From: Paul, called to be an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and from our brother Sosthenes.

He will keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the Day of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will reject."

The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own action.

the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's action.

If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.

If anyone destroys God's sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God's sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!

Therefore, stop judging prematurely, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God.

Brothers, I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what the Scriptures say. Then you will stop boasting about one person at the expense of another.

That's why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and dependable son in the Lord and will help you remember how I live for the Messiah Jesus as I teach everywhere in every church.

But I will come to you soon if it's the Lord's will. Then I'll discover not only what these arrogant people are saying but also what power they have,

God will judge outsiders. "Expel that wicked man."

You know that the saints will rule the world, don't you? And if the world is going to be ruled by you, can't you handle insignificant cases?

You know that we will rule angels, not to mention things in this life, don't you?

You know that wicked people will not inherit the kingdom of God, don't you? Stop deceiving yourselves! Sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals,

thieves, greedy people, drunks, slanderers, and robbers will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not allow anything to control me.

Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will make them both unnecessary. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

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

You know that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her, don't you? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

Now concerning virgins, although I do not have any command from the Lord, I will give you my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

But if you do get married, you have not sinned. And if a virgin gets married, she has not sinned. However, these people will experience trouble in this life, and I want to spare you from that.

However, if a man stands firm in his resolve, feels no necessity, and has made up his mind to keep her a virgin, he will be acting appropriately.

However, in my opinion she will be happier if she stays as she is. And in saying this, I think that I, too, have God's Spirit.

However, food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat food that has been offered to an idol, and no better off if we do.

For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you, who know better, eating in an idol's temple, he will be encouraged to eat what has been offered to idols, won't he?

Therefore, if food that I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, in order to keep my brother from stumbling.

No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

No temptation has overtaken you that is unusual for human beings. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it.

You have homes in which to eat and drink, don't you? Or do you despise God's church and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the cup in an unworthy manner will be held responsible for the Lord's body and blood.

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.

Keep on desiring the better gifts. And now I will show you the best way of all.

is never glad with sin; she's always glad to side with truth, and pleased that truth will win.

She bears up under everything; believes the best in all; there is no limit to her hope, and never will she fall.

Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

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

Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Indeed, brothers, if I come to you speaking in foreign languages, what good will I be to you unless I speak to you in some revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching?

For example, if a bugle doesn't sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?

In the same way, unless you speak an intelligible message with your language, how will anyone know what is being said? You'll be talking into the air!

If I don't know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker will be a foreigner to me.

What does this mean? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing psalms with my spirit, but I will also sing psalms with my mind.

In the Law it is written, "By means of foreign languages and through the mouths of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," declares the Lord.

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.

His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, "God is truly among you!"

For as in Adam all die, so also in the Messiah will all be made alive.

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.

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.

Otherwise, what will those people do who are being baptized because of those who have died? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they being baptized because of them?

If I have fought with wild animals in Ephesus from merely human motives, what do I get out of it? If the dead are not raised, "Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

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

and what you plant is not the form that it will be, but a bare kernel, whether it is wheat or something else.

This is how it will be at the resurrection of the dead. What is planted is decaying, what is raised cannot decay.

Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Let me tell you a secret. Not all of us will die, but all of us will be changed

in a moment, faster than an eye can blink, at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed.

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

and will probably stay with you for a while or even spend the winter with you. Then you can send me on my way, wherever I decide to go.

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.