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1 C O RIN T H I A N S 2
about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. 12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower
of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,”
or “I follow Peter,*” or “I follow only Christ.”
13 Has Christ been divided into factions?
Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you
baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you
except Crispus and Gaius, 15 for now no one can
say they were baptized in my name. 16 (Oh yes,
I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but
I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.) 17 For
Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach
the Good News—and not with clever speech, for
fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.
— promises —
from God
“No eye has seen, no ear
has heard, and no mind
has imagined what God
has prepared for those
who love him.”
1 C O R I N T H I A N S 2:9
The Wisdom of God
18 The message of the cross is foolish to those
who are headed for destruction! But we who are
being saved know it is the very power of God.
19 As the Scriptures say,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and discard the intelligence of the
intelligent.”*
20 So where does this leave the philosophers,
the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world
look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to
it that the world would never know him through
human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to
the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it
is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say
it’s all nonsense.
24 But to those called by God to salvation,
both Jews and Gentiles,* Christ is the power of
God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan
of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans,
and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters,
that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes
or powerful or wealthy* when God called you.
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27 Instead, God chose things the world considers
foolish in order to shame those who think they
are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God
chose things despised by the world,* things
counted as nothing at all, and used them to
bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in
the presence of God.
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For
our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself.
Christ made us right with God; he made us pure
and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore,
as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast,
boast only about the Lord.”*
Paul’s Message of Wisdom
When I first came to you, dear brothers
and sisters,* I didn’t use lofty words and
impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret
plan.* 2 For I decided that while I was with you I
would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the
one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4 And my message
and my preaching were very plain. Rather than
using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied
only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this
so you would trust not in human wisdom but in
the power of God.
6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do
speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of
wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No,
the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God*—
his plan that was previously hidden, even
though he made it for our ultimate glory before
the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world
have not understood it; if they had, they would
not have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is
what the Scriptures mean when they say,
2
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”*
10 But* it was to us that God revealed these
things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out
everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except
that person’s own spirit, and no one can know
God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And
we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s
spirit), so we can know the wonderful things
God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use
words that come from human wisdom. Instead,
1:12 Greek Cephas. 1:19 Isa 29:14. 1:24 Greek and Greeks.
1:26 Or high born. 1:28 Or God chose those who are low
born. 1:31 Jer 9:24. 2:1a Greek brothers. 2:1b Greek God’s
mystery; other manuscripts read God’s testimony. 2:7 Greek
But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery. 2:9 Isa 64:4.
2:10 Some manuscripts read For.