I am always thanking God for you, for the spiritual blessing given you by God through union with Christ Jesus;

so that there is no spiritual gift in which you consciously come short, while you are waiting for the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Now I beg you all, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be harmonious in what you say and not to have factions among you, but to be perfectly harmonious in your minds and judgments.

For I have been informed about you, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are wranglings among you.

Christ has been parceled out by you! It was not Paul who was crucified for you, was it? You were not baptized in Paul's name, were you?

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news -- but not by means of wisdom and rhetoric, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.

For the message of the cross is nonsense to those who are in the process of being destroyed, but it is the power of God to those who are in the process of being saved.

For the Scripture says: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the learning of the learned."

For since in accordance with the wisdom of God the world had never in reality, by means of its wisdom, come to know God, God chose through the nonsense of the message proclaimed, to save the people who put their faith in Him.

While Jews are demanding spectacular signs and Greeks are searching for philosophy,

For consider, brothers, the way God called you; that not many of you, in accordance with human standards, were wise, not many influential, not many of high birth.

for I determined, while among you, to be unconscious of everything but Jesus Christ and Him as crucified.

Yes, as for myself, it was in weakness and fear and great trembling that I came to you,

rather, we are setting forth a wisdom that came from God, once a covered secret but now uncovered, which God marked off as His plan for bringing us to glory.

Not one of this world's leaders understands it, for if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

For God unveiled them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit by searching discovers everything, even the deepest truths about God.

For what man can understand his own inner thoughts except by his own spirit within him? Just so no one but the Spirit of God can understand the thoughts of God.

An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct Him? But we now possess Christ's thoughts.

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

for you are still unspiritual. For when there are still jealousy and wrangling among you, are you not still unspiritual and living by a human standard?

For when one says, "I belong to Paul's party," and another, "I belong to Apollos' party," are you not acting as mere human creatures?

So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for much, but God is everything in keeping the plants growing.

for we belong to God as His fellow-workers; you belong to God as His field to be tilled, as His building to be built.

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

the character of each one's work will come to light, for the judgment day will show it up. This is so, because that day will show itself in fire, and the fire will test the character of each one's work.

If the structure which one builds is burned up, he will get no pay; and yet he himself will be saved, but just as one who goes through a fire.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred to Him, and you are that temple.

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

So let no one boast in men. For everything belongs to you --

As for us apostles, men ought to think of us as ministers of Christ and trustees to handle God's uncovered truths.

As for me, myself, it is of very little concern to me to be examined by you or any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

For although my conscience does not accuse me, yet I am not entirely vindicated by that. It is the Lord Himself who must examine me.

So you must stop forming any premature judgments, but wait until the Lord shall come again, for He will bring to light the secrets hidden in the dark and will make known the motives of men's hearts, and the proper praise will be awarded each of us.

Now, brothers, for your sakes I have applied all this to Apollos and myself, that from us as illustrations you might learn the lesson, "Never go beyond what is written," so that you might stop boasting in favor of one teacher against another.

For who makes you superior? And what do you have that you did not get from someone? But if you got it from someone, why do you boast as though you had not?

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

For we have become a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as men. For Christ's sake we are held as fools, while you through union with Christ are men of wisdom. We are weak; you are strong. You are held in honor; we in dishonor.

We have worked hard with our own hands for a living. When abused by people, we bless them. When persecuted, we patiently bear it.

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.

for the kingdom of God does not consist in talking but in doing.

And yet, you are proud of it, instead of being sorry for it, and seeing to it that the man who has done this be removed from your membership!

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and so as really present, by the authority of our Lord Jesus, I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this --

for when you met I too met with you in spirit by the power of our Lord Jesus --

to turn such a man as this over to Satan for the destruction of his lower nature, in order that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Your ground for boasting about such a case is not good. Are you not aware that a little yeast will change the whole lump of dough?

You must clean out the old yeast, that you may be a fresh lump, as you are to be free from the old yeast. For our Passover Lamb, Christ, has already been sacrificed.

not that you are to stop all dealings with sexually immoral people of this world, any more than with its greedy graspers, or its idolaters, for then you would have to get clear out of the world.

Now what I really meant was for you to stop associating with any so-called brother, if he is sexually immoral, a greedy grasper, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler -- with such a person you must even stop eating.

For what right have I to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are inside the church,

but for God to judge those who are outside? You must expel that wicked person from your membership.

So if you have the ordinary cases of life for settlement, do you set up as judges the very men in the church who have no standing?

or thieves or greedy graspers for more or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers will not have a share in the kingdom of God.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is good for me. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not become a slave to anything.

Foods are intended for the stomach, and the stomach for foods, but God will finally put a stop to both of them. The body is not intended for sexual immorality but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve.

Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one."

for you have been bought and actually paid for. So you must honor God with your bodies.

Now I take up the matters about which you wrote me. It may be good thing for a man to remain unmarried;

The husband must always give his wife what is due her, and the wife too must do so for her husband.

You husbands and wives must stop refusing each other what is due, unless you agree to do so just for awhile, so as to have plenty of time for prayer, and then to be together again, so as to keep Satan from tempting you because of your lack of self-control.

However, I should like for everyone to be just as I am myself, yet each of us has his own special gift from God, one for one way, another for another.

To unmarried people and to widows I would say this: It would be a fine thing for them to remain single, as I am.

But if they do not practice self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burning in the fire of passion.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated by union with his wife and the unbelieving wife by union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but in this way they are consecrated.

For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

For the slave who has been called to union with the Lord is the Lord's freedman; in the same way the freeman who has been called is a slave of Christ.

You have been bought and actually paid for; stop becoming slaves to men.

Now this is my opinion in the light of the present distress: That it is a good thing for a man to remain as he is.

Are you married? Stop trying to get a divorce. Are you unmarried? Stop looking for a wife.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those who are enjoying the world as though they were not entirely absorbed in it. For the outward order of this world is passing away.

I want you to be free from worldly worries. An unmarried man is concerned about the affairs of the Lord.

It is for your welfare that I am saying this, not to put restraint on you, but to foster good order and to help you to an undivided devotion to the Lord.

But the father who stands firm in his purpose, without having any necessity for doing so, and he has made the decision in his own heart to keep her single, will do what is right.

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

For even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth -- as there are, indeed, a vast number of gods and lords --

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and the goal of our living, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol?

Yes, the overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by your so-called 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 for the Lord?

If I am not an apostle to other people, I certainly am one to you, for you yourselves, by virtue of your union with the Lord, are the proof of my apostleship.

Or is it Barnabas and I alone who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox that is treading out your grain." Is it that God is concerned about oxen only?

If we have sown the spiritual seed for you, is it too great for us to reap a material support from you?

But I myself have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this just to make it so in my case, for I had rather die than do that. No one shall rob me of this ground of boasting.

For if I do preach the good news, I have no ground for boasting of it, for I cannot help doing it. Yes, indeed, I am accursed if I do not preach the good news.

For if I do it of my own accord, I get my pay; but if I am unwilling to do it, I still am entrusted with trusteeship.

Yes, indeed, though I am free from any human power, I have made myself a slave to everybody, to win as many as possible.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew for the winning of Jews; to men under the law, like one under the law, though I am not under the law myself, to win the men under the law;

And I do it all for the sake of the good news, so as to share with others in its blessings.

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

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

still with the most of them God was not at all satisfied, for He allowed them to be laid low in the desert.

Now stop being idolaters, as some of them were, for the Scripture says, "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to dance."

Let us stop trying the Lord's patience, as some of them did, and for it were destroyed by the snakes.

You must stop grumbling, as some of them did, and for it were destroyed by the destroying angel.

Those things continued to befall them as warnings to others, and they were written down for the purpose of instructing us, in whose lives the climax of the ages has been reached.

I am speaking to sensible men; decide for yourselves about what I say.

Because there is only one loaf, so we, though many, are only one body, for we all partake of one loaf.