For I have been distinctly informed, my brethren, about you by Chloe's people, that there are dissensions among you.

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 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.

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;

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.

The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are not strong enough:

you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

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.

Now in aim and purpose the planter and the waterer are one; and yet each will receive his own special reward, answering to his own special work.

Apollos and I are simply fellow workers for and with God, and you are *God's* field-- *God's* building.

In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I--like a competent master-builder--have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let every one be careful how and what he builds.

Do you not know that you are God's Sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God has His home within you?

If any one is marring the Sanctuary of God, him will God mar; for the Sanctuary of God is holy, which you all are.

And again, "The Lord takes knowledge of the reasonings of the wise--how useless they are."

As for us Apostles, let any one take this view of us--we are Christ's officers, and stewards of God's secret truths.

We, for Christ's sake, are labeled as "foolish"; you, as Christians, are men of shrewd intelligence. We are mere weaklings: you are strong. You are in high repute: we are outcasts.

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

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are all assembled and my spirit is with you, together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind; for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb has already been offered in sacrifice--even Christ.

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.

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?

Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels--to say nothing of things belonging to this life?

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.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? No, indeed.

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?

And you are not your own, for you have been redeemed at infinite cost. Therefore glorify God in your bodies.

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

But to those already married my instructions are--yet not mine, but the Lord's--that a wife is not to leave her husband;

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to get free. Are you free from the marriage bond? Do not seek for a wife.

As to eating things which have been sacrificed to idols, we are fully aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.

For if so-called gods do exist, either in Heaven or on earth--and in fact there are many such gods and many such lords--

But all believers do not recognize these facts. Some, from force of habit in relation to the idol, even now eat idol sacrifices as such, and their consciences, being but weak, are polluted.

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.

Moreover when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak consciences, you are, in reality, sinning against Christ.

Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be denied that I have seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you yourselves my work in the Lord?

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

What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.

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.

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?

Or are we actually arousing the Lord to jealousy. Are we stronger than He is?

If an unbeliever gives you an invitation and you are disposed to accept it, eat whatever is put before you, and ask no questions for conscience' sake.

Whether, then, you are eating or drinking, or whatever you are doing, let everything be done to the glory of God.

for, in the first place, when you meet as a Church, there are divisions among you. This is what I am told, and I believe that there is some truth in it.

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.

For every time that you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death--until He returns.

That is why many among you are sickly and out of health, and why not a few die.

But when we are judged by the Lord, chastisement follows, to save us from being condemned along with the world.

Now there are various kinds of gifts, but there is one and the same Spirit;

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.

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ.

For, in fact, in one Spirit all of us--whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men--were baptized to form but one body; and we were all nourished by that one Spirit.

But, as a matter of fact, there are many parts and but one body.

No, it is quite otherwise. Even those parts of the body which are apparently somewhat feeble are yet indispensable;

As for you, you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it.

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.'

Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets? Are all teachers?

Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if there are languages, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end.

For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

But, brethren, as things are, if I come to you speaking in 'tongues,' what benefit shall I confer on you, if the utterance is neither in the form of a revelation nor of additional knowledge nor of prophecy nor of teaching?

And so with you; if with the living voice you fail to utter intelligible words, how will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the winds.

There are, we will suppose, a great number of languages in the world, and no creature is without a language.

Therefore, seeing that you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them so as to benefit the Church.

Rightly enough you are giving thanks, and yet your neighbor is not benefited.

Accordingly if the whole Church has assembled and all are speaking in 'tongues,' and there come in ungifted men, or unbelievers, will they not say that you are all mad?

and the hidden evils of his heart are brought to light. And, as the result, he will fall on his face and worship God, and will report to others that of a truth God is among you.

But if there are Prophets, let two or three speak and let the rest judge.

Let married women be silent in the Churches, for they are not permitted to speak. They must be content with a subordinate place, as the Law also says;

But let me recall to you, brethren, the Good News which I brought you, which you accepted, and on which you are standing,

through which also you are obtaining salvation, if you bear in mind the words in which I proclaimed it--unless indeed your faith has been unreal from the very first.

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.

For if none of the dead are raised to life, then Christ has not risen;

and if Christ has not risen, your faith is a vain thing--you are still in your sins.

If in this present life we have a *hope* resting on Christ, and nothing more, we are more to be pitied than all the rest of the world.

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.

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?

If from merely human motives I have fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what profit is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die.

and as for what you sow, it is not the plant which is to be that you are sowing, but a bare grain, of wheat (it may be)

There are bodies which are celestial and there are bodies which are earthly, but the glory of the celestial ones is one thing, and that of the earthly ones is another.

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.

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.

It is a joy to me that Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus have now arrived, because what was wanting so far as you are concerned they have supplied.