No temptation has taken hold of you but what is common to human nature. And God is to be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to make a way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

Is not the consecrated cup which we consecrate a sign of our sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf which we break a sign of our sharing in the body of Christ?

Look at the Israelites in their practices. Are not those who eat the sacrifices in spiritual fellowship with the altar?

Then what do I mean? That the sacrifice to an idol is a reality, or that an idol itself is a reality? Of course not!

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

Or, are we trying to incite the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

Everything is permissible for people, but not everything is good for them. Everything is permissible for people, but not everything builds up their personality.

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered as a heathen sacrifice," make it your rule not to eat it, for the sake of the man who warned you and for conscience' sake;

I mean his conscience, not yours. Why then should my personal freedom be limited by another's conscience?

just as I myself am in the habit of pleasing everybody in everything, not aiming at my own welfare but at that of as many people as possible, in order that they may be saved.

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

For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, because he is the image and reflected glory of God, but woman is man's reflected glory.

For man did not originate from woman, but woman did from man,

and man was not created for woman's sake, but woman was for man's sake.

But from the Lord's point of view woman is not independent of man nor man of woman.

Does not nature itself teach you that it is degrading for a man to wear long hair,

But as I am giving you these instructions I cannot approve of your meetings, because they do not turn out for the better but for the worse.

So when you hold your meetings, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper,

It is not that you have no houses to eat and drink in, is it? Or, are you trying to show your contempt for the church of God and trying to humiliate those who have no houses? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, I cannot praise you for this.

For the account that I passed on to you I myself received from the Lord Himself, that the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took a loaf of bread

But if we properly saw ourselves, we would not bring down upon us this judgment.

But since we do bring down upon us this judgment, we are being disciplined by the Lord, so that finally we may not be condemned along with the world.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring on you judgment. I will settle in detail the matters that remain, when I come.

About spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be without information.

You know that when you were heathen you were in the habit of going off, wherever you might be led, after idols that could not speak.

For the body does not consist of one part but of many.

If the foot says, "Since I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

If the ear says, "Since I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," or the hand to the feet, "I do not need you."

while our well-shaped parts do not want for anything. Yes, God has perfectly adjusted the body, giving great honor to its apparently inferior parts,

Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are wonder-workers, are they?

Not all are people with power to cure the sick, are they? Not all are ecstatic speakers, are they? Not all can explain ecstatic speaking, can they?

It does not act with rudeness, or insist upon its rights; it never gets provoked, it never harbors evil thoughts;

For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

Again, indeed, if the bugle does not sound a call distinct and clear, who will prepare for battle?

There are, supposedly, ever so many languages in the world, and not one is without its own meaning.

So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I should be a foreigner to the man who speaks it, and he would be a foreigner to me.

how is the man who occupies the place of the illiterate to say "Amen" to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying.

You are, indeed, doing right to give thanks, but your neighbor is not built up.

In the law it is written, "By men of foreign languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

So speaking in ecstasy is meant as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is meant, not for unbelievers but for believers.

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

for God is not a God of disorder but of order, as it is in all the churches of God's people.

For I belong to the lowest rank of the apostles, and am not fit to bear the title apostle, because I once persecuted the church of God.

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised,

and if Christ was not raised, the message which we preach has nothing in it; there is nothing in our faith either,

and we are found guilty of lying about God, for we have testified that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if indeed the dead are never raised.

For if the dead are never raised, Christ has not been raised;

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is a mere delusion; you are still under the penalty of your sins.

Do not be so misled: "Evil companionships corrupt good character."

and what you sow does not have the body that it is going to have, but is a naked grain, of wheat (it may be) or something else;

But it is not the spiritual that comes first; it is the physical, and then the spiritual.

Let me 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 with bodies not subject to decay, and we shall be changed.

On the first day of every week each of you must put aside and store up something in proportion as he is prospered, so that no contributions need be made when I come back.

I do not want to see you right now in a mere stop-over visit, for later I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits me.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

A curse upon anyone who does not love the Lord! Our Lord is coming.

For I do not want you to be uninformed about the sorrow that I suffered in Asia, because I was so crushed beyond any power to endure that I was in dire despair of life itself.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

Now I did not resort to fickleness, did I, in planning that? Or, do I make my plans in accordance with worldly notions, to have my "Yes" mean "No," if I want it so?

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

Not that we are trying to lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you to promote your joy, for in your faith you are standing firm.

For I have definitely decided not to pay you another painful visit.

This is the very thing I wrote you, that when I did come I might not be made sad by the very people who ought to make me glad, for I had confidence in you all that my gladness would be gladness to you all.

For out of great sorrow and distress of heart, yes, while shedding many tears, I wrote you, not to make you sad but to make you realize that my love for you continues running over.

But if anyone has made anyone sad, it is not I, but you that he has made sad, at least, some of you, not to be severe on all of you.

I had no rest of spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and left for Macedonia.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

Am I beginning to recommend myself again? I do not, like some people, do I, need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

for you are always showing that you are a letter of Christ, produced by my service, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

Not that I am myself qualified to consider anything as coming from me myself. No, my qualification comes from God, for

He has qualified even me as a minister of the new covenant, which is not a written but a spiritual covenant. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the old religious service which resulted in death, although its law was carved in letters of stone, was introduced with a splendor so great that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on Moses' face because of the splendor that was fading from it,

why should not this spiritual service be attended with much greater splendor?

not as Moses did, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was passing away.

For I am not proclaiming myself but Christ Jesus as Lord, and myself a slave of yours for Jesus' sake.

But I am keeping this jewel in an earthen jar, to prove that its surpassing power is God's, not mine.

always being persecuted, but not deserted; always getting a knockdown, but never a knockout;

because I do not keep my eyes on things that are seen but things that are unseen. For things that are seen are temporary, but things that are unseen are eternal.

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

and if I do put it on, I shall not find myself to be disembodied.

For I who am still in my tent am sighing beneath my burdens, because I do not want it to be put off but to put on the other over it, so that my dying body may be absorbed in life.

(for here I live by what I believe and not by what I see),

I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you ground for speaking well of me, that you may have something to say to those who are constantly prating about external privileges and not concerned about the state of the heart.

So from this moment on, I do not estimate anybody by the standard of outward appearances. Although I once did estimate Christ by this standard, I do not do so any longer.

As God's fellow-worker I beg you too not to accept God's favor and throw it away.

To keep my ministry from being found fault with, I am trying not to put a single hindrance in anybody's way.

obscure and yet well-known, on the point of dying and yet I go on living, punished and yet not put to death,

You are not squeezed into a tiny corner in my heart, but you are in your own affections.

Make room for me in your hearts, I have not wronged or harmed or taken advantage of a single one of you.

I do not mean this for your condemnation, because, as I have said before, you have such a place in my heart that I would live with you or die with you.

and not only by his coming but by the comfort he had gotten from you, because he kept on telling me how you were longing to see me, how sorry you were, and how loyal you were to me, so that I was gladder still.

For, although I did cause you sorrow by that letter, I do not now regret it; although I did regret it then. I see that the letter caused you sorrow only for a time.

I am glad of it now, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you took your sorrow in accordance with the will of God, so that you should not suffer any loss at all from me.

So, although I did write to you, it was not for the offender's sake, nor for the offended party's sake, but in the sight of God for the sake of having your enthusiasm for me made perfectly clear to you. This is why I am so comforted.

They did not do as I expected but even more; they first by God's will gave themselves to the Lord, and then to me;

I am not saying this in the spirit of a command, but I am simply trying to test the genuineness of your love by the enthusiasm of others.