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.

But in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret we speak of God's wisdom--that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God pre-destined, so that it should result in glory to us;

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.

But because there is so much fornication every man should have a wife of his own, and every woman should have a husband.

Yet of this I warn you, brethren: the time has been shortened--so that henceforth those who have wives should be as though they had none,

If, however, a father thinks he is acting unbecomingly towards his still unmarried daughter if she be past the bloom of her youth, and so the matter is urgent, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin; she and her suitor should be allowed to marry.

But take care lest this liberty of yours should prove a hindrance to the progress of weak believers.

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.

For in the Law of Moses it is written, "Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."

Is God simply thinking about the oxen? Or is it really in our interest that He speaks? Of course, it was written in our interest, because it is His will that when a plough-man ploughs, and a thresher threshes, it should be in the hope of sharing that which comes as the result.

If it is we who sowed the spiritual grain in you, is it a great thing that we should reap a temporal harvest from you?

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.

If, however, we estimated ourselves aright, we should not be judged.

It is important, brethren, that you should have clear knowledge on the subject of spiritual gifts.

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.

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 there is speaking in an unknown tongue, only two or at the most three should speak, and they should do so one at a time, and one should interpret;

and if they wish to ask questions, they should ask their own husbands at home. For it is disgraceful for a married woman to speak at a Church assembly.

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.