But meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short; nor if we should eat have we an advantage.

Am I not free? am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?

Have we not a right to eat and to drink?

have we not a right to take round a sister as wife, as also the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

Or I alone and Barnabas, have we not a right not to work?

If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

If others partake of this right over you, should not rather we? But we have not used this right, but we bear all things, that we may put no hindrance in the way of the glad tidings of the Christ.

But I have used none of these things. Now I have not written these things that it should be thus in my case; for it were good for me rather to die than that any one should make vain my boast.

For if I announce the glad tidings, I have nothing to boast of; for a necessity is laid upon me; for it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with an administration.

What is the reward then that I have? That in announcing the glad tidings I make the glad tidings costless to others, so as not to have made use, as belonging to me, of my right in announcing the glad tidings.

For being free from all, I have made myself bondman to all, that I might gain the most possible.

I became to the weak, as weak, in order that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all things, in order that at all events I might save some.

For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.

Now I praise you, that in all things ye are mindful of me; and that as I have directed you, ye keep the directions.

For if a woman be not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it be shameful to a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, let her be covered.

For man indeed ought not to have his head covered, being God's image and glory; but woman is man's glory.

Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head, on account of the angels.

Does not even nature itself teach you, that man, if he have long hair, it is a dishonour to him?

But woman, if she have long hair, it is glory to her; for the long hair is given to her in lieu of a veil.

But if any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God.

Have ye not then houses for eating and drinking? or do ye despise the assembly of God, and put to shame them who have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you? In this point I do not praise.

For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have not need of thee; or again, the head to the feet, I have not need of you.

and those parts of the body which we esteem to be the more void of honour, these we clothe with more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness;

but our comely parts have not need. But God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to the part that lacked;

that there might be no division in the body, but that the members might have the same concern one for another.

have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing.

For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.

by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings,) unless indeed ye have believed in vain.

Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most remain until now, but some also have fallen asleep.

For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called apostle, because I have persecuted the assembly of God.

But by God's grace I am what I am; and his grace, which was towards me, has not been vain; but I have laboured more abundantly than they all, but not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Whether, therefore, I or they, thus we preach, and thus ye have believed.

And we are found also false witnesses of God; for we have witnessed concerning God that he raised the Christ, whom he has not raised if indeed those that are dead are not raised.

Then indeed also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are the most miserable of all men.

Then the end, when he gives up the kingdom to him who is God and Father; when he shall have annulled all rule and all authority and power.

But when all things shall have been brought into subjection to him, then the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection to him who put all things in subjection to him, that God may be all in all.)

Daily I die, by your boasting which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If, to speak after the manner of man, I have fought with beasts in Ephesus, what is the profit to me if those that are dead do not rise? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.

And as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one.

But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word written: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

On the first of the week let each of you put by at home, laying up in whatever degree he may have prospered, that there may be no collections when I come.

But I will come to you when I shall have gone through Macedonia; for I do go through Macedonia.

Now concerning the brother Apollos, I begged him much that he would go to you with the brethren; but it was not at all his will to go now; but he will come when he shall have good opportunity.

But I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the saints for service,)

But I rejoice in the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus; because they have supplied what was lacking on your part.

For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: own therefore such.

But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity before God, (not in fleshly wisdom but in God's grace,) we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly towards you.

even as also ye have recognised us in part, that we are your boast, even as ye are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And with this confidence I purposed to come to you previously, that ye might have a second favour;

But I call God to witness upon my soul that to spare you I have not yet come to Corinth.

But I have judged this with myself, not to come back to you in grief.

And I have written this very letter to you, that coming I may not have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy; trusting in you all that my joy is that of you all.

For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears; not that ye may be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly towards you.

For to this end also I have written, that I might know, by putting you to the test, if as to everything ye are obedient.

But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in the person of Christ;

that we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts.

And such confidence have we through the Christ towards God:

But their thoughts have been darkened, for unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.

Therefore, having this ministry, as we have had mercy shewn us, we faint not.

But we have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us:

And having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken; we also believe, therefore also we speak;

For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For indeed in this we groan, ardently desiring to have put on our house which is from heaven;

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but have been manifested to God, and I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences.

For we do not again commend ourselves to you, but we are giving to you occasion of boast in our behalf, that ye may have such with those boasting in countenance, and not in heart.

For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died;

So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer.

So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

(for he says, I have listened to thee in an accepted time, and I have helped thee in a day of salvation: behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation:)

Receive us: we have injured no one, we have ruined no one, we have made gain of no one.

I do not speak for condemnation, for I have already said that ye are in our hearts, to die together, and live together.

For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it; for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you.

Now I rejoice, not that ye have been grieved, but that ye have been grieved to repentance; for ye have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us.

For, behold, this same thing, your being grieved according to God, how much diligence it wrought in you, but what excusing of yourselves, but what indignation, but what fear, but what ardent desire, but what zeal, but what vengeance: in every way ye have proved yourselves to be pure in the matter.

For this reason we have been encouraged. And we the rather rejoiced in our encouragement more abundantly by reason of the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame; but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth;

But now also complete the doing of it; so that as there was the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what ye have.

For if the readiness be there, a man is accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he has not.

but we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the glad tidings through all the assemblies;

And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence he has as to you.

But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made void in this respect, in order that, as I have said, ye may be prepared;

and having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.

For we do not, as not reaching to you, overstretch ourselves, (for we have come to you also in the glad tidings of the Christ;)

For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

For if indeed he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or ye get a different Spirit, which ye have not got, or a different glad tidings, which ye have not received, ye might well bear with it.

Have I committed sin, abasing myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I gratuitously announced to you the glad tidings of God?

From the Jews five times have I received forty stripes, save one.

Thrice have I been scourged, once I have been stoned, three times I have suffered shipwreck, a night and day I passed in the deep:

I have become a fool; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended by you; for I have been nothing behind those who were in surpassing degree apostles, if also I am nothing.

For in what is it that ye have been inferior to the other assemblies, unless that I myself have not been in laziness a charge upon you? Forgive me this injury.

Did I make gain of you by any of those whom I have sent to you?