Night Watch Devotion

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)

A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
³ Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah
⁷ “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
¹⁶ But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.
¹⁹ “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.
²¹ These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
²² “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
²³ The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” (ESV)

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
¹ Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
² Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
³ because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
⁴ My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
⁶ And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷ yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸ I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
⁹ Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹ ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
¹² For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.
¹³ But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴ We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.
¹⁵ Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
¹⁶ But I call to God, and the LORD will save me.
¹⁷ Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.
¹⁸ He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹ God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah because they do not change and do not fear God.
²⁰ My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant.
²¹ His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
²² Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
²³ But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
¹ Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me;
² my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly.
³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴ In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
⁵ All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
⁶ They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life.
⁷ For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
⁸ You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
⁹ Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
¹¹ in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
¹² I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
¹³ For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
¹ Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.
² I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
³ He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
⁴ My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
⁵ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
⁶ They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
⁷ My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!
⁸ Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!
⁹ I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
¹⁰ For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! (ESV)

¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (ESV)

²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (ESV)

¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
¹⁶ Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
¹⁹ And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.
²⁰ And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
²¹ And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
²² And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
²³ And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,
²⁴ “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”
²⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”
²⁶ And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
²⁷ And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
²⁸ And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. (ESV)

¹ The LORD said to Moses,
² “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.
³ And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,
⁴ blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,
⁵ tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood,
⁶ oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
⁷ onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
⁸ And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
⁹ Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
¹⁰ “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
¹¹ You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it.
¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them.
¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.
¹⁷ “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.
¹⁹ Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.
²⁰ The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.
²¹ And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
²² There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
²³ “You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
²⁴ You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it.
²⁵ And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim.
²⁶ And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs.
²⁷ Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table.
²⁸ You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these.
²⁹ And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold.
³⁰ And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.
³¹ “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.
³² And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it;
³³ three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.
³⁴ And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers,
³⁵ and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand.
³⁶ Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold.
³⁷ You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.
³⁸ Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold.
³⁹ It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent of pure gold.
⁴⁰ And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

¹ “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.
² The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains shall be the same size.
³ Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another.
⁴ And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set. Likewise you shall make loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
⁵ Fifty loops you shall make on the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set; the loops shall be opposite one another.
⁶ And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be a single whole.
⁷ “You shall also make curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains shall you make.
⁸ The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains shall be the same size.
⁹ You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and the sixth curtain you shall double over at the front of the tent.
¹⁰ You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in the second set.
¹¹ “You shall make fifty clasps of bronze, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together that it may be a single whole.
¹² And the part that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.
¹³ And the extra that remains in the length of the curtains, the cubit on the one side, and the cubit on the other side, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and that side, to cover it.
¹⁴ And you shall make for the tent a covering of tanned rams’ skins and a covering of goatskins on top.
¹⁵ “You shall make upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood.
¹⁶ Ten cubits shall be the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame.
¹⁷ There shall be two tenons in each frame, for fitting together. So shall you do for all the frames of the tabernacle.
¹⁸ You shall make the frames for the tabernacle: twenty frames for the south side;
¹⁹ and forty bases of silver you shall make under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons;
²⁰ and for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side twenty frames,
²¹ and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame, and two bases under the next frame.
²² And for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six frames.
²³ And you shall make two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear;
²⁴ they shall be separate beneath, but joined at the top, at the first ring. Thus shall it be with both of them; they shall form the two corners.
²⁵ And there shall be eight frames, with their bases of silver, sixteen bases; two bases under one frame, and two bases under another frame.
²⁶ “You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle,
²⁷ and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward.
²⁸ The middle bar, halfway up the frames, shall run from end to end.
²⁹ You shall overlay the frames with gold and shall make their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and you shall overlay the bars with gold.
³⁰ Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.
³¹ “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it.
³² And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver.
³³ And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.
³⁴ You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place.
³⁵ And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side.
³⁶ “You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework.
³⁷ And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them. (ESV)

³⁰ And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,
³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
³⁴ He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

¹ They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain,
⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.
⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.
⁷ And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”
⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,
¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”
¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.
¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.
¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
¹⁹ And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. (ESV)

A Psalm of David.
¹ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
³ He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (ESV)

¹ Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—
⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
¹⁰ I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
¹¹ For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
¹² What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
¹⁴ I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
¹⁵ so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
¹⁶ (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
¹⁹ For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

¹ And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
³ And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
⁵ so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
⁶ Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
⁷ But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
⁹ But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
¹⁶ “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹ But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
² I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
¹¹ For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
¹³ each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
²¹ So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

¹ This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
² Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
³ But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
⁴ For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
⁵ Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
⁶ I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
⁷ For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
⁸ Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!
⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
¹¹ To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
¹² and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
¹³ when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
¹⁴ I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
¹⁵ For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
¹⁶ I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
¹⁷ That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.
¹⁸ Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.
²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.
²¹ What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? (ESV)