No, as it is written, what no eye has ever seen, what no ear has ever heard, what never entered the mind of man, God has prepared all that for those who love him.

Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present and the future ??all belongs to you;

So do not criticize at all; the hour of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal life's inner aims and motives. Then each of us will get his meed of praise from God.

Which is it to be? Am I to come to you with a rod of discipline or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

I would like all men to be as I am. However, everyone is endowed by God in his own way; he has a gift for the one life or the other.

To other people I would say (not the Lord): ??if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and if she consents to live with him, he must not put her away;

and if any wife has a husband who is not a believer, and if he consents to live with her, she must not put her husband away.

(Should the unbelieving partner be determined to separate, however, separation let it be; in such cases the Christian brother or sister is not tied to marriage.) It is to a life of peace that God has called us.

Only, everyone must lead the lot assigned him by the Lord; he must go on living the life in which God's call came to him. (Such is the rule I lay down for all the churches).

Everyone must remain in the condition of life where he was called.

Brothers, everyone must remain with God in the condition of life where he was called.

I mean, brothers, ??the interval has been shortened; so let those who have wives live as if they had none,

let mourners live as if they were not mourning, let the joyful live as if they had no joy, let buyers live as if they had no hold on their goods,

let those who mix in the world live as if they were not engrossed in it, for the present phase of things is passing away.

I am saying this in your own interests. Not that I want to restrict your freedom. It is only to secure decorum and concentration upon a life of devotion to the Lord.

With regard to food that has been offered to idols. Here, of course, 'we all possess knowledge'! Knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

Therefore if food is any hindrance to my brother's welfare, sooner than injure him I will never eat flesh as long as I live, never!

I passed on to you what I received from the Lord himself, namely, that on the night he was betrayed the Lord Jesus took a loaf,

For as often as you eat this loaf and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Hence anyone who eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord carelessly, will have to answer for a sin against the body and the blood of the Lord.

Let a man test himself; then he can eat from the loaf and drink from the cup.

Thus, I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal;

I may prophesy, fathom all mysteries and secret lore, I may have such absolute faith that I can move hills from their place, but if I have no love, I count for nothing;

I may distribute all I possess in charity, I may give up my body to be burnt, but if I have no love, I make nothing of it.

Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs,

love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness,

Love never disappears. As for prophesying, it will be superseded; as for 'tongues,' they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded.

Thus 'faith and hope and love last on, these three,' but the greatest of all is love.

Make love your aim, and then set your heart on the spiritual gifts ??especially upon prophecy.

Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most!

Foolish man! What you sow never comes to life unless it dies.

Thus it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became an animate being, the last Adam a life-giving Spirit';

Let all you do be done in love.

'If any one has no love for the Lord, God's curse be on him! Maran atha!

My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.' [Amen.]