no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.

And some of you have practiced such things, but you were washed [i.e., from your sins. See Acts 22:16]; you were dedicated [i.e., set apart for God's service]; you were made right with God in the name [i.e., by the authority] of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit of our God.

All things are lawful unto me: but all things are not profitable. I may do all things: but I will be brought under no man's power.

Food of all kinds is meant for the stomach, and the stomach is meant for food, and God will cause both of them to perish. Yet the body does not exist for the purpose of fornication, but for the Master's service, and the Master exists for the body;

and as God by His power raised the Master to life, so He will also raise us up.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Am I therefore to take the members of Christ and make them part of a prostitute? Certainly not!

Or do you not see that he who is joined to a loose woman is one body with her? for God has said, The two of them will become one flesh.

But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit [with Him]. [Note: Just as the person who has sex with someone enters a close physical union with that person, so the person who becomes a Christian enters a close spiritual union with Christ].

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

But because there is so much fornication every man should have a wife of his own, and every woman should have a husband.

Let the husband render to his wife her due; and so also the wife to her husband.

The wife hath not the disposal of her own body, but her husband; and so also the husband hath not the disposal of his own body, but his wife.

Do not deprive each other [of marital rights], except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves [unhindered] to prayer, but come together again so that Satan will not tempt you [to sin] because of your lack of self-control.

But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.

Yet I wish that everyone were like me [i.e., with the ability to remain single. See 9:5]. However, each person has his own special gift from God; one has this gift [i.e., being content to remain single. See Matt. 19:12], and another has the other gift [i.e., feeling the need to marry and have a family].

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

But if they don't have self-control, let them marry. For it's better to marry than to burn.

But to those already married my instructions are--yet not mine, but the Lord's--that a wife is not to leave her husband;

(If she has done so, let her remain as she is, or else be reconciled to her husband) and also that a man is not to divorce his wife.

But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her.

For, in such cases, the unbelieving husband has become--and is--holy through union with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving wife is holy through union with a Christian brother. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but in reality they have a place among God's people.

But if the unbelieving partner leaves, let him leave. In such cases the [remaining] brother or sister is not [spiritually or morally] bound. But God has called us to peace.

But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.

If any man who is a Christian has had circumcision, let him keep so; and if any man who is a Christian has not had circumcision, let him make no change.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping God's commandments.

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it trouble youbut if you can gain your freedom, do so.

For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.

Ye are dearly bought; be not men's servants.

Brothers, let each one remain with God in that condition in which he was [when he was] called.

Now concerning the virgins [of marriageable age] I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.

Are you married? [If so], then do not separate [from your mate]. Are you unmarried? [If so], then do not look for a wife.

But if you do marry, you have not sinned [in doing so]; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned [in doing so]. Yet those [who marry] will have troubles (special challenges) in this life, and I am trying to spare you that.

But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

And for those who make use of the world, not to be using it fully; for this world's way of life will quickly come to an end.

And I would have you free from worldly anxiety. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's business--how he shall please the Lord;

the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy his wife ??34 so he is torn in two directions. The unmarried woman or the maid is also anxious about the Lord's affairs, how to be consecrated, body and spirit; once married, she is anxious about worldly affairs, how best to satisfy her husband.

and is divided.'so also the woman that is unmarried and the virgin is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

And this I say for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is seemly, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.

Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.

So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.

A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

About food that has been offered to idols, it is true, as you say, that we all have some knowledge on that matter. Knowledge gives people airs; love is what builds up character.

If anyone seems to himself to have knowledge, so far he has not the right sort of knowledge about anything;

But if any one love God, he is known by him. I say, as to the eating of things sacrificed to idols,

So, then, as to the question of taking food offered to images, we are certain that an image is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,

However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.

But see lest anywise this your right to eat itself be a stumbling-block to the weak.

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

For through your knowledge (spiritual maturity) this weak man is ruined [that is, he suffers in his spiritual life], the brother for whom Christ died.

But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

Therefore, if [my eating a certain] food causes my brother to stumble (sin), I will not eat [such] meat ever again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Am I not a free man? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? [See Acts 9:17; I Cor. 15:8]. Are you people not [the result of] my work in [the service of] the Lord?

Do we [i.e., Barnabas and Paul. See verse 6] not have the right to eat and drink [i.e., at the expense of the church]?

Have we not the right to take along with us a believing wife, as do the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas (Peter)?

What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn't eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn't drink from the flock's milk?

Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?

or does he say it altogether for our sakes? For for our sakes it has been written, that the plougher should plough in hope, and he that treads out corn, in hope of partaking of it.

If we to you the spiritual things did sow -- great is it if we your fleshly things do reap?

If others share this right over you, do we not [do so] even more? Yet we have not made use of this right, but we endure all [things], in order that we may not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not see that the servants of the holy things get their living from the Temple, and the servants of the altar have their part in the food which is offered on the altar?

Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

For if I am a preacher of the good news, I have no cause for pride in this; because I am forced to do so, for a curse is on me if I do not.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward, but if [I do so] unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to everyone, so that I may win more [for Christ].

And to the Jews I was as a Jew, so that I might give the good news to them; to those under the law I was the same, not as being myself under the law, but so that I might give the good news to those under the law.

To those who are without that law, like one without the law—not being without God’s law but within Christ’s law—to win those without the law.

To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some.

And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all [things]. Thus those [do so] in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable [one].

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And they all ate the same spiritual food [i.e., the supernatural manna. See Ex. 16:4-5],

and drank the same spiritual drink [i.e., water coming from a rock supernaturally. See Ex. 17:6]. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. [Note: Besides actual water, they were refreshed from the spiritual presence of Christ].

But God wasn't pleased with most of those people, and so they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these [things] happened [as] examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil [things], just as those also desired [them],

Let's stop being idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play."

Let's stop sinning sexually, as some of them were doing, and on a single day 23,000 fell dead.

Let's stop putting the Lord to the test, as some of them were doing, and were destroyed by snakes.

And do not say evil things against the Lord, as some of them did, and destruction overtook them.

So that let him that thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

No temptation has taken you but such as is according to man's nature; and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation make the issue also, so that ye should be able to bear it.

And so, my dear friends, keep on running away from idolatry.

I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.

Is the cup of blessing which we bless [at the Lord’s Supper] not a sharing in the blood of Christ? [Indeed it is.] Is the bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ? [Indeed it is.]

Because there is only one loaf, so we, though many, are only one body, for we all partake of one loaf.

See Israel according to flesh: are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?

What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?

But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

What! do we intend to rouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?