1. I Paul was divinely chosen to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ. In my calling the will of God was made manifest, and in this high office and appointment I now address you who are in Corinth, and with me Sosthenes, brother in the faith.
2. We speak to you who have also been sharers in this divine calling, whose lives have been enlarged and purified in Christ Jesus, who have received the holiness that comes from faith — and with you in this appeal I associate all who, in whatever place they may be, wherever we may be, do together with us invoke his name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. May grace come to you, may peace abide with you from God, who is the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Because of the grace that has come to you I feel incessant gratitude to God.
5. You have found the riches of the Christ; the word and the knowledge of God are spoken and fulfilled in your midst;
6. the witness of the Christ is there; it is unassailable evidence;
7. and the full measure of His gifts is counted in you, nothing is wanting for your completion, whilst you wait for that unveiling and revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.