May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God continually on your behalf for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus--

Thus my testimony as to the Christ has been confirmed in your experience,

For I have been distinctly informed, my brethren, about you by Chloe's people, that there are dissensions among you.

for fear people should say that you were baptized to be my adherents.

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Good News; and not in merely wise words--lest the Cross of Christ should be deprived of its power.

in order that it may be as Scripture says, "He who boasts--let his boast be in the Lord."

And as for myself, brethren, when I came to you, it was not with surpassing power of eloquence or earthly wisdom that I came, announcing to you that which God had commanded me to bear witness to.

And my language and the Message that I proclaimed were not adorned with persuasive words of earthly wisdom, but depended upon truths which the Spirit taught and mightily carried home;

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God.

In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I--like a competent master-builder--have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let every one be careful how and what he builds.

Let no one deceive himself. If any man imagines that he is wise, compared with the rest of you, with the wisdom of the present age, let him become "foolish" so that he may be wise.

In writing this much, brethren, with special reference to Apollos and myself, I have done so for your sakes, in order to teach you by our example what those words mean, which say, "Nothing beyond what is written!" --so that you may cease to take sides in boastful rivalry, for one teacher against another.

Why, who gives you your superiority, my brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? And if you really did receive it, why boast as if this were not so?

God, it seems to me, has exhibited us Apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; for we have come to be a spectacle to all creation--alike to angels and to men.

I am not writing all this to shame you, but I am offering you advice as my dearly-loved children.

I entreat you therefore to become like me.

For this reason I have sent Timothy to you. Spiritually he is my dearly-loved and faithful child. He will remind you of my habits as a Christian teacher--the manner in which I teach everywhere in every Church.

I for my part, present with you in spirit although absent in body, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so acted.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are all assembled and my spirit is with you, together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

I have handed over such a man to Satan for the destruction of his body, that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.

Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind; for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb has already been offered in sacrifice--even Christ.

Everything is allowable to me, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable to me, but to nothing will I become a slave.

Do not refuse one another, unless perhaps it is just for a time and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and may then associate again; lest the Adversary begin to tempt you because of your deficiency in self-control.

But to those already married my instructions are--yet not mine, but the Lord's--that a wife is not to leave her husband;

Concerning unmarried women I have no command to give you from the Lord; but I offer you my opinion, which is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence.

There is a difference too between a married and an unmarried woman. She who is unmarried concerns herself with the Lord's business--that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but the married woman concerns herself with the business of the world--how she shall please her husband.

But in my judgement, her state is a more enviable one if she remains as she is; and I also think that I have the Spirit of God.

Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall, never again to the end of my days will I touch any kind of animal food, for fear I should cause my brother to fall.

Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be denied that I have seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you yourselves my work in the Lord?

If to other men I am not an Apostle, yet at any rate I am one to you; for your very existence as a Christian Church is the seal of my Apostleship.

That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

But I, for my part, have not used, and do not use, my full rights in any of these things. Nor do I now write with that object so far as I myself am concerned, for I would rather die than have anybody make this boast of mine an empty one.

If I go on preaching the Good News, that is nothing for me to boast of; for the necessity is imposed upon me; and alas for me, if I fail to preach it!

And if I preach willingly, I receive my wages; but if against my will, a stewardship has nevertheless been entrusted to me.

What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.

To the weak I have become weak, so as to gain the weak. To all men I have become all things, in the hope that in every one of these ways I may save some.

And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that I may share with my hearers in its benefits.

That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.

Nor may we be fornicators, like some of them who committed fornication and on a single day 23,000 of them fell dead.

No temptation has you in its power but such as is common to human nature; and God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. But, when the temptation comes, He will also provide the way of escape; so that you may be able to bear it.

Therefore, my dear friends, avoid all connection with the worship of idols.

But now I mean his conscience, not your own. "Why, on what ground," you may object, "is the question of my liberty of action to be decided by a conscience not my own?

That is the way that I also seek in everything the approval of all men, not aiming at my own profit, but at that of the many, in the hope that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, in so far as I in turn am an imitator of Christ.

Now I commend you for remembering me in everything, and because you hold fast truths and practices precisely as I have taught them to you.

For there must of necessity be differences of opinion among you, in order that it may be plainly seen who are the men of sterling worth among you.

and after giving thanks He broke it and said, "This is my body which is about to be broken for you. Do this in memory of me."

In the same way, when the meal was over, He also took the cup. "This cup," He said, "is the new Covenant of which my blood is the pledge. Do this, every time that you drink it, in memory of me."

If any one is hungry, let him eat at home; so that your coming together may not lead to judgement. The other matters I will deal with whenever I come.

And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of Love, it profits me nothing.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child: when I became a man, I put from me childish ways.

Be eager in your pursuit of this Love, and be earnestly ambitious for spiritual gifts, but let it be chiefly so in order that you may prophesy.

I should be right glad were you all to speak in 'tongues,' but yet more glad were you all to prophesy. And, in fact, the man who prophesies is superior to him who speaks in 'tongues,' except when the latter can interpret in order that the Church may get a blessing.

If, however, I do not know the meaning of the particular language, I shall seem to the speaker of it, and he to me, to be merely talking some foreign tongue.

For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is barren.

How then does the matter stand? I will pray in spirit, and I will pray with my understanding also. I will praise God in spirit, and I will praise Him with my understanding also.

but in the Church I would rather speak five words with my understanding--so as to instruct others also--than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

In the Law it stands written, "'By men of unknown tongues and by the lips of an unknown nation will I speak to this People, but even then they will not listen to Me', says the Lord."

For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged:

The conclusion, my brethren, is this. Be earnestly ambitious to prophesy, and do not check speaking with tongues;

But let me recall to you, brethren, the Good News which I brought you, which you accepted, and on which you are standing,

And last of all, as to one of untimely birth, He appeared to me also.

But what I am I am by the grace of God, and His grace bestowed upon me did not prove ineffectual. But I labored more strenuously than all the rest--yet it was not I, but God's grace working with me.

But when the whole universe has been made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has made the universe subject to Him, in order that GOD may be all in all.

I protest, brethren, as surely as I glory over you--which I may justly do in Christ Jesus our Lord--that I die day by day.

If from merely human motives I have fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what profit is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die.

and as for what you sow, it is not the plant which is to be that you are sowing, but a bare grain, of wheat (it may be)

Therefore, my dear brethren, be firm, unmovable, busily occupied at all times in the Lord's work, knowing that your toil is not fruitless in the Lord.

On the first day of every week let each of you put on one side and store up at his home whatever gain has been granted to him; so that whenever I come, there may then be no collections going on.

And if it is worth while for me also to make the journey, they shall go as my companions.

I shall come to you after passing through Macedonia; for my plan will be to pass through Macedonia;

and I shall make some stay with you perhaps, or even spend the winter with you, in order that you may help me forward, whichever way I travel.

for a wide door stands open before me which demands great efforts, and we have many opponents.

Therefore let no one slight him, but all of you should help him forward in peace to join me; for I am waiting for him and others of the brethren.

It is a joy to me that Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus have now arrived, because what was wanting so far as you are concerned they have supplied.

They have refreshed my spirit, and yours. Acknowledge such men as these.

The final greeting of me--Paul--with my own hand.

My love in Christ Jesus be with you all.