8. Yes, there will be no faltering, no failure in his support of you, till you are made perfect, in the “end,” “the day” of our Lord Jesus Christ, the day of perfect revelation.
9. For God, through whom this calling, this share in His son Jesus Christ our Lord has come to you, is faithful in all His ways.
10. Through this name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I urge you — for that is the secret of his name — to have one mind, one persuasion and precept amongst you, to be all of one mind with one idea. O let schisms and divisions be unknown to you, for your perfection is in unity.
11. Strifes there are amongst you, it has come to my knowledge through the members who meet in Chloe's house.
12. They tell me some describe themselves as disciples of Paul, others of Apollos, others of Cephas, others of Christ —
13. but Christ is not divided. I was not crucified for you, nor were you baptised into my name.
14-15. For this very reason I was careful not to baptise disciples personally amongst you. It is to me a cause of gratitude to God that I baptised only Crispus and Gaius,
16. and also the household of Stephanas — not another soul, I think, did I baptise, and purposely, that it might not seem that I was making disciples.
17. Christ Jesus sent me not to baptise, but to make known the word of joy, not intellectually, not with the persuasive brilliance of personality and personal influence, lest the cross of the Christ should be obliterated and ruled out.
18. Cleverness, human wisdom, intellectual strength do not accomplish the mighty works of the Gospel. Ours is the word of the cross; it saves us; there is in it the power of God; but to those who are in the power of death and subject to its ever-increasing dominion, this word appears as folly, as an impertinence.
19. And so the word of the Bible comes true:— “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will make nothing of the intelligence of those who profess to know.” (Isa xxix. 14.)
20. Where is the wise, the scribe, the learned investigator of material things? God makes the wisdom of the world foolishness,
21. forasmuch as it was in that wisdom that the world lost the knowledge of God, it was by reason of that that its eyes were closed, and lo! the wisdom of God now appearing is proclaimed as a thing foolish in the sight of that old wisdom; but the preaching of this heavenly word saves, it saves all who have faith in it, who accept it spiritually. It does not commend itself to the old thought.
22. The Jews demand miracles and signs, the Greeks ask first and last for wisdom,