1 Corinthians 1
BSASBPaul greets the Corinthian church, thanks God for the gifts he gave them, and then turns to the main problem: they are splitting into factions around favorite teachers. He answers by pointing to the cross. God’s way of saving looks foolish to the world, yet it is his power, and it leaves no one any room to boast except in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:1
Paul opens by saying his apostleship did not come from his own choice or from men. He was called, and it was God’s will. Sosthenes, a brother known to the Corinthians, joins in the greeting.
BSA: called (“invited by God, for a special purpose”): Paul’s office began with God’s invitation, not his own ambition.
Greek: ἀπόστολος (apostolos, G652) — “one sent out with authority.” The word means a messenger sent with the sender’s authority. Paul speaks for Christ, not for himself.
1 Corinthians 1:2
The church belongs to God, not to any teacher. Its members are already set apart in Christ and are called to live as holy people. Paul also reaches beyond Corinth to every believer who calls on the Lord’s name.
BSA: sanctified (“made holy, set apart”): They are holy by God’s act and position in Christ, even though their behavior still falls short. church (“assembly, community of believers”): The church is a gathered people belonging to God, not a club around a leader.
See also: Romans 10:12-13.
1 Corinthians 1:3
Paul’s usual greeting joins grace and peace. Grace is God’s undeserved favor, and peace is the well-being that follows from it. Both flow from the Father and the Lord Jesus together.
BSA: Grace (“unmerited favor, divine influence”): Everything good in the Christian life starts as a gift, not as something earned.
1 Corinthians 1:4
Even though the church has serious faults, Paul begins with thanks. He sees God’s grace at work in them. Their blessings are given in Christ, not produced by their own cleverness.
BSA: grace (“divine, gracious”): What they have is God’s gracious gift, which prepares the ground for Paul’s later warning against boasting.
1 Corinthians 1:5-6
In Christ the Corinthians were made rich, especially in speaking and in knowledge. These gifts were a sign that the message about Christ had taken firm root among them. The riches came from him.
BSA: enriched (“made spiritually wealthy, given abundant resources”): Their wealth was spiritual and was given to them, not earned. confirmed (“established, made certain”): God’s work among them proved that the gospel was true.
1 Corinthians 1:7
No spiritual gift was missing from the church. Yet gifts are not the goal. They are given to people who are waiting for Jesus to be revealed. The believer’s eyes are fixed on his return.
BSA: revelation (“disclosure, unveiling”): Christ is now unseen, but one day he will be openly shown to all.
Greek: ἀποκάλυψιν (apokalypsin, G602) — “unveiling.” The word pictures a curtain drawn back. What is now hidden will one day be plainly seen.
See also: Titus 2:13.
1 Corinthians 1:8
Christ himself will keep them firm until the end. On the day of the Lord, no charge against them will stand. Their hope of standing blameless rests on his keeping power, not on their own steadiness.
BSA: blameless (“irreproachable, unaccusable”): No accusation will stick, because Christ has dealt with it.
See also: Philippians 1:6; Jude 1:24.
1 Corinthians 1:9
Paul gives the ground of this confidence: God is faithful. He called them into shared life with his Son, and he will finish what he began. Their security depends on his character.
BSA: fellowship (“partnership”): Believers share in Christ’s life and in one another, which makes division especially tragic.
Greek: κοινωνίαν (koinōnian, G2842) — “sharing, partnership.” The word means holding something in common. They share Christ together, so they cannot rightly split into camps.
1 Corinthians 1:10
Now Paul turns to the problem. He urges them by Christ’s name to stop their divisions and be joined together in thinking and purpose. He is asking for real unity of heart and mind, not for every opinion to be identical.
BSA: united (“perfectly joined, complete”): The picture is of something broken being fully mended. divisions (“splits, separations”): The word describes tears in a single piece of cloth.
Greek: σχίσματα (schismata, G4978) — “splits, rips.” The word is used of a tear in cloth. Paul sees the church as one fabric being ripped.
See also: Ephesians 4:3.
1 Corinthians 1:11
Paul does not rely on gossip. He names his source, people of Chloe’s household, who reported openly. The trouble was real: quarrels were breaking out among believers.
BSA: quarrels (“contentions, strife”): These were active disputes, not merely different preferences.
1 Corinthians 1:12
The church had formed camps around favorite leaders. Some preferred Paul, some Apollos, some Peter. Even those who said they followed Christ may have been using his name to look better than the others.
BSA: follow (“am loyal to, am a disciple of”): They were claiming loyalty to a person instead of to Christ alone.
See also: 1 Corinthians 3:4-6.
1 Corinthians 1:13
Paul answers with three sharp questions. Christ cannot be cut into pieces. Paul did not die for them. They were not baptized in his name. Only Christ has a claim on their loyalty.
BSA: baptized (“immersed, fully wet”): Baptism marks a person as belonging to the one in whose name it is done. crucified (“nailed to the cross, impaled”): Only Christ’s death can claim the believer’s allegiance.
1 Corinthians 1:14-16
Paul is glad he baptized only a few, so that no one could say they belonged to him. Then he recalls Stephanas’s household and admits he cannot remember others. His point is not that baptism is unimportant, but that it should never become a badge for a leader.
BSA: household (“family, those belonging to the house”): Whole families came to faith together in that day.
See also: Acts 18:8.
1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul’s main task was to proclaim the gospel. He did so without polished, showy rhetoric, because clever speech could draw attention to the speaker and away from the cross. The cross has power in itself and needs no decoration.
BSA: emptied (“made void, deprived of power”): Eloquence used for show could drain the cross of its force.
Greek: κενωθῇ (kenōthē, G2758) — “be emptied.” The word means to make hollow or void. Paul fears that human cleverness might leave the cross hollow.
1 Corinthians 1:18
The same message produces two reactions. To those on the road to ruin, a crucified savior sounds absurd. To those being saved, it is God’s own power at work. The message has not changed. The difference is in the hearers.
BSA: perishing (“being destroyed, lost, or dying”): The word describes an ongoing path, not only a final outcome. power (“miraculous ability or strength”): The cross does something. It is not only a doctrine.
Greek: δύναμις (dynamis, G1411) — “power, ability.” This is the word behind ‘dynamite’. The cross is God’s active strength to change lives.
See also: Romans 1:16.
1 Corinthians 1:19
Paul quotes Isaiah to show that God has always planned to overturn human pride in wisdom. What the clever trust in will be brought to nothing. The cross is not a surprise to Scripture.
BSA: frustrate (“reject”): God sets aside the schemes of the proud as worthless.
See also: Isaiah 29:14.
1 Corinthians 1:20
Paul asks where the wise, the scholar and the debater are now. Whatever human learning can discover, it did not lead people to God. God has shown that worldly wisdom is empty on the one question that matters most.
BSA: philosopher (“debater, disputer”): The word points to the skilled arguer of the age, who loved to win discussions.
1 Corinthians 1:21
God arranged things so that the world, with all its wisdom, could not find him by its own cleverness. Instead he chose a message that looks foolish, and he saves everyone who simply trusts it. Salvation is a gift to be believed, not a puzzle to be solved.
BSA: believe (“trust in, have faith in”): Salvation is received by trust, which is open to the simple and the learned alike. pleased (“delighted, thought well of”): This was no reluctant plan. God freely chose this way.
See also: Romans 1:20-22.
1 Corinthians 1:22-23
Each group wants something different. Jews asked for miracles as proof, and Greeks looked for clever philosophy. Paul gives neither, only Christ crucified. To Jews this was an offense, and to Gentiles it was nonsense.
BSA: stumbling block (“a rock of offense, a trap-stick”): The cross trips up those who expected a conquering Messiah. foolishness (“silly, absurd behavior”): To educated Gentiles, worshiping an executed man seemed ridiculous.
Greek: σκάνδαλον (skandalon, G4625) — “stumbling block, trap.” The word originally meant the trigger of a trap. The cross catches those who expect God to work only in obvious strength.
See also: Galatians 5:11.
1 Corinthians 1:24
For those whom God has called, whether Jew or Greek, the same cross shows what the others cannot see. Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. The call of God opens eyes that human effort cannot open.
BSA: called (“specifically, divinely”): God’s own call makes the difference between hearing nonsense and seeing wisdom.
1 Corinthians 1:25
What looks like God’s foolishness and weakness, a crucified Savior, outdoes the best of human wisdom and strength. Paul does not say God is foolish. He says that even God’s seeming weakest act is greater than man’s best.
BSA: weakness (“feebleness, lack of strength”): At the cross God appeared weak, yet that act was his greatest strength.
See also: 2 Corinthians 13:4.
1 Corinthians 1:26
Paul asks them to look at themselves. When God called them, few were clever, influential or well born. The church was made up mostly of ordinary people. He does not say none were, but not many.
BSA: calling (“invitation to salvation”): Their own story shows that God’s invitation does not depend on status. noble birth (“high-ranking, generous”): Social rank counted for much in Corinth, but not with God.
1 Corinthians 1:27-28
God deliberately chooses what the world looks down on, in order to shame what it admires. He even chooses what counts as nothing, to bring down what counts as something. His choices turn human ranking upside down.
BSA: nullify (“bring to nothing, make useless”): God strips worldly status of its power to impress. despised (“rejected, treated with contempt”): God picks the very ones others look down on.
Greek: καταργήσῃ (katargēsē, G2673) — “make powerless, bring to nothing.” The word means to render something ineffective. God removes the force from what the world thinks is important.
See also: James 2:5.
1 Corinthians 1:29
The purpose is plain. Since God picks the unlikely and does the saving himself, no human being can stand before him and take the credit. Salvation leaves boasting no place.
BSA: boast (“glory, take pride”): Pride has nothing to stand on when everything is a gift.
See also: Ephesians 2:8-9.
1 Corinthians 1:30
Believers are in Christ because of God’s own doing. Christ has become wisdom for us, and in him we have three gifts: being made right with God, being set apart for him, and being freed at a price. Everything is found in him.
BSA: righteousness (“justification, being made right with God”): In Christ we stand rightly before God. redemption (“freedom from sin, salvation”): Christ buys believers out of slavery.
Greek: ἀπολύτρωσις (apolytrōsis, G629) — “redemption, release by ransom.” The word comes from the world of buying back a captive. Christ paid the price for our freedom.
See also: Romans 3:24.
1 Corinthians 1:31
Paul closes with a line from Jeremiah. If anyone has something to be proud of, let it be the Lord and what he has done. Pride in teachers, wisdom or status gives way to praise of God.
BSA: boast (“glory, rejoice”): Boasting is not wrong in itself. It must be turned toward the Lord.
See also: Jeremiah 9:23-24.