493 : Paul Writes To The Corinthians
"To the church of God which is at Corinth: Grace be unto you,
and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you.
For it has been declared to me that there are contentions among you.
"I thank God that I baptized none of you. For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should lose its significance.
"For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish.
But to us who are saved, it is the power of God.
For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.'
"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumblingblock to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.
But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God,
and the wisdom of God.
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
ROLE OF THE APOSTLES
"I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as if sentenced to death.
For we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men.
We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but you are strong. You are honourable, but we are despised.
"Even to this present hour,
we hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place.
We labour, working with our own hands.
Being reviled, we bless.
Being persecuted, we bear it. Being defamed, we conciliate.
We are like the filth of the world, the refuse of all things.
"I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy;
to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues;
to another the interpretation of tongues;
but in all these works but one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man as he will.
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