Letters to the Churches

And God, the source of shalom, will soon crush the Adversary under your feet. The grace of our Lord Yeshua be with you.

Timothy, my fellow-worker, sends greetings to you; so do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.

I, Tertius, the one writing down this letter, greet you in the Lord.

My host Gaius, in whose home the whole congregation meets, greets you. Erastus the city treasurer and brother Quartus greet you.

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

Now to God, who can strengthen you, according to my Good News, in harmony with the revelation of the secret truth which is the proclamation of Yeshua the Messiah, kept hidden in silence for ages and ages,

but manifested now through prophetic writings, in keeping with the command of God the Eternal, and communicated to all the Gentiles to promote in them trust-grounded obedience —

to the only wise God, through Yeshua the Messiah, be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

From: Sha’ul, called by God’s will to be an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua; and from brother Sosthenes

To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, consisting of those who have been set apart by Yeshua the Messiah and called to be God’s holy people — along with everyone everywhere who calls on the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, their Lord as well as ours:

Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

I thank my God always for you because of God’s love and kindness given to you through the Messiah Yeshua,

in that you have been enriched by him in so many ways, particularly in power of speech and depth of knowledge.

Indeed, the testimony about the Messiah has become firmly established in you;

so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift and are eagerly awaiting the revealing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

He will enable you to hold out until the end and thus be blameless on the Day of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah —

God is trustworthy: it was he who called you into fellowship with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.

Nevertheless, brothers, I call on you in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah to agree, all of you, in what you say, and not to let yourselves remain split into factions but be restored to having a common mind and a common purpose.

For some of Chloe’s people have made it known to me, my brothers, that there are quarrels among you.

I say this because one of you says, “I follow Sha’ul”; another says, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Kefa”; while still another says, “I follow the Messiah!”

Has the Messiah been split in pieces? Was it Sha’ul who was put to death on a stake for you? Were you immersed into the name of Sha’ul?

I thank God that I didn’t immerse any of you except Crispus and Gaius —

otherwise someone might say that you were indeed immersed into my name.

(Oh yes, I did also immerse Stephanas and his household; beyond that, I can’t remember whether I immersed anyone else.)

For the Messiah did not send me to immerse but to proclaim the Good News — and to do it without relying on “wisdom” that consists of mere rhetoric, so as not to rob the Messiah’s execution-stake of its power.