New Testament Plan

¹I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae.

²So you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help. For indeed she has been a benefactor of many — and of me also.

³Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus,

⁴who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches.

⁵Greet also the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

⁶Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners. They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me.

⁸Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

¹²Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother — and mine.

¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them.

¹⁵Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.

¹⁷Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them,

¹⁸because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.

¹⁹The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet 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 coworker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen, greet you.

²²I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.

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²⁵Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages

²⁶but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles —

²⁷to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ — to him be the glory forever! Amen.

¹Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes our brother:

²To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord — both their Lord and ours.

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus,

⁵that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge.

⁶In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you,

⁷so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

¹¹For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe’s people, that there is rivalry among you.

¹²What I am saying is this: One of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name?

¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

¹⁶I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t recall if I baptized anyone else.

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.

¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

¹⁹For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?

²¹For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.

²²For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom,

²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

²⁴Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God,

²⁵because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

²⁷Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

²⁸God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world  — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,

²⁹so that no one may boast in his presence.

³⁰It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

³¹in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

¹When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.

²I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

⁴My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

⁵so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

⁶We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

⁷On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived — God has prepared these things for those who love him.

¹⁰Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

¹³We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

¹⁴But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

¹⁵The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone.

¹⁶For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.