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,

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called to be God's people, in fellowship with those who anywhere call upon the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is entirely trustworthy, and it is He through whom you have been called into this fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

For it hath been signified unto me, concerning you, my brethren, - by them who are of the household of Chloe, - that there are strifes among you,

Christ has been parceled out by you! It was not Paul who was crucified for you, was it? You were not baptized in Paul's name, were you?

For the message of the cross is nonsense to those who are in the process of being destroyed, but it is the power of God to those who are in the process of being saved.

As it says in the holy Writings, I will put an end to the wisdom of the wise, and will put on one side the designs of those who have knowledge.

Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since in accordance with the wisdom of God the world had never in reality, by means of its wisdom, come to know God, God chose through the nonsense of the message proclaimed, to save the people who put their faith in Him.

we are preaching the Christ who was crucified -- a message that is a trap-stick to the Jews and nonsense to the Greeks,

but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks alike, the Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

For consider, brethren, who ye are that have been called; not many wise men after the fashion of the world, not many mighty, not many noble;

On the contrary - the foolish things of the world, hath God chosen, that he might put to shame them who are wise, and, the weak things of the world, hath God chosen, that he might put to shame the things that are mighty,

those who were looked upon by the world as vile, as despicable, as nothing, these has God chosen to reduce their sufficiency to nothing.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made by God unto us wisdom,

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,

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

For I had not determined to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, - and, him, as one who had been crucified!

Yet, when among mature believers we do set forth a wisdom, but a wisdom that does not belong to this world or to the leaders of this world who are passing away;

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

for who of men hath known the things of the man, except the spirit of the man that is in him? so also the things of God no one hath known, except the Spirit of God.

Now, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we can understand the things that were freely given to us by God.

We also speak of these things, not in words taught or supplied by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words [for those being guided by the Holy Spirit].

A person who isn't spiritual doesn't accept the things of God's Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can't understand them because they are spiritually evaluated.

and he who is spiritual, doth discern indeed all things, and he himself is by no one discerned;

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct Him? But we now possess Christ's thoughts.

And the teaching I gave you, my brothers, was such as I was able to give, not to those who have the Spirit, but to those who are still in the flesh, even to children in Christ.

Then what is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave each of us his task.

I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who kept the plants growing.

so that neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is watering, but He who is giving growth -- God;

and he who is planting and he who is watering are one, and each his own reward shall receive, according to his own labour,

For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ.

Whatever is used by those who build upon this foundation, whether gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

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 any man divide the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for you, who are the temple of God, are consecrated to him.

For this world's wisdom is mere nonsense to God. For the Scripture says, "He who catches the wise with their own cunning,"

Let us be judged as servants of Christ, and as those who are responsible for the secret things of God.

For although my conscience does not accuse me, yet I am not entirely vindicated by that. It is the Lord Himself who must examine me.

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

For who makes you superior? And what do you have that you did not get from someone? But if you got it from someone, why do you boast as though you had not?

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

we are made fools for our attachment to Christ, while you, who are christians too, still pass for the wise: we are in poverty, but you are in power: you meet with esteem, but we find contempt.

This I don't write to give you any confusion, but by way of remonstrance, to you who are my dear children.

For though you have ten thousand teachers in the Christian life, you certainly could not have many fathers. For it was I myself who became your father through your union with Christ Jesus, which resulted from my telling you the good news.

For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

but I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know not the word of those who are puffed up but the power;

And yet, you are proud of it, instead of being sorry for it, and seeing to it that the man who has done this be removed from your membership!

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and so as really present, by the authority of our Lord Jesus, I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this --

In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

I wrote to you in my letter to stop associating with people who are sexually immoral

not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, greedy, robbers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

But the sense of my letter was that if a brother had the name of being one who went after the desires of the flesh, or had the desire for other people's property, or was in the way of using violent language, or being the worse for drink, or took by force what was not his, you might not keep company with such a one, or take food with him.

For what right have I to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are inside the church,

but for God to judge those who are outside? You must expel that wicked person from your membership.

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?

So if you have the ordinary cases of life for settlement, do you set up as judges the very men in the church who have no standing?

I ask this to make you blush with shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a grievance of one brother against another,

But a brother who has a cause at law against another takes it before Gentile judges.

But it is you who wrong and rob others, and your own brothers at that!

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

nor theives, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language or to greed of gain, will inherit God's Kingdom.

And God who made the Lord Jesus come back from the dead will do the same for us by his power.

Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one."

But the man who is in union with the Lord is spiritually one with Him.

Keep on running from sexual immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is one outside his body, but the man who commits the sexual sin is sinning against his own body.

Or, are you not conscious that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you, whom you have as a gift from God? Furthermore, you are not your own,

It is not the wife who has the rights to her own body, but the husband. In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights to his own body, but the wife.

I say to those who are unmarried, especially to widows: It is good for them to remain like me.

But to those who are married it is my command, yet not mine, but the Lords: Let not the wife separate herself from her husband,

I (not the Lord) say to the rest of you: If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she is willing to live with him, he must not abandon her.

and a woman who has a husband that is not a believer, but he consents to live with her, must not divorce her husband.

For the husband that believeth not is sanctified by the wife, and the wife who believeth not is sanctified by the husband: else indeed your children were unclean, but now are they holy.

But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another.

If any man who is a Christian has had circumcision, let him keep so; and if any man who is a Christian has not had circumcision, let him make no change.

For the slave who has been called to union with the Lord is the Lord's freedman; in the same way the freeman who has been called is a slave of Christ.

It is the Lord who has made payment for you: be not servants of men.

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.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those that mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

and those who are enjoying the world as though they were not entirely absorbed in it. For the outward order of this world is passing away.

But I would have you to be free from anxiety. He who is unmarried is anxious for the things of the Lord, how he shall please the Lord:

But the one who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

Again, the woman who is widow, or the maid, is anxious about the Lord's business, how she may be pure in body and in mind; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how she may please her husband.

But if a man thinks he is not acting properly toward the girl to whom he is engaged, if his passions are too strong, and that is what ought to be done, let him do as he pleases; it is no sin; let them be married.

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.

And so the man who gives his daughter in marriage does what is right, and yet the man who does not do so does even better.

The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

I now want to reply to the matter of idolatrous sacrifices [which you wrote to me about]. We know that we all possess knowledge. [Note: This may be a statement posed to Paul by the Corinthians, who seemed quite preoccupied with "knowledge"]. Knowledge [only] makes people arrogant, while love builds them up [spiritually].

But anyone who loves God is known by him.

For though there are those who have the name of gods, in heaven or on earth, as there are a number of gods and a number of lords,

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 remember, it is not everyone who has this 'knowledge.' Some who have hitherto been accustomed to idols eat the food as food which has been really offered to an idol, and so their weaker conscience is contaminated.

But you must see to it that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block for those who are weak.

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?

Yes, the overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by your so-called knowledge.

My vindication of myself to those who are investigating me is this:

Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

Or is it Barnabas and I alone who have no right to refrain from working for a living?