For Macedonia and Greece have been glad to make a collection for the poor among Christ's People at Jerusalem.

Yes, they were glad to do so; and indeed it is a duty which they owe to them. For the Gentile converts who have shared their spiritual blessings are in duty bound to minister to them in the things of this world.

To Mary, who worked hard for you;

To Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard for the Master; to my dear friend Persis, for she has done much hard work for the Master;

For such persons are not serving Christ, our Master, but are slaves to their own appetites; and, by their smooth words and flattery, they deceive simple-minded people.

To him, I say, the wise and only God, be ascribed, through Jesus Christ, all glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I always thank God about you for the blessing bestowed upon you in Christ Jesus.

For through union with him you were enriched in every way-in your power to preach, and in your knowledge of the Truth;

And thus there is no gift in which you are deficient, while waiting for the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For I have been informed, my Brothers, by the members of Chloe's household, that party feeling exists among you.

You have rent the Christ in pieces! Was it Paul who was crucified for you? or were you baptized into the Faith of Paul?

For Scripture says-'I will bring the philosophy of the philosophers to nought, and the shrewdness of the shrewd I will make of no account.'

For since the world, in God's wisdom, did not by its philosophy learn to know God, God saw fit, by the 'folly' of our proclamation, to save those who believe in Christ!

While Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks study philosophy,

For God's 'folly' is wiser than men, and God's 'weakness' is stronger than men.

For my own part, Brothers, when I came to you, it was with no display of eloquence or philosophy that I came to tell the hidden purpose of God;

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

No, it is a divine philosophy that we teach, one concerned with the hidden purpose of God-that long-hidden philosophy which God, before time began, destined for our glory.

This philosophy is not known to any of the leaders of to-day; for, had they known it, they would not have crucified our glorified Lord.

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

Yet to us God revealed it through his Spirit; for the Spirit fathoms all things, even the inmost depths of God's being.

For what man is there who knows what a man is, except the man's own spirit within him? So, also, no one comprehends what God is, except the Spirit of God.

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

The merely intellectual man rejects the teaching of the Spirit of God; for to him it is mere folly; he cannot grasp it, because it is to be understood only by spiritual insight.

For 'who has so comprehended the mind of the Lord as to be able to instruct him?' We, however, have the very mind of Christ.

I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not then able to take it. No, and even now you are not able; you are still worldly.

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's harvest field, God's building.

For no man can lay any other foundation than the one already laid-Jesus Christ.

The quality of each man's work will become known, for the Day will make it plain; because that Day is to be ushered in with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of every man's work.

If any man's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss; though he himself will escape, but only as one who has passed through fire.

If any one destroys the Temple of God, God will destroy him; for the Temple of God is sacred, and so also are you.

For in God's sight this world's wisdom is folly. Scripture tells of-'One who catches the wise in their own craftiness,'

Therefore let no one boast about men; for all things are yours--

Now what we look for in stewards is that they should be trustworthy.

For, though I am conscious of nothing against myself, that does not prove me innocent. It is the Lord who is my judge.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

For who makes any one of you superior to others? And what have you that was not given you? But if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as if you had not?

For, as it seems to me, God has exhibited us, the Apostles, last of all, as men doomed to death. We are made a spectacle to the universe, both to angels and to men!

We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools,' but you, by your union with Christ, are men of discernment. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are despised.

This is my reason for sending Timothy to you. He is my own dear faithful child in the Master's service, and he will remind you of my methods of teaching the Faith of Christ Jesus-methods which I follow everywhere in every Church.

For the Kingdom of God is based, not on words, but on power.

Instead of grieving over it and taking steps for the expulsion of the man who has done this thing, is it possible that you are still puffed up?

For I myself, though absent in body, have been present with you in spirit, and in the name of our Lord Jesus I have already passed judgment, just as if I had been present, upon the man who has acted in this way.

Get rid entirely of the old leaven, so that you may be like new dough-free from leaven, as in truth you are. For our Passover Lamb is already sacrificed-Christ himself;

Not, of course, meaning men of the world who are in immoral, or who are covetous and grasping, or who worship idols; for then you would have to leave the world altogether.

What have I to do with judging those outside the Church? Is it not for you to judge those who are within the Church,

Everything is allowable for me! Yes, but everything is not profitable. Everything is allowable for me! Yes, but for my part, I will not let myself be enslaved by anything.

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

Or do not you know that a man who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body (for 'the two,' it is said, 'will become one');

With reference to the subjects about which you wrote to me: It would be well for a man to remain single.

Do not deprive each other of what is due-unless it is only for a time and by mutual consent, so that your minds may be free for prayer till you again live as man and wife-lest Satan should take advantage of your want of self-control and tempt you.

My advice, then, to those who are not married, and to widows, is this: It would be well for them to remain as I am myself.

But, if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be consumed with passion.

For, through his wife, the husband who is an unbeliever has become associated with Christ's People; and the wife who is an unbeliever has become associated with Christ's People through our Brother whom she has married. Otherwise your children would be 'defiled,' but, as it is, they belong to Christ's People.

For the man who was a slave when he was called to the master's service is the Master's freed-man; so, too, the man who was free when called is Christ's slave.

Are you married to a wife? Then do not seek to be separated. Are you separated from a wife? Then do not seek for a wife.

And those who use the good things of the world as using them sparingly; for this world as we see it is passing away.

I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the Master's Cause, desiring to please him;

I say this for your own benefit, not with any intention of putting a halter round your necks, but in order to secure for the Master seemly and constant devotion, free from all distraction.

On the other hand, a father, who has definitely made up his mind, and is under no compulsion, but is free to carry out his own wishes, and who has come to the decision, in his own mind, to keep his unmarried daughter at home will be doing right.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but, if the husband should pass to his rest, the widow is free to marry any one she wishes, provided he is a believer.

Yet she will be happier if she remains as she is-in my opinion, for I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom all things come (and for him we live), and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come (and through him we live).

For if some one should see you who possess this knowledge, feasting in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is a weak man, become so hardened that he, too, will eat food offered to idols?

And so, through this knowledge of yours, the weak man is ruined-your Brother for whose sake Christ died!

Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen our Lord Jesus? Are not you yourselves my work achieved in union with the Lord?

If I am not an Apostle to others, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal that stamps me as an Apostle in union with the Lord.

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to give up working for our bread?

For in the Law of Moses it is said-'Thou shalt not muzzle a bullock while it is treading out the grain.' Is it the bullocks that God is thinking of?

Or is not is said entirely for our sakes? Surely it was written for our sakes, for the ploughman ought not to plough, nor the thrasher to thrash, without expecting a share of the grain.

Since we, then, sowed spiritual seed for you, is it too much that we should reap from you an earthly harvest?

I, however, have not availed myself of any of these rights. I am not saying this to secure such an arrangement for myself; indeed, I would far rather die-Nobody shall make my boast a vain one!

If I tell the Good News, I have nothing to boast of, for I can but do so. Woe is me if I do not tell it!

What is my reward, then? To present the Good News free of all cost, and so make but a sparing use of the rights which it gives me.

Although I was entirely free, yet, to win as many converts as possible, I made myself everyone's slave.

To those who have no Law I became like a man who has no Law- -not that I am free from God's Law; no, for I am under Christ's Law-to win those who have no law.

And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that with them I may share in its blessings.

Every athlete exercises self-restraint in everything; they, indeed, for a crown that fades, we for one that is unfading.

and all drank the same supernatural water, for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which followed them, and that rock was the Christ.

Yet with most of them God was displeased; for they were 'struck down in the desert.'

Now these things happened as warnings to us, to teach us not to long for evil things as our forefathers longed.

Nor let us try the patience of the Lord too far, as some of them tried it, with the result that they 'were, one after another, destroyed by the snakes.'

The Bread is one, and we, though many, are one body; for we all partake of that one Bread.

For 'the earth, with all that is in it, belongs to the Lord.'

But, if any one should say to you 'This has been offered in sacrifice to an idol,' then, for the sake of the speaker and his scruples, do not eat it.

I do not say 'your' scruples, but 'his.' For why should the freedom that I claim be condemned by the scruples of another?

If, for my part, I take the food thankfully, why should I be abused for eating that for which I give thanks?

For I, also, try to please everybody in everything, not seeking my own advantage, but that of men in general, that they may be saved.

While any woman, who prays or preaches in public bare-headed, dishonors him who is her Head; for that is to make herself like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.

A man ought not to have his head covered, for he has been from the beginning 'the likeness of God' and the reflection of his glory, but woman is the reflection of man's glory.

For it was not man who was taken from woman, but woman who was taken from man.

Besides, man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.

For just as woman came from man, so man comes by means of woman; and all things come from God.

Judge for yourselves. Is it fitting that a woman should pray to God in public with her head uncovered?

Does not nature herself teach us that, while for a man to wear his hair long is degrading to him,

Indeed, there must be actual parties among you, for so only will the men of real worth become known.

For, as you eat, each of you tries to secure his own supper first, with the result that one has too little to eat, and another has too much to drink!

Have you no houses in which you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show your contempt for the Church of God, and to humiliate the poor? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I cannot praise you.

For I myself received from the Lord the account which I have in turn given to you-how the Lord Jesus, on the very night of his betrayal, took some bread,

For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death-till he comes.