I am always thanking God about you, for the blessing God has given you through Christ Jesus.

For you have grown rich in everything through union with him??n power of expression and in capacity for knowledge.

and there is no gift that you lack even while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to reappear,

But I urge you all, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree in what you say, and not to allow factions among you, but to be perfectly united in mind and judgment.

For I have been informed, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that quarrels are going on among you.

Christ has been divided up! But was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news??ut not with fine language, or the cross of Christ might seem an empty thing.

For to those who are on the way to destruction, the story of the cross is nonsense, but to us who are to be saved, it means all the power of God.

For the Scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And I will thwart the shrewdness of the shrewd!"

For since in God's providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him.

For Jews insist upon miracles, and Greeks demand philosophy,

For God's folly is beyond the wisdom of men, and God's weakness is beyond their strength.

For consider, brothers, what happened when God called you. Not many of you were what men call wise, not many of you were influential, not many were of high birth.

for I resolved, while I was with you, to forget everything but Jesus Christ and his crucifixion.

For my part, I came among you in weakness and with a great deal of fear and trembling,

But it is a mysterious divine wisdom that we impart, hitherto kept secret, and destined by God before the world began for our glory.

It is a wisdom unknown to any of the authorities of this world, for otherwise they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

But, as the Scripture says, there are things "Which no eye ever saw and no ear ever heard, And never occurred to the human mind, Which God has provided for those who love him."

For God revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit fathoms everything, even the depths of God himself.

For what human being can understand a man's thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? Just so no one understands the thoughts of God but the spirit of God.

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct him? But we share the thoughts of Christ.

So, for my part, brothers, I could not treat you as spiritual persons; I had to treat you just as creatures of flesh and blood, as babies in Christian living.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Why, you are not ready for it now,

for you are still worldly. For when there are still jealousy and quarrels among you, are you not worldly and living on a merely human level?

For when one man says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another, "I am a follower of Apollos," are you not simply human?

So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything, but only God who makes the plants grow.

The planter and the waterer are all one, though each of us will be paid for his own work.

For we are fellow-laborers for God, and you are God's farm, God's building.

For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is laid, that is, Jesus Christ himself.

the quality of everyone's work will appear, for the Day will show it. For the Day will break in fire, and the fire will test the quality of everyone's work.

If a man's work is burned up, he must stand the loss, though he himself will be saved, but as one who has passed through the fire.

If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is sacred, and that is what you are.

For this world's wisdom is foolishness to God. For the Scripture says, "He who catches the wise with their own cunning,"

So no one should boast about men. For it all belongs to you??22 Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future??ll of it belongs to you.

The right way for a man to think of us is as Christ's servants, and managers authorized to distribute the secret truths of God.

I for my part care very little about being examined by you or by any human court. I do not even offer myself for investigation.

For while my conscience does not trouble me at all, that does not prove that I am innocent. It is the Lord who must examine me.

Do not form any premature judgments, therefore, but wait until the Lord comes back. For he will light up the darkness that now hides things and show what the motives in people's minds are, and then everyone will get from God the praise he deserves.

Now, brothers, for your benefit I have applied all this only to Apollos and myself, by using us as illustrations to teach you the old lesson, "Never go beyond the letter," and to keep any of you from boasting of one teacher at the expense of another.

For who sees anything special in you? And what have you got that you have not been given? But if it has been given you, why do you boast as though it had not been?

Are you satisfied already? Have you become rich already? Have you entered your kingdom without waiting for us? I wish you had entered it, so that we might share it with you!

For it seems to me, God has exhibited us apostles at the very end of the procession, like the men condemned to die in the arena. For we have become a spectacle to the whole universe, angels as well as men.

We are made fools of, for the sake of Christ, while you are men of sense, through being united with him. We are weak, you are strong. You are distinguished, we are despised.

we have worked with our hands for a living. When people abuse us, we bless them, when they persecute us, we put up with it,

I do not write this to you to make you ashamed, but for your instruction as my dear children.

For no matter how many guides you may have in the Christian life, you will not have many fathers; for in this matter of union with Christ, I became your father, through preaching the good news to you.

For the reign of God is not a matter of words but of power.

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this,

I have handed the man over to Satan, for his physical destruction, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

Certainly this is nothing for you to boast of. Do you not know that a little yeast will affect all the dough?

You must clean out the old yeast and become fresh dough, free from the old as you really are. For our Passover lamb is already sacrificed; it is Christ himself.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people??10 not that you are to have nothing whatever to do with the immoral people of the world, any more than with its greedy and grasping people or idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world altogether.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not your part to judge those who are inside the church,

Do you not know that the Christians are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to come before you for judgment, are you unfit to decide the most trivial cases?

If then you have ordinary matters to be settled, will you submit them for judgment to men who are nothing in the church?

I may do anything I please, but not everything I may do is good for me. I may do anything I please; but I am not going to let anything master me.

It is true, food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for the food, but God will put an end to both of them. But the body is not meant for immorality, but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve.

Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes one body with her? For "The two," says the Scripture, "shall become physically one."

you have been bought and paid for. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

As to the matters of which you wrote me, it is an excellent thing for a man to remain unmarried.

You must not refuse each other what is due, unless you agree to do so for a while, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then to come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be on fire with passion.

For the husband who is not a believer is consecrated through union with his wife, and the woman who is not a believer is consecrated through union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but, as it is, they are consecrated.

For how do you wives know whether you will save your husbands? Or how do you husbands know whether you will save your wives?

Only, everyone must continue in the station which the Lord has appointed for him, and in which he was when God's call came to him. This is the rule I make in all the churches.

For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ.

You have been bought and paid for; you must not let yourselves become slaves to men.

This, then, is my opinion in view of the present distress??hat it is a good thing for a man to remain just as he is.

and those who mix in the world, as though they were not absorbed in it. For the present shape of the world is passing away.

I want you to be free from all anxiety. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's work, and how he can please the Lord.

It is for your benefit that I say this, not to put a halter on you, but to promote good order, and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases so long as he is a Christian.

For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth??nd indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords??6 yet for us there is just one God, the Father, who is the source of all things, and for whom we live, and just one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

But it is not everyone that has this knowledge; for some, through being long accustomed to idols, still eat meat that has been sacrificed to them as really offered to an idol, and their consciences, being oversensitive, are troubled.

For if somebody sees you, who are intelligent about this matter, attending a dinner in an idol's temple, will not he, with his sensitive conscience, be led to eat meat that is offered to idols?

For this overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by what you call your knowledge.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the product of my work in the Lord's service?

If I am not an apostle to other people, I certainly am one to you, for you yourselves, in your relation to the Lord, are the certificate of my apostleship.

Or is it only Barnabas and I that have no right to give up working for a living?

For in the Law of Moses it reads, "You shall not muzzle an ox that is treading out the grain." Is it about the oxen that God is concerned?

As far as preaching the good news is concerned, that is nothing for me to boast of, for I cannot help doing it. For I am ruined if I do not preach.

For if I do it of my own accord, I have my pay, but if I do it because I must, it is still a responsibility that I am charged with.

Though I am free from anyone's control, I have made myself everyone's slave, so as to win over all the more.

And I do it all for the sake of the good news, so that I may share in its blessings along with the rest.

Any man who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training, to win a wreath that will soon wither, but the one we compete for will never wither.

For I would not have you forget, brothers, that though our forefathers were all protected by the cloud, and all passed safely through the sea,

and drank the same supernatural drink??for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which attended them, and the rock was really Christ??5 still most of them disappointed God, for they were struck down in the desert.

Now these things happened to warn us, so that we should not long for what is evil as they did.

You must not become idolaters, like some of them, for the Scripture says, "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to dance."

Let us not try the Lord's patience too far, as some of them did, for they were killed for it by the snakes.

You must not grumble, as some of them did, for they were destroyed for it by the destroying angel.

Because there is one loaf, we, many as we are, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

We are free to do anything, but not everything is good for us. We are free to do anything, but not everything builds up character.

Eat anything for sale in the meat market without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned,

for the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord.

If one of the heathen invites you to his house, and you wish to go, eat whatever is served, without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned.

his scruples, I say, not yours. For why should my liberty of action be limited by another's scruples?

If I give thanks for what I eat, why should I be denounced for eating what I give thanks over?

just as I for my part try to please everyone in all I do, not aiming at my own advantage, but at that of people generally, in order that they may be saved.

and any woman who offers prayer or explains the will of God bareheaded disgraces her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved.