And God himself will strengthen you to the end, so that at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ you may be found blameless.

For I have been informed, my Brothers, by the members of Chloe's household, that party feeling exists among you.

I mean this, that every one of you says either 'I follow Paul,' or 'I Apollos,' or 'I Kephas,' or 'I Christ.'

I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

So that no one can say that you were baptized into my Faith.

I baptized also the household of Stephanas. I do not know that I baptized any one else.

And God chose what the world counts poor and insignificant-- things that to it are unreal-to bring its 'realities' to nothing,

So that in his presence no human being should boast.

So that-in the words of Scripture-'Let him who boasts make his boast of the Lord!'

For my own part, Brothers, when I came to you, it was with no display of eloquence or philosophy that I came to tell the hidden purpose of God;

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

So that your faith should be based, not on the philosophy of man, but on the power of God.

Yet there is a philosophy that we teach to those whose faith is matured, but it is not the philosophy of to-day, nor that of the leaders of to-day-men whose downfall is at hand.

No, it is a divine philosophy that we teach, one concerned with the hidden purpose of God-that long-hidden philosophy which God, before time began, destined for our glory.

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

While there exist among you jealousy and party feeling, is it not true that you are worldly, and are acting merely as other men do?

What, I ask, is Apollos? or what is Paul? Servants through whom you were led to accept the Faith; and that only as the Lord helped each of you.

The quality of each man's work will become known, for the Day will make it plain; because that Day is to be ushered in with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of every man's work.

If any man's work, which he has built upon that foundation, still remains, he will gain a reward.

Do not you know that you are God's Temple, and that God's Spirit has his home in you?

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you imagines that, as regards this world, he is a wise man, let him become a 'fool,' that he may become wise.

Now what we look for in stewards is that they should be trustworthy.

But it weighs very little with me that I am judged by you or by any human tribunal. No, I do not even judge myself;

For, though I am conscious of nothing against myself, that does not prove me innocent. It is the Lord who is my judge.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

For who makes any one of you superior to others? And what have you that was not given you? But if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as if you had not?

Are you all so soon satisfied? Are you so soon rich? Have you begun to reign without us? Would indeed that you had, so that we also might reign with you!

It is with no wish to shame you that I am writing like this; but to warn you as my own dear children.

Some, I hear, are puffed up with pride, thinking that I am not coming to you.

But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord; and then I shall find out, not what words these men use who are so puffed up, but what power they possess;

There is a wide-spread report respecting a case of immorality among you, and that, too, of a kind that does not occur even among the Gentiles-a man, I hear, is living with his father's wife!

Instead of grieving over it and taking steps for the expulsion of the man who has done this thing, is it possible that you are still puffed up?

To deliver such a man as this over to Satan, that what is sensual in him may be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved at the Day of the Lord.

Your boasting is unseemly. Do not you know that even a little leaven leavens all the dough?

Get rid entirely of the old leaven, so that you may be like new dough-free from leaven, as in truth you are. For our Passover Lamb is already sacrificed-Christ himself;

But, as things are, I say that you are not to associate with any one who, although a Brother in name, is immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or grasping-no, not even to sit at table with such people.

Can it be that, when one of you has a dispute with another, he dares to have his case tried before the heathen, instead of before Christ's People?

Do not you know that Christ's People will try the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try the most trivial cases?

Do not you know that we are to try angels-to say nothing of the affairs of this life?

Can it be that there is not one man among you wise enough to decide between two of his Brothers?

Must Brother go to law with Brother, and that, too, before unbelievers?

Do not you know that wrong-doers will have no share in God's Kingdom? Do not be deceived. No one who is immoral, or an idolater, or an adulterer, or licentious, or a sodomite,

Do not you know that your bodies are Christ's members? Am I, then, to take the members that belong to the Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? Heaven forbid!

Or do not you know that a man who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body (for 'the two,' it is said, 'will become one');

Shun all immorality. Every other sin that men commit is something outside the body; but an immoral man sins against his own body.

Again, do not you know that your body is a shrine of the Holy Spirit that is within you-the Spirit which you have from God?

Do not deprive each other of what is due-unless it is only for a time and by mutual consent, so that your minds may be free for prayer till you again live as man and wife-lest Satan should take advantage of your want of self-control and tempt you.

To those who are married my direction is-yet it is not mine, but the Master's-that a woman is not to leave her husband

(If she has done so, let her remain as she is, or else be reconciled to her husband) and also that a man is not to divorce his wife.

In any case, a man should continue to live in the condition which the Lord has allotted to him, and in which he was when God called him. This is the rule that I lay down in every Church.

Let every one remain in that condition of life in which he was when the Call came to him.

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. No, even if you are able to gain your freedom, still do your best.

With regard to unmarried women, I have no command from the Master to give you, but I tell you my opinion, and it is that of a man whom the Master in his mercy has made worthy to be trusted.

I think, then, that, in view of the time of suffering that has now come upon us, what I have already said is best-that a man should remain as he is.

still, if you should marry, that is not wrong; nor, if a young woman marries, is that wrong. But those who marry will have much trouble to bear, and my wish is to spare you.

If, however, a father thinks that he is not acting fairly by his unmarried daughter, when she is past her youth, and if under these circumstances her marriage ought to take place, let him act as he thinks right. He is doing nothing wrong-let the marriage take place.

Yet she will be happier if she remains as she is-in my opinion, for I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

With reference to food that has been offered in sacrifice to idols-We are aware that all of us have knowledge! Knowledge breeds conceit, while love builds up character.

If a man thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet reached that knowledge which he ought to have reached.

With reference, then, to eating food that has been offered to idols-we are aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Even supposing that there are so-called 'gods' either in Heaven or on earth-and there are many such 'gods' and 'lords'-

Still, it is not every one that has this knowledge. Some people, because of their association with idols, continued down to the present time, eat the food as food offered to an idol; and their consciences, while still weak, are dulled.

But take care that this right of yours does not become in any way a stumbling-block to the weak.

For if some one should see you who possess this knowledge, feasting in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is a weak man, become so hardened that he, too, will eat food offered to idols?

If I am not an Apostle to others, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal that stamps me as an Apostle in union with the Lord.

The defense that I make to my critics is this:

For in the Law of Moses it is said-'Thou shalt not muzzle a bullock while it is treading out the grain.' Is it the bullocks that God is thinking of?

Since we, then, sowed spiritual seed for you, is it too much that we should reap from you an earthly harvest?

Do not you know that those who do the work of the Temple live on what comes from the Temple, and that those who serve at the altar share the offerings with the altar?

So, too, the Master has appointed that those who tell the Good News should get their living from the Good News.

To those who have no Law I became like a man who has no Law- -not that I am free from God's Law; no, for I am under Christ's Law-to win those who have no law.

And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that with them I may share in its blessings.

Do not you know that on a race-course, though all run, yet only one wins the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

Every athlete exercises self-restraint in everything; they, indeed, for a crown that fades, we for one that is unfading.

I want you to bear in mind, Brothers, that all our ancestors were beneath the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

That in the cloud and in the sea they all underwent baptism as followers of Moses;

And that they all ate the same supernatural food,

and all drank the same supernatural water, for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which followed them, and that rock was the Christ.

Nor let us act immorally, as some of them acted, with the result that twenty-three thousand of them fell dead in a single day.

Nor let us try the patience of the Lord too far, as some of them tried it, with the result that they 'were, one after another, destroyed by the snakes.'

Therefore let the man who thinks that he stands take care that he does not fall.

No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.

The Bread is one, and we, though many, are one body; for we all partake of that one Bread.

No; what I say is that the sacrifices offered by the Gentiles 'are offered to demons and to a Being who is no God,' and I do not want you to share with demons.

Eat anything that is sold in the market, without making inquiries to satisfy your scruples;

For 'the earth, with all that is in it, belongs to the Lord.'

If an unbeliever invites you to his house and you consent to go, eat anything that is put before you, without making inquiries to satisfy your scruples.

I do not say 'your' scruples, but 'his.' For why should the freedom that I claim be condemned by the scruples of another?

If, for my part, I take the food thankfully, why should I be abused for eating that for which I give thanks?

For I, also, try to please everybody in everything, not seeking my own advantage, but that of men in general, that they may be saved.

But I am anxious that you should understand that the Christ is the Head of every man, that man is the Head of woman, and that God is the Head of the Christ.

While any woman, who prays or preaches in public bare-headed, dishonors him who is her Head; for that is to make herself like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.

Judge for yourselves. Is it fitting that a woman should pray to God in public with her head uncovered?

Does not nature herself teach us that, while for a man to wear his hair long is degrading to him,

For, as you eat, each of you tries to secure his own supper first, with the result that one has too little to eat, and another has too much to drink!

That is why so many among you are weak and ill, and why some are sleeping.

Yet, in being judged by the Lord, we are undergoing discipline, so that we may not have judgment passed upon us with the rest of the world.

If a man is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring a judgment upon you. The other details I will settle when I come.

You know that there was a time when you were Gentiles, going astray after idols that could not speak, just as you happened to be led.