Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will, and Sosthenes the brother,

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus,

For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God's power.

For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.

but to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's power and God's wisdom.

because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

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.

so that no one may boast in God's presence.

But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come and tell you about God's secret with rhetorical language or wisdom.

that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power.

but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:

But God hath opened them unto us by his spirit. For the spirit searcheth all things, yea the bottom of God's secrets.

For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God's Spirit.

But we have not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may have knowledge of the things which are freely given to us by God.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are just God's servants, through whose efforts, and as the Lord granted power to each, you accepted the faith.

I [Paul] planted [i.e., preached God's word], Apollos watered [it], but God made it grow.

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.

Do you not know and understand that you [the church] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells [permanently] in you [collectively and individually]?

If anyone destroys the temple of God [corrupting it with false doctrine], God will destroy the destroyer; for the temple of God is holy (sacred), and that is what you are.

This world's wisdom is "foolishness" in God's sight; for it is written, "He snares the wise with their own cunning."

And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

Thus let a person consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries.

we work hard with our hands. [Though] we are cursed, we [ask God's] blessing [on people]; [though] we are persecuted, we persevere;

For God's kingdom is not a matter of [impressive] words, but of [spiritual] power.

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

If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people?

Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgement upon the world? And if you are the court before which the world is to be judged, are you unfit to deal with these petty matters?

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality,

no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.

And some of you have practiced such things, but you were washed [i.e., from your sins. See Acts 22:16]; you were dedicated [i.e., set apart for God's service]; you were made right with God in the name [i.e., by the authority] of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit of our God.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

For, in such cases, the unbelieving husband has become--and is--holy through union with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving wife is holy through union with a Christian brother. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but in reality they have a place among God's people.

But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another.

Only, everyone must lead the lot assigned him by the Lord; he must go on living the life in which God's call came to him. (Such is the rule I lay down for all the churches).

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping God's commandments.

But she is happier if she so remain, according to my judgment; but I think that I also have God's Spirit.

It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.

To those who are without that law, like one without the law—not being without God’s law but within Christ’s law—to win those without the law.

But I give blows to my body, and keep it under control, for fear that, after having given the good news to others, I myself might not have God's approval.

For I do not want you to be unaware, believers, that our fathers were all under the cloud [in which God’s presence went before them] and they all passed [miraculously and safely] through the [Red] Sea;

Is the cup of blessing which we bless [at the Lord’s Supper] not a sharing in the blood of Christ? [Indeed it is.] Is the bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ? [Indeed it is.]

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all things to God's glory.

For man indeed ought not to have his head covered, being God's image and glory; but woman is man's glory.

But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God's assemblies.

For divisions are necessary among you, in order that those who have God's approval may be clearly seen among you.

What, don't you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God's assembly, and put them to shame who don't have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don't praise you.

Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God's Spirit says, "Jesus is accursed." No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," but by the Holy Spirit.

while our seemly parts have no need. But God so put the body together, as to give special honor to that part which lacked,

And by God's appointment there are in the Church--first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly teachers. Then come miraculous powers, and then ability to cure diseases or render loving service, or powers of organization, or varieties of the gift of 'tongues.'

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].

And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing.

If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.

It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured.

but when that which is complete comes [i.e., the full revelation of God's will, contained in the New Testament Scriptures], then the partial will be abolished [i.e., the supernatural gifts, which provided only part of the revealed will of God, will cease to be exercised].

For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me.

And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.

But the person who prophesies speaks [God's message] to people to build them up [spiritually], encourage them and comfort them.

Now, believers, if I come to you speaking in unknown tongues, how will I benefit you unless I also speak to you [clearly] either by revelation [revealing God’s mystery], or by knowledge [teaching about God], or by prophecy [foretelling the future, speaking a new message from God to the people], or by instruction [teaching precepts that develop spiritual maturity]?

for God [who is the source of their prophesying] is not a God of confusion and disorder but of peace and order.As [is the practice] in all the churches of the saints (God’s people),

Was it from you that God's Message first went forth, or is it to you only that it has come?

Therefore, believers, desire earnestly to prophesy [to foretell the future, to speak a new message from God to the people], and do not forbid speaking in unknown tongues.

For I am the least of the apostles and not even fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted God's church.

But by God's grace I am what I am; and his grace, which was towards me, has not been vain; but I have laboured more abundantly than they all, but not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God because we testified on God's behalf that he raised the Messiah whom he did not raise if in fact it is true that the dead are not raised.

Be sober-minded [be sensible, wake up from your spiritual stupor] as you ought, and stop sinning; for some [of you] have no knowledge of God [you are disgracefully ignorant of Him, and ignore His truths]. I say this to your shame.

But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God's kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruptibility.

Listen, I will tell you God's hidden purpose! We shall not all have passed to our rest, but we shall all be transformed-in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,

Now concerning the money collected for [the relief of] the saints [in Jerusalem], you are to do the same as I directed the churches of Galatia to do.

As for our brother Apollos, I have strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers. It was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has the opportunity.

Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us].

Brothers and sisters, you know that those of the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to God’s people—now I urge you

'If any one has no love for the Lord, God's curse be on him! Maran atha!