To the Church of God in Corinth, to those who have been consecrated by union with Christ Jesus and called to become his People, and also to all, wherever they may be, who invoke the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Master and ours,

to the Church of God at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all, wherever they are, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Sage, rabbi, skeptic of this present age??here are they all? Has not God made foolish the philosophy of the world?

For, since in the wisdom of God the world by it's wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by what they called the folly of preaching to save those that believe.

but to those whom God has called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

Because the foolishness of God, as they call it, is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

and my language and the message I preached were not adorned with pleasing words of worldly wisdom, but they were attended with proof and power given by the Spirit,

Yet there is a wisdom that we impart when we are with people who have a mature faith, but it is not what this world calls wisdom, nor what the authorities of this world, doomed as they are to pass away, would call so.

Not one of this world's leaders understands it, for if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.

but they are all expos'd to the judgment of the spiritual, whilst he himself is not subject to the judgment of any man.

Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They're merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task.

Now the planter and the waterer are working for the same end: but they will have their separate rewards in the measure of their work.

And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

(46:21) Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future -- they all belong to you.

Now in this matter of trustees the first and final requirement is that they should prove to be trustworthy.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

And with our hands we do the hardest work: when they give us curses we give blessings, when we undergo punishment we take it quietly;

when they slander us, we try to conciliate them. We have come to be like the scum of the earth, the dregs of the world, and we are so now.

For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly.

Certain individuals have got puffed up, have they, as if I were not coming myself?

But I am coming, and coming soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not only what those conceited fellows say but what they can do,

not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols. For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out of the world altogether.

If therefore you have things belonging to this life which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the Church--is it *they* whom you make your judges?

have ye not known that he who is joined to the harlot is one body? 'for they shall be -- saith He -- the two for one flesh.'

For ye are dearly bought. Therefore glorify ye God in your bodies and in your spirits, for they are God's.

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

But if they do not practice self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burning in the fire of passion.

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.

But I, not the Lord, say this to the rest of you [Note: Paul now addresses the matter of mixed marriages, a circumstance Jesus never taught about]: If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she agrees to continue living with him [Note: In these verses Paul addresses a situation where one marriage partner is converted after they are married], he should not divorce her.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated by union with his wife and the unbelieving wife by union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but in this way they are consecrated.

But if thou shouldest also marry, thou hast not sinned; and if the virgin marry, they have not sinned: but such shall have tribulation in the flesh; but I spare you.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those that mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

and those who are enjoying the world as though they were not entirely absorbed in it. For the outward order of this world is passing away.

But if any man thinks he is acting improperly toward his virgin, if she is past marriageable age, and so it must be, he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

For also though they are called gods, whether in heaven, whether upon the earth, (for there are many gods, and many lords,)

But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated.

Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

But I have not used any of these rights, and I'm not writing this so that they may be applied in my case. I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason for boasting.

To the feeble, I was as one who is feeble, so that they might have salvation: I have been all things to all men, so that some at least might have salvation.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the fact that all of our ancestors who left Egypt were under the cloud. They all went through the sea,

they all allowed themselves to be baptized as followers of Moses,

They all ate the same spiritual food

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now all these things occurred as warnings to us, to keep us from hankering after what is evil, in the ways they did.

And you must not be idolaters like some of them. as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, And they rose up for idol dances.

Let us not try the Lord's patience too far, as some of them did, for they were killed for it by the snakes.

You must not grumble, as some of them did, for they were destroyed for it by the destroying angel.

Those things continued to befall them as warnings to others, and they were written down for the purpose of instructing us, in whose lives the climax of the ages has been reached.

Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

just as I myself am in the habit of pleasing everybody in everything, not aiming at my own welfare but at that of as many people as possible, in order that they may be saved.

This [i.e., the order of creation] is the reason that the woman should have [a symbol of] authority on her [physical] head [i.e., hair or a shawl to indicate subjection to her husband], and because of the angels. [Note: This difficult phrase probably means that angels, who observe the activities of Christian assemblies, are pleased when they see things being done in their proper order].

for just as the woman was made from the man, so also is the man born of the woman, while they both come from God.

But as I am giving you these instructions I cannot approve of your meetings, because they do not turn out for the better but for the worse.

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

So, when you people assemble together [Note: This was a church meeting at which they also shared a common meal prior to the Lord's Supper], it is not possible to eat the Lord's Supper [properly].

Likewise also the cup, after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink [it], in remembrance of me."

Now there are [distinctive] varieties of spiritual gifts [special abilities given by the grace and extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit operating in believers], but it is the same Spirit [who grants them and empowers believers].

And there are a variety of services, but [they are rendered to] the same Lord.

now to particular men the spirit gives particular gifts, that they may be displayed to greater advantage.

For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, form one body, so it is with Christ.

If they were all one part, where would the body be?

But now are they many members, yet but one body.

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.

so that if one member suffer, they all suffer with it: or if one be honoured, they partake of it.

Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are wonder-workers, are they?

Not all are people with power to cure the sick, are they? Not all are ecstatic speakers, are they? Not all can explain ecstatic speaking, can they?

Love never fails; if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside;

Moreover when things without life give sound: whether it be a pipe, or a harp - except they make a distinction in the sounds - how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

If, however, I do not happen to know the language, I shall be a foreigner to those who speak it, and they will be foreigners to me.

In the law it is written, "With other tongues, and with other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord."

and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord." Wherefore the tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers.

If therefore when all the congregation is come together, and all speak with tongues, there come in they that are unlearned, or they which believe not: will they not say that ye are out of your wits?

But if they are all inspired to preach and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convinced of his sin by them all, he is called to account by them all,

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;

If there is no one able to interpret what is said, they should remain silent at the meeting of the Church, and speak to themselves and to God.

And let the prophets give their words, but not more than two or three, and let the others be judges of what they say.

Women are to keep quiet in church, for they are not allowed to speak. They must take a subordinate place, just as the Law says.

If they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for women to speak in the congregation.

If any man think himself a prophet, either spiritual: let him understand what things I write unto you. For they are the commandments of the Lord.

But by the grace of God I am that I am. And his grace which is in me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me.

Whether it were I or they, so have we preached, and so have ye believed.

And thereto, they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

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.

and every man in his own order: The first is Christ, then they that are Christ's at his coming.

Either, else what do they which are baptised over the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptised over the dead?

But some man will say, "How shall the dead arise? With what bodies come they in?

As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy: And as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly.

And if it be meet that I go, they shall go with me.

Brethren, ye know the house of Stephanas, how that they are the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have appointed themselves to minister unto the saints:

that ye submit yourselves to such as they are, and to every one that worketh with us, and laboreth.

I am glad of the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.

They have comforted my spirit and yours. Look therefore that ye know them that are such.