1 Corinthians 1 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Appeal to Unity

1Paul, called as an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

5so that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and in all knowledge.

6In this way our testimony about Christ was confirmed and established in you,

7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8And He will also confirm you to the end blameless and beyond reproach in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9God is faithful, and through Him you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10But I urge you, believers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in full agreement in what you say, and that there be no divisions or factions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your way of thinking and in your judgment.

11For I have been informed about you, my brothers and sisters, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels and factions among you.

12Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas (Peter),” or “I am of Christ.”

13Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

14I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

15so that no one would say that you were baptized into my name.

16Now I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know if I baptized anyone else.

17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news—not with clever and eloquent speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made ineffective.

The Wisdom of God

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing and spiritually dead, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19For it is written and forever remains written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

And the cleverness of the clever I will nullify.”

20Where is the wise man (philosopher)? Where is the scribe (scholar)? Where is the debater (logician, orator) of this age? Has God not exposed the foolishness of this world’s wisdom?

21For since the world through all its wisdom failed to recognize God, God in His wisdom was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

22For Jews demand signs (attesting miracles), and Greeks pursue wisdom and philosophy,

23but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness,

24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25[This is] because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26Just look at your own calling, believers; not many wise according to human standards, not many powerful or influential, not many of high and noble birth.

27But God has selected the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has selected the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.

28God has selected the insignificant (base) things of the world, and the things that are despised and treated with contempt, the things that are nothing, so that He might reduce to nothing the things that are,

29so that no one may boast in the presence of God.

30But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,

31so then, as it is written, “He who boasts and glories, let him boast and glory in the Lord.”