"Who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, or advised him?

"Or who has advanced anything to him, for which he will have to be repaid?"

or of practical service, differing in the field of service, or the teacher who exercises his gift in teaching,

the speaker, in his exhortation, the giver of charity, with generosity, the office-holder, with devotion, the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves.

The man who does right has nothing to fear from the magistrates, as the wrongdoer has. If you want to have no fear of the authorities, do right, and they will commend you for it,

Treat people who are overscrupulous in their faith like brothers; do not criticize their views.

The man who will eat anything must not look down on the man who abstains from some things, and the man who abstains from them must not criticize the one who does not, for God has accepted him.

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so.

The man who observes the day does it in the Lord's honor. The man who eats does it in the Lord's honor, for he gives God thanks, and the man who abstains does it in the Lord's honor, and gives him thanks.

I know and as a follower of the Lord Jesus I am convinced that nothing is unclean in itself; a thing is unclean only to the man who regards it as unclean.

For if your brother's feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died.

For your part, you must keep the faith you have to yourself, as between God and you. He is a happy man who has no fault to find with himself in following the course that he approves,

but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.

It is the duty of us who are strong to put up with the weaknesses of those who are immature, and not just suit ourselves.

Christ did not please himself, but as the Scripture says, "The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me."

May God, from whom steadfastness and encouragement come, give you such harmony with one another, in following the example of Christ Jesus,

Again Isaiah says, "The descendant of Jesse will come, The one who is to rise to rule the heathen; The heathen will set their hopes on him."

As the Scripture says, "They who have never been told of him will see, And they who have never heard will understand!"

Pray that I may escape from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people,

God who gives peace be with you all! Amen.

I want to introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a helper in the church at Cenchreae.

who risked their necks to save my life. Not only I but also all the churches among the heathen thank them. Remember me also to the church that meets at their house.

Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first man in Asia to turn to Christ.

Remember me to Mary, who has worked so hard for you.

Remember me to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow-countrymen, who went to prison with me. They are noted men among the missionaries, and they became Christians before I did.

Remember me to that veteran Christian, Apelles. Remember me to those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

Remember me to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, those hard workers in the Lord's cause. Remember me to my dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord,

Remember me to Rufus, that eminent Christian, and to his mother, who has been a mother to me.

Remember me to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who meet with them.

Remember me to Philologus and Julia, to Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas, and all God's people who meet with them.

I beg you, brothers, to be on the watch for those who introduce divisions and difficulties, in opposition to the instruction that you were given, and to avoid them.

And God, who is the source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet. The blessing of our Lord Jesus be with you.

I, Tertius, who write this letter, wish to be remembered to you as a fellow-Christian.

To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed,

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called as God's people, like all those anywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours;

God can be depended on, and it was he who called you to this fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ has been divided up! But was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

For to those who are on the way to destruction, the story of the cross is nonsense, but to us who are to be saved, it means all the power of God.

For since in God's providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him.

but we proclaim a Christ who was crucified??n idea that is revolting to Jews and absurd to the heathen,

but to those whom God has called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

But you are his children, through your union with Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom??ur uprightness and consecration and redemption,

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who would boast, boast of the Lord!"

Yet there is a wisdom that we impart when we are with people who have a mature faith, but it is not what this world calls wisdom, nor what the authorities of this world, doomed as they are to pass away, would call so.

But, as the Scripture says, there are things "Which no eye ever saw and no ear ever heard, And never occurred to the human mind, Which God has provided for those who love him."

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct him? But we share the thoughts of Christ.

What is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Just servants through whom you came to have faith, as the Lord gave each of us opportunity.

I did the planting, Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the plants grow.

So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything, but only God who makes the plants grow.

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.

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

For while my conscience does not trouble me at all, that does not prove that I am innocent. It is the Lord who must examine me.

For who sees anything special in you? And what have you got that you have not been given? But if it has been given you, why do you boast as though it had not been?

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.

And can you put on airs, instead of being overwhelmed with grief at having to expel from your number the man who has done this?

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this,

What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who is supposed to be a Christian brother, and yet is immoral or greedy or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or grasping??ith such a person you must not even eat.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not your part to judge those who are inside the church,

and God's, to judge those who are outside? You must drive the wrongdoer out from among you.

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

I ask it to shame you. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a disagreement between one brother and another,

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

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

Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes one body with her? For "The two," says the Scripture, "shall become physically one."

To all who are unmarried and to widows, I would say this: It is an excellent thing if they can remain single as I am.

To other people I would say, though not as Christ's command, if a Christian has a wife who is not a believer, and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her,

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

For the husband who is not a believer is consecrated through union with his wife, and the woman who is not a believer is consecrated through union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but, as it is, they are consecrated.

But if the one who is not a believer wishes to separate, let the separation take place. In such cases the brother or sister is not a slave; God has called you to live in peace.

For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ.

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 this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those who mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy anything as though they did not own it,

and those who mix in the world, as though they were not absorbed in it. For the present shape of the world is passing away.

An unmarried woman or a girl is concerned about the Lord's work, so as to be consecrated in body and spirit, but the woman who marries is concerned with worldly affairs, and how she can 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 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.

So the man who marries her does what is right, and the man who refrains from doing so does even better.

For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth??nd indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords??6 yet for us there is just one God, the Father, who is the source of all things, and for whom we live, and just one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live.

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?

For this overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by what you call your knowledge.

My answer to those who want to investigate me is this:

What soldier ever pays his expenses out of his own pay? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the grapes? Who tends a flock and does not get any of the milk?

If it was we who sowed the spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

Do you not know that those who do the work about the Temple get their living from the Temple, and those who attend to the altar divide the sacrifices with the altar?

In just that way the Lord directed that those who preach the good news should get their living from it.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law.

To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law??hough I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ??o as to win over those who are without any law.

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.

Let us not practice immorality, like some of them, twenty-three thousand of whom fell dead in one day,

So the man who thinks he can stand must be on his guard against a fall.

Think of the Israelites' practices. Do not those who eat what is sacrificed have divine fellowship at the sacrificial altar?

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered in sacrifice," let it alone, on account of the man who told you and his conscientious scruples;

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.

Doubtless there must be parties among you, if those who are right are to be recognized among you.

Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly.