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Chapter 16
Personal Greetings
1I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servantOr deaconess of the church in Cenchrea.
2I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.
3Greet PriscillaGreek Prisca, a variant of Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.
4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
5Greet also the church that meets at their house.
Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
6Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.
7Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
8Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord.
9Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
10Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
11Greet Herodion, my relative.
Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
12Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.
Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.
13Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
14Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers with them.
15Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them.
16Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the churches of Christ send greetings.
17I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
18For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
21Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.
22I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.
23Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.
Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.Some manuscripts their greetings. 24 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Amen.
24
25Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
26but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him–
27to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
1 Corinthians
Chapter 1
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ–their Lord and ours:
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
5For in him you have been enriched in every way–in all your speaking and in all your knowledge–
6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
Divisions in the Church
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow CephasThat is, Peter”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized intoOr in; also in verse 15 the name of Paul?
14I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15so no one can say that you were baptized into my name.
16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.)
17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For 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.
19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”Isaiah 29:14
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21For 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.
22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
26Brothers, 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.
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are,
29so that no one may boast before him.
30It 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.
31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”Jer. 9:24
Chapter 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.Some manuscripts as I proclaimed to you God's mystery
2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,
5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Wisdom From the Spirit
6We 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.
7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”Isaiah 64:4–
10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.Or Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual men
14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16“For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?”Isaiah 40:13
But we have the mind of Christ.

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