I mean this, that one of you says, "I belong to Paul's party," another, "And I belong to Apollos' party," another, "And I belong to Cephas' party," another, "And I belong to Christ's party."

So where is your philosopher? Where is your man of letters? Where is your logician of this age? Has not God shown up the nonsense of the world's wisdom?

It is so, because God's nonsense is wiser than men's wisdom, and God's weakness is mightier than men's might.

so that no mortal man might ever boast in the presence of God.

so that your faith might not be in men's wisdom, but in God's power.

For what man can understand his own inner thoughts except by his own spirit within him? Just so no one but the Spirit of God can understand the thoughts of God.

These truths we are setting forth, not in words that man's wisdom teaches but in words that the Spirit teaches, in this way fitting spiritual words to spiritual truths.

An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.

But the spiritual man appreciates everything, and yet he himself is not really appreciated by anybody.

So let no one boast in men. For everything belongs to you --

As for us apostles, men ought to think of us as ministers of Christ and trustees to handle God's uncovered truths.

So you must stop forming any premature judgments, but wait until the Lord shall come again, for He will bring to light the secrets hidden in the dark and will make known the motives of men's hearts, and the proper praise will be awarded each of us.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

For we have become a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as men. For Christ's sake we are held as fools, while you through union with Christ are men of wisdom. We are weak; you are strong. You are held in honor; we in dishonor.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine and trustworthy in the Lord's work; he will call to your minds my methods in the work of Christ Jesus, just as I teach them everywhere in every church.

A case of immorality is reported as actually existing among you, an immorality unheard of even among the heathen that a man cohabits with his father's wife.

And yet, you are proud of it, instead of being sorry for it, and seeing to it that the man who has done this be removed from your membership!

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and so as really present, by the authority of our Lord Jesus, I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this --

to turn such a man as this over to Satan for the destruction of his lower nature, in order that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

So if you have the ordinary cases of life for settlement, do you set up as judges the very men in the church who have no standing?

I ask this to make you blush with shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a grievance of one brother against another,

Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one."

But the man who is in union with the Lord is spiritually one with Him.

Keep on running from sexual immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is one outside his body, but the man who commits the sexual sin is sinning against his own body.

Now I take up the matters about which you wrote me. It may be good thing for a man to remain unmarried;

but because of so much sexual immorality every man should have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own.

Has a man been called after he was circumcised? He must not try to change it. Has a man been called without being circumcised? He must not be circumcised.

You have been bought and actually paid for; stop becoming slaves to men.

Now this is my opinion in the light of the present distress: That it is a good thing for a man to remain as he is.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

I want you to be free from worldly worries. An unmarried man is concerned about the affairs of the Lord.

A married man is concerned about the affairs of the world, and how he can please his wife, and so his devotion is divided.

And so the man who gives his daughter in marriage does what is right, and yet the man who does not do so does even better.

If a man supposes that he has already gotten some true knowledge, as yet he has not learned it as he ought to know it.

But if a man loves God, God is known by him.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew for the winning of Jews; to men under the law, like one under the law, though I am not under the law myself, to win the men under the law;

to men who have no written law, like one without any law, though I am not without God's law but specially under Christ's law, to win the men who have no written law.

Any man who enters an athletic contest practices rigid self-control in training, only to win a wreath that withers, but we are in to win a wreath that never withers.

So the man who thinks he stands securely must be on the lookout not to fall.

I am speaking to sensible men; decide for yourselves about what I say.

Then what do I mean? That the sacrifice to an idol is a reality, or that an idol itself is a reality? Of course not!

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered as a heathen sacrifice," make it your rule not to eat it, for the sake of the man who warned you and for conscience' sake;

I mean his conscience, not yours. Why then should my personal freedom be limited by another's conscience?

But I want you to realize the fact that Christ is the Head of every man, that the husband is the head of the wife, and that God is the Head of Christ.

Any man who prays or preaches with anything on his head dishonors his head,

For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, because he is the image and reflected glory of God, but woman is man's reflected glory.

For man did not originate from woman, but woman did from man,

and man was not created for woman's sake, but woman was for man's sake.

This is why woman ought to wear upon her head a symbol of man's authority, especially out of respect to the angels.

But from the Lord's point of view woman is not independent of man nor man of woman.

For just as woman originated from man, so man is born of woman, and both, with everything else, originated from God.

Does not nature itself teach you that it is degrading for a man to wear long hair,

A man, then, must examine himself, and only in this way should he eat any of the bread and drink from the cup.

If I could speak the languages of men, of angels too, and have no love, I am only a rattling pan or a clashing cymbal.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I laid aside my childish ways.

For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

But whoever prophesies is speaking to men for their upbuilding. encouragement, and comfort.

I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift.

So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I should be a foreigner to the man who speaks it, and he would be a foreigner to me.

Therefore, the man who speaks in ecstasy must pray for power to explain what he says.

how is the man who occupies the place of the illiterate to say "Amen" to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying.

Brothers, stop being children in intelligence, but as to evil keep on being babies; and yet as to intelligence be men of maturity.

In the law it is written, "By men of foreign languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

But if everybody prophesies, and some unbeliever or illiterate man comes in, he is convinced of his sins by all, he is closely questioned by all,

For since it was through a man that death resulted, it was also through a man that the resurrection of the dead resulted.

For just as all men die by virtue of their descent from Adam, so all such as are in union with Christ will be made to live again.

Otherwise, what do those people mean who submit to being baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead are never raised at all, why do they submit to being baptized on their behalf?

You foolish man! the seed that you sow never comes to life unless it dies first;

Every kind of flesh is different. One kind belongs to men, another to cattle, another to birds, another to fish.

One kind of splendor belongs to the sun, another to the moon, and another to the stars; yes, one star differs from another in splendor.

This is the way the Scripture puts it too, "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

The first man was made of the dust of the earth; the second Man is from heaven.

and as we have reflected the likeness of him who was made of dust, let us also reflect the likeness of the Man from heaven.

Be always on your guard; stand firm in your faith; keep on acting like men; continue to grow in strength;

Yes, they have cheered my spirit, and yours too. You must deeply appreciate such men.

The final greeting is mine -- Paul's -- with my own hand.