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¹ Hey, fellas. This is Paul, chosen by God to ride for the brand of Jesus Christ. My amigo Sosthenes is with me, too.

² I'm writing to God's outfit in Corinth. I'm writing to those God has chosen to be his cowboys. He has straightened your lives out through his son, Jesus, and given y'all the job of gathering and tending the herd. But this is not just your job, but the job of every cowboy who has called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Here's to God giving you everything he has, that you don't deserve.

Being Grateful

⁴ When I'm riding along, my thoughts often wander to you and all the benefits of riding for the brand. This brand is Jesus's brand, but he lets us ride for him. ⁵ You all have more now, through him, than you ever had before. Words can't describe, nor can the mind fathom, what you have now. ⁶ I told y'all this would happen and now you know I was speaking the truth. ⁷ You've been given every cowboy gift you need to ride for the Lord until he comes riding back. ⁸ He's going to keep you strong in the saddle and on the day of his return, he's going to vouch for you before God. ⁹ All of this is what God promised, and he don't ever crawfish on a promise. He's made us a partner with Jesus on his outfit.

Quit Squabblin'

¹⁰ But let me tell you something, cowboys. I'm passing this on to you from the Top Hand himself. Y'all need to get along with each other. Y'all quit your squabbling and bickering. God's cowboys work together, not against each other. ¹¹ Some of Chloe's kin came to me and told me y'all are nit-picking each other like five-year-olds. ¹² I was told some of y'all are thinking you're better than others. Some of you say, "Well, Paul taught me to ride." Others say, "I ride like Apollos does," or "Pete and I ride together," or "Well, I only ride for the Top Hand."

¹³ Has Jesus started playin' favorites? Was Paul hung on a cross to die for you? Quit being silly! ¹⁴ Now, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of y'all except for Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵ That way, none of y'all can say you were dunked in my name. ¹⁶ But come to think of it, I did baptize everyone at Stephanas's, but no one else. ¹⁷ God didn't send me to see how many people I could baptize. He sent me to preach the good news. And I don't do it with clever words or speeches. Jesus's strength don't lie in fancy tongue talk.

God's Wisdom

¹⁸ Jesus's message from the cross is folly to those heading for the kill-truck. But those of us who will ride in the green grass forever, we know the cross is the power of God. ¹⁹ Even the Good Books says, "I'll show the wise what wisdom really looks like; the know-it-alls will become know-nothings."

²⁰ This begs the question, can wisdom be found here on earth? Let me answer—it cannot! Because God has turned conventional thinking on its head like a forefooted runaway steer. ²¹ God made sure he couldn't be found with the scientific method or fancy philosophy. In his wisdom, he has used simple cowboy preaching, the type the "wise" have scoffed at, to save those people who choose to believe. ²² The Jews want their miracles and the Greeks their lofty philosophies, so they both turn up their noses at our foolishness. ²³ When we preach that Jesus was killed, the Jews get butthurt, and the Gentiles just roll their eyes.

²⁴ But to those who have been saved, they understand Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ This foolish plan of God's is wiser than the wisest, stronger than the strongest, and better than the best.

²⁶ Don't forget cowboys, there were very few of you who were considered wise by worldly standards or thought to be rich and powerful. But then God got ahold of you. ²⁷ God chose the lowest of us to shame those on high. He personally chose nobodies to show the somebodies what he could do. He chose the weak to put the powerful in their place. ²⁸ God chose those looked down upon to shame those who turn their nose up. ²⁹ He did all this to humble every single one of us. Ain't none of us can stand before him and brag about who we are.

³⁰ God used his Son to bring us together and make a crew out of us. God made pure wisdom into a man and called him his Son. His Son vouched for us and made us right with God; he freed us from the slavery of sin. ³¹ That's why the Good Book says, "If you're gonna brag, brag about what God has done."