For Chloe's people inform me that you are quarrelling.

Has Christ been parcelled out? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in Paul's name that you were baptized?

so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.

so that, as it is written, let him who boasts boast of the Lord.

Thus when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come to proclaim to you God's secret purpose with any elaborate words or wisdom.

so that your faith might not rest on any human 'wisdom' but on the power of God.

What human being can understand the thoughts of a man, except the man's own inner spirit? So too no one understands the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God.

For who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, so as to give him instruction? No one. Well, our thoughts are Christ's thoughts.

So neither planter nor waterer counts, but God alone who makes the seed grow.

We work together in God's service; you are God's field to be planted, God's house to be built.

if a man's work is burnt up, he will be a loser ??and though he will be saved himself, he will be snatched from the very flames.

Do you not know you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you?

God will destroy anyone who would destroy God's temple, for God's temple is sacred ??and that is what you are.

Let no one deceive himself about this; whoever of you imagines he is wise with this world's wisdom must become a 'fool,' if he is really to be wise.

For God ranks this world's wisdom as 'sheer folly.' It is written, He seizes the wise in their craftiness,

So you must not boast about men. For all belongs to you;

This is how you are to look upon us, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's secret truths.

So do not criticize at all; the hour of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal life's inner aims and motives. Then each of us will get his meed of praise from God.

You Corinthians have your heart's desire already, have you? You have heaven's rich bliss already! You have come into your kingdom without us! I wish indeed you had come into your kingdom, so that we could share it with you!

We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute.

For God's Reign does not show itself in talk but in power.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality such as is unknown even among pagans ??that a man has taken his father's wife!

So let us celebrate our festival, not with any old leaven, not with vice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of innocence and integrity.

What I now write is that you are not to associate with any so-called brother who is immoral or lustful or idolatrous or given to abuse or drink or robbery. Associate with him! Do not even eat with him!

I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could decide a dispute between members of the brotherhood,

Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? Am I to take Christ's members and devote them to a harlot? Never!

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.

Do not withhold sexual intercourse from one another, unless you agree to do so for a time in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again. You must not let Satan tempt you through incontinence.

To the unmarried and to widows I would say this: it is an excellent thing if like me they remain as they are.

For married people these are my instructions (and they are the Lord's, not mine). A wife is not to separate from her husband ??11 if she has separated, she must either remain single or be reconciled to him ??and a husband must not put away his wife.

To other people I would say (not the Lord): ??if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and if she consents to live with him, he must not put her away;

Only, everyone must lead the lot assigned him by the Lord; he must go on living the life in which God's call came to him. (Such is the rule I lay down for all the churches).

Circumcision counts for nothing, uncircumcision counts for nothing; obedience to God's commands is everything.

I have no orders from the Lord for unmarried women, but I will give you the opinion of one whom you can trust, after all the Lord's mercy to him.

I mean, brothers, ??the interval has been shortened; so let those who have wives live as if they had none,

I want you to be free from all anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the Lord's affairs, how best to satisfy the Lord;

the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy his wife ??34 so he is torn in two directions. The unmarried woman or the maid is also anxious about the Lord's affairs, how to be consecrated, body and spirit; once married, she is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy her husband.

At the same time, if any man considers he is not behaving properly to the maid who is his spiritual bride, if his passions are strong and if it must be so, then let him do what he wants ??let them be married; it is no sin for him.

(So-called gods there may be, in heaven or on earth ??as indeed there are plenty of them, both gods and 'lords' ??6 but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all comes, and for whom we exist; one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom all exists, and by whom we exist.)

But remember, it is not everyone who has this 'knowledge.' Some who have hitherto been accustomed to idols eat the food as food which has been really offered to an idol, and so their weaker conscience is contaminated.

But see that the exercise of your right does not prove any stumbling-block to the weak.

Suppose anyone sees you, a person of enlightened mind, reclining at meat inside an idol's temple; will that really 'fortify his weak conscience'? Will it not embolden him to violate his scruples of conscience by eating food that has been offered to idols?

Therefore if food is any hindrance to my brother's welfare, sooner than injure him I will never eat flesh as long as I live, never!

Human arguments, you say? But does not Scripture urge the very same?

If others share this right over you, why not we all the more? We did not avail ourselves of it, you say? No, we do not mind any privations if we can only avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel?

to those outside the Law I have become like one of themselves ??though I am under Christ's law, not outside God's Law ??to win over those outside the Law;

Do you not know that in a race, though all run, only one man gains the prize? Run so as to win the prize.

For I would have you know this, my brothers, that while our fathers all lived under the cloud, all crossed through the sea,

all were baptized into Moses by the cloud and by the sea,

So let anyone who thinks he stands secure, take care in case he falls.

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

What! do we intend to rouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?

Each of us must consult his neighbour's interests, not his own.

But if someone tells you, 'This was sacrificial meat,' then do not eat it; you must consider the man who told you, and also take conscience into account ??29 his conscience, I mean, not your own; for why should one's own freedom be called in question by someone else's conscience?

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, let it be all done for the glory of God.

for as woman was made from man, so man is now made from woman, while both, like all things, come from God.)

But this makes it impossible for you to eat the 'Lord's' supper when you hold your gatherings.

What! have you no houses to eat and drink in? Do you think you can show disrespect to the church of God and put the poor to shame? What can I say to you? Commend you? Not for this.

For as often as you eat this loaf and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

If we only judged our own lives truly, we would not come under the Lord's judgment.

As it is, we are chastened when we are judged by him, so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

so I tell you now, that no one is speaking in the Spirit of God when he cries, 'Cursed be Jesus,' and that no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except in the holy Spirit.

As the human body is one and has many members, all the members of the body forming one body for all their number, so is it with Christ.

If the foot were to say, 'Because I am not the hand, I do not belong to the body,' that does not make it no part of the body.

If the ear were to say, 'Because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body,' that does not make it no part of the body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'

so that there may be no disunion in the body, but that the various members should have a common concern for one another.

Now you are Christ's Body, and severally members of it.

That is to say, God has set people within the church to be first of all apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in 'tongues' of various kinds.

At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror, but then it will be face to face; at present I am learning bit by bit, but then I shall understand, as all along I have myself been understood.

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

Well, it is the same with yourselves. Unless your tongue utters language that is readily understood, how can people make out what you say? You will be pouring words into the empty air!

There are ever so many kinds of language in the world, everyone of them meaning something.

So with yourselves; since your heart is set on possessing 'spirits,' make the edification of the church your aim in this desire to excel.

Otherwise, suppose you are blessing God in the Spirit, how is the outsider to say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving? The man does not understand what you are saying!

but in church I would rather say five words with my own mind for the instruction of other people than ten thousand words in a 'tongue.'

It is written in the Law, By men of alien tongues and by the lips of aliens I will speak to this People; but even so, they will not listen to me, saith the Lord.

Hence if at a gathering of the whole church everybody speaks with 'tongues,' and if outsiders or un believers come in, will they not say you are insane?

the secrets of his heart are brought to light, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring, 'God is really among you.'

You can all prophesy quite well, one after another, so as to let all learn and all be encouraged.

You challenge this rule? Pray, did God's word start from you? Are you the only people it has reached?

and finally he was seen by myself, by this so-called 'abortion' of an apostle.

But by God's grace I am what I am. The grace he showed me did not go for nothing; no, I have done far more work than all of them ??though it was not I but God's grace at my side.

But it is not so! Christ did rise from the dead, he was the first to be reaped of those who sleep in death.

as all die in Adam, so shall all be made alive in Christ.

and when everything is put under him, then the Son himself will be put under Him who put everything under him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

(Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.)

Get back to your sober senses and avoid sin, for some of you ??and I say this to your shame ??some of you are insensible to God.

Foolish man! What you sow never comes to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be; it is a mere grain of wheat, for example, or some other seed.

So with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is mortal, what rises is immortal;

sown an animate body, it rises a spiritual body. As there is an animate body, so there is a spiritual body.

As Man the material is, so are the material; as Man the heavenly is, so are the heavenly.

Thus, as we have borne the likeness of material Man, so we are to bear the likeness of the heavenly Man.

On the first day of the week let each of you put aside a sum from his weekly gains, so that the money may not have to be collected when I come.

The chances are, I shall spend some time with you, possibly even pass the winter with you, so that you may speed me forward on any journey that lies before me.

I do not care about seeing you at this moment merely in the by-going; my hope is to stay among you for some time, with the Lord's permission.

When Timotheus arrives, see that you make him feel quite at home with you; he carries on the work of the Lord as I do.

So let no one disparage him. When he leaves to rejoin me, speed him cordially on his journey, for I am expecting him along with the other brothers.