Paul, by the will of God called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and our brother Sosthenes,

so that there is no spiritual gift in which you consciously come short, while you are waiting for the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and to the very end He will guarantee that you are vindicated at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I beg you all, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be harmonious in what you say and not to have factions among you, but to be perfectly harmonious in your minds and judgments.

For the Scripture says: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the learning of the learned."

While Jews are demanding spectacular signs and Greeks are searching for philosophy,

So you owe it all to Him through union with Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our means of right standing, our consecration, and our redemption,

for I determined, while among you, to be unconscious of everything but Jesus Christ and Him as crucified.

The planter and the waterer are one in aim, and yet each of us will get his own pay in accordance with his own work,

the character of each one's work will come to light, for the judgment day will show it up. This is so, because that day will show itself in fire, and the fire will test the character of each one's work.

If the structure which one builds upon it stands the test, he will get his pay.

If the structure which one builds is burned up, he will get no pay; and yet he himself will be saved, but just as one who goes through a fire.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred to Him, and you are that temple.

(46:21) Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future -- they all belong to you.

So you must stop forming any premature judgments, but wait until the Lord shall come again, for He will bring to light the secrets hidden in the dark and will make known the motives of men's hearts, and the proper praise will be awarded each of us.

Now, brothers, for your sakes I have applied all this to Apollos and myself, that from us as illustrations you might learn the lesson, "Never go beyond what is written," so that you might stop boasting in favor of one teacher against another.

For we have become a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as men. For Christ's sake we are held as fools, while you through union with Christ are men of wisdom. We are weak; you are strong. You are held in honor; we in dishonor.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine and trustworthy in the Lord's work; he will call to your minds my methods in the work of Christ Jesus, just as I teach them everywhere in every church.

But I am coming, and coming soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not only what those conceited fellows say but what they can do,

Your ground for boasting about such a case is not good. Are you not aware that a little yeast will change the whole lump of dough?

not that you are to stop all dealings with sexually immoral people of this world, any more than with its greedy graspers, or its idolaters, for then you would have to get clear out of the world.

To say no more, it is a mark of moral failure among you to have lawsuits at all with one another. Why not rather suffer being wronged? Why not suffer being robbed?

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have a share in the kingdom of God? Stop being misled; people who are sexually immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or guilty of unnatural sexual vice

or thieves or greedy graspers for more or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers will not have a share in the kingdom of God.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is good for me. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not become a slave to anything.

Foods are intended for the stomach, and the stomach for foods, but God will finally put a stop to both of them. The body is not intended for sexual immorality but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve.

And as God by His power raised the Lord to life, so He will raise us too.

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, everybody must continue to live in the station which the Lord assigned to him, in that in which God called him. These are my orders in all the churches.

Were you called while a slave? Stop letting that annoy you. Yet, if you can win your freedom, take advantage of such an opportunity.

About unmarried women I have no command from the Lord, but I will give you my opinion as of one who is trustworthy, since I have had mercy shown me by the Lord.

But if you do get married, you have not sinned in doing so. And if a girl gets married, she has not sinned in doing so. But those who do will have trouble in their earthly life, and I am trying to spare you this.

But the father who stands firm in his purpose, without having any necessity for doing so, and he has made the decision in his own heart to keep her single, will do what is right.

But in my opinion she will be happier, if she remains as she is, and I think too that I have God's Spirit.

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things and the goal of our living, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated.

Food will never bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it; we are no better if we do.

For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol?

So then, if food can make my brother fall, I will never, no, never, eat meat again, in order to keep my brother from falling.

It cannot be that we have no right to take a Christian wife about with us, can it, as well as the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers, and Cephas?

To the overscrupulous I have become overscrupulous, to win the overscrupulous; yes, I have become everything to everybody, in order by all means to save some of them.

And I do it all for the sake of the good news, so as to share with others in its blessings.

Do you not know that in a race the runners all run, but only one can get the prize? You must run in such a way that you can get the prize.

For I would not have you, brothers, to be ignorant of the fact that though our forefathers were all made safe by the cloud, and all went securely through the sea, and in the cloud and the sea

they all allowed themselves to be baptized as followers of Moses,

and all ate the same spiritual food,

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

still with the most of them God was not at all satisfied, for He allowed them to be laid low in the desert.

Now all these things occurred as warnings to us, to keep us from hankering after what is evil, in the ways they did.

Because there is only one loaf, so we, though many, are only one body, for we all partake of one loaf.

For if a woman will not wear a veil, let her have her hair cut off too. Now if it is a dishonor for a woman to have her hair cut off, or her head shaved, let her wear a veil.

for each of you is in a rush to eat his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring on you judgment. I will settle in detail the matters that remain, when I come.

There are varieties of gifts, but the Spirit is the same in all;

there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who does all things by putting energy in us all.

But the one and same Spirit accomplishes all these achievements, and apportions power to each of us as He chooses.

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with Christ.

For by one Spirit all of us, Jews or Greeks, slaves or freemen, have been baptized into one body, and were all imbued with one Spirit.

If all the body were an eye, how could we hear? If all the body were an ear, how could we smell?

If they were all one part, how could it be a body?

and the parts of it we deem devoid of honor we dress with special honor, and our ill-shaped parts receive more careful attention,

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,

so that there is no disharmony in the body, but all the parts have a common care for one another.

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it. If one part receives an honor, all the parts can share its joy.

Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are wonder-workers, are they?

Not all are people with power to cure the sick, are they? Not all are ecstatic speakers, are they? Not all can explain ecstatic speaking, can they?

But you must earnestly continue to cultivate your higher spiritual gifts. And yet I will show you a way that is better by far:

If I should have the gift of prophecy, And know all secret truths, and knowledge in its every form, and have such perfect faith that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

If I should dole out everything I have for charity, and give my body up to torture in mere boasting pride, but have no love, I get from it no good at all.

Love never fails; if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside;

But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will be set aside.

I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift.

Again, indeed, if the bugle does not sound a call distinct and clear, who will prepare for battle?

So it is with you; unless in your ecstatic speaking you speak a message that is clearly intelligible, how can the message spoken by you be understood? You might just as well be talking to the air!

What is my conclusion then? I will certainly pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind in action too. I will certainly sing with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind in action too. For if you give thanks with your spirit only,

In the law it is written, "By men of foreign languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

So speaking in ecstasy is meant as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is meant, not for unbelievers but for believers.

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

But if everybody prophesies, and some unbeliever or illiterate man comes in, he is convinced of his sins by all, he is closely questioned by all,

Then what is our conclusion, brothers? When you meet together, everybody has a song, something to teach, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one. It must all be for the upbuilding of all.

For in this way you can all, one after another, speak your prophetic message, so that all may learn and be encouraged,

for God is not a God of disorder but of order, as it is in all the churches of God's people.

Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles, and finally

For just as all men die by virtue of their descent from Adam, so all such as are in union with Christ will be made to live again.

After that comes the end, when He will turn the kingdom over to God His Father, when He will put an end to all other government, authority, and power;

for He must continue to be king until He puts all His enemies under His feet.

for He has put everything in subjection under His feet. But when He says that everything has been put in subjection to Him, He Himself is evidently excepted who put it all in subjection to Him.

And when everything has been put in subjection to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has put everything in subjection to Him, so that God may be everything to everybody.

Otherwise, what do those people mean who submit to being baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead are never raised at all, why do they submit to being baptized on their behalf?

If from merely human motives I have fought wild beasts here in Ephesus, what profit will it be to me? If the dead are never raised at all, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead."

But someone will ask, "How can the dead rise? With what kind of body do they come back?"

But this I tell you, brothers: Our physical bodies cannot take part in the kingdom of God; what is decaying will never take part in what is immortal.

Let me tell you a secret. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed,

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised with bodies not subject to decay, and we shall be changed.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

When I get there, I will send on, with credentials, the persons whom you approve, to carry your gift of charity to Jerusalem.

I will come to see you after I pass through Macedonia -- for I am to pass through Macedonia --

So no one must slight him at all. But send him on with your goodbye, that he may come back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

All the brothers wish to be remembered to you. Greet one another with a sacred kiss.