I am thankful that I never baptized any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

It is a wisdom unknown to any of the authorities of this world, for otherwise they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is laid, that is, Jesus Christ himself.

Let no one of you deceive himself. If any one of you imagines that he is wiser than the rest of you, in what this world calls wisdom, he had better become a fool, so as to become really wise.

I for my part care very little about being examined by you or by any human court. I do not even offer myself for investigation.

Do not form any premature judgments, therefore, but wait until the Lord comes back. For he will light up the darkness that now hides things and show what the motives in people's minds are, and then everyone will get from God the praise he deserves.

Now, brothers, for your benefit I have applied all this only to Apollos and myself, by using us as illustrations to teach you the old lesson, "Never go beyond the letter," and to keep any of you from boasting of one teacher at the expense of another.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people??10 not that you are to have nothing whatever to do with the immoral people of the world, any more than with its greedy and grasping people or idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world altogether.

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have any share in God's kingdom? Do not let anyone mislead you. People who are immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or given to unnatural vice

or thieves or greedy??runkards, abusive people, robbers??ill not have any share in God's kingdom.

Fly from immorality! Any other sin a man commits is something outside his body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

Being circumcised or being uncircumcised does not make any difference; all that matters is keeping God's commands.

As to eating things, then, that have been offered to idols, we all know that no idol has any real existence, and that there is no God but one.

What soldier ever pays his expenses out of his own pay? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the grapes? Who tends a flock and does not get any of the milk?

If others enjoy such rights over you, have we not a still better claim? But, you say, we have never availed ourselves of this right. No, we will stand anything rather than put any hindrance in the way of the good news of the Christ.

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law??hough I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ??o as to win over those who are without any law.

Any man who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training, to win a wreath that will soon wither, but the one we compete for will never wither.

What am I saying then? That there is any such thing as being offered to an idol, or any such thing as an idol?

Eat anything for sale in the meat market without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned,

If one of the heathen invites you to his house, and you wish to go, eat whatever is served, without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned.

Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head,

and any woman who offers prayer or explains the will of God bareheaded disgraces her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved.

A man should examine himself, and only when he has done so should he eat any of the bread or drink from the cup.

If the foot says, "As I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, "As I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

Thank God, I speak in ecstasy more than any of you.

If there is any ecstatic speaking, let it be limited to two or three people at the most, and have one speak at a time and someone explain what he says.

If anyone claims to be inspired to preach, or to have any other spiritual endowment, let him understand that what I am now writing you is a command from the Lord.

But by God's favor I have become what I am, and the favor he showed me has not gone for nothing, but I have worked harder than any of them, although it was not really I but the favor God showed me.