So I myself, brothers, could not deal with you as spiritual persons, but as creatures of human clay, as merely baby Christians.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you could not take it. Why, you cannot take it even now,

And whether one puts into the building on the foundation gold or silver or costly stones, or wood or hay or straw,

Are you satisfied already? Have you grown rich already? Have you ascended your thrones without us to join you? Yes, I could wish that you had ascended your thrones, that we too might join you on them!

To this very hour we have gone hungry, thirsty, poorly clad; we have been roughly knocked around; we have had no home.

For though you have ten thousand teachers in the Christian life, you certainly could not have many fathers. For it was I myself who became your father through your union with Christ Jesus, which resulted from my telling you the good news.

I ask this to make you blush with shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a grievance of one brother against another,

and those that mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

For I would not have you, brothers, to be ignorant of the fact that though our forefathers were all made safe by the cloud, and all went securely through the sea, and in the cloud and the sea

You know that when you were heathen you were in the habit of going off, wherever you might be led, after idols that could not speak.

If all the body were an eye, how could we hear? If all the body were an ear, how could we smell?

If they were all one part, how could it be a body?

If I could speak the languages of men, of angels too, and have no love, I am only a rattling pan or a clashing cymbal.

If I should have the gift of prophecy, And know all secret truths, and knowledge in its every form, and have such perfect faith that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

Is never glad when wrong is done, but always glad when truth prevails;

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come to see me, because they have supplied what you lacked.