Paul, by the will of God called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and our brother Sosthenes,

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called as God's people, like all those anywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours;

and there is no gift that you lack even while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to reappear,

What I mean is this, that one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," another, "And I, of Apollos," another, "And I, of Cephas," and another, "And I, of Christ!"

For to those who are on the way to destruction, the story of the cross is nonsense, but to us who are to be saved, it means all the power of God.

For the Scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And I will thwart the shrewdness of the shrewd!"

Where now is your philosopher? Your scribe? Your reasoner of today? Has not God made a fool of the world's wisdom?

but we proclaim a Christ who was crucified??n idea that is revolting to Jews and absurd to the heathen,

but to those whom God has called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

For God's folly is beyond the wisdom of men, and God's weakness is beyond their strength.

For consider, brothers, what happened when God called you. Not many of you were what men call wise, not many of you were influential, not many were of high birth.

But it was what the world calls foolish that God chose to put the wise to shame with, and it was what the world calls weak that God chose to shame its strength with,

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who would boast, boast of the Lord!"

Yet there is a wisdom that we impart when we are with people who have a mature faith, but it is not what this world calls wisdom, nor what the authorities of this world, doomed as they are to pass away, would call so.

But it is a mysterious divine wisdom that we impart, hitherto kept secret, and destined by God before the world began for our glory.

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

But, as the Scripture says, there are things "Which no eye ever saw and no ear ever heard, And never occurred to the human mind, Which God has provided for those who love him."

For God revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit fathoms everything, even the depths of God himself.

But the Spirit we have received is not that of the world, but the Spirit that comes from God, which we have to make us realize the blessings God has given us.

But the spiritual man is alive to all true values, but his own true value no unspiritual man can see.

So, for my part, brothers, I could not treat you as spiritual persons; I had to treat you just as creatures of flesh and blood, as babies in Christian living.

What is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Just servants through whom you came to have faith, as the Lord gave each of us opportunity.

The planter and the waterer are all one, though each of us will be paid for his own work.

Like an expert builder, I laid a foundation, as God commissioned me to do, and now someone else is building upon it. But let everyone be careful how he does so.

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

If a man's work is burned up, he must stand the loss, though he himself will be saved, but as one who has passed through the fire.

If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is sacred, and that is what you are.

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.

For this world's wisdom is foolishness to God. For the Scripture says, "He who catches the wise with their own cunning,"

and "The Lord knows that the deliberations of the wise are fruitless."

The right way for a man to think of us is as Christ's servants, and managers authorized to distribute the secret truths of God.

Now further, what is always demanded of managers is that they can be depended on.

For while my conscience does not trouble me at all, that does not prove that I am innocent. It is the Lord who must examine me.

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.

For who sees anything special in you? And what have you got that you have not been given? But if it has been given you, why do you boast as though it had not been?

Are you satisfied already? Have you become rich already? Have you entered your kingdom without waiting for us? I wish you had entered it, so that we might share it with you!

For it seems to me, God has exhibited us apostles at the very end of the procession, like the men condemned to die in the arena. For we have become a spectacle to the whole universe, angels as well as men.

we have worked with our hands for a living. When people abuse us, we bless them, when they persecute us, we put up with it,

when they slander us, we try to conciliate them. We have come to be like the scum of the earth, the dregs of the world, and we are so now.

I do not write this to you to make you ashamed, but for your instruction as my dear children.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine, in the service of the Lord, and one on whom you can depend, and he will help you to keep in mind my methods in the service of Christ Jesus, which I follow everywhere in every church.

But I am coming very soon to see you, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not what these conceited people have to say, but what they can actually do.

For the reign of God is not a matter of words but of power.

Immorality is actually notorious among you, and immorality of a kind unknown even among the heathen??hat a man has taken his father's wife.

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this,

Certainly this is nothing for you to boast of. Do you not know that a little yeast will affect all the dough?

You must clean out the old yeast and become fresh dough, free from the old as you really are. For our Passover lamb is already sacrificed; it is Christ himself.

So let us keep the festival, not with old yeast nor with the yeast of vice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.

What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who is supposed to be a Christian brother, and yet is immoral or greedy or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or grasping??ith such a person you must not even eat.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not your part to judge those who are inside the church,

Do you not know that the Christians are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to come before you for judgment, are you unfit to decide the most trivial cases?

I ask it to shame you. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a disagreement between one brother and another,

But it is you who wrong and rob others, and your own brothers at that!

I may do anything I please, but not everything I may do is good for me. I may do anything I please; but I am not going to let anything master me.

It is true, food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for the food, but God will put an end to both of them. But the body is not meant for immorality, but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve.

And as God raised the Lord to life, he will raise us also by his power.

But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

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

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit that is within you, which you have received from God? Besides, you are not your own;

As to the matters of which you wrote me, it is an excellent thing for a man to remain unmarried.

But there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own.

The husband must give his wife what is due her, and the wife must do the same by her husband.

A wife cannot do as she likes with her own person; it is her husband's; and in the same way a husband cannot do as he likes with his own person; it is his wife's.

You must not refuse each other what is due, unless you agree to do so for a while, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then to come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

But I mean this as a concession, not a command.

I should like to have everyone be just as I am myself; but each one has his own special gift from God, one of one kind, and one of another.

To all who are unmarried and to widows, I would say this: It is an excellent thing if they can remain single as I am.

But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be on fire with passion.

To those already married my instructions are??nd they are not mine, but the Lord's??hat a wife is not to separate from her husband.

To other people I would say, though not as Christ's command, if a Christian has a wife who is not a believer, and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her,

and a woman who has a husband who is not a believer, but is willing to live with her, must not divorce her husband.

For the husband who is not a believer is consecrated through union with his wife, and the woman who is not a believer is consecrated through union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but, as it is, they are consecrated.

But if the one who is not a believer wishes to separate, let the separation take place. In such cases the brother or sister is not a slave; God has called you to live in peace.

Only, everyone must continue in the station which the Lord has appointed for him, and in which he was when God's call came to him. This is the rule I make in all the churches.

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

For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ.

About unmarried women I have no command of the Lord to give you, but I will give you my opinion as that of one on whom through the Lord's mercy you can depend.

This, then, is my opinion in view of the present distress??hat it is a good thing for a man to remain just as he is.

But if you do marry, there is no sin in that. And if a girl marries, it is no sin. But those who marry will have worldly trouble, which I would like to spare you.

But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those who mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy anything as though they did not own it,

and those who mix in the world, as though they were not absorbed in it. For the present shape of the world is passing away.

I want you to be free from all anxiety. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's work, and how he can please the Lord.

A married man is concerned about worldly affairs, and how he can please his wife, and so his interests are divided.

An unmarried woman or a girl is concerned about the Lord's work, so as to be consecrated in body and spirit, but the woman who marries is concerned with worldly affairs, and how she can please her husband.

It is for your benefit that I say this, not to put a halter on you, but to promote good order, and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

But if a man thinks he is not acting properly toward the girl to whom he is engaged, if his passions are too strong, and that is what ought to be done, let him do as he pleases; it is no sin; let them be married.

But a man who has definitely made up his mind, under no constraint of passion but with full self-control, and who has decided in his own mind to keep her as she is, will be doing what is right.

So the man who marries her does what is right, and the man who refrains from doing so does even better.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases so long as he is a Christian.

But she will be happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is, and I think I have God's spirit as well as other people.

About food that has been offered to idols, it is true, as you say, that we all have some knowledge on that matter. Knowledge gives people airs; love is what builds up character.

If a man thinks he has acquired some knowledge, he does not yet know it as well as he ought to know it.

But if a man loves God, God is known by him.

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.

For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth??nd indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords??6 yet for us there is just one God, the Father, who is the source of all things, and for whom we live, and just one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

But it is not everyone that has this knowledge; for some, through being long accustomed to idols, still eat meat that has been sacrificed to them as really offered to an idol, and their consciences, being oversensitive, are troubled.

But food is not going to affect our standing with God. We are none the worse if we do not eat it, and none the better if we do.

For if somebody sees you, who are intelligent about this matter, attending a dinner in an idol's temple, will not he, with his sensitive conscience, be led to eat meat that is offered to idols?

For this overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by what you call your knowledge.