To the Church of God in Corinth, men and women consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-- their Lord as well as ours.

who will also keep you stedfast to the very End, so that you will be free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents?

For the Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on the way to perdition, but it is the power of God to those whom He is saving.

For after the world by its wisdom--as God in His wisdom had ordained--had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.

while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified--to the Jews a stumbling-block, to Gentiles foolishness,

but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called.

in order that it may be as Scripture says, "He who boasts--let his boast be in the Lord."

Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom; a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away.

For, among human beings, who knows a man's inner thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God's Spirit is acquainted with God's inner thoughts.

For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will instruct Him? But *we* have the mind of Christ.

I planted and Apollos watered; but it was God who was, all the time, giving the increase.

So that neither the planter nor the waterer is of any importance. God who gives the increase is all in all.

Why, who gives you your superiority, my brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? And if you really did receive it, why boast as if this were not so?

For even if you were to have ten thousand spiritual instructors--for all that you could not have several fathers. It is I who in Christ Jesus became your father through the Good News.

And you, instead of mourning and removing from among you the man who has done this deed of shame, are filled with self-complacency!

I for my part, present with you in spirit although absent in body, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so acted.

not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols. For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out of the world altogether.

For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are within the Church

while you leave to God's judgement those who are outside? Remove the wicked man from among you.

If therefore you have things belonging to this life which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the Church--is it *they* whom you make your judges?

Do you not know that unrighteous men will not inherit God's Kingdom? Cherish no delusion here. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor any who are guilty of unnatural crime,

nor theives, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language or to greed of gain, will inherit God's Kingdom.

Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute is one with her in body? For God says, "The two shall become one."

But he who is in union with the Master is one with Him in spirit.

Flee from fornication. Any other sin that a human being commits lies outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your bodies are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is within you--the Spirit whom you have from God?

But I tell the unmarried, and women who are widows, that it is well for them to remain as I am.

To the rest it is I who speak--not the Lord. If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away.

And a woman who has an unbelieving husband--if he consents to live with her, let her not separate from him.

Concerning unmarried women I have no command to give you from the Lord; but I offer you my opinion, which is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence.

Yet of this I warn you, brethren: the time has been shortened--so that henceforth those who have wives should be as though they had none,

those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess,

and those who use the world as not using it to the full. For the world as it now exists is passing away.

There is a difference too between a married and an unmarried woman. She who is unmarried concerns herself with the Lord's business--that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but the married woman concerns herself with the business of the world--how she shall please her husband.

So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

A woman is bound to her husband during the whole period that he lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to marry whom she will, provided that he is a Christian.

yet *we* have but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and for whose service we exist, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we and all things exist.

For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer)

Why, your knowledge becomes the ruin of the weak believer--your brother, for whom Christ died!

That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

Or again, is it only Barnabas and myself who are not at liberty to give up working with our hands?

What soldier ever serves at his own cost? Who plants a vineyard and yet does not eat any of the grapes? Or who tends a herd of cattle and yet does not taste their milk?

If it is we who sowed the spiritual grain in you, is it a great thing that we should reap a temporal harvest from you?

Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites have their food from the sacred place, and that those who serve at the altar all alike share with the altar?

In the same way the Lord also directed those who proclaim the Good News to maintain themselves by the Good News.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not--in order to win those who are under the Law;

to men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law--in order to win those who are without Law.

That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

Nor may we be fornicators, like some of them who committed fornication and on a single day 23,000 of them fell dead.

All this kept happening to them with a figurative meaning; but it was put on record by way of admonition to us upon whom the ends of the Ages have come.

So then let him who thinks he is standing securely beware of falling.

Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; we, all of us, share in that one loaf.

Look at the Israelites--the nation and their ritual. Are not those who eat the sacrifices joint-partakers in the altar?

But if any one tells you, "This food has been offered in sacrifice;" abstain from eating it--out of respect for him who warned you, and, as before, for conscience' sake.

A man who wears a veil when praying or prophesying dishonors his Head;

but a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her Head, for it is exactly the same as if she had her hair cut short.

For there must of necessity be differences of opinion among you, in order that it may be plainly seen who are the men of sterling worth among you.

Why, have you no homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you wish to show your contempt for the Church of God and make those who have no homes feel ashamed? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I certainly do not praise you.

For any one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgement to himself, if he fails to estimate the body aright.

diversities in work, and yet one and the same God--He who in each person brings about the whole result.

But these results are all brought about by one and the same Spirit, who bestows His gifts upon each of us in accordance with His own will.

But it was God who built up the body, and bestowed more abundant honor on the part that felt the need,

For he who speaks in an unknown tongue is not speaking to men, but to God; for no one understands him. Yet in the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

But he who prophesies speaks to men words of edification, encouragement and comfort.

He who speaks in an unknown tongue does good to himself, but he who prophesies does good to the Church.

I should be right glad were you all to speak in 'tongues,' but yet more glad were you all to prophesy. And, in fact, the man who prophesies is superior to him who speaks in 'tongues,' except when the latter can interpret in order that the Church may get a blessing.

If the bugle--to take another example--gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?

Therefore let a man who has the gift of tongues pray for the power of interpreting them.

Otherwise, if you bless God in spirit only, how shall he who is in the position of an ungifted man say the 'Amen' to your giving of thanks, when he does not know what your words mean?

This shows that the gift of tongues is intended as a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but prophecy is intended not for unbelievers but for those who believe.

What then, brethren? Whenever you assemble, there is not one of you who is not ready either with a song of praise, a sermon, a revelation, a 'tongue,' or an interpretation. Let everything be done with a view to the building up of faith and character.

And if anything is revealed to some one else who is seated there, let the first be silent.

Afterwards He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have now fallen asleep.

Nay more, we are actually being discovered to be bearing false witness about God, because we have testified that God raised Christ to life, whom He did not raise, if in reality none of the dead are raised.

It follows also that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

But, in reality, Christ *has* risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep.

for He will have put all things in subjection under His feet. And when He shall have declared that "All things are in subjection," it will be with the manifest exception of Him who has reduced them all to subjection to Him.

But when the whole universe has been made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has made the universe subject to Him, in order that GOD may be all in all.

Otherwise what will become of those who got themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why are these baptized for them?

What the earthy one is, that also are those who are earthy; and what the heavenly One is, that also are those who are heavenly.

but God be thanked who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

As for our brother Apollos, I have repeatedly urged him to accompany the brethren who are coming to you: but he is quite resolved not to do so at present. He will come, however, when he has a good opportunity.

I beseech you, on your part, to show deference to such men, and to every one who participates in their work and toils hard.