PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, with brother Sosthenes,

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

It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the sages, I will confound the insight of the wise.

Still, though planter and waterer are on the same level, each will get his own wage for the special work that he has done.

but in every case the nature of his work will come out; the Day will show what it is, for the Day breaks in fire, and the fire will test the work of each, no matter what that work may be.

If the structure raised by any man survives, he will be rewarded;

if a man's work is burnt up, he will be a loser ??and though he will be saved himself, he will be snatched from the very flames.

God will destroy anyone who would destroy God's temple, for God's temple is sacred ??and that is what you are.

So do not criticize at all; the hour of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal life's inner aims and motives. Then each of us will get his meed of praise from God.

To ensure this, I am sending you Timotheus, my beloved and trustworthy son in the Lord; he will remind you of those methods in Christ Jesus which I teach everywhere in every church.

I will come to you before long, if the Lord wills, and then I will find out from these puffed up creatures not what their talk but what their power amounts to.

Your boasting is no credit to you. Do you not know that a morsel of dough will leaven the whole lump?

as for outsiders, God will judge them. Expel the wicked from your company.

What! do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Realm of God? Make no mistake about it; neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor catamites nor sodomites

nor thieves nor the lustful nor the drunken nor the abusive nor robbers will inherit the Realm of God.

'Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food'? Yes, and God will do away with the one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;

and the God who raised the Lord will also raise us by his power.

I have no orders from the Lord for unmarried women, but I will give you the opinion of one whom you can trust, after all the Lord's mercy to him.

Of course, if you are actually married, there is no sin in that; and if a maid marries, there is no sin in that. (At the same time those who marry will have outward trouble ??and I would spare you that.)

But the man of firm purpose who has made up his mind, who, instead of being forced against his will, has determined to himself to keep his maid a spiritual bride ??that man will be doing the right thing.

Thus both are right alike in marrying and in refraining from marriage, but he who does not marry will be found to have done better.

Now mere food will not bring us any nearer to God; if we abstain we do not lose anything, and if we eat we do not gain anything.

Suppose anyone sees you, a person of enlightened mind, reclining at meat inside an idol's temple; will that really 'fortify his weak conscience'? Will it not embolden him to violate his scruples of conscience by eating food that has been offered to idols?

Therefore if food is any hindrance to my brother's welfare, sooner than injure him I will never eat flesh as long as I live, never!

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

If a woman will not veil herself, she should cut off her hair as well. But she ought to veil herself; for it is disgraceful that a woman should have her hair cut off or be shaven.

Hence anyone who eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord carelessly, will have to answer for a sin against the body and the blood of the Lord.

and if anyone is hungry let him eat at home. You must not gather, only to incur condemnation. I will give you my instructions upon the other matters when I come.

Set your hearts on the higher talents. And yet I will go on to show you a still higher path.

Love never disappears. As for prophesying, it will be superseded; as for 'tongues,' they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded.

but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror, but then it will be face to face; at present I am learning bit by bit, but then I shall understand, as all along I have myself been understood.

If the trumpet sounds indistinct, who will get ready for the fray?

Well, it is the same with yourselves. Unless your tongue utters language that is readily understood, how can people make out what you say? You will be pouring words into the empty air!

Well, unless I understand the meaning of what is said to me, I shall appear to the speaker to be talking gibberish, and to my mind he will be talking gibberish himself.

Very well then, I will pray in the Spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing praise in the Spirit, but I will also sing praise with my mind.

It is written in the Law, By men of alien tongues and by the lips of aliens I will speak to this People; but even so, they will not listen to me, saith the Lord.

Hence if at a gathering of the whole church everybody speaks with 'tongues,' and if outsiders or un believers come in, will they not say you are insane?

the secrets of his heart are brought to light, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring, 'God is really among you.'

Anyone who disregards this will be himself disregarded.

and when everything is put under him, then the Son himself will be put under Him who put everything under him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

But, someone will ask, 'how do the dead rise? What kind of body have they when they come?'

Here is a secret truth for you: not all of us are to die, but all of us are to be changed ??52 changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. The trumpet will sound, the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed.

and when this mortal body has been invested with immortality, then the saying of Scripture will be realized, Death is swallowed up in victory.

On my arrival I will furnish credentials for those whom you select, and send them to convey your bounty to Jerusalem;

As for our brother Apollos, I urged him to accompany the other brothers on a visit to you; he will come as soon as he has time, but for the present it is not the will of God that he should visit you.