Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, his brother.

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.

that in everything you have been enriched in him, in all speech, and in all knowledge

so that you lack no divine gift, while you are waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He will also keep you perfectly stedfast unto the end, so that you will be unreproveable in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I beg you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to speak in accord, all of you, and to have no divisions among you, but to be knit together in a common mind and temper.

For thus it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the philosophers, And the prudence of the prudent will I confound.

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

for I determined to know nothing, while among you, but Jesus as Christ, and him a crucified Christ.

You are not able even now, for you are still unspiritual. While there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not still unspiritual, and behaving like worldlings?

Now, though he who plants and he who waters are one, each will receive his own reward, according to his own service.

According to the grace of God vouchsafed me, like a skillful master-builder, I have laid a foundation; but another will be building upon it. Let each take heed how he builds on it.

On that foundation, if a man proceeds to build gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man's work will be made manifest.

The Day will disclose it, for it dawns in fire, and the fire will test each man's work, of what quality it is.

If any man's work??he building he has made??tands the test, he will be rewarded.

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, as it were through the flames.

If any one tear down God's sanctuary, God will tear him down; for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are.

So let no one make boast in men. For all things are yours;

Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things present or things to come; all things are yours;

So make no hasty judgment until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make plain the purpose of men's hearts. Then each man's due praise will come to him from God.

But it seems to me that God has exhibited us apostles, last of all, like men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the whole world, both to men and to angels.

With this in mind I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ; the manner in which I ever teach everywhere in every church.

But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord, and then I shall learn not the talk of these boasters, but their power.

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that even a little leaven leavens all the lump?

What have I to do with the judging of outsiders? Must not you judge those who are within the church, while God judges outsiders?

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try such trifling cases?

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. None who are immoral, or idolaters, or adulterers, or catamites, or sodomites,

or thieves, or avaricious men, or drunkards, or foul-mouthed men, or extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

"All things are lawful for me"? Yes, but not all things are good for me. "All things are lawful for me"? Yes, but I will not let myself be enslaved by the power of any.

"Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food"? Yes, but God will soon put an end both to the one and to the other. The body, however, exists not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body;

and the God who raised up our Lord will up-raise us also by his mighty power.

While a man who is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit?

Now concerning the question in your letter. It is well for a man to have no intercourse with a woman,

But to the unmarried, and the widows, I say that it is well for them to remain as I am.

If, however, they are not exercising self-control, by all means let them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.

For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Only whatever be the lot in life to which God has assigned each one??nd whatever the condition in which he was living when God called him??n that let him continue. Such is the rule I give in all the churches.

Yet if you do not marry, you have not done wrong; and if a girl marries, she has not done wrong. Such people, however, will have trouble in worldly affairs, and I wish to spare you.

So I want you to be free from all anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the Lord's business, how he may please the Lord;

On the other hand, he who is firm in his purpose and is under no compulsion, but is free to carry out his own wishes, and who has determined to keep his daughter unmarried, does well.

So he that gives his daughter in marriage is doing right, and he who keeps her unmarried will be doing right, and he who keeps her unmarried will be doing better.

A wife is bound to her husband during his lifetime; but if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she will, provided it be in the Lord.

Now in regard to food which has been offered to idols, we are sure of course that "we all have knowledge." But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up.

Now as to eating food that has been offered to idols, we know well that an idol has no real existence in the universe, and that there is no God but One.

yet for there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

But that "knowledge" is not possessed by all; but some, accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as that which has actually been offered to an idol, and so their conscience, being still weak, is defiled.

Therefore, if what I eat makes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I make my brother to stumble.

Yea, in the Law of Moses it is written, Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while he is treading out the grain.

Though free from all men, I make myself the slave of all, that I may win the more.

I am become weak to the weak, to win the weak. I am become all these things to all men that, by any and by all means, I may save some.

And I am doing it all for the gospel's sake, that I may become a copartner in it.

Do you not know that in a foot-race, though all run, only one receives the prize? So run that you may win.

Every man who contends in the games continually trains himself by all manner of self-restraint. Now they do it to get a fading garland, but we, one that is unfading.

For I would not have you ignorant, brothers, how our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate of the same spiritual bread,

and all drank from the same spiritual stream, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

But in most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the desert.

No temptation has overtaken you that is beyond man's power; but God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will, with every temptation, provide the way of escape also, so that you may be able to withstand.

Because we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all do share in the one loaf.

"All things are lawful," you say? But not all things are expedient; "all things are lawful"; but not all build up.

Because whether you are eating or whether you are drinking, you are to do it all for the glory of God.

For so I also try to please all men in every way, not by seeking my own good, but the good of the many, that they may be saved.

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.

for each one of you begins to eat his own supper; one goes hungry, while another gets drunk.

If any one is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings do not bring condemnation upon you. The other matters I will adjust when I come.

and varieties of work, and the same God, who works in all.

But the one and the same Spirit gives power to all, distributing his gifts to each as he wills.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, although they be many, are one body; so also is Christ.

And we can see this, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

If the whole body were an eye, where were hearing? If all were hearing, where were smelling?

If all were one member, where would the body be?

When one member suffers, all the others suffer with it; and when one member is honored, all the members are glad with it.

And God has appointed those in the church to be first of all apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers. then workers of miracles, healers, helpers, administrators, users of various kinds of "tongues."

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? teachers? workers of miracles?

Have all gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

Desire earnestly the greater gifts. And yet I will go on to show you a still more excellent way.

Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I sell all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it avails me nothing.

Love never fails; but though there are prophecies, they will fail; though there are tongues, they will cease; though there is knowledge, it will be superseded.

but when the perfect is come, then the perfect will be done away.

Now I should like you all to speak with "tongues"; but I should rather that you prophesied, For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Or, for example, if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, what soldier will be prepared for battle?

In the same way with you, if you utter unintelligible words with your tongue, how can what you say be understood? You will be speaking to the winds!

If then I do not know the force of expression, I shall seem a barbarian to the one who uses it, and he will seem a barbarian to me.

What then? I will pray with my spirit, and I will pray also with my mind. I will praise God with my spirit, but I will praise him with my mind, also.

Thank God I speak with tongues more than you all,

In the Law it is written. With men of other tongues, and by the lips of strangers, will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.

Accordingly, when the whole church assemblies, and everybody is speaking "with tongues," if there enter men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad?

But if all are prophesying when an unlearned or unbelieving man enters, he is convicted in conscience by your speaker, he feels himself judged by all,

and the secret depths of his heart are laid open. So he will fall upon his face and worship God, saying, "Of a truth, God is with you."

What follows, then, brothers? Whenever you meet together, each contributes something; a psalm, a sermon, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation. Let all be done for edification.

For you can all prophesy one by one; so that all may be learning, and all may be encouraged.

for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. This custom prevails in all the churches of the saints.

"In your congregation" you write, "as in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. On the contrary let them be subordinate, as also says the law.

But if any one disregard it he will be disregarded.

Then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles,

and last of all, as by one born out of due time, he was seen by me also.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and that grace of his, bestowed upon me, did not prove ineffectual. I labored more abundantly than all the rest, yet not I, but by the grace of God that is with me.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all mankind most pitiable.