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1 Corinthians 1

Paul confronts a divided church with the crucified Christ, whose saving power overturns human pride and grounds their unity.

Paul writes with Sosthenes to the church at Corinth, thanking God for the grace and gifts they have received in Christ. People from Chloe’s household have reported quarrels: believers are grouping themselves around different names. Paul confronts these divisions by pointing to Christ’s crucifixion and their baptism. He then explains why the message of the cross overturns the world’s standards of wisdom and strength, leaving no ground for boasting before God.

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1Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2to the assembly of God which is at Corinth—those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:
3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I always thank my God concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,
5that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge—
6even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you—
7so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
8who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
10Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.
12Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
14I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.
16(I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)
17For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.
18For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, 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. I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
20Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
22For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,
23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks,
24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;
25because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;
27but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong.
28God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that don’t exist, that he might bring to nothing the things that exist,
29that no flesh should boast before God.
30Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31that, as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
1 Corinthians 1:9God’s faithfulness grounds Paul’s confidence in a church whose gifts coexist with quarrels and divided loyalties.
1 Corinthians 1:10Paul appeals through Christ’s name for shared conviction and an end to the divisions reported from Corinth.
1 Corinthians 1:30Paul locates the believers’ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption in Christ, leaving their boasting directed toward the Lord.
Where this chapter reaches

Paul quotes Isaiah’s declaration that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise, connecting the cross with God’s judgment on human pretension. Acts shares the Corinthian setting and names Paul and Crispus, placing people mentioned in this letter within its account of the church’s beginnings.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does Paul’s thanksgiving shape the way you hear his correction of the Corinthians?

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Where do the cross and God’s choice of the weak challenge your measures of wisdom or worth?

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Questions people ask about 1 Corinthians 1

Why were there divisions in the Corinthian church?

Chloe’s household reported quarrels, and Paul describes believers claiming allegiance to Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. The chapter does not explain how each group formed or what each taught. Paul challenges their loyalties by pointing to the one Christ who was crucified for them and whose name defines their baptism.

What does the foolishness of God mean in 1 Corinthians 1?

Paul uses this phrase while describing how the crucified Christ is received: some hear foolishness, while those God calls find his power and wisdom. The phrase takes up human judgments about the cross. Paul’s claim is that God’s saving work surpasses human wisdom and strength, even where people despise it.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).