By 'quarrelling' I mean that each of you has his party-cry, "I belong to Paul," "And I to Apollos," "And I to Cephas," "And I to Christ."

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

Why, look at your own ranks, my brothers; not many wise men (that is, judged by human standards), not many leading men, not many of good birth, have been called!

God has chosen what is mean and despised in the world ??things which are not, to put down things that are;

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.

What human being can understand the thoughts of a man, except the man's own inner spirit? So too no one understands the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.

The unspiritual man rejects these truths of the Spirit of God; to him they are 'sheer folly,' he cannot understand them. And the reason is, that they must be read with the spiritual eye.

The spiritual man, again, can read the meaning of everything; and yet no one can read what he is.

you are still worldly. For with jealousy and quarrels in your midst, are you not worldly, are you not behaving like ordinary men?

When one cries, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," what are you but men of the world?

If the structure raised by any man survives, he will be rewarded;

if a man's work is burnt up, he will be a loser ??and though he will be saved himself, he will be snatched from the very flames.

So you must not boast about men. For all belongs to you;

For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men!

I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality such as is unknown even among pagans ??that a man has taken his father's wife!

I did not mean you were literally to avoid contact with the immoral in this world, with the lustful and the thievish, or with idolaters; in that case you would have to leave the world altogether.

Outsiders it is no business of mine to judge. No, you must judge those who are inside the church, for yourselves;

And yet, when you have mundane issues to settle, you refer them to the judgment of men who from the point of view of the church are of no account!

I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could decide a dispute between members of the brotherhood,

Shun immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his body.

Now about the questions in your letter. It is an excellent thing for a man to have no intercourse with a woman;

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.

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.

For married people these are my instructions (and they are the Lord's, not mine). A wife is not to separate from her husband ??11 if she has separated, she must either remain single or be reconciled to him ??and a husband must not put away his wife.

Was a man circumcised at the time he was called? Then he is not to efface the marks of it. Has any man been called when he was uncircumcised? Then he is not to get circumcised.

But a slave who is called to be in the Lord is a freedman of the Lord. Just as a free man who is called is a slave of Christ

(for you were bought for a price; you must not turn slaves to any man).

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

I want you to be free from all anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the Lord's affairs, how best to satisfy the Lord;

the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy his wife ??34 so he is torn in two directions. The unmarried woman or the maid is also anxious about the Lord's affairs, how to be consecrated, body and spirit; once married, she is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy her husband.

At the same time, if any man considers he is not behaving properly to the maid who is his spiritual bride, if his passions are strong and if it must be so, then let him do what he wants ??let them be married; it is no sin for him.

But the man of firm purpose who has made up his mind, who, instead of being forced against his will, has determined to himself to keep his maid a spiritual bride ??that man will be doing the right thing.

He is ruined, this weak man, ruined by your 'enlightened mind,' this brother for whose sake Christ died!

Does a soldier provide his own supplies? Does a man plant a vineyard without eating its produce? Does a shepherd get no drink from the milk of the flock?

Do you not know that as men who perform temple-rites get their food from the temple, and as attendants at the altar get their share of the sacrifices,

to the weak I have become as weak myself, to win over the weak. To all men I have become all things, to save some by all and every means.

Do you not know that in a race, though all run, only one man gains the prize? Run so as to win the prize.

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

But if someone tells you, 'This was sacrificial meat,' then do not eat it; you must consider the man who told you, and also take conscience into account ??29 his conscience, I mean, not your own; for why should one's own freedom be called in question by someone else's conscience?

Such is my own rule, to satisfy all men in all points, aiming not at my own advantage but at the advantage of the greater number ??at their salvation.

But I would like you to understand this: Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Any man who prays or prophesies with a veil on his head dishonours his head,

Man does not require to have a veil on his head, for he represents the likeness and supremacy of God; but woman represents the supremacy of man.

(Man was not made from woman, woman was made from man;

and man was not created for woman, but woman for man.)

(Of course, in the Lord, woman does not exist apart from man, any more than man apart from woman;

for as woman was made from man, so man is now made from woman, while both, like all things, come from God.)

Surely nature herself teaches you that while long hair is disgraceful for a man,

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

One man is granted words of wisdom by the Spirit, another words of knowledge by the same Spirit;

one man in the same Spirit has the gift of faith, another in the one Spirit has gifts of healing;

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;

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I argued like a child; now that I am a man, I am done with childish ways.

For he who speaks in a 'tongue' addresses God not men; no one understands him; he is talking of divine secrets in the Spirit.

On the other hand, he who prophesies addresses men in words that edify, encourage, and console them.

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

Thus a man who speaks in a 'tongue' must pray for the gift of interpreting it.

Otherwise, suppose you are blessing God in the Spirit, how is the outsider to say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving? The man does not understand what you are saying!

Your thanksgiving may be all right, but then ??the other man is not edified!

It is written in the Law, By men of alien tongues and by the lips of aliens I will speak to this People; but even so, they will not listen to me, saith the Lord.

Besides, we are detected bearing false witness to God by affirming of him that he raised Christ ??whom he did not raise, if after all dead men never rise.

For if dead men never rise, Christ did not rise either;

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

For since death came by man, by man came also resurrection from the dead;

Otherwise, if there is no such thing as a resurrection, what is the meaning of people getting baptized on behalf of their dead? If dead men do not rise at all, why do people get baptized on their behalf?

What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

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

There is a splendour of the sun and a splendour of the moon and a splendour of the stars ??for one star differs from another in splendour.

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

Man the first is from the earth, material; Man the second is from heaven.

As Man the material is, so are the material; as Man the heavenly is, so are the heavenly.

Thus, as we have borne the likeness of material Man, so we are to bear the likeness of the heavenly Man.

On the first day of the week let each of you put aside a sum from his weekly gains, so that the money may not have to be collected when I come.

I mean to visit you after my tour in Macedonia, for I am going to make a tour through Macedonia.

Watch, stand firm in the faith, play the man, be strong!

They refresh my spirit as they do your own. You should appreciate men like that.