PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, with brother Sosthenes,

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, as well as to all who, wherever they may be, invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord no less than ours:

grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God for the grace of God that has been bestowed on you in Christ Jesus;

Faithful is the God who called you to this fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Those who are doomed to perish find the story of the cross 'sheer folly,' but it means the power of God for those whom he saves.

Sage, scribe, critic of this world, where are they all? Has not God stultified the wisdom of the world?

For when the world with all its wisdom failed to know God in his wisdom, God resolved to save believers by the 'sheer folly' of the Christian message.

but for those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the 'foolishness' of God is wiser than men, and the 'weakness' of God is stronger than men.

Why, look at your own ranks, my brothers; not many wise men (that is, judged by human standards), not many leading men, not many of good birth, have been called!

No, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame what is strong;

God has chosen what is mean and despised in the world ??things which are not, to put down things that are;

that no person may boast in the sight of God.

This is the God to whom you owe your being in Christ Jesus, whom God has made our 'Wisdom,' that is, our righteousness and consecration and redemption;

Thus when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come to proclaim to you God's secret purpose with any elaborate words or wisdom.

so that your faith might not rest on any human 'wisdom' but on the power of God.

it is the mysterious Wisdom of God that we discuss, that hidden wisdom which God decreed from all eternity for our glory.

No, as it is written, what no eye has ever seen, what no ear has ever heard, what never entered the mind of man, God has prepared all that for those who love him.

And God has revealed it to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit fathoms everything, even the depths of God.

What human being can understand the thoughts of a man, except the man's own inner spirit? So too no one understands the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received the Spirit ??not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may understand what God bestows upon us.

The unspiritual man rejects these truths of the Spirit of God; to him they are 'sheer folly,' he cannot understand them. And the reason is, that they must be read with the spiritual eye.

Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? They are simply used by God to give you faith, each as the Lord assigns his task.

I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow.

So neither planter nor waterer counts, but God alone who makes the seed grow.

Still, though planter and waterer are on the same level, each will get his own wage for the special work that he has done.

We work together in God's service; you are God's field to be planted, God's house to be built.

In virtue of my commission from God, I laid the foundation of the house like an expert master-builder. It remains for another to build on this foundation. Whoever he is, let him be careful how he builds.

Do you not know you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you?

God will destroy anyone who would destroy God's temple, for God's temple is sacred ??and that is what you are.

For God ranks this world's wisdom as 'sheer folly.' It is written, He seizes the wise in their craftiness,

and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God.

This is how you are to look upon us, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's secret truths.

So do not criticize at all; the hour of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal life's inner aims and motives. Then each of us will get his meed of praise from God.

For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men!

Certain individuals have got puffed up, have they, as if I were not coming myself?

For God's Reign does not show itself in talk but in power.

as for outsiders, God will judge them. Expel the wicked from your company.

What! do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Realm of God? Make no mistake about it; neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor catamites nor sodomites

nor thieves nor the lustful nor the drunken nor the abusive nor robbers will inherit the Realm of God.

Some of you were once like that; but you washed yourselves clean, you were consecrated, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

'All things are lawful for me'? Yes, but not all are good for me. 'All things are lawful for me'? Yes, but I am not going to let anything master me.

'Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food'? Yes, and God will do away with the one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;

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

Do you not know your body is the temple of the holy Spirit within you ??the Spirit you have received from God? You are not your own,

you were bought for a price; then glorify God with your body.

I would like all men to be as I am. However, everyone is endowed by God in his own way; he has a gift for the one life or the other.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated in the person of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated in the person of the Christian brother she has married; otherwise, of course, your children would be unholy instead of being consecrated to God.

(Should the unbelieving partner be determined to separate, however, separation let it be; in such cases the Christian brother or sister is not tied to marriage.) It is to a life of peace that God has called us.

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).

Was a man circumcised at the time he was called? Then he is not to efface the marks of it. Has any man been called when he was uncircumcised? Then he is not to get circumcised.

Circumcision counts for nothing, uncircumcision counts for nothing; obedience to God's commands is everything.

You were a slave when you were called? Never mind. Of course, if you do find it possible to get free, you had better avail yourself of the opportunity.

Brothers, everyone must remain with God in the condition of life where he was called.

Are you tied to a wife? Never try to untie the knot. Are you free? Never try to get married.

However, she is happier if she remains as she is; that is my opinion ??and I suppose I have the Spirit of God as well as other people!

but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

Well then, with regard to food that has been offered to idols, I am quite aware that 'there is no such thing as an idol in the world' and that 'there is only the one God.'

(So-called gods there may be, in heaven or on earth ??as indeed there are plenty of them, both gods and 'lords' ??6 but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all comes, and for whom we exist; one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom all exists, and by whom we exist.)

Now mere food will not bring us any nearer to God; if we abstain we do not lose anything, and if we eat we do not gain anything.

Does a soldier provide his own supplies? Does a man plant a vineyard without eating its produce? Does a shepherd get no drink from the milk of the flock?

It is written in the law of Moses, You must not muzzle an ox when he is treading the grain. Is God thinking here about cattle?

If we sowed you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great matter if we reap your worldly goods?

Do you not know that as men who perform temple-rites get their food from the temple, and as attendants at the altar get their share of the sacrifices,

so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel?

I get a reward if I do it of my own accord, whereas to do it otherwise is no more than for a steward to discharge his trust.

to those outside the Law I have become like one of themselves ??though I am under Christ's law, not outside God's Law ??to win over those outside the Law;

still with most of them God was not satisfied; they were laid low in the desert.

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

No, what I imply is that anything people sacrifice is sacrificed to daemons, not to God. And I do not want you to participate in daemons!

'All things are lawful'? Yes, but not all are good for us. 'All things are lawful'? Yes, but not all are edifying.

If one partakes of food after saying a blessing over it, why should one be denounced for eating what one has given thanks to God for?

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, let it be all done for the glory of God.

Put no stumbling-block in the way of Jews or Greeks or the church of God.

But I would like you to understand this: Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

If a woman will not veil herself, she should cut off her hair as well. But she ought to veil herself; for it is disgraceful that a woman should have her hair cut off or be shaven.

Man does not require to have a veil on his head, for he represents the likeness and supremacy of God; but woman represents the supremacy of man.

for as woman was made from man, so man is now made from woman, while both, like all things, come from God.)

Judge for yourselves; is it proper for an unveiled woman to pray to God?

If anyone presumes to raise objections on this point ??well, I acknowledge no other mode of worship, and neither do the churches of God.

What! have you no houses to eat and drink in? Do you think you can show disrespect to the church of God and put the poor to shame? What can I say to you? Commend you? Not for this.

and after thanking God he broke it, saying, 'This means my body broken for you; do this in memory of me.'

so I tell you now, that no one is speaking in the Spirit of God when he cries, 'Cursed be Jesus,' and that no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except in the holy Spirit.

varieties of effects, but the same God who effects everything in everyone.

Each receives his manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

As it is, God has set the members in the body, each as it pleased him.

just as the parts we consider rather dishonourable are the very parts we invest with special honour; our indecorous parts get a special care and attention

which does not need to be paid to our more decorous parts. Yes, God has tempered the body together, with a special dignity for the inferior parts,

That is to say, God has set people within the church to be first of all apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in 'tongues' of various kinds.

For he who speaks in a 'tongue' addresses God not men; no one understands him; he is talking of divine secrets in the Spirit.

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

Suppose now I were to come to you speaking with 'tongues,' my brothers; what good could I do you, unless I had some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching to lay before you?

If the trumpet sounds indistinct, who will get ready for the fray?

Otherwise, suppose you are blessing God in the Spirit, how is the outsider to say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving? The man does not understand what you are saying!

Thank God, I speak in 'tongues' more than any of you;

the secrets of his heart are brought to light, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring, 'God is really among you.'

Very well then, brothers; when you meet together, each contributes something ??a song of praise, a lesson, a revelation, a 'tongue,' an interpretation? Good, but let every thing be for edification.

if there is no interpreter, let the speaker keep quiet in church and address himself and God.

Should a revelation come to one who is seated, the first speaker must be quiet.