1 Corinthians 1-2
New International Version (NIV)
1 Corinthians 1
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with
all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been
enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about
Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be
revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
A Church Divided Over Leaders
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one
another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and
thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among
you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas[b]”;
still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did
not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes,
I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ
did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be
emptied of its power.
Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 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;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[c]
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know
him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand
signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human
strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human
standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world
to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of
this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may
boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—
that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in
the Lord.”[d]
1 Corinthians 2
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom
as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[e] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus
Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching
were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not
rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of
this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God
destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”[f]—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their
own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we
have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has
freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit,
explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.[g] 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things
that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are
discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person
is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”[h]
But we have the mind of Christ.