I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.

so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

so that no man may boast before God.

and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

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

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.

But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

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

and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

My defense to those who examine me is this:

But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?

just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.

Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord.

For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;

Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.

and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem;

and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go.

for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

So let no one despise him. But send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brethren.

For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men.

The greeting is in my own hand—Paul.

My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.