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;

all of which verifies the testimony we bore to Christ when we were with you.

Thus you lack no spiritual endowment during these days of waiting till our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed;

and to the very end he will guarantee that you are vindicated on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ I beg of you all to drop these party-cries. There must be no cliques among you; you must regain your common temper and attitude.

By 'quarrelling' I mean that each of you has his party-cry, "I belong to Paul," "And I to Apollos," "And I to Cephas," "And I to Christ."

Has Christ been parcelled out? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in Paul's name that you were baptized?

Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And to preach it with no fine rhetoric, lest the cross of Christ should lose its power!

but our message is Christ the crucified ??a stumbling-block to the Jews, 'sheer folly' to the Gentiles,

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

I determined among you to be ignorant of everything except Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ the crucified.

For who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, so as to give him instruction? No one. Well, our thoughts are Christ's thoughts.

But I could not discuss things with you, my brothers, as spiritual persons; I had to address you as worldlings, as mere babes in Christ.

The foundation is laid, namely Jesus Christ, and no one can lay any other.

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.

We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute.

You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel.

To ensure this, I am sending you Timotheus, my beloved and trustworthy son in the Lord; he will remind you of those methods in Christ Jesus which I teach everywhere in every church.

by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ; I have met with you in spirit, and by the power of our Lord Jesus

Clean out the old dough that you may be a fresh lump. For you are free from the old leaven; Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed.

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.

Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? Am I to take Christ's members and devote them to a harlot? Never!

But a slave who is called to be in the Lord is a freedman of the Lord. Just as a free man who is called is a slave of Christ

(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.)

He is ruined, this weak man, ruined by your 'enlightened mind,' this brother for whose sake Christ died!

By sinning against the brotherhood in this way and wounding their weaker consciences, you are sinning against Christ.

If others share this right over you, why not we all the more? We did not avail ourselves of it, you say? No, we do not mind any privations if we can only avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

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;

and all drank the same supernatural drink (drinking from the supernatural Rock which accompanied them ??and that Rock was Christ),

The cup of blessing, which we bless, is that not participating in the blood of Christ? The bread we break, is that not participating in the body of Christ?

Copy me, as I copy Christ.

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.

As the human body is one and has many members, all the members of the body forming one body for all their number, so is it with Christ.

Now you are Christ's Body, and severally members of it.

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,

Now if we preach that Christ rose from the dead, how can certain individuals among you assert that 'there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead'?

If 'there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead,' then even Christ did not rise;

and if Christ did not rise, then our preaching has gone for nothing, and your faith has gone for nothing too.

Besides, we are detected bearing false witness to God by affirming of him that he raised Christ ??whom he did not raise, if after all dead men never rise.

For if dead men never rise, Christ did not rise either;

and if Christ did not rise, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins.

More than that: those who have slept the sleep of death in Christ have perished after all.

Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most!

But it is not so! Christ did rise from the dead, he was the first to be reaped of those who sleep in death.

as all die in Adam, so shall all be made alive in Christ.

But each in his own division: ??Christ the first to be reaped; after that, all who belong to Christ, at his arrival.

(Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.)

The victory is ours, thank God! He makes it ours by our Lord Jesus Christ.

My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.' [Amen.]