Faithful is the God by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

For the message of the Cross is indeed for those on their way to destruction, foolishness; but for us who are on our way to salvation it is the power of God.

For thus it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the philosophers, And the prudence of the prudent will I confound.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your own calling, brothers, that not many wise in earthly wisdom, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, have been called.

It is of him that you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

so that as Scripture says, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

for I determined to know nothing, while among you, but Jesus as Christ, and him a crucified Christ.

No, it is God's wisdom that I utter, that hidden wisdom which God had decreed before the world began, unto our glory.

Nay, as it is written. Eye has not seen, Nor ear heard, Neither have entered into man's heart The things which God has prepared For those who love him.

Yet God has unveiled them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit fathoms everything, even the abysmal depths of God.

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may realize the blessings freely given us by God.

The unspiritual man rejects the teachings of God's Spirit; for him it is folly. He cannot understand it, for it is spiritually discerned,

But the spiritual man discerns everything, yet is himself discerned by no one.

As for me, brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual men, but as to creatures of flesh, mere babes in Christ.

You are not able even now, for you are still unspiritual. While there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not still unspiritual, and behaving like worldlings?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Just ministers through whom you have believed, and each doing the work that the Lord gave him.

So neither is he who planted anything, nor he who watered, but God alone, who is making the seed grow.

The foundation is already laid??esus Christ??nd no man can lay another.

The Day will disclose it, for it dawns in fire, and the fire will test each man's work, of what quality it is.

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, as it were through the flames.

Do you not know what you are God's sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God is dwelling within you?

If any one tear down God's sanctuary, God will tear him down; for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Let no one deceive himself. If any one of you supposes that he is wise in the philosophy of the present age, let him become foolish, so that he may be wise.

For the philosophy of this world is foolishness in God's sight. It is written, He snares the wise in their own craftiness,

and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, how futile they are.

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Let any man look upon us as servants of Christ, and stewards of the secret truths of God.

Now it is required of stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Indeed I do not even judge myself; for though I know nothing against myself, yet that does not vindicate me; for he who judges me is the Lord.

Now these things, brothers, I have applied in a figure to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that in us you might learn not to go beyond what is written; that none of you be puffed up for the one, against the other.

For who makes you a differ, brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you had not received it?

But you, forsooth, are already full, are you? You are already rich? Without us you are already reigning? Yes, and I would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you.

But it seems to me that God has exhibited us apostles, last of all, like men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the whole world, both to men and to angels.

When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when defamed, we conciliate. We have been made, as it were, scum-o'-the-earth, the very refuse of the world, to this very hour!

I am not writing this to shame you, but to admonish you, as my beloved children.

With this in mind I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ; the manner in which I ever teach everywhere in every church.

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

For the kingdom of God is not in talk, but in power.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even among the heathen??hat a man has taken his father's wife!

When you are gathered together, and my spirit is with you together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that even a little leaven leavens all the lump?

Then get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be like a new lump, as you are now unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb has already been sacrificed, Christ himself.

So let us keep the unending feast, not with any old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and vice, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

But what I wrote was that you were not to associate with any so-called brother who is immoral, or avaricious, or idolatrous, or abusive, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. No, with such persons do not even sit at table.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try such trifling cases?

Why then, if you have cases relating to earthly affairs which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the church whom you make your judges?

I say this to shame you. Is it so that there is not among you a single wise man, capable of deciding between a man and his brother?

Indeed, to say nothing more, the fact that you have lawsuits with one another is altogether a defect in you. Why not rather suffer injustice? Why not rather endure being cheated?

"Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food"? Yes, but God will soon put an end both to the one and to the other. The body, however, exists not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body;

and the God who raised up our Lord will up-raise us also by his mighty power.

Do you not know that he who joins himself to a harlot is one with her in body? (For God says, The two shall become one flesh.)

While a man who is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit?

Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is within you, the Spirit whom you have from God?

Now concerning the question in your letter. It is well for a man to have no intercourse with a woman,

but because there is so much immorality let each man have his own wife; and let each women have her own husband.

Let the husband give his wife her due, and likewise the wife her husband. The wife is not mistress of her own person,

but her husband is; and in the same way the husband is not master of his own person, but his wife is.

Do not refuse one another, unless it is only temporary and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, lest through your lack of self-control Satan begin to tempt you to sin.

But what I have just said is by way of concession, not command.

I would that every one lived as I do; but each man has his own special gift from God, one this, another that.

But to the unmarried, and the widows, I say that it is well for them to remain as I am.

If, however, they are not exercising self-control, by all means let them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.

But to those already married my commandment is??nd not mine, but the Lord's??hat a wife is not to leave her husband;

(or if she has already left him let her either remain as she is, or be reconciled to him), and also that a husband is not to put away his wife.

To the rest it is I who am speaking, not the Lord. If any brother has a wife who is not a believer, if he is willing to live with her, let him not send her away.

And a woman whose husband is not a believer, if he is willing to live with her, let her not separate from him.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through union with his believing wife; and the unbelieving wife, through union with her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but now they are consecrated to God.

But if the unbelieving partner be determined to leave, separation let it be. In such cases the believing husband or wife is not under bondage. But it is into peace that God has called us.

Only whatever be the lot in life to which God has assigned each one??nd whatever the condition in which he was living when God called him??n that let him continue. Such is the rule I give in all the churches.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands in everything.

Were you called in slavery? Let not that trouble you; but if you can become free make use of the opportunity.

For the slave who has been called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman; and in the same way, the free man who is called is Christ's slave.

I have no command from the Lord to give you concerning unmarried women; but I give you my opinion, and it is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence.

I think then, that in view of the time of suffering now imminent, it is best for a man to remain as he is.

Indeed, brothers, the time that remains to us has been shortened; so let those who have wives live as if they had none,

let those who weep be as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess,

and those who use the world as though using it sparingly. For the present phase of the world is passing away.

So I want you to be free from all anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the Lord's business, how he may please the Lord;

but a married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how he may please his wife, and he is divided in his mind.

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.

It is in your own interest that I say this; not that I may entangle you in a snare, but that I may help you to serve the Lord with fitting and undistracted service.

If, however, a father feels that he is not treating his virgin daughter in a seemly manner, in leaving her unmarried beyond the flower of her age, and so the matter is urgent, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin. Let the marriage take place.

On the other hand, he who is firm in his purpose and is under no compulsion, but is free to carry out his own wishes, and who has determined to keep his daughter unmarried, does well.

So he that gives his daughter in marriage is doing right, and he who keeps her unmarried will be doing right, and he who keeps her unmarried will be doing better.

A wife is bound to her husband during his lifetime; but if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she will, provided it be in the Lord.

But she is happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is; and I think that I, too, have the Spirit of God.

If a man thinks that he already has knowledge, he does not yet truly know as he ought to know;

but if a man loves God, he is known by him.

Now as to eating food that has been offered to idols, we know well that an idol has no real existence in the universe, and that there is no God but One.

For though there be so-called "gods," celestial of terrestrial, as indeed there are gods many and lords many,

yet for there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

But that "knowledge" is not possessed by all; but some, accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as that which has actually been offered to an idol, and so their conscience, being still weak, is defiled.

Now food does not bring us nearness to God. Neither if we eat do we gain any advantage, nor if we eat not, do we lose any.

So he is lost, this weak man, lost by your "knowledge." this brother for whom Christ died.

This is my reply to my critics.

Have I no right to take a believing wife with me on my journey, as the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers and Peter do?

Yea, in the Law of Moses it is written, Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while he is treading out the grain.

Is it the oxen that God is thinking about, or is it really said for our sakes? It was written for us; because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of getting a share of the crop.

If I have sown for you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great thing if I reap from you temporal goods?