God is ever true to His promises, and it was by Him that you were, one and all, called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents?

for fear people should say that you were baptized to be my adherents.

And my language and the Message that I proclaimed were not adorned with persuasive words of earthly wisdom, but depended upon truths which the Spirit taught and mightily carried home;

I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are not strong enough:

If any one's work is burnt up, he will suffer the loss of it; yet he will himself be rescued, but only, as it were, by passing through the fire.

Why, who gives you your superiority, my brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? And if you really did receive it, why boast as if this were not so?

For even if you were to have ten thousand spiritual instructors--for all that you could not have several fathers. It is I who in Christ Jesus became your father through the Good News.

I for my part, present with you in spirit although absent in body, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so acted.

I wrote to you in that letter that you were not to associate with fornicators;

But what I meant was that you were not to associate with any one bearing the name of "brother," if he was addicted to fornication or avarice or idol-worship or abusive language or hard-drinking or greed of gain. With such a man you ought not even to eat.

And all this describes what some of you were. But now you have had every stain washed off: now you have been set apart as holy: now you have been pronounced free from guilt; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.

Were you a slave when God called you? Let not that weigh on your mind. And yet if you can get your freedom, take advantage of the opportunity.

For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer)

To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not--in order to win those who are under the Law;

to men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law--in order to win those who are without Law.

For I would have you remember, brethren, how our forefathers were all of them sheltered by the cloud, and all got safely through the Red Sea.

All were baptized in the cloud and in the sea to be followers of Moses.

But with most of them God was not well pleased; for they were laid low in the Desert.

And in this they became a warning to us, to teach us not to be eager, as they were eager, in pursuit of what is evil.

And you must not be worshippers of idols, as some of them were. For it is written, "The People sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to dance."

And do not let us test the Lord too far, as some of them tested Him and were destroyed by the serpents.

And do not be discontented, as some of them were, and they were destroyed by the Destroyer.

You know that when you were heathens you went astray after dumb idols, wherever you happened to be led.

For, in fact, in one Spirit all of us--whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men--were baptized to form but one body; and we were all nourished by that one Spirit.

Were the foot to say, "Because I am not a hand I am not a part of the body," that would not make it any the less a part of the body.

Or were the ear to say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that would not make it any the less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the nostrils be?

If they were all one part, where would the body be?

I should be right glad were you all to speak in 'tongues,' but yet more glad were you all to prophesy. And, in fact, the man who prophesies is superior to him who speaks in 'tongues,' except when the latter can interpret in order that the Church may get a blessing.

And I beseech you, brethren--you know the household of Stephanas, how they were the earliest Greek converts to Christ, and have devoted themselves to the service of God's people--