Peter and Cornelius

¹There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, who was a captain in the Roman army regiment called “The Italian Regiment.”

²He was a religious man; he and his whole family worshiped God. He also did much to help the Jewish poor people and was constantly praying to God.

³It was about three o'clock one afternoon when he had a vision, in which he clearly saw an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius!”

⁴He stared at the angel in fear and said, “What is it, sir?” The angel answered, “God is pleased with your prayers and works of charity, and is ready to answer you.

⁵And now send some men to Joppa for a certain man whose full name is Simon Peter.

⁶He is a guest in the home of a tanner of leather named Simon, who lives by the sea.”

⁷Then the angel went away, and Cornelius called two of his house servants and a soldier, a religious man who was one of his personal attendants.

⁸He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

⁹The next day, as they were on their way and coming near Joppa, Peter went up on the roof of the house about noon in order to pray.

¹⁰He became hungry and wanted something to eat; while the food was being prepared, he had a vision.

¹¹He saw heaven opened and something coming down that looked like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners to the earth.

¹²In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and wild birds.

¹³A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!”

¹⁴But Peter said, “Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled.”

¹⁵The voice spoke to him again, “Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.”

¹⁶This happened three times, and then the thing was taken back up into heaven.

¹⁷While Peter was wondering about the meaning of this vision, the men sent by Cornelius had learned where Simon's house was, and they were now standing in front of the gate.

¹⁸They called out and asked, “Is there a guest here by the name of Simon Peter?”

¹⁹Peter was still trying to understand what the vision meant, when the Spirit said, “Listen! Three men are here looking for you.

²⁰So get ready and go down, and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

²¹So Peter went down and said to the men, “I am the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”

²²“Captain Cornelius sent us,” they answered. “He is a good man who worships God and is highly respected by all the Jewish people. An angel of God told him to invite you to his house, so that he could hear what you have to say.”

²³Peter invited the men in and had them spend the night there. The next day he got ready and went with them; and some of the believers from Joppa went along with him.

²⁴The following day he arrived in Caesarea, where Cornelius was waiting for him, together with relatives and close friends that he had invited.

²⁵As Peter was about to go in, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and bowed down before him.

²⁶But Peter made him rise. “Stand up,” he said, “I myself am only a man.”

²⁷Peter kept on talking to Cornelius as he went into the house, where he found many people gathered.

²⁸He said to them, “You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God has shown me that I must not consider any person ritually unclean or defiled.

²⁹And so when you sent for me, I came without any objection. I ask you, then, why did you send for me?”

³⁰Cornelius said, “It was about this time three days ago that I was praying in my house at three o'clock in the afternoon. Suddenly a man dressed in shining clothes stood in front of me

³¹and said: ‘Cornelius! God has heard your prayer and has taken notice of your works of charity.

³²Send someone to Joppa for a man whose full name is Simon Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner of leather, who lives by the sea.’

³³And so I sent for you at once, and you have been good enough to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God, waiting to hear anything that the Lord has instructed you to say.”

Peter's Speech

³⁴Peter began to speak: “I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.

³⁵Those who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him, no matter what race they belong to.

³⁶You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, proclaiming the Good News of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

³⁷You know of the great event that took place throughout the land of Israel, beginning in Galilee after John preached his message of baptism.

³⁸You know about Jesus of Nazareth and how God poured out on him the Holy Spirit and power. He went everywhere, doing good and healing all who were under the power of the Devil, for God was with him.

³⁹We are witnesses of everything that he did in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem. Then they put him to death by nailing him to a cross.

⁴⁰But God raised him from death three days later and caused him to appear,

⁴¹not to everyone, but only to the witnesses that God had already chosen, that is, to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from death.

⁴²And he commanded us to preach the gospel to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God has appointed judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³All the prophets spoke about him, saying that all who believe in him will have their sins forgiven through the power of his name.”

The Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message.

⁴⁵The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also.

⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God's greatness. Peter spoke up:

⁴⁷“These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptized with water?”

⁴⁸So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.

¹From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes—

²To 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:

³May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Blessings in Christ

⁴I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus.

⁵For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge.

⁶The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you

⁷that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

⁸He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰By 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.

¹¹For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you.

¹²Let 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.”

¹³Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?

¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius.

¹⁵No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples.

¹⁶(Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.)

¹⁷Christ 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.

Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God

¹⁸For 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.

¹⁹The scripture says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars.”

²⁰So 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!

²¹For 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.

²²Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.

²³As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles;

²⁴but 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.

²⁵For 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.

²⁶Now 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.

²⁷God 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.

²⁸He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing, in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.

²⁹This means that no one can boast in God's presence.

³⁰But 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.

³¹So then, as the scripture says, “Whoever wants to boast must boast of what the Lord has done.”

The Message about the Crucified Christ

¹When I came to you, my friends, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning.

²For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.

³So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear,

⁴and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit.

⁵Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.

God's Wisdom

⁶Yet 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.

⁷The 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.

⁸None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹However, 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.”

¹⁰But 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.

¹¹It is only our own spirit within us that knows all about us; in the same way, only God's Spirit knows all about God.

¹²We 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.

¹³So 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.

¹⁴Whoever 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.

¹⁵Whoever has the Spirit, however, is able to judge the value of everything, but no one is able to judge him.

¹⁶As the scripture says, “Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice?” We, however, have the mind of Christ.

²¹Fire tests gold and silver; a person's reputation can also be tested.

²²Even if you beat fools half to death, you still can't beat their foolishness out of them.