When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come and tell you about God's secret with rhetorical language or wisdom.

However, when we are among mature people, we do speak a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are passing off the scene.

For when one person says, "I follow Paul," and another person says, "I follow Apollos," you're following your own human nature, aren't you?

We wear ourselves out from working with our own hands. When insulted, we bless. When persecuted, we endure.

When slandered, we answer with kind words. Even now we have become the filth of the world, the scum of the universe.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together (and I am there in spirit), and the power of our Lord Jesus is there, too,

When one of you has a complaint against another, does he dare to take the matter before those who are unrighteous and not before the saints?

Was anyone circumcised when he was called? He should not try to change that. Was anyone uncircumcised when he was called? He should not get circumcised.

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that bother you. Of course, if you have a chance to become free, take advantage of the opportunity.

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are so accustomed to idolatry that when they eat food that has been offered to an idol, their conscience becomes contaminated because it is weak.

When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak consciences, you are sinning against the Messiah.

What, then, is my reward? It is to be able to preach the gospel free of charge, and so I never resort to demanding my rights when I'm preaching the gospel.

Now I am not praising you in giving you the following instructions. When you gather, it is not for the better but for the worse.

For in the first place, I hear that when you gather as a church there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it.

When you gather in the same place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

Therefore, my brothers, when you gather to eat, wait for each other.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather it may not bring judgment on you. And when I come I will give instructions concerning the other matters.

You know that when you were unbelievers, you were enticed and led astray to worship idols that couldn't even speak.

But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.

Now if the whole church gathers in the same place and everyone is speaking in foreign languages, when uneducated people or unbelievers come in, they will say that you are out of your mind, won't they?

But if everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that's happening.

What, then, does this mean, brothers? When you gather, everyone has a psalm, teaching, revelation, foreign language, or interpretation. Everything must be done for upbuilding.

However, this will happen to each person in the proper order: first the Messiah, then those who belong to the Messiah when he comes.

Then the end will come, when after he has done away with every ruler and every authority and power, the Messiah hands over the kingdom to God the Father.

for "God has put everything under his feet." Now when he says, "Everything has been put under him," this clearly excludes the one who put everything under him.

But when everything has been put under him, then the Son himself will also become subject to the one who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?"

Now, when what is decaying is clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying is clothed with what cannot die, then the written word will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up by victory!"

After the Sabbath ends, each of you should set aside and save something from your surplus in proportion to what you have, so that no collections will have to be made when I arrive.

When I arrive, I will send letters along with the men you approve to take your gift to Jerusalem.

I will visit you when I go through Macedonia for I intend to go through Macedonia

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but he was not inclined to do so just now. However, he will visit you when the time is right.