Part 205

16:18. For they that are such serve not Christ our Lord but their own belly: and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent.

16:19. For your obedience is published in every place. I rejoice therefore in you. But I would have you to be wise in good and simple in evil.

16:20. And the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

16:21. Timothy, my fellow labourer, saluteth you: and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

16:22. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.

16:23. Caius, my host, and the whole church saluteth you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, saluteth you: and Quartus, a brother.

16:24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

16:25. Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from eternity;

16:26. (Which now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the precept of the eternal God, for the obedience of faith) known among all nations:

16:27. To God, the only wise, through Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS

St. Paul, having planted the faithful in Corinth, where he had preached a year and a half and converted a great many, went to Ephesus. After being there three years, he wrote this first Epistle to the Corinthians and sent it by the same persons, Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus, who had brought their letter to him. It was written about twenty-four years after our Lord's Ascension and contains several matters appertaining to faith and morals and also to ecclesiastical discipline.

1 Corinthians Chapter 1

He reproveth their dissensions about their teachers. The world was to be saved by preaching of the cross, and not by human wisdom or eloquence.

1:1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes a brother,

1:2. To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and ours.

1:3. Grace to you and peace, from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:4. I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus:

1:5. That in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge;

1:6. As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

1:7. So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:8. Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the days of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:9. God is faithful: by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1:10. Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms among you: but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1:11. For it hath been signified unto me, my brethren, of you, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

1:12. Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul; and I am of Apollo; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

1:13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

1:14. I give God thanks, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Caius: