Therefore, you don't lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus the Messiah to be revealed.

Faithful is the God by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son Jesus the Messiah, our Lord.

This is what I mean: Each of you is saying, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to the Messiah."

Is the Messiah divided? Paul wasn't crucified for you, was he? You weren't baptized in Paul's name, were you?

For the message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God's power to us who are being saved.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will reject."

Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? God has turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense, hasn't he?

but we preach the Messiah crucified. He is a stumbling block to Jews and nonsense to gentiles,

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the Messiah is God's power and God's wisdom.

For God's nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Brothers, think about your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed.

And God chose what is insignificant in the world, what is despised, what is nothing, in order to destroy what is something,

It is because of God that you are in union with the Messiah Jesus, who for us has become wisdom from God, as well as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Therefore, as it is written, "The person who boasts must boast in the Lord."

My message and my preaching were not accompanied by clever, wise words, but by a display of the Spirit's power,

But as it is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him."

But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.

Is there anyone who can understand his own thoughts except his own inner spirit? In the same way, no one can know the thoughts of God except God's Spirit.

Now, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we can understand the things that were freely given to us by God.

We don't speak about these things with words taught us by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual things to spiritual people.

The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else's evaluation.

Brothers, I couldn't talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah.

That's because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren't you?

Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They're merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task.

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, but God, who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters.

As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it.

After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah.

the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's action.

If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.

If anyone destroys God's sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God's sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!

Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in the ways of this world, he must become a fool to become really wise.

For the wisdom of this world is nonsense in God's sight. For it is written, "He catches the wise with their own trickery,"

and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless."

Think of us as servants of the Messiah and as servant managers entrusted with God's secrets.

Now it is required of servant managers that each one should prove to be trustworthy.

It is a very small thing to me that I should be examined by you or by any human court. In fact, I don't even evaluate myself.

For my conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who examines me.

Therefore, stop judging prematurely, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God.

Brothers, I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what the Scriptures say. Then you will stop boasting about one person at the expense of another.

For who makes you superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?

You already have all you want! You have already become rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you really were kings so that we could be kings with you!

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display in last place, like men condemned to death. We have become a spectacle for the world, for angels, and for people to stare at.

We are fools for the Messiah's sake, but you are wise in the Messiah. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

I'm not writing this to make you feel ashamed, but to warn you as my dear children.

That's why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and dependable son in the Lord and will help you remember how I live for the Messiah Jesus as I teach everywhere in every church.

Some of you have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to evaluate you.

It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, and of a kind that is not found even among the gentiles. A man is actually living with his father's wife!

And you are being arrogant instead of being filled with grief and seeing to it that the man who did this is removed from among you.

Even though I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit. I have already passed judgment on the man who did this, as though I were present with you.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together (and I am there in spirit), and the power of our Lord Jesus is there, too,

Your boasting is not good. You know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough, don't you?

So let's keep celebrating the festival, neither with old yeast nor with yeast that is evil and wicked, but with yeast-free bread that is both sincere and true.

But now I am writing to you to stop associating with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunk, or a robber. You must even stop eating with someone like that.

After all, is it my business to judge outsiders? You are to judge those who are in the community, aren't you?

You know that the saints will rule the world, don't you? And if the world is going to be ruled by you, can't you handle insignificant cases?

So if you have cases dealing with this life, why do you appoint as judges people who have no standing in the church?

I say this to make you feel ashamed. Has it come to this, that there is not one person among you who is wise enough to settle disagreements between brothers?

The very fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves is already a defeat for you. Why not rather just accept the wrong? Why not rather be cheated?

That is what some of you were! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah and by the Spirit of our God.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not allow anything to control me.

Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will make them both unnecessary. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

God raised the Lord, and by his power he will also raise us.

You know that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her, don't you? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

Keep on running away from sexual immorality. Any other sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the person who sins sexually sins against his own body.

You know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, don't you? You do not belong to yourselves,

Now about what you asked: "Is it advisable for a man not to marry?"

Because sexual immorality is so rampant, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.

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

I say to those who are unmarried, especially to widows: It is good for them to remain like me.

However, if they cannot control themselves, they should get married, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

I (not the Lord) say to the rest of you: If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she is willing to live with him, he must not abandon her.

And if a woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he is willing to live with her, she must not abandon him.

But if the unbelieving partner leaves, let him go. In such cases the brother or sister is not under obligation. God has called you to live in peace.

Nevertheless, everyone should live the life that the Lord gave him and to which God called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying God's commandments is everything.

For the slave who has been called to belong to the Lord is the Lord's free person. In the same way, the free person who has been called is the Messiah's slave.

Now concerning virgins, although I do not have any command from the Lord, I will give you my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

In view of the present crisis, I think it is prudent for a man to stay as he is.

This is what I mean, brothers: The time is short. From now 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 rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

and those who use the things in the world as though they were not dependent on them. For the world in its present form is passing away.

I want you to be free from concerns. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, that is, about how he can please the Lord.

But a married man is concerned about things of this world, that is, about how he can please his wife,

and so his attention is divided.

An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the affairs of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, that is, about how she can please her husband. I'm saying this for your benefit, not to put a noose around your necks, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.

If a man thinks he is not behaving properly toward his virgin, and if his passion is so strong that he feels he ought to marry her, let him do what he wants; he isn't sinning. Let them get married.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord.

However, in my opinion she will be happier if she stays as she is. And in saying this, I think that I, too, have God's Spirit.

If anyone thinks he really knows something, he has not yet learned it as he ought to know it.

But anyone who loves God is known by him.

Now concerning eating food offered to idols: We know that no idol is real in this world and that there is only one God.

For even if there are "gods" in heaven and on earth (as indeed there are many so-called "gods" and "lords"),

yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom everything came into being and for whom we live. And there is only one Lord, Jesus the Messiah, through whom everything came into being and through whom we live.

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are so accustomed to idolatry that when they eat food that has been offered to an idol, their conscience becomes contaminated because it is weak.

However, food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat food that has been offered to an idol, and no better off if we do.

In that case, the weak brother for whom the Messiah died is ruined by your knowledge.

This is my defense to those who would examine me:

We have the right to take a believing wife with us like the other apostles, the Lord's brothers, and Cephas, don't we?

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to keep on working for a living?