Jews demand miracles and Greeks want wisdom,

So, as it is written [Jer. 9:23f], "The person who [wants to] boast, let him boast about the Lord."

You already have all you want! You have already become rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you really were kings so that we could be kings with you!

But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wants me to. Then I will determine not [only] what these arrogant people are saying, but how much power they have.

What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

I now want to reply to the matters you people wrote me about. It is [a] good [idea] for a man not to get married. [Note: The words "to get married" here are "to touch" in the Greek and probably refer to sexual relations within marriage. This advice, not a prohibition, is further explained in verses 26-35].

Be not depriving one another - unless perhaps by consent for a season, that ye may have leisure for prayer, and, again, may be together, - lest Satan be tempting you by reason of your want of self-control.

But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. God has called you in peace.

Circumcision is nothing; the want of it is nothing; but to keep the commands of God is everything.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

But I want you to be free from care. The unmarried person cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.

I am saying this in your own interests. Not that I want to restrict your freedom. It is only to secure decorum and concentration upon a life of devotion to the Lord.

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.

A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wants—only in the Lord.

I now want to reply to the matter of idolatrous sacrifices [which you wrote to me about]. We know that we all possess knowledge. [Note: This may be a statement posed to Paul by the Corinthians, who seemed quite preoccupied with "knowledge"]. Knowledge [only] makes people arrogant, while love builds them up [spiritually].

And food sets us not before God: for neither, if we eat, do we abound; neither if we eat not, do we want.

But pay attention [to this], so that somehow this liberty of yours [i.e., to eat whatever you want to] does not become an occasion over which weak people could fall [away from God].

My defense to those people who [want to] examine my credentials is this:

but I have not made use of these advantages. neither have I writ this to obtain such maintenance: for I had rather die for want, than be deprived of such matter of glorying.

For I do not want you to be unaware, believers, that our fathers were all under the cloud [in which God’s presence went before them] and they all passed [miraculously and safely] through the [Red] Sea;

On the contrary, the things which the Gentiles (pagans) sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons [in effect], and not to God; and I do not want you to become partners with demons [by eating at feasts in pagan temples].

If one of the unbelievers invites you [to a meal at his home] and you want to go, eat whatever is served to you without asking questions [about its source] for the sake of your conscience.

that is, for the sake of the other person's conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom [to eat what I want] be judged [as wrong] by another person's conscience? [Note: The questions in this and the following verse may mean, "it is not worth eating questionable things, if doing so would bring criticism from a weak brother"].

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head (authority over) of every man, and man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

what, have you no houses to eat and drink in? or have ye a contempt for the church of God, or is it to insult those who are in want? what shall I say to you? shall I commend such behaviour? I do not approve of it.

Now about the spiritual gifts [the special endowments given by the Holy Spirit], brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

Therefore I want you to know that no one speaking by the [power and influence of the] Spirit of God can say, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is [my] Lord,” except by [the power and influence of] the Holy Spirit.

But one and the same Spirit produces all these results and gives what he wants to each person.

while our well-shaped parts do not want for anything. Yes, God has perfectly adjusted the body, giving great honor to its apparently inferior parts,

Now I wish that all of you spoke in unknown tongues, but even more [I wish] that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater [and more useful] than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates or explains [what he says], so that the church may be edified [instructed, improved, strengthened].

but in the church I want to speak five words with my mind to instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

If there is anything they want to learn [that is, if they have questions about anything being said or taught], they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to talk in church.

Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it.

Recover your senses rightly, and in not; for some have a want of knowledge of God: I speak to your confusion.

But God gives it a body as He wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

With reference to the Collection for Christ's People, I want you to follow the instructions that I gave to the Churches in Galatia.

For I do not want to see you now in passing, for I hope to remain some time with you, if the Lord allows [it].

Now I urge you, brothers??ou know that the family of Stephanas was the first to be converted in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people??16 I want you to enlist under such leaders, and under anyone who joins with you and works hard.

I want you, on your part, to show deference to such men as these, as well as to every fellow laborer and earnest worker.