is our leader,” and others say, “No, not them. Our leader is Peter,” and others say, “Jesus Christ is our leader.”#Acts 18:24
13Listen, that’s not right. Don’t split up into groups like that. If you do that, it’s like you are splitting up Jesus Christ. Stop and think about it. Did I, Paul, die for you on a cross? No way. And when Christian leaders baptised you, when they took you through that special washing ceremony, did they baptise you to show that you belonged to me, Paul? No way. 14-15I thank God that I only baptised a few of you, so none of you can say, “Paul baptised me, so he is my leader.” I only baptised Crispus and Guyus.#Acts 18:8; 19:29; Romans 16:23 16And I just remembered, I baptised Stefanas and his family too. But I can’t remember baptising anyone else.#1 Corinthians 16:15 17You see, Jesus Christ didn’t send me to baptise people. He sent me to tell the good news to people, that Jesus died for them. That message is powerful. God didn’t send me to say smart words to people. That sort of talk is useless. People might just think about my smart words, and not listen to God, and so they will not hear God’s powerful good news.
God shows his power in the message about Jesus
18We tell everybody the message that Jesus died on a cross to save them. Some people hear that message and think it is stupid. Those people’s spirits are finishing up, and they are lost. But other people hear that message and think it is good. You are like that mob, and so are we. We know that message is from God. It tells us that he is using his power to save us. 19It is like God says in his book,
“People might think they are smart, and they might reckon they know everything,
but God shows them that they are not wise, and he will stop them from doing what they are thinking about.”#Isaiah 29:14
20So what does that tell us about the smart people in this world? And what about those people that reckon they properly know the Jewish law? And what about those people that can talk really good, so that they win arguments? None of them get to know God. They leave God out. They don’t think about him, and in the end God shows us that they are all stupid.#Job 12:17; Isaiah 19:12; 33:18; 44:25 21You see, God is properly wise. He knows that most people in this world want to be smart and think up their own ideas about God. But he blocks them, so they will never get to know him that way. Instead, God is happy to save everybody that believes his message. And we tell you that message, even though other people think we are stupid.
22You see, the Jewish people want to see God do something powerful, and then they reckon they will believe him. And other people that are not Jews, they just want to hear about smart ideas. 23But we are not like those people. We tell people about Jesus Christ, and we tell them that he died for them on the cross. The Jewish people can’t understand that. It isn’t what they want, so they don’t believe it. And the other people that are not Jews, they reckon it is stupid, so they don’t believe it. 24But we are different. God has picked us to save us. Some of us are Jews and some of us are not Jews, but when we listen to that message about Jesus Christ it is a powerful message for us. We believe it and God saves us. And we know that God is really wise because he sent Jesus to save us. 25People might reckon that is a stupid thing for God to do, but God’s way is better than the best idea any person ever had. And people might reckon that God is weak, they might reckon that he just let his son die. But they are wrong. God did that to show us that he is stronger than anyone else.
26My Christian friends, remember what you were like before God picked you. Most of you were not the smart sort of people. Most of you were not powerful people. Most of you didn’t belong to important families. 27You see, people in this world reckon you are stupid, but God picked you anyway. He did that to show that those smart people are wrong, and they have to feel shame. Yes, God picked the weak people in this world to show that the powerful people are useless, so they have to feel shame. 28And God picked people from this world that are not great, and people that are like nothing, so that in the end, those other people that reckon they are great, they will become like nothing. 29God does that so that nobody can ever get up in front of God and say, “I’m really good. I’m better than other people.”
30But as for you, God joined you to Jesus Christ. You and us together, Jesus helps us to be wise, like God. And Jesus makes us to be God’s friends, so that he will tell us we are all right. And Jesus makes us God’s own special people too. Jesus died to pay for us and set us free from everything that is wrong. 31So we have to talk the way God tells us to. He says this in his book,
“If you want to talk about great things, don’t talk about yourself,
but talk about God, and tell everyone about the great things that he does.”#Jeremiah 9:24
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1st Corinthians 1
1
CHAPTER 1
1Paul, called apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Sosthenes, brother,
2to the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that be hallowed in Christ Jesus, and called saints, with all that inwardly call [or in-call] the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in each place of them and of ours,
3grace to you and peace of God, our Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I do thankings to my God ever-more for you, in the grace of God that is given to you in Christ Jesus.
5For in all things ye be made rich in him, in each word, and in each knowing, [or science],
6as the witnessing of Christ is confirmed in you;
7so that nothing fail to you in any grace, that abide the showing [or the revelation] of our Lord Jesus Christ;
8which also shall confirm you into the end without crime, [or great sin], in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9A true God [or Forsooth God is true], by whom ye be called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10But, brethren, I beseech you, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that dissensions, [or schisms, or divisions, or discords], be not among you; but be ye perfect in the same wit, and in the same knowing.
11For, my brethren, it is told to me of them that be at Chloe’s, that strives be among you.
12And I say that, that each of you saith, For I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Cephas, [that is, Peter], but I am of Christ.
13Whether Christ is parted? whether Paul was crucified for you, either ye be baptized in the name of Paul?
14I do thankings to my God, that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;
15lest any man say, that ye be baptized in my name.
16And I baptized also the house of Stephanas, but I know not, that I baptized any other.
17For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel [or to evangelize]; not in wisdom of word, that the cross of Christ be not voided away.
18For the word of the cross is folly to them that perish; but to them that be made safe, that is to say, to us, it is the virtue of God.
19For it is written, I shall destroy the wisdom of wise men, and I shall reprove the prudence of prudent men.
20Where is the wise man? where is the wise lawyer? [or where is the writer, or the man of law?] where is the purchaser of this world? Whether God hath not made the wisdom of this world fond? [or foolish?]
21For the world, in wisdom of God, knew not God by wisdom, [or For why for in the wisdom of God, the world knew not God by wisdom], it pleased to God, by [the] folly of preaching, to make them safe that believed.
22For Jews seek signs, and Greeks seek wisdom;
23but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews cause of stumbling, and to heathen men folly;
24but to those Jews and Greeks that be called, we preach Christ the virtue of God, and the wisdom of God.
25For that that is folly thing of God, is wiser than men; and that that is the feeble, [or frail], thing of God, is stronger than men.
26But, brethren, see ye your calling; for not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
27But God chose those things that be fond [or foolish] of the world, to confound wise men; and God chose the feeble, [or frail], things of the world, to confound the strong things;
28and God chose the unnoble things and despisable things of the world, and those things that be not, to destroy those things that be;
29that each man have not glory in his sight.
30But of him ye be in Christ Jesus, which is made of God to us wisdom, and rightwiseness, and holiness, and again-buying;
31that, as it is written, He that glorieth, have glory in the Lord.
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Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
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