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- ¶ PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and brother Sosthenes,
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- To the church of God which is at Corinth, the invited and holy ones who are sanctified by Jesus Christ, and to all of them in every place who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours:
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- Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
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- I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God that has been given to you by Jesus Christ;
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- For in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge;
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- Because the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you,
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- And you do not lack any of his gifts but wait for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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- Who will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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- God, by whom you have been called to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our LORD, is trustworthy.
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- ¶ Now I beseech you, my brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be of one accord, and let there be no divisions among you but be perfectly united in one mind and in one thought.
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- For I have been informed about you, my brethren, by the household of Chloe that there are disputes among you.
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- Now this I say because there are some among you who say, I am a follower of Paul;
and some who say, I am a follower of Apollos;
and some who say, I am a follower of Kepa;
and some who say, I am a follower of Christ.
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- Why?
Is Christ divided?
or was Paul crucified for you?
or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
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- ¶ I confess to my God that I have baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius;
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- So no man can say that I have baptized in my own name.
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- And I baptized also the household of Stephanas.
I do not know whether I have baptized any one else.
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- ¶ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel;
and not to rely on the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be in vain.
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- For the preaching of the cross to those who have gone astray is foolishness;
but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
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- For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will do away with the understanding of the prudent.
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- Where is the wise?
where is the scribe?
where is the learned of this world?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
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- Because all the wisdom which God had given was not sufficient for the world to know God, it pleased God to save those who believe by the simple gospel.
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- For the Jews demand signs and the Arameans seek after wisdom;
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- But we preach Christ crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Arameans;
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- But for those who are called, both Jews and Arameans, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;
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- Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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- For consider also your own calling, my brethren, not many among you are wise in terms of worldly things and not many among you are mighty and not many among you belong to the nobility.
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- But God has chosen the foolish ones of the world to put the wise to shame;
and God has chosen the weak ones of the world to embarrass the mighty;
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- And he has chosen those of humble families in the world, and the lowly and those who are insignificant, in order to belittle those who consider themselves important,
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- So that no man should boast in his presence.
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- But you also belong to God through Jesus Christ who, from God, is wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and salvation to all of us.
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- As it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
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