14. I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.
15. I am thankful, because now no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
16. (I also baptized the family of Stephanas. But I do not remember that I myself baptized any others.)
17. Christ did not give me the work of baptizing people. He gave me the work of preaching the Good News, and he sent me to preach the Good News without using words of worldly wisdom. If I used worldly wisdom to tell the Good News, the cross of Christ would lose its power.
18. The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those who are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19. It is written in the Scriptures:“I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom.I will make the wise men unable to understand.” Isaiah 29:14
20. Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the philosopher of our times? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish.
21. The world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe it.
22. The Jews ask for miracles as proofs. The Greeks want wisdom.