that no person may boast in the sight of God.

what I said, what I preached, did not rest on the plausible arguments of 'wisdom' but on the proof supplied by the Spirit and its power,

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.

Now I have applied what has been said above to myself and Apollos, to teach you ... that you are not to be puffed up with rivalry over one teacher as against another.

Do you not know that he who joins himself to a harlot is one with her in body (for the pair, it is said, shall become one flesh),

But what I have just said is by way of concession, not command.

To other people I may be no apostle, but to you I am, for you are the seal set upon my apostleship in the Lord.

And you must not be idolaters, like some of them; as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to make sport.

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

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.

Set your hearts on the higher talents. And yet I will go on to show you a still higher path.

Make love your aim, and then set your heart on the spiritual gifts ??especially upon prophecy.

Well, unless I understand the meaning of what is said to me, I shall appear to the speaker to be talking gibberish, and to my mind he will be talking gibberish himself.

So with yourselves; since your heart is set on possessing 'spirits,' make the edification of the church your aim in this desire to excel.

Let only two or three prophets speak, while the rest exercise their judgment upon what is said.

To sum up, my brothers. Set your heart on the prophetic gift, and do not put any check upon speaking in 'tongues';

First and foremost, I passed on to you what I had myself received, namely, that Christ died for our sins as the scriptures had said,

that he was buried, that he rose on the third day as the scriptures had said,

But by God's grace I am what I am. The grace he showed me did not go for nothing; no, I have done far more work than all of them ??though it was not I but God's grace at my side.

For God has put everything under his feet. When it is said that everything has been put under him, plainly that excludes Him who put everything under him;

And what you sow is not the body that is to be; it is a mere grain of wheat, for example, or some other seed.

God gives it a body as he pleases, gives each kind of seed a body of its own.

I do not care about seeing you at this moment merely in the by-going; my hope is to stay among you for some time, with the Lord's permission.