Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them!

For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of the naive.

I, Tertius, who am writing this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus the city treasurer and our brother Quartus greet you.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages,

to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing.

But just as it is written, "Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him."

For who among men knows the things of a man except the man's spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.

What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us.

So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth.

The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work.

For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not acquitted because of this. The one who judges me is the Lord.

For who concedes you any superiority? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not?

For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my dear and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

And you are proud! Shouldn't you have been deeply sorrowful instead and removed the one who did this from among you?

For even though I am absent physically, I am present in spirit. And I have already judged the one who did this, just as though I were present.

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?

Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

It is not the wife who has the rights to her own body, but the husband. In the same way, it is not the husband who has the rights to his own body, but the wife.

To the rest I say -- I, not the Lord -- if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.

And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him.

Was anyone called after he had been circumcised? He should not try to undo his circumcision. Was anyone called who is uncircumcised? He should not get circumcised.

For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord's freedman. In the same way, the one who was called as a free person is Christ's slave.

With regard to the question about people who have never married, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one shown mercy by the Lord to be trustworthy.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face difficult circumstances, and I am trying to spare you such problems.

And I say this, brothers and sisters: The time is short. So then those who have wives should be as those who have none,

those with tears like those not weeping, those who rejoice like those not rejoicing, those who buy like those without possessions,

those who use the world as though they were not using it to the full. For the present shape of this world is passing away.

But the man who is firm in his commitment, and is under no necessity but has control over his will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his own virgin, does well.

So then, the one who marries his own virgin does well, but the one who does not, does better.

yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.

For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience be "strengthened" to eat food offered to idols?

So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed.

This is my defense to those who examine me.

Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?

Don't you know that those who serve in the temple eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings?

In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel.

So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air.

These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall.

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread.

Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?

But if someone says to you, "This is from a sacrifice," do not eat, because of the one who told you and because of conscience --

Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered disgraces his head.

But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head, for it is one and the same thing as having a shaved head.

For there must in fact be divisions among you, so that those of you who are approved may be evident.

Do you not have houses so that you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show contempt for the church of God by shaming those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!

For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself.

And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.

But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation.

The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened.

If, for example, the trumpet makes an unclear sound, who will get ready for battle?

So then, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.

And if someone sitting down receives a revelation, the person who is speaking should conclude.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Furthermore, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.

For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says "everything" has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him.

And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

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

Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Then, when I arrive, I will send those whom you approve with letters of explanation to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

also to submit to people like this, and to everyone who cooperates in the work and labors hard.

Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed. Our Lord, come!

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia.

who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us -- by me and Silvanus and Timothy -- was not "Yes" and "No," but it has always been "Yes" in him.

But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us,

who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

For if I make you sad, who would be left to make me glad but the one I caused to be sad?

And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing --

to the latter an odor from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective.

And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing,

among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.

For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ.

For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.

We do so because we know that the one who raised up Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence.