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.

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.

Let no one of you deceive himself. If any one of you imagines that he is wiser than the rest of you, in what this world calls wisdom, he had better become a fool, so as to become really wise.

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!

To this day we have gone hungry, thirsty, and ill-clad; we have had rough usage, we have had no home,

Immorality is actually notorious among you, and immorality of a kind unknown even among the heathen??hat a man has taken his father's wife.

But there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own.

To those already married my instructions are??nd they are not mine, but the Lord's??hat a wife is not to separate from her husband.

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.

But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none,

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

It is no superhuman temptation that you have had. And God can be depended on, not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to give you a way out of it, so that you can withstand it.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, while a woman's head is her husband, and Christ's head is God.

Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head,

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.

For if a woman will not wear a veil, let her cut off her hair too. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her wear a veil.

For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, for he is the image of God and reflects his glory; while woman is the reflection of man's glory.

That is why she ought to wear upon her head something to symbolize her subjection, out of respect to the angels, if to nobody else.

Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to offer prayer to God with nothing on her head?

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," or the head to the feet, "I do not need you."

For I passed on to you, as of first importance, the account I had received, that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures foretold,