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And now, Job, listen carefully to all that I have to say.
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I am ready to say what's on my mind.
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All my words are sincere, and I am speaking the truth.
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God's spirit made me and gave me life.
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Answer me if you can. Prepare your arguments.
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You and I are the same in God's sight, both of us were formed from clay.
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So you have no reason to fear me; I will not overpower you.
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Now this is what I heard you say:
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"I am not guilty; I have done nothing wrong. I am innocent and free from sin.
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But God finds excuses for attacking me and treats me like an enemy.
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He binds chains on my feet; he watches every move I make."
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But I tell you, Job, you are wrong. God is greater than any human being.
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Why do you accuse God of never answering our complaints?
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Although God speaks again and again, no one pays attention to what he says.
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At night when people are asleep, God speaks in dreams and visions.
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He makes them listen to what he says, and they are frightened at his warnings.
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God speaks to make them stop their sinning and to save them from becoming proud.
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He will not let them be destroyed; he saves them from death itself.
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God corrects us by sending sickness and filling our bodies with pain.
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Those who are sick lose their appetites, and even the finest food looks revolting.
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Their bodies waste away to nothing; you can see all their bones;
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they are about to go to the world of the dead.
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Perhaps an angel may come to their aid--- one of God's thousands of angels, who remind us of our duty.
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In mercy the angel will say, "Release them! They are not to go down to the world of the dead. Here is the ransom to set them free."
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Their bodies will grow young and strong again;
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when they pray, God will answer; they will worship God with joy; God will set things right for them again.
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Each one will say in public, "I have sinned. I have not done right, but God spared me.
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He kept me from going to the world of the dead, and I am still alive."
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God does all this again and again;
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each one saves a person's life, and gives him the joy of living.
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Now, Job, listen to what I am saying; be quiet and let me speak.
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But if you have something to say, let me hear it; I would gladly admit you are in the right.
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But if not, be quiet and listen to me, and I will teach you how to be wise.
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From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes---
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To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
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May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
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I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus.
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For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge.
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The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you
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that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
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He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose.
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For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you.
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Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Peter"; and another, "I follow Christ."
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Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?
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I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.
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No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples.
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(Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.)
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Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.
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For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power.
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The scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars."
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So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!
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For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called "foolish" message we preach, God decided to save those who believe.
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Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.
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As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;
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but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
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For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
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Now remember what you were, my friends, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing.
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God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.
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He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.
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This means that no one can boast in God's presence.
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But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.
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So then, as the scripture says, "Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done."
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When I came to you, my friends, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning.
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For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.
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So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear,
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and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit.
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Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.
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Yet I do proclaim a message of wisdom to those who are spiritually mature. But it is not the wisdom that belongs to this world or to the powers that rule this world---powers that are losing their power.
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The wisdom I proclaim is God's secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made.
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None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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However, as the scripture says, "What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him."
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But it was to us that God made known his secret by means of his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the hidden depths of God's purposes.
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It is only our own spirit within us that knows all about us; in the same way, only God's Spirit knows all about God.
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We have not received this world's spirit; instead, we have received the Spirit sent by God, so that we may know all that God has given us.
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So then, we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit.
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Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them, and they seem to be nonsense, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.
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Whoever has the Spirit, however, is able to judge the value of everything, but no one is able to judge him.
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As the scripture says, "Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice?" We, however, have the mind of Christ.
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As a matter of fact, my friends, I could not talk to you as I talk to people who have the Spirit; I had to talk to you as though you belonged to this world, as children in the Christian faith.
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I had to feed you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready for it,
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because you still live as the people of this world live. When there is jealousy among you and you quarrel with one another, doesn't this prove that you belong to this world, living by its standards?
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When one of you says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos"---aren't you acting like worldly people?
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After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God's servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do:
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I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow.
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The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow.
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There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done.
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For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.
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Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build.
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For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.
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Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw.
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And the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone's work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.
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If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward.
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But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.
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Surely you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you!
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God will destroy anyone who destroys God's temple. For God's temple is holy, and you yourselves are his temple.
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You should not fool yourself. If any of you think that you are wise by this world's standards, you should become a fool, in order to be really wise.
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For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, "God traps the wise in their cleverness";
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and another scripture says, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless."
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No one, then, should boast about what human beings can do. Actually everything belongs to you:
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Paul, Apollos, and Peter; this world, life and death, the present and the future---all these are yours,
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and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
