that you have been so richly blessed in Him, with readiness of speech and fulness of knowledge.

so that there is no gift of God in which you consciously come short while patiently waiting for the reappearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who will also keep you stedfast to the very End, so that you will be free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents?

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

For so it stands written, "I will exhibit the nothingness of the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nought."

Where is your wise man? Where your expounder of the Law? Where your investigator of the questions of this present age? Has not God shown the world's wisdom to be utter foolishness?

Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men's might.

For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called.

But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

And so far as I myself was concerned, I came to you in conscious feebleness and in fear and in deep anxiety.

so that your trust might rest not on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

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, among human beings, who knows a man's inner thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God's Spirit is acquainted with God's inner thoughts.

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.

Of these we speak--not in language which man's wisdom teaches us, but in that which the Spirit teaches--adapting, as we do, spiritual words to spiritual truths.

you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are just God's servants, through whose efforts, and as the Lord granted power to each, you accepted the faith.

So that neither the planter nor the waterer is of any importance. God who gives the increase is all in all.

Apollos and I are simply fellow workers for and with God, and you are *God's* field-- *God's* building.

the true character of each individual's work will become manifest. For the day of Christ will disclose it, because that day is soon to come upon us clothed in fire, and as for the quality of every one's work-- the fire is the thing which will test it.

If any one's work--the building which he has erected--stands the test, he will be rewarded.

If any one's work is burnt up, he will suffer the loss of it; yet he will himself be rescued, but only, as it were, by passing through the fire.

Do you not know that you are God's Sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God has His home within you?

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.

This world's wisdom is "foolishness" in God's sight; for it is written, "He snares the wise with their own cunning."

As for us Apostles, let any one take this view of us--we are Christ's officers, and stewards of God's secret truths.

This being so, it follows that fidelity is what is required in stewards.

Therefore form no premature judgements, but wait until the Lord returns. He will both bring to light the secrets of darkness and will openly disclose the motives that have been in people's hearts; and then the praise which each man deserves will come to him from God.

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?

We, for Christ's sake, are labeled as "foolish"; you, as Christians, are men of shrewd intelligence. We are mere weaklings: you are strong. You are in high repute: we are outcasts.

It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and of a kind unheard of even among the Gentiles--a man has his father's wife!

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.

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.

while you leave to God's judgement those who are outside? Remove the wicked man from among you.

If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people?

Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgement upon the world? And if you are the court before which the world is to be judged, are you unfit to deal with these petty matters?

Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels--to say nothing of things belonging to this life?

I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there does not exist among you a single wise man competent to decide between a man and his brother,

To say no more, then, it is altogether a defect in you that you have law-suits with one another. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather submit to being defrauded?

Do you not know that unrighteous men will not inherit God's Kingdom? Cherish no delusion here. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor any who are guilty of unnatural crime,

nor theives, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language or to greed of gain, will inherit God's Kingdom.

Food of all kinds is meant for the stomach, and the stomach is meant for food, and God will cause both of them to perish. Yet the body does not exist for the purpose of fornication, but for the Master's service, and the Master exists for the body;

and as God by His power raised the Master to life, so He will also raise us up.

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

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;

For, in such cases, the unbelieving husband has become--and is--holy through union with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving wife is holy through union with a Christian brother. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but in reality they have a place among God's people.

If, however, the unbeliever is determined to leave, let him or her do so. Under such circumstances the Christian man or woman is no slave; God has called us to live lives of peace.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing: obedience to God's commandments is everything.

For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's freed man, and in the same way a free man, if called, becomes the slave of Christ.

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.

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,

And I would have you free from worldly anxiety. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's business--how he shall please the Lord;

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.

Thus much I say in your own interest; not to lay a trap for you, but to help towards what is becoming, and enable you to wait on the Lord without distraction.

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.

So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

For if so-called gods do exist, either in Heaven or on earth--and in fact there are many such gods and many such lords--

It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.

For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer)

Have we not a right to take with us on our journeys a Christian sister as our wife, as the rest of the Apostles do--and the Lord's brothers and Peter?

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.

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 men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law--in order to win those who are without Law.

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.

For I would have you remember, brethren, how our forefathers were all of them sheltered by the cloud, and all got safely through the Red Sea.

All were baptized in the cloud and in the sea to be followers of Moses.

So then let him who thinks he is standing securely beware of falling.

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.

I speak as to men of sense: judge for yourselves of what I say.

You cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons: you cannot be joint-partakers both in the table of the Lord and in the table of demons.

for the earth is the Lord's, and all that it contains.

If, so far as I am concerned, I partake with a grateful heart, why am I to be found fault with in regard to a thing for which I give thanks?"

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

I would have you know, however, that of every man, Christ is the Head, that of a woman her husband is the Head, and that God is Christ's Head.

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

For just as woman originates from man, so also man comes into existence through woman, but everything springs originally from God.

Why, have you no homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you wish to show your contempt for the Church of God and make those who have no homes feel ashamed? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I certainly do not praise you.

For every time that you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death--until He returns.

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.

For this reason I would have you understand that no one speaking under the influence of The Spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed," and that no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ.

Were the foot to say, "Because I am not a hand I am not a part of the body," that would not make it any the less a part of the body.

Or were the ear to say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that would not make it any the less a part of the body.

It is also impossible for the eye to say to the hand, "I do not need you;" or again for the head to say to the feet, "I do not need you."

and those which we deem less honorable we clothe with more abundant honor; and so our ungraceful parts come to have a more abundant grace, while our graceful parts have everything they need.

that there might be no disunion in the body, but that all the members might entertain the same anxious care for one another's welfare.

And by God's appointment there are in the Church--first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly teachers. Then come miraculous powers, and then ability to cure diseases or render loving service, or powers of organization, or varieties of the gift of 'tongues.'

For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;

For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love--these three; and of these the greatest is Love.

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.

And so with you; if with the living voice you fail to utter intelligible words, how will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the winds.

Therefore, seeing that you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them so as to benefit the Church.

Otherwise, if you bless God in spirit only, how shall he who is in the position of an ungifted man say the 'Amen' to your giving of thanks, when he does not know what your words mean?

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.

Accordingly if the whole Church has assembled and all are speaking in 'tongues,' and there come in ungifted men, or unbelievers, will they not say that you are all mad?