For the Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on the way to perdition, but it is the power of God to those whom He is saving.

For after the world by its wisdom--as God in His wisdom had ordained--had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.

but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

and the things which the world regards as base, and those which it sets utterly at nought--things that have no existence--God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that do exist;

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.

For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are within the Church

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

But to those already married my instructions are--yet not mine, but the Lord's--that a wife is not to leave her 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,

those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess,

and those who use the world as not using it to the full. For the world as it now exists is passing away.

That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites have their food from the sacred place, and that those who serve at the altar all alike share with the altar?

In the same way the Lord also directed those who proclaim the Good News to maintain themselves by the Good News.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not--in order to win those who are under the Law;

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.

Look at the Israelites--the nation and their ritual. Are not those who eat the sacrifices joint-partakers in the altar?

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.

No, it is quite otherwise. Even those parts of the body which are apparently somewhat feeble are yet indispensable;

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.

This shows that the gift of tongues is intended as a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but prophecy is intended not for unbelievers but for those who believe.

It follows also that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

But, in reality, Christ *has* risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep.

Otherwise what will become of those who got themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why are these baptized for them?

What the earthy one is, that also are those who are earthy; and what the heavenly One is, that also are those who are heavenly.