To the Church of God in Corinth, to those who have been consecrated by union with Christ Jesus and called to become his People, and also to all, wherever they may be, who invoke the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Master and ours,

From Paul, who has been called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, And from Sosthenes, our Brother.

And thus there is no gift in which you are deficient, while waiting for the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And God himself will strengthen you to the end, so that at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ you may be found blameless.

God will not fail you, and it is he who called you into communion with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

But I appeal to you, Brothers, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree in what you profess, and not to allow divisions to exist among you, but to be united-of one mind and of one opinion.

For Scripture says-'I will bring the philosophy of the philosophers to nought, and the shrewdness of the shrewd I will make of no account.'

While Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks study philosophy,

But you, by your union with Christ Jesus, belong to God; and Christ, by God's will, became not only our Wisdom, but also our Righteousness, Holiness, and Deliverance,

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

Yet to us God revealed it through his Spirit; for the Spirit fathoms all things, even the inmost depths of God's being.

While there exist among you jealousy and party feeling, is it not true that you are worldly, and are acting merely as other men do?

In this the man who plants and the man who waters are one; yet each will receive his own reward in proportion to his own labor.

The quality of each man's work will become known, for the Day will make it plain; because that Day is to be ushered in with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of every man's work.

If any man's work, which he has built upon that foundation, still remains, he will gain a reward.

If any man's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss; though he himself will escape, but only as one who has passed through fire.

If any one destroys the Temple of God, God will destroy him; for the Temple of God is sacred, and so also are you.

Therefore let no one boast about men; for all things are yours--

Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Kephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future-all things are yours!

Therefore do not pass judgment before the time, but wait till the Lord comes. He will throw light upon what is now dark and obscure, and will reveal the motives in men's minds; and then every one will receive due praise from God.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

Are you all so soon satisfied? Are you so soon rich? Have you begun to reign without us? Would indeed that you had, so that we also might reign with you!

For, as it seems to me, God has exhibited us, the Apostles, last of all, as men doomed to death. We are made a spectacle to the universe, both to angels and to men!

This is my reason for sending Timothy to you. He is my own dear faithful child in the Master's service, and he will remind you of my methods of teaching the Faith of Christ Jesus-methods which I follow everywhere in every Church.

But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord; and then I shall find out, not what words these men use who are so puffed up, but what power they possess;

Your boasting is unseemly. Do not you know that even a little leaven leavens all the dough?

While God judges those who are outside? 'Put away the wicked man from among you.'

Do not you know that Christ's People will try the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try the most trivial cases?

Do not you know that wrong-doers will have no share in God's Kingdom? Do not be deceived. No one who is immoral, or an idolater, or an adulterer, or licentious, or a sodomite,

Or a thief, or covetous, or a drunkard, or abusive, or grasping, will have any share in God's Kingdom.

Everything is allowable for me! Yes, but everything is not profitable. Everything is allowable for me! Yes, but for my part, I will not let myself be enslaved by anything.

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

And, as God has raised the Lord, so he will raise up us also by the exercise of his power.

Or do not you know that a man who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body (for 'the two,' it is said, 'will become one');

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

Shun all immorality. Every other sin that men commit is something outside the body; but an immoral man sins against his own body.

With reference to the subjects about which you wrote to me: It would be well for a man to remain single.

My advice, then, to those who are not married, and to widows, is this: It would be well for them to remain as I am myself.

To all others I say-I, not the Master-If a Brother is married to a woman, who is an unbeliever but willing to live with him, he should not divorce her;

still, if you should marry, that is not wrong; nor, if a young woman marries, is that wrong. But those who marry will have much trouble to bear, and my wish is to spare you.

While the married man is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please his wife;

And so his interests are divided. Again, the unmarried woman, whether she is old or young, is anxious about the Master's Cause, striving to be pure both in body and in spirit, while the married woman is anxious about worldly matters, desiring to please her husband.

I say this for your own benefit, not with any intention of putting a halter round your necks, but in order to secure for the Master seemly and constant devotion, free from all distraction.

On the other hand, a father, who has definitely made up his mind, and is under no compulsion, but is free to carry out his own wishes, and who has come to the decision, in his own mind, to keep his unmarried daughter at home will be doing right.

In short, the one who consents to his daughter's marriage is doing right, and yet the other will be doing better.

Yet she will be happier if she remains as she is-in my opinion, for I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

With reference to food that has been offered in sacrifice to idols-We are aware that all of us have knowledge! Knowledge breeds conceit, while love builds up character.

Yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom all things come (and for him we live), and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come (and through him we live).

Still, it is not every one that has this knowledge. Some people, because of their association with idols, continued down to the present time, eat the food as food offered to an idol; and their consciences, while still weak, are dulled.

What we eat, however, will not bring us nearer to God. We lose nothing by not eating this food, and we gain nothing by eating it.

For if some one should see you who possess this knowledge, feasting in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is a weak man, become so hardened that he, too, will eat food offered to idols?

In this way, by sinning against your Brothers and injuring their consciences, while still weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if what I eat makes my Brother fall, rather than make my Brother fall, I will never eat meat again.

Have not we a right to take a wife with us, if she is a Christian, as the other Apostles and the Master's brothers and Kephas all do?

Am I, in all this, speaking only from the human standpoint? Does not the Law also say the same?

For in the Law of Moses it is said-'Thou shalt not muzzle a bullock while it is treading out the grain.' Is it the bullocks that God is thinking of?

What is my reward, then? To present the Good News free of all cost, and so make but a sparing use of the rights which it gives me.

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so as at all costs to save some.

Do not you know that on a race-course, though all run, yet only one wins the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

I want you to bear in mind, Brothers, that all our ancestors were beneath the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

That in the cloud and in the sea they all underwent baptism as followers of Moses;

And that they all ate the same supernatural food,

and all drank the same supernatural water, for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which followed them, and that rock was the Christ.

No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.

The Bread is one, and we, though many, are one body; for we all partake of that one Bread.

For 'the earth, with all that is in it, belongs to the Lord.'

While any woman, who prays or preaches in public bare-headed, dishonors him who is her Head; for that is to make herself like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.

Indeed, if a woman does not keep her head covered, she may as well cut her hair short. But, since to cut her hair short, or shave it off, marks her as one of the shameless women, let her keep her head covered.

For just as woman came from man, so man comes by means of woman; and all things come from God.

Does not nature herself teach us that, while for a man to wear his hair long is degrading to him,

If, however, any one still thinks it right to contest the point-well, we have no such custom, nor have the Churches of God.

Indeed, there must be actual parties among you, for so only will the men of real worth become known.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread, or drinks the Lord's cup, in an irreverent spirit, will have to answer for an offence against the Lord's body and blood.

That is why so many among you are weak and ill, and why some are sleeping.

If a man is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring a judgment upon you. The other details I will settle when I come.

All these result from one and the same Spirit, who distributes his gifts to each individually as he wills.

For just as the human body is one whole, and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many though they are, form but one body, so it is with the Christ;

For it was by one Spirit that we were all baptized to form one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free men, and were all imbued with one Spirit.

If all the body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If it were all hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

If, however, they all made up only one part, where would the body be?

If one part suffers, all the others suffer with it, and if one part has honor done it, all the others share its joy.

Strive for the greater gifts. Yet I can still show you a way beyond all comparison the best.

Even though I have the gift of preaching, and fathom all hidden truths and all the depths of knowledge; even though I have such faith as might move mountains, yet have not Love, I am nothing!

Love bears with all things, every trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient.

Love never fails. But, whether it be the gift of preaching, it will be done with; whether it be the gift of 'tongues,' it will cease; whether it be knowledge, it, too, will be done with.

But, when the Perfect has come, that which is incomplete will be done with.

Seek this Love earnestly, and strive for spiritual gifts, above all for the gift of preaching.

But he who preaches is speaking to his fellow men words that will build up faith, and give them comfort and encouragement.

He who, when speaking, uses the gift of 'tongues' builds up his own faith, while he who preaches builds up the faith of the Church.

Now I want you all to speak in 'tongues,' but much more I wish that you should preach. A Preacher is of more account than he who speaks in 'tongues,' unless he interprets his words, so that the faith of the Church may be built up.

If the bugle sounds a doubtful call, who will prepare for battle?

And so with you; unless, in using the gift of 'tongues,' you utter intelligible words, how can what you say be understood? You will be speaking to the winds!

If, however, I do not happen to know the language, I shall be a foreigner to those who speak it, and they will be foreigners to me.

And so with you; since your are striving for spiritual gifts, be eager to excel in such as will build up the faith of the Church.

What, then, is my conclusion? Simply this-I will pray with my spirit, but with my mind as well; I will sing with my spirit, but with my mind as well.

It is said in the Law-'In strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.'

Therefore the gift of the 'tongues' is intended as a sign, not for those who believe in Christ, but for those who do not, while the gift of preaching is intended as a sign, not for those who do not believe in Christ, but for those who do.

So, when the whole Church meets, if all present use the gift of 'tongues,' and some men who are without the gift, or who are unbelievers, come in, will not they say that you are mad?

While, if all those present use the gift of preaching, and an unbeliever, or a man without the gift, comes in, he is convinced of his sinfulness by them all, he is called to account by them all;