to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing."

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

that, according as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord."

But as it is written, "Things which an eye didn't see, and an ear didn't hear, which didn't enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him."

But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God's Spirit.

But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.

Brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren't you fleshly, and don't you walk in the ways of men?

Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

each man's work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man's work is.

If any man's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, which you are.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He has taken the wise in their craftiness."

And again, "The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless."

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

So let a man think of us as Christ's servants, and stewards of God's mysteries.

Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's judgment. Yes, I don't judge my own self.

For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.

Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.

For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn't receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.

We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.

Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

I don't write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly.

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.

For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father's wife.

For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.

Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person.

Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

I say this to move you to shame. Isn't there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers?

Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

"Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods," but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.

Or don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh."

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own,

Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

Don't deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn't tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.

But to the rest I -- not the Lord -- say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.

The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

Were you called being a bondservant? Don't let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.

For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord's free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ's bondservant.

Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.

I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

and those who weep, as though they didn't weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn't rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn't possess;

and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world -- how she may please her husband.

This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn't sin. Let them marry.

A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whoever she desires, only in the Lord.

But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God's Spirit.

But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know.

But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;"

yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don't eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol's temple, won't his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

My defense to those who examine me is this.

Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it for the oxen that God cares,

If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?

If others partake of this right over you, don't we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.