What I mean is this, that one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," another, "And I, of Apollos," another, "And I, of Cephas," and another, "And I, of Christ!"

For God's folly is beyond the wisdom of men, and God's weakness is beyond their strength.

For consider, brothers, what happened when God called you. Not many of you were what men call wise, not many of you were influential, not many were of high birth.

For what human being can understand a man's thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? Just so no one understands the thoughts of God but the spirit of God.

A material man will not accept what the Spirit of God offers. It seems mere folly to him, and he cannot understand it, because it takes spiritual insight to see its true value.

But the spiritual man is alive to all true values, but his own true value no unspiritual man can see.

For when one man says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another, "I am a follower of Apollos," are you not simply human?

If what a man has built on the foundation stands the test, he will have his pay.

If a man's work is burned up, he must stand the loss, though he himself will be saved, but as one who has passed through the fire.

So no one should boast about men. For it all belongs to you??22 Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future??ll of it belongs to you.

The right way for a man to think of us is as Christ's servants, and managers authorized to distribute the secret truths of God.

For it seems to me, God has exhibited us apostles at the very end of the procession, like the men condemned to die in the arena. For we have become a spectacle to the whole universe, angels as well as men.

We are made fools of, for the sake of Christ, while you are men of sense, through being united with him. We are weak, you are strong. You are distinguished, we are despised.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine, in the service of the Lord, and one on whom you can depend, and he will help you to keep in mind my methods in the service of Christ Jesus, which I follow everywhere in every church.

Immorality is actually notorious among you, and immorality of a kind unknown even among the heathen??hat a man has taken his father's wife.

And can you put on airs, instead of being overwhelmed with grief at having to expel from your number the man who has done this?

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this,

I have handed the man over to Satan, for his physical destruction, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

If then you have ordinary matters to be settled, will you submit them for judgment to men who are nothing in the church?

I ask it to shame you. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a disagreement between one brother and another,

Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes one body with her? For "The two," says the Scripture, "shall become physically one."

Fly from immorality! Any other sin a man commits is something outside his body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

As to the matters of which you wrote me, it is an excellent thing for a man to remain unmarried.

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.

But I mean this as a concession, not a command.

To those already married my instructions are??nd they are not mine, but the Lord's??hat a wife is not to separate from her husband.

If a man was circumcised when he was called, he must not try to alter it. If a man was uncircumcised when he was called, he must not have himself circumcised.

For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ.

You have been bought and paid for; you must not let yourselves become slaves to men.

This, then, is my opinion in view of the present distress??hat it is a good thing for a man to remain just as he is.

I want you to be free from all anxiety. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's work, and how he can please the Lord.

A married man is concerned about worldly affairs, and how he can please his wife, and so his interests are divided.

But if a man thinks he is not acting properly toward the girl to whom he is engaged, if his passions are too strong, and that is what ought to be done, let him do as he pleases; it is no sin; let them be married.

But a man who has definitely made up his mind, under no constraint of passion but with full self-control, and who has decided in his own mind to keep her as she is, will be doing what is right.

So the man who marries her does what is right, and the man who refrains from doing so does even better.

If a man thinks he has acquired some knowledge, he does not yet know it as well as he ought to know it.

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

Am I saying only what men say? Does not the Law say so too?

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law.

To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law??hough I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ??o as to win over those who are without any law.

Any man who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training, to win a wreath that will soon wither, but the one we compete for will never wither.

So the man who thinks he can stand must be on his guard against a fall.

Does not the consecrated cup which we bless mean that in drinking it we share in the blood of Christ? Does not the bread that we break mean that in eating it we share in the body of Christ?

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered in sacrifice," let it alone, on account of the man who told you and his conscientious scruples;

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, while a woman's head is her husband, and Christ's head is God.

Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head,

For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, for he is the image of God and reflects his glory; while woman is the reflection of man's glory.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man,

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

But in union with the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman.

For just as woman was made from man, man is born of woman, and both like everything else really come from God.

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

Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly.

A man should examine himself, and only when he has done so should he eat any of the bread or drink from the cup.

One man receives through the Spirit the power to speak wisely, another, by the same Spirit, receives the power to express knowledge,

For we have all??ews or Greeks, slaves or free men??een baptized in one spirit to form one body, and we have all been saturated with one Spirit.

I will show you a far better way. If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong 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 put aside my childish ways.

For anyone who speaks ecstatically is speaking not to men but to God, for no one can understand him, though he is uttering secret truths.

But the inspired preacher does his fellow-men good and encourages and comforts them.

I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically??nless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall seem to the man who is speaking to be a foreigner, and he will seem to me to be one too.

Therefore, the man who can speak ecstatically should pray for the power to explain what he says.

For if you utter blessings in ecstatic speech, how is an ordinary man to say Amen to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying.

In the Law it says, "By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this nation, and not even then will they listen to me, says the Lord."

For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead.

For just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again.

Otherwise, what do people mean by having themselves baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why do they have themselves baptized on their behalf?

You foolish man, the very seed you sow never comes to life without dying first;

Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another.

The sun has one kind of beauty, and the moon another, and the stars another; why, one star differs from another in beauty.

This is also what the Scripture says: "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

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

and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven.

On the first of every week each of you is to put aside and store up whatever he gains, so that money will not have to be collected after I come.

Be on the watch. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men. Show yourselves strong.

They have cheered my heart, and yours too. You should appreciate such men.