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1 Corinthians 1 (AMP)

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¹ PAUL, SUMMONED by the will and purpose of God to be an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, ² To the church (assembly) of God which is in Corinth, to those consecrated and purified and made holy in Christ Jesus, selected and called to be saints (God's people), together with all those who in any place call upon and give honor to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: ³ Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ I thank my God at all times for you because of the grace (the favor and spiritual blessing) of God which was bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in Him in every respect you were enriched, in full power and readiness of speech and complete knowledge and illumination . ⁶ In this way witnessing concerning Christ (the Messiah) was so confirmed and established and made sure in you ⁷ That you are not falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace , while you wait and watch for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and being made visible to all. ⁸ And He will establish you to the end guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). ⁹ God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ¹⁰ But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony and full agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in your opinions and judgments. ¹¹ For it has been made clear to me, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions and wrangling and factions among you. ¹² What I mean is this, that each one of you says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas (Peter), or I belong to Christ. ¹³ Is Christ (the Messiah) divided into parts? Was Paul crucified on behalf of you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ Lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name. ¹⁶ I did baptize the household of Stephanas also. More than these, I do not remember that I baptized anyone. ¹⁷ For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect). ¹⁸ For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, I will baffle and render useless and destroy the learning of the learned and the philosophy of the philosophers and the cleverness of the clever and the discernment of the discerning; I will frustrate and nullify and bring to nothing. ²⁰ Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world's wisdom? ²¹ For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching , to save those who believed (who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him). ²² For while Jews ask for signs and miracles and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom, ²³ We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block , and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense. ²⁴ But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. ²⁵ because the foolish thing God is wiser than men, and the weak thing from God is stronger than men. ²⁶ For consider your own call, brethren; not many wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth. ²⁷ for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame. ²⁸ And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹ So that no mortal man should boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, our Righteousness , and our Consecration , and our Redemption . ³¹ So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord.