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."

[Now] you already have all you want! You have already become wealthy! You have begun to rule as kings without our help! How I wish that you had [really] begun to rule as kings, so that we also could rule 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? Should I come to you with a rod, or in 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 should marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin girl marries, she has not sinned. Yet those individuals [who do marry] will have troubles in this life, and I want to spare you of that.

I want you to be without concerns. An unmarried man is concerned about 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.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea,

No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons!

If one of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions of 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 know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the 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 concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.

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.

of which the graceful have no need: but God has contrived the symmetry of the body, by bestowing an additional advantage where it seem'd to want it.

Now I want you all to speak with tongues, but even more that you may prophesy. The one who prophesies [is] greater than the one who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, in order that the church may receive edification.

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

And if they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church meeting.

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.

Now about the contribution for God's people, I want you to do as I directed the churches of Galatia to do.

I don’t want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

I beg you this, my brothers??ou know the household of Stephanus, that they were the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they devoted themselves to the service of the saints??16 so I want you also to show deference to such, and to every fellow worker, and laborer.

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