Give my greetings to Epænetus my beloved, who is the firstfruit of Asia for Christ. Give my greetings to Mary, who has worked hard for you. Give my greetings to Andronicus and Junias, men of my race and my companions in prison, who are eminent among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Give my greetings to Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord. Give my greetings to Urbanus our fellow worker in Christ, and to Stachys my beloved. Give my greetings to Apelles, that tested man in Christ. Give my greetings to the household of Aristobulus. Give my greetings to Herodion, who is of my race. Give my greetings to those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Give my greetings to Tryphæna and Tryphosa, those workers in the Lord. Give my greetings to Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord. Give my greetings to Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and to his mother and mine. Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Petrobas, Hermas, and the brethren with them. Give my greetings to Philologus, and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the holy with them. Give my greetings to one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their greetings to you.

I beg you, brethren, to keep your eye on those who are making divisions and occasions for sin contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and to shun them. For such persons are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own stomachs, and by their smooth and pleasing talk they mislead the hearts of the innocent. For your obedience has come to the knowledge of all men. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I wish you to be wise regarding what is good, and simple in regard to what is evil. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you!

Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greeting, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, who are of my race. I, Tertius, who penned this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, sends his greetings. Erastus the city treasurer sends his greetings, and so does Quartus the brother.

To him who is able to make you strong according to the good news which I bear, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret through ages, but now made manifest through the prophetic Scriptures by the command of the eternal God, to promote obedience to the faith made known to all the Gentiles - to God, the only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for the ages of the ages!

PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

PAUL called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Sosthenes our brother, to the Church of God in Corinth, made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ!

I am always thanking God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you are rich in him in everything, in readiness of speech and in all knowledge, so that my testimony to Christ has been confirmed among you and so that you are not lacking in any gift while waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end and free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and it is by him that you have been called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I beg you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all to say the same thing and not to have divisions among you, but to be united in the same mind and in the same opinion. For it has been told me regarding you, brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are dissensions among you. I mean that each of you is saying, "I belong to Paul," "I belong to Apollos," "I belong to Cephas," or, "I belong to Christ." Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I am thankful that I baptized no one of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that I do not know that I baptized any one else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the good news not in wisdom of words, that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of meaning.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nought the prudence of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For when in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not come to know God, God was pleased to save through the foolishness of our proclamation those who believe. Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles folly, but to those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than men and God's weakness is stronger than

men.

Consider your own call, brethren, that not many wise, humanly speaking, not many powerful, not many high-born have been called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong, and God has chosen the low-born things and the things of no account, the things that are not, to defeat the things that are, that no human being may boast in God's presence. By God's act you are in Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom from God and righteousness and holiness and deliverance, so that, as it is written, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

II

AND I in coming to you, brethren, did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but with spiritual and powerful proof, that your faith might not depend on the wisdom of man but on the power of God. We do speak wisdom among the mature, but a wisdom not of this world nor of the defeated rulers of this world. But we speak a wisdom of

God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the world began for our glory. None of the rulers of this world knew it, for if they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, "What eye has not seen and what ear has not heard and what has not entered human mind, God has prepared for those who love him." To us God has revealed this by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who of men knows what pertains to a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Just so no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. But we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we know the gracious gifts of God. And these we speak of, not in words taught by man's wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual things in spiritual words. But the animal man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually understood. But the spiritual man understands all things though he himself is understood by no one. For "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will teach him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

III

AND I myself, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual, but as fleshly, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food. For you were not able to take it. Nor are you yet able, for you are still fleshly. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living in man's way? For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not men? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you were led to faith, as the Lord granted to each of us. I planted, Apollos watered, but God made the seed grow. So then neither is he who planted anything nor he who watered, but God who makes the seed grow. Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. We are God's fellow workers: you are God's farm God's building.

According to the grace of God granted to me, as a wise