10. By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my brothers and sisters, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose.
11. For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you.
12. Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ”.
13. Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?
14. I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.
15. No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples.
16. (Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.)
17. Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.
18. For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power.
19. The scripture says:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wiseand set aside the understanding of the scholars.”
20. So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skilful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!
21. For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe.
22. Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.
23. As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;
24. but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25. For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
26. Now remember what you were, my brothers and sisters, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing.