⁴ There is one body [of believers] and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when called [to salvation]— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

¹¹ “As for me, I baptize you ^[a]with water because of [your] repentance [that is, because you are willing to change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret your sin and live a changed life], but He (the Messiah) who is coming after me is mightier [more powerful, more noble] than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to remove [even as His slave]; He will baptize you [who truly repent] with the Holy Spirit and [you who remain unrepentant] with ^[b]fire (judgment).^{(A) 12} His ^[c]winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat (believers) into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire.”

⁴ We have therefore been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in newness of life [abandoning our old ways].

¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature], ¹² having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead.

⁵ For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now.”

¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,^{(A) 15} so that no one would say that you were baptized into my name. ¹⁶ Now I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know if I baptized anyone else. ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me [as an apostle] to baptize, but [commissioned and empowered me] to preach the good news [of salvation]—not with clever and eloquent speech [as an orator], so that the cross of Christ would not be ^[a]made ineffective [deprived of its saving power].