Circumcision does not matter and uncircumcision does not matter, but keeping God’s commands does.

Were you called while a slave? It should not be a concern to you. But if you can become free, by all means take the opportunity.

You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

However, if you do get married, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess,

and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.

Now I am saying this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but because of what is proper and so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distraction.

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.

So then he who marries his virgin does well, but he who does not marry will do better.

If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.

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.

Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock?

For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned with oxen?

If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don’t we even more?

However, we have not made use of this right; instead we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ.

Don’t you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar?

But I have used none of these rights, and I have not written this to make it happen that way for me. For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast!

For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

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.

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win 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.

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize.

Therefore I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating 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.

But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.

Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day 23,000 people fell dead.

Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes.

So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

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.

The cup of blessing that we give thanks for, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

Look at the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in what is offered on the altar?

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!

“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up.

But if someone says to you, “This is food offered to an idol,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake.

I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience?

just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved.

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So if a woman’s head is not covered, her hair should be cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, she should be covered.

A man, in fact, should not cover his head, because he is God’s image and glory, but woman is man’s glory.

For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man.

And man was not created for woman, but woman for man.

In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, and man is not independent of woman.

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him,

Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.

Therefore, when you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s Supper.

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,

If we were properly evaluating ourselves, we would not be judged,

but when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned with the world.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together you will not come under judgment. And I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come.

Now concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.

So the body is not one part but many.

If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body.

And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body.

So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable,

If I speak human or angelic languages
but do not have love,
I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith
so that I can move mountains
but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body in order to boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not envy,
is not boastful, is not conceited,

does not act improperly,
is not selfish, is not provoked,
and does not keep a record of wrongs.

For the person who speaks in another language is not speaking to men but to God, since no one understands him; however, he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker will be a foreigner to me.

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?

For you may very well be giving thanks, but the other person is not being built up.

It is written in the law:

I will speak to these people
by people of other languages
and by the lips of foreigners,
and even then, they will not listen to Me,

says the Lord.

It follows that speaking in other languages is intended as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers. But prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all are speaking in other languages and people who are uninformed or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

since God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints,

the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says.

Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in other languages.

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.

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;

and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith.

In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ—whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

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.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

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.

Not all flesh is the same flesh; there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.

Listen! I am telling you a mystery:

We will not all fall asleep,
but we will all be changed,

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he prospers, so that no collections will need to be made when I come.

About our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers, but he was not at all willing to come now. However, he will come when he has an opportunity.

If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him. Marana tha that is, Lord, come!

Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

For this is our confidence: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with God-given sincerity and purity, not by fleshly wisdom but by God’s grace.

As God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes and no.”

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—did not become “Yes and no”; on the contrary, a final “Yes” has come in Him.

I call on God as a witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth.

I do not mean that we have control of your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand by faith.

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In fact, I made up my mind about this: I would not come to you on another painful visit.

For I wrote to you with many tears out of an extremely troubled and anguished heart—not that you should be hurt, but that you should know the abundant love I have for you.