But if any man thinks he is acting improperly toward his virgin, if she is past marriageable age, and so it must be, he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

What then is my reward? To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not make full use of my authority in the gospel.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.

I am speaking as to wise people. Judge for yourselves what I say.

What am I saying then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons!

Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this!

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread,

A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial:

Even inanimate things that produce sounds—whether flute or harp—if they don’t make a distinction in the notes, how will what is played on the flute or harp be recognized?

In the same way, unless you use your tongue for intelligible speech, how will what is spoken be known? For you will be speaking into the air.

What then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with my understanding.

Otherwise, if you praise with the spirit, how will the uninformed person say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?

If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.

For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures,

But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.

Otherwise what will they do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are people baptized for them?

If I fought wild animals in Ephesus with only human hope, what good did that do me? If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?”

Foolish one! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And as for what you sow—you are not sowing the future body, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.

Now we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely—

So when I planned this, was I irresponsible? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” simultaneously?

If you forgive anyone, I do too. For what I have forgiven—if I have forgiven anything—it is for you in the presence of Christ.

In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not stare at the end of what was fading away,

And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak.

So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

For we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless.

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said:

I will dwell among them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be My people.

For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.

But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have.

For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

For we are making provision for what is right, not only before the Lord but also before men.

Look at what is obvious. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.

Such a person should consider this: What we are in the words of our letters when absent, we will be in actions when present.

so that we may proclaim the good news to the regions beyond you, not boasting about what has already been done in someone else’s area of ministry.

But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to deny the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to be regarded just as our equals in what they boast about.

What I say in this matter of boasting, I don’t speak as the Lord would, but foolishly.

For if I want to boast, I will not be a fool, because I will be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me,

So in what way were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I personally did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!

Now I am ready to come to you this third time. I will not burden you, for I am not seeking what is yours, but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

Now we pray to God that you do nothing wrong—not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.

Now from those recognized as important (what they really were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism)—they added nothing to me.

What happened to this sense of being blessed you had? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

I would like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don’t know what to do about you.

But what does the Scripture say?

Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

Look at what large letters I use as I write to you in my own handwriting.

For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,

and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,

But what does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth?

No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.

For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.

for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said:

Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead,
and the Messiah will shine on you.

So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me so that you may be informed.

so that you can approve the things that are superior and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ,

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in the advance of the gospel,

What does it matter? Just that in every way, whether out of false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice

because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up what was lacking in your ministry to me.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,

Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for His body, that is, the church.

These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.

All these regulations refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men.

So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.

Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we were among you for your benefit,

for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?

For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

but test all things.
Hold on to what is good.

And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time.

For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false,

We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do what we command.

In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.”

They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding irreverent, empty speech and contradictions from the “knowledge” that falsely bears that name.

and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,

along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you,

The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town: