The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 1 - 6
1 FROM PAUL, APOSTLE of Jesus Christ at God's call and by
God's will, together with our colleague Sosthenes, to the congrega-
tion of God's people at Corinth, dedicated to him in Christ Jesus.
claimed by him as his own, along with men everywhere who invoke the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord as well as ours.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am always thanking God for you. I thank him for his grace given to
you in Christ Jesus. I thank him for all the enrichment that has come to
you in Christ. You possess full knowledge and you can give full expression
to it, because in you the evidence for the truth of Christ has found con-
firmation. There is indeed no single gift you lack, while you wait expec-
tantly for our Lord Jesus Christ to reveal himself. He will keep you firm
to the end, without reproach on the Day of our Lord Jesus. It is God him-
self who called you to share in the life of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
and God keeps faith.
I appeal to you, my brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
agree among yourselves, and avoid divisions; be firmly joined in unity of
mind and thought. I have been told, my brothers, by Chloe's people that
there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: each of you is saying,
I am Paul's man', or 'I am for Apollos'; 'I follow Cephas', or 'I am
Christ's.' Surely Christ has not been divided among you! Was it Paul who
was crucified for you? Was it in the name of Paul that you were baptized?
Thank God, I never baptized one of you — except Crispus and Gaius. So
no one can say you were baptized in my name. — Yes, I did baptize the
household of Stephanas; I cannot think of anyone else. Christ did not send
me to baptize, but to proclaim the Gospel; and to do it without relying
on the language of worldly wisdom, so that the fact of Christ on his cross
might have its full weight.
This doctrine of the cross is sheer folly to those on their way to ruin,
but to us who are on the way to salvation it is the power of God. Scripture
says, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the
cleverness of the clever.' Where is your wise man now, your man of learn-
ing, or your subtle debater — limited, all of them, to this passing age?
God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. As God in his wisdom
ordained, the world failed to find him by its wisdom, and he chose to save
those who have faith by the folly of the Gospel. Jews call for miracles,
Greeks look for wisdom; but we proclaim Christ — yes, Christ, nailed to the
cross; and though this is a stumbling-block to Jews and folly to Greeks,
yet to those who have heard this call, Jews and Greeks alike, he is the power
of God and the wisdom of God.
Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of man, and divine weakness
stronger than man's strength. My brothers, think what sort of people you
are, whom God has called. Few of you are men of wisdom, by any human
standard; few are powerful or highly born. Yet, shame to the wise, God
has chosen what the world counts weakness. He has chosen things low and
contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order. And so
there is no place for human pride in the presence of God. You are in Christ
Jesus by God's act, for God has made him our wisdom; he is righteous-
ness; in him we are consecrated and set free. And so (in the words of
Scripture), 'If a man must boast, let him boast of the Lord.'
2 As for me, brothers, I came to you, I declare the attested truth of
God without display of fine words or wisdom. I resolve that while I was
with you I would think of nothing but Jesus Christ — Christ nailed to the
cross. I came before you weak, nervous, and shaking with fear. The word
I spoke, the gospel I proclaimed, did not sway you with subtle arguments;
it carried conviction by spiritual power, so that your faith might be built
not upon human wisdom but upon the power of God.
And yet I do speak words of wisdom to those who are ripe for it, not a
wisdom belonging to this passing age, nor to any of its governing powers,
which are declining to their end; I speak God's hidden wisdom, his secret
purpose framed from the very beginning to bring us to our full glory. The
powers that rule the world have never known it; if they had, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, in the words of Scripture,
'Things beyond our seeing, things beyond our hearing, things beyond our
imagining, all prepared by God for those who love him', these it is that
God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God's own
nature. Among men, who knows what a man is but the man's own spirit
within him? In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows what God is.
This is the Spirit that we have received from God, and not the spirit of
the world, so that we may know all that God of his own grace has given us;
and, because we are interpreting spiritual truths to those who have the
Spirit, we speak of these gifts of God in words found for us not by our
human wisdom but by the Spirit. A man who is unspiritual refuses what
belongs to the Spirit of God; it is folly to him; he cannot grasp it, because
it needs to be judged in the light of the Spirit. A man gifted with the Spirit
can judge the worth of everything, but is not himself subject to judgement
by his fellow-men. For (in the words of Scripture) 'who knows the mind of
the Lord? Who can advise him?' We, however, possess the mind of
Christ.
3 FOR MY PART, my brothers, I could not speak to you as I should speak
to people who have the Spirit. I had to deal with you on the merely natural
plane, as infants in Christ. And so I gave you milk to drink, instead of solid
food, for which you were not yet ready. Indeed, you are still not ready for
it, for you are still on the merely natural plane. Can you not see that while
there is jealousy and strife among you, you are living on the purely human
level of your lower nature? When one says, 'I am Paul's man', and anther,
I am for Apollos', are you not all too human?
After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? We are simply God's agents
in bringing you to the faith. Each of us performed the task which the Lord
allotted to him: I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it; but God made
it grow. Thus it is not the gardeners with their planting and watering who
count, but God, who makes it grow. Whether they plant or water, they work
as a team, though each will get his own pay for his own labour. We are
God's fellow-workers; and you are God's garden.
Or again, you are God's building. I am like a skilled master-builder
who by God's grace laid the foundation, and someone else is putting up
the building. Let each take care how he builds. There can be no other
foundation beyond that which is already laid; I mean Jesus Christ himself.
If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, and fine stone, or
with wood, hay, and straw, the work that each man does will at last be
brought to light; the day of judgement will expose it. For that day dawns
in fire, and the fire will test the worth of each man's work. If a man's build-
ing stands, he will be rewarded; if it burns, he will have to bear the loss;
and yet he will escape with his life, as one might from a fire. Surely you
know that you are God's temple, where the Spirit of God dwells. Anyone
who destroys God's temple will himself be destroyed by God, because the
temple of God is holy; and that temple you are.
Make no mistake about this: if there is anyone among you who fancies
himself wise — wise, I mean, by the standards of this passing age — he must
become a fool to gain true wisdom. For the wisdom of this world is folly in
God's sight. Scripture says, 'He traps the wise in their own cunning', and
again, 'The Lord knows that the arguments of the wise are futile.' So never
make mere men a cause for pride. For though everything belongs to you —
Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, the world, life, and death, the present and the
future, all of them belong to you — yet you belong to Christ, and Christ
to God.
4 We must be regarded as Christ's subordinates and as stewards of the
secrets of God. Well then, stewards are expected to show themselves trust-
worthy. For my part, if I am called to account by you or any human court
of judgement, it does not matter to me in the least. Why, I do not even pass
judgement on myself, for I have nothing on my conscience; but that does
not mean I stand acquitted. My judge is the Lord. So pass no premature
judgement; wait until the Lord comes. For he will bring to light what
darkness hides, and disclose men's inward motives; then will be the time
for each to receive from God such praise as he deserves.
Into this general picture, my friends, I have brought Apollos and myself
on your account, so that you may take our case as an example, and learn
to 'keep within the rules', as they say, and may not be inflated with pride
as you patronize one and flout the other. Who makes you, my friend, so
important? What do you possess that was not given to you? If then you really
received it all as a gift, why take the credit to yourself?
All of you, no doubt, have everything you could desire. You have come
into your fortune already. You have come into your kingdom — and left us
out. How I wish you had indeed won your kingdom; then you might
share it with us! For it seems to me God has made us apostles the most
abject of mankind. We are like men condemned to death in the arena, a
spectacle to the whole universe — angels as well as men. We are fools for
Christ's sake, while you are such sensible Christians. We are weak; you
are so powerful. We are in disgrace; you are honoured. To this day we go
hungry and thirsty and in rags; we are roughly handled; we wander from
place to place; we wear ourselves out working with our own hands. They
curse us, and we bless; they persecute us, and we submit to it; they slander
us, and we humbly make our appeal. We are treated as the scum of the
earth, the dregs of humanity, to this very day.
I am not writing thus to shame you, but to bring you to reason; for you
are my dear children. You may have ten thousand tutors in Christ, but
you have only one father. For in Christ Jesus you are my offspring, and
mine alone, through the preaching of the Gospel. I appeal to you there-
fore to follow my example. That is the very reason why I have sent Timothy,
who is a dear son to me and a most trustworthy Christian; he will remind
you of the way of life in Christ which I follow, and which I teach every-
where in all our congregations. There are certain persons who are filled
with self-importance because they think I am not coming to Corinth. I shall
come very soon, if the Lord will; and then I shall take the measure of these
self-important people, not by what they say, but by what power is in them.
The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. Choose, then: am
I to come to you with a rod in my hand, or in love and a gentle spirit?
5 I ACTUALLY HEAR REPORTS of sexual immorality among you, im-
morality such as even pagans do not tolerate: the union of man with his
father's wife. And you can still be proud of yourselves! You ought to have
gone into mourning; a man who has done such a deed should have been
rooted out of your company. For my part, though I am absent in body, I
am present in spirit, and my judgement upon the man who did this thing is
already given, as if I were indeed present: you all being assembled in the
name of our Lord Jesus, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our
Lord Jesus over us, this man is to be consigned to Satan for the destruction
of the body, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
Your self-satisfaction ill becomes you. Have you never heard the saying,
'A little leaven leavens all the dough'? The old leaven of corruption is work-
ing among you. Purge it out, and then you will be bread of a new baking.
As Christians you are unleavened Passover bread; for indeed our Passover
has begun; the sacrifice is offered — Christ himself. So we who observe the
festival must not use the old leaven, the leaven of corruption and wicked-
ness, but only the unleavened bread which is sincerity and truth.
In my letter I wrote that you must have nothing to do with loose livers.
I was not, of course, referring to pagans who lead loose lives or are grabbers
and swindlers and idolaters. To avoid them you would have to get out of the
world altogether. I now write that you must have nothing to do with any
so-called Christians who lead a loose life, or is grasping, or idolatrous, a
slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. You should not even eat with any
such person. What business of mine is it to judge outsiders? God is their
judge. You are judges within the fellowship. Root out the evil-doer from
your community.
6 IF ONE OF YOUR NUMBER has a dispute with another, has he the face to
take it to pagan law-courts instead of to the community of God's people?
It is God's people who are to judge the world; surely you know that. And
if the world is to come before you in judgement, are you incompetent to
deal with these trifling cases? Are you not aware that we are to judge angels?
How much more, mere matters of business! If therefore you have such
business disputes, how can you entrust jurisdiction to outsiders, men
who count for nothing in our community? I write this to shame you. Can
it be that there is not a single wise man among you able to give a decision
in a brother-Christian's cause? Must brother go to law with brother — and
before unbelievers? Indeed, you already fall below your standard in going
to law with one another at all. Why not rather suffer injury? Why not
rather let yourself be robbed? So far from this, you actually injure and
rob — injure and rob your brothers! Surely you know that the unjust will
never come into possession of he kingdom of God. Make no mistake: no
fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homo-
sexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or
swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God. Such were some of you. But
you have been through purifying waters; you have been dedicated to
God and justified through the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of
our God.
'I am free to do anything', you say. Yes, but not everything is for my
good. No doubt I am free to do anything, but I for one will not let anything
make free with me. 'Food is for the belly and the belly for food', you say.
True; and one day God will put an end to both. But it is not true that the
body is for lust; it is for the Lord— and the Lord for the body. God not
only raised our Lord from the dead; he will also raise us by his power. Do
you not know that your bodies are limbs and organs of Christ? Shall I then
take from Christ his bodily parts and make them over to a harlot? Never!
You surely know that anyone who links himself with a harlot becomes
physically one with her (for Scripture says, 'The pair shall become one
flesh'); but he who links himself with Christ is one with him, spiritually.
Shun fornication. Every other sin that a man can commit is outside the
body; but the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you know that
your body is a shrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is God's
gift to you? You do not belong to yourselves; you were bought at a price.
Then honour God in your body.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Dec 25, 2018, 11:09 AM UTC · edited
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