Reflections on 1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 01 (Contemporary English Version)
1. From Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from Sosthenes, who is also a follower.
   
2. To God's church in Corinth. Christ Jesus chose you to be his very own people, and you worship in his name, as we and all others do who call him Lord.
   
3. My prayer is that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!
   
4. I never stop thanking my God for being kind enough to give you Christ Jesus,
   
5. who helps you speak and understand so well.
   
6. Now you are certain that everything we told you about our Lord Christ Jesus is true.
   
7. You are not missing out on any blessings, as you wait for him to return.
   
8. And until the day Christ does return, he will keep you completely innocent.
   
9. God can be trusted, and he chose you to be partners with his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
   
10. My dear friends, as a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you to get along with each other. Don't take sides. Always try to agree in what you think.
    
11. Several people from Chloe's family have already reported to me that you keep arguing with each other.
    
12. They have said that some of you claim to follow me, while others claim to follow Apollos or Peter or Christ.
    
13. Has Christ been divided up? Was I nailed to a cross for you? Were you baptized in my name?
    
14. I thank God that I didn't baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.
    
15. Not one of you can say that you were baptized in my name.
    
16. I did baptize the family of Stephanas, but I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.
    
17. Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the good news without using big words that would make the cross of Christ lose its power.
    
18. The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work.
    
19. As God says in the Scriptures, "I will destroy the wisdom of all who claim to be wise. I will confuse those who think they know so much."
    
20. What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish?
    
21. God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him. Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach.
    
22. Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise.
    
23. But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish.
    
24. Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen.
    
25. Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else.
    
26. My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families.
    
27. But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
    
28. What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important.
    
29. God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to him.
    
30. You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy.
    
31. So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord.
    
    

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    Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth is addressed to a church that is divided in conflict over who is best. This is first observed in this chapter in the divisions over whose disciples they were or whose side they were on. Some claimed to be with Paul, others with Apollos or Cephas, and still others with Christ. All trying to claim a greater position than the others. They were also similarly positioning themselves over spiritual gifts, saying look at my gift, as if one was better than another. Paul addresses this problem later in the letter.
    
    Right away, in this first chapter, Paul begins to speak to this conflict by repeatedly reminding them of their common spiritual roots in Christ. It was in Christ Jesus that they were sanctified "and called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." (1:2) They were all members of Christ's body along with all believers everywhere. If they were to take pride in anything, it should be this and not any abilities they might have or leaders they follow. Paul said he was glad he hadn't baptized any of them except for a couple so they couldn't say they were baptized in his name. It was Christ's name in which they were baptized, not his or any other.
    
    There is nothing clever or slick about the gospel. Instead, to people of the world it seems like foolishness. But it is not through wisdom that we come to know God and are saved. As a result, the philosophers and scholars and debaters of the world are not frequently drawn to Him since they try to filter Him through their learning. But Paul says that instead through wisdom, "God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached." (1:21) This is in contrast to what the Corinthian Christians were doing. They were taking pride in their supposed cleverness and wisdom. They were missing the point of the gospel and did not understand Christ. If they wanted to boast about their wisdom, Paul reminded them that "God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1:25) They had nothing about which to boast.
    
    In the closing verses of the chapter Paul tells the Corinthians to look at who they are. They will not find the powerful or those of noble birth among them. Those people are confounded by the gospel. God has intentionally chosen things viewed by the world as nothing so "He might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something." (1:28) The only boasting that is appropriate in the church is to "boast in the Lord." (1:31)