1 Corinthians 1:17

WEB

¹⁷For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.

KJV

¹⁷For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

BSB

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

FBV

¹⁷For Christ didn't send me out to baptize, but to spread the good news, and not with eloquent human wisdom, otherwise the cross of Christ would be made powerless.

Related Resources

Debate: "Is Water Baptism Required for Salvation?” Dean Meadows and Mike Winger - Mike Winger
The Humbling Gospel (1 Corinthians 1-2) - Grace to You
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Two Ways to Nullify the Cross: Philippians 3:18–21, Part 4 - Desiring God
What Is the Place of Eloquence in Christian Preaching? - Desiring God

Extra References

1 Corinthians 2:1

¹When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

1 Corinthians 2:13

¹³We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

2 Peter 1:16

¹⁶For we didn’t follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

2 Corinthians 10:10

¹⁰For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.”

⁴My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

John 4:2

²(although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),

2 Corinthians 4:2

²But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

³For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh; ⁴for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds,

Acts 26:17-18

¹⁷delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, ¹⁸to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

2 Corinthians 11:6

⁶But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.