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 do get married, you have not sinned. And if a virgin gets married, she has not sinned. However, these people will experience trouble in this life, and I want to spare you from that.

I want you to be free from worldly worries. An unmarried man is concerned about the affairs of 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.

If a man thinks he is not behaving properly toward his virgin, and if his passion is so strong that he feels he ought to marry her, let him do what he wants; he isn't sinning. Let them 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 answer to those who want to investigate me 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.

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,

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.

If any of the unbelievers invites you, and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, {asking no questions} for the sake of the 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 realize the fact that Christ is the Head of every man, that the husband is the head of the wife, and that God is the Head of Christ.

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we do not have any custom like this, nor do any of God's churches.

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.

About spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be misinformed.

So I want to inform you that no one speaking under the power of the Spirit of God can say, "Jesus is accursed!" and no one except one under the power of the Holy Spirit can really say, "Jesus is Lord!"

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,

I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically??nless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

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 they want to find out about anything, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church.

Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the form in which I presented to you the good news I brought, which you accepted and have stood by,

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

But God gives the plant the form he wants it to have, and to each kind of seed its own form.

About the collection for God's people, I want you to do as I told the churches of Galatia to do.

For I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits 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.