Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will, and Sosthenes the brother,

To 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:

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus,

so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith].

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

So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

And He will also confirm you to the end [keeping you strong and free of any accusation, so that you will be] blameless and beyond reproach in the day [of the return] of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that there be not among you divisions; but that ye be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same opinion.

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

Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name?

Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with clever words, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.

For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God's power.

For so it stands written, "I will exhibit the nothingness of the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nought."

Where 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?

For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.

but to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's power and God's wisdom.

because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,

so that no flesh should boast before God.

But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

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

When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come and tell you about God's secret with rhetorical language or wisdom.

And so far as I myself was concerned, I came to you in conscious feebleness and in fear and in deep anxiety.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power.

Yet there is a wisdom that we impart when we are with people who have a mature faith, but it is not what this world calls wisdom, nor what the authorities of this world, doomed as they are to pass away, would call so.

but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:

Not one of this world's leaders understands it, for if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

but as it is written, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him.

For God has unveiled them and revealed them to us through the [Holy] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things [diligently], even [sounding and measuring] the [profound] depths of God [the divine counsels and things far beyond human understanding].

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else's evaluation.

For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].

So, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

For I fed you with milk, not with solid food [i.e., with basic fundamentals instead of more advanced teaching. See Heb. 5:12-13] because you were not able to absorb it,

you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

for when one may say, 'I, indeed, am of Paul;' and another, 'I -- of Apollos;' are ye not fleshly?

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

I [Paul] planted [i.e., preached God's word], Apollos watered [it], but God made it grow.

So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

So he planting, and he watering, are one, and each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds upon it.

On that foundation, if a man proceeds to build gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man's work will be made manifest.

Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Do you not know and understand that you [the church] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells [permanently] in you [collectively and individually]?

If anyone destroys the temple of God [corrupting it with false doctrine], God will destroy the destroyer; for the temple of God is holy (sacred), and that is what you are.

No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness (absurdity, stupidity) before God; for it is written [in Scripture], “[He is] The one who catches the wise and clever in their craftiness;”

And again, it says [Psa. 94:11], "The Lord knows that the thoughts of 'wise people' are worthless."

So that let no one boast in men; for all things are yours.

whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all things are your's;

And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

This being so, it follows that fidelity is what is required in stewards.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

So that do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord shall come, who shall also both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall each have his praise from God.

Now I have applied these things [that is, the analogies about factions] to myself and Apollos for your benefit, believers, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written [in Scripture], so that none of you will become arrogant and boast in favor of one [minister or teacher] against the other.

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

[You behave as if] you are already filled [with spiritual wisdom and in need of nothing more]. Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts]! You [in your conceit] have ascended your thrones and become kings without us; and how I wish [that it were true and] that you did reign as kings, so that we might reign with you.

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles at the end of the line, like men sentenced to death [and paraded as prisoners in a procession], because we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world’s amphitheater], both to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

we work hard with our hands. [Though] we are cursed, we [ask God's] blessing [on people]; [though] we are persecuted, we persevere;

when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the world’s garbage, like the dirt everyone scrapes off their sandals.

I am not saying these things to put you to shame, but so that, as my dear children, you may see what is right.

So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father].

That's why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and dependable son in the Lord and will help you remember how I live for the Messiah Jesus as I teach everywhere in every church.

But some of you have become conceited over the thought that I am not coming to see you.

But I will come to you soon if it's the Lord's will. Then I'll discover not only what these arrogant people are saying but also what power they have,

For God's kingdom is not a matter of [impressive] words, but of [spiritual] power.

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst?

For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

to deliver, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ), him that has so wrought this:

to deliver him, I say, being such, to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

This pride of yours is not good. Do you not see that a little leaven makes a change in all the mass?

Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.

so that let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.

But actually, I have written to you not to associate with any so-called [Christian] brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater [devoted to anything that takes the place of God], or is a reviler [who insults or slanders or otherwise verbally abuses others], or is a drunkard or a swindler—you must not so much as eat with such a person.

while you leave to God's judgement those who are outside? Remove the wicked man from among you.

If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people?

Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgement upon the world? And if you are the court before which the world is to be judged, are you unfit to deal with these petty matters?

Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels--to say nothing of things belonging to this life?

So if you have cases pertaining to this life, do you select those who have no standing in the church to judge?

I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian, and do this before unbelievers?

To say no more, then, it is altogether a defect in you that you have law-suits with one another. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather submit to being defrauded?

On the contrary, it is you who wrong and defraud, and you do this even to your brothers and sisters.

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality,

no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.