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

and at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ he will insure your complete vindication.

For the Scripture says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And I will thwart the shrewdness of the shrewd!"

A material man will not accept what the Spirit of God offers. It seems mere folly to him, and he cannot understand it, because it takes spiritual insight to see its true value.

The planter and the waterer are all one, though each of us will be paid for his own work.

the quality of everyone's work will appear, for the Day will show it. For the Day will break in fire, and the fire will test the quality of everyone's work.

If what a man has built on the foundation stands the test, he will have his pay.

If a man's work is burned up, he must stand the loss, though he himself will be saved, but as one who has passed through the fire.

If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is sacred, and that is what you are.

Do not form any premature judgments, therefore, but wait until the Lord comes back. For he will light up the darkness that now hides things and show what the motives in people's minds are, and then everyone will get from God the praise he deserves.

For no matter how many guides you may have in the Christian life, you will not have many fathers; for in this matter of union with Christ, I became your father, through preaching the good news to you.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine, in the service of the Lord, and one on whom you can depend, and he will help you to keep in mind my methods in the service of Christ Jesus, which I follow everywhere in every church.

But I am coming very soon to see you, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not what these conceited people have to say, but what they can actually do.

Which will you have? Shall I come to you with a stick, or in a loving and gentle spirit?

Certainly this is nothing for you to boast of. Do you not know that a little yeast will affect all the dough?

If then you have ordinary matters to be settled, will you submit them for judgment to men who are nothing in the church?

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have any share in God's kingdom? Do not let anyone mislead you. People who are immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or given to unnatural vice

It is true, food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for the food, but God will put an end to both of them. But the body is not meant for immorality, but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve.

And as God raised the Lord to life, he will raise us also by his power.

For how do you wives know whether you will save your husbands? Or how do you husbands know whether you will save your wives?

About unmarried women I have no command of the Lord to give you, but I will give you my opinion as that of one on whom through the Lord's mercy you can depend.

But if you do marry, there is no sin in that. And if a girl marries, it is no sin. But those who marry will have worldly trouble, which I would like to spare you.

But a man who has definitely made up his mind, under no constraint of passion but with full self-control, and who has decided in his own mind to keep her as she is, will be doing what is right.

But she will be happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is, and I think I have God's spirit as well as other people.

For if somebody sees you, who are intelligent about this matter, attending a dinner in an idol's temple, will not he, with his sensitive conscience, be led to eat meat that is offered to idols?

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

If others enjoy such rights over you, have we not a still better claim? But, you say, we have never availed ourselves of this right. No, we will stand anything rather than put any hindrance in the way of the good news of the Christ.

Any man who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training, to win a wreath that will soon wither, but the one we compete for will never wither.

Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head,

and any woman who offers prayer or explains the will of God bareheaded disgraces her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved.

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

Hence anyone who eats the bread or drinks from the Lord's cup in a way that is unworthy of it will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord.

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

I will show you a far better way. If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal.

It will bear anything, believe anything, hope for anything, endure anything.

Love will never die out. If there is inspired preaching, it will pass away. If there is ecstatic speaking, it will cease. If there is knowledge, it will pass away.

But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will pass away.

But as it is brothers, if I come back to you and speak ecstatically, what good will I do you, unless I have some revelation or special knowledge or message or teaching to give you?

If the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle?

So if you in your ecstatic speaking utter words no one can understand, how will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the empty air!

So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall seem to the man who is speaking to be a foreigner, and he will seem to me to be one too.

So since you are ambitious for spiritual endowments, you must try to excel in them in ways that will do good to the church.

Then what am I to do? I will pray ecstatically, but I will pray intelligently too. I will sing ecstatically, but I will sing intelligently too.

In the Law it says, "By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this nation, and not even then will they listen to me, says the Lord."

Hence, if the whole church assembles and they all speak ecstatically, and ordinary people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

the secrets of his heart are exposed, and he will fall down on his face and worship God, and declare that God is really among you.

for the spirits of prophets will give way to prophets,

For just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again.

After that will come the end, when he will turn over the kingdom to God his Father, bringing to an end all other government, authority, and power,

The last enemy to be overthrown will be death,

And when everything is reduced to subjection to him, then the Son himself will also become subject to him who has reduced everything to subjection to him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

From the human point of view, what good is it to me that I have fought wild animals here in Ephesus? If the dead do not rise at all, "Let us eat and drink, for we will be dead tomorrow!"

But someone will say, "How can the dead rise? What kind of a body will they have when they come back?"

But I can tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, and decay will not share in what is imperishable.

I will 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 free from decay, and we shall be changed.

And when this mortal nature puts on immortality, then what the Scripture says will come true??Death has been triumphantly destroyed.

On the first of every week each of you is to put aside and store up whatever he gains, so that money will not have to be collected after I come.

When I come I will send whatever persons you authorize with credentials, to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

I will come to you after passing through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia,

and I will probably stay some time with you, or even pass the winter, so that you may start me off for wherever I may be going.

As for our brother Apollos, I have often urged him to visit you with the other brothers, and he is quite unwilling to come now, but he will come when he has a good opportunity.