1 Corinthians 1

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is God's power. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the understanding of the intelligent.”

20Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the world's wisdom foolish? 21For since, in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased through the foolishness of what is proclaimed to save those who believe.

22For Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and God's wisdom.

25For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

God’s Choice of the Lowly

26Consider your calling, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowborn and despised things of the world—things that are not—to bring to nothing the things that are, 29so that no human being may boast before God.

30But it is from God that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness, holiness, and redemption— 31so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”