Now concerning virgins, although I do not have any command from the Lord, I will give you my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

But if you do get married, you have not sinned. And if a virgin gets married, she has not sinned. However, these people will experience trouble in this life, and I want to spare you from that.

However, if a man stands firm in his resolve, feels no necessity, and has made up his mind to keep her a virgin, he will be acting appropriately.

However, in my opinion she will be happier if she stays as she is. And in saying this, I think that I, too, have God's Spirit.

However, food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat food that has been offered to an idol, and no better off if we do.

For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you, who know better, eating in an idol's temple, he will be encouraged to eat what has been offered to idols, won't he?

Therefore, if food that I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, in order to keep my brother from stumbling.

No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

No temptation has overtaken you that is unusual for human beings. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it.

You have homes in which to eat and drink, don't you? Or do you despise God's church and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the cup in an unworthy manner will be held responsible for the Lord's body and blood.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather it may not bring judgment on you. And when I come I will give instructions concerning the other matters.

Keep on desiring the better gifts. And now I will show you the best way of all.

is never glad with sin; she's always glad to side with truth, and pleased that truth will win.

She bears up under everything; believes the best in all; there is no limit to her hope, and never will she fall.

Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.

Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Indeed, brothers, if I come to you speaking in foreign languages, what good will I be to you unless I speak to you in some revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching?

For example, if a bugle doesn't sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?

In the same way, unless you speak an intelligible message with your language, how will anyone know what is being said? You'll be talking into the air!

If I don't know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker will be a foreigner to me.

What does this mean? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing psalms with my spirit, but I will also sing psalms with my mind.

In the Law it is written, "By means of foreign languages and through the mouths of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," declares the Lord.

Now if the whole church gathers in the same place and everyone is speaking in foreign languages, when uneducated people or unbelievers come in, they will say that you are out of your mind, won't they?

But if everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that's happening.

His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, "God is truly among you!"

For as in Adam all die, so also in the Messiah will all be made alive.

However, this will happen to each person in the proper order: first the Messiah, then those who belong to the Messiah when he comes.

Then the end will come, when after he has done away with every ruler and every authority and power, the Messiah hands over the kingdom to God the Father.

But when everything has been put under him, then the Son himself will also become subject to the one who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

Otherwise, what will those people do who are being baptized because of those who have died? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they being baptized because of them?

If I have fought with wild animals in Ephesus from merely human motives, what do I get out of it? If the dead are not raised, "Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?"

and what you plant is not the form that it will be, but a bare kernel, whether it is wheat or something else.

This is how it will be at the resurrection of the dead. What is planted is decaying, what is raised cannot decay.

Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Let me tell you a secret. Not all of us will die, but all of us will be changed

in a moment, faster than an eye can blink, at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed.

Now, when what is decaying is clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying is clothed with what cannot die, then the written word will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up by victory!"

After the Sabbath ends, each of you should set aside and save something from your surplus in proportion to what you have, so that no collections will have to be made when I arrive.

When I arrive, I will send letters along with the men you approve to take your gift to Jerusalem.

I will visit you when I go through Macedonia for I intend to go through Macedonia

and will probably stay with you for a while or even spend the winter with you. Then you can send me on my way, wherever I decide to go.

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but he was not inclined to do so just now. However, he will visit you when the time is right.

From: Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. To: God's church in Corinth, and to all the holy people throughout Achaia.

He has rescued us from a terrible death, and he will continue to rescue us. Yes, he is the one on whom we have set our hope, and he will rescue us again,

as you also help us by your prayers for us. Then many people will thank God on our behalf because of the favor shown us through the prayers of many.

For what we are writing you is nothing more than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely,

So forgive and comfort him, or else he will drown in his excessive grief.

will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory?

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to God together with you.

All this is for your sake so that, as his grace spreads, more and more people will give thanks and glorify God.

Of course, if we do put it on, we will not be found without a body.

What agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: "I will live and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Therefore, "Get away from them and separate yourselves from them," declares the Lord, "and don't touch anything unclean. Then I will welcome you.

I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters," declares the Lord Almighty.

I can testify that by their own free will they have given to the utmost of their ability, yes, even beyond their ability.

We did not expect that! They gave themselves to the Lord first and then to us, since this was God's will.

I am giving you my opinion on this matter because it will be helpful to you. Last year you were not only willing to do something, but had already started to do it.

He welcomed my request and eagerly went to visit you by his own free will.

Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

Besides, God is able to make every blessing of yours overflow for you, so that in every situation you will always have all you need for any good work.

Now he who supplies seed to the farmer and bread to eat will also supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest that results from your righteousness.

In every way you will grow richer and become even more generous, and this will cause others to give thanks to God because of us,

Because your service in giving proves your love, you will be glorifying God as you obey what your confession of the Messiah's gospel demands, since you are generous in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And so in their prayers for you they will long for you because of God's exceptional grace that was shown to you.

I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh.

Once your obedience is complete, we will be ready to reprimand every type of disobedience.

So if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present!

We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you.

When I was with you and needed something, I did not bother any of you, because our brothers who came from Macedonia supplied everything I needed. I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.

As surely as the truth of the Messiah is in me, my boasting will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

But I will go on doing what I'm doing in order to deny an opportunity to those people who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in the work they are boasting about.

So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their doom will match their deeds!

I will say it again: No one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, then treat me like a fool so that I can also boast a little.

Since many people boast in a fleshly way, I will do it, too.

You are wise, so you will gladly be tolerant of fools.

If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show how weak I am.

I will boast about this man, but as for myself I will boast only about my weaknesses.

but he has told me, "My grace is all you need, because my power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the Messiah's power may rest on me.

Now I'm ready to visit you for a third time, and I will not bother you for help. I do not want your things, but rather you yourselves. Children should not have to support their parents, but parents their children.

I will be very glad to spend my money and myself for you. Do you love me less because I love you so much?

I am afraid that I may come and somehow find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. Perhaps there will be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly conduct.

This will be the third time I am coming to you. "Every accusation must be verified by two or three witnesses."

I have already warned those who sinned previously and all the rest. Although I am absent now, I am warning them as I did on my second visit: If I come back, I will not spare you,

Though he was crucified in weakness, he lives by God's power. We are weak with him, but by God's power we will live for you.

I hope you will realize that we haven't failed our test.

We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong not to show that we have not failed the test, but so that you may do what is right, even if we seem to have failed.

Finally, brothers, goodbye. Keep on growing to maturity. Keep listening to my appeals. Continue agreeing with each other and living in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

He gave himself for our sins in order to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.

yet we know that a person is not justified by doing what the Law requires, but rather by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. We, too, have believed in the Messiah Jesus so that we might be justified by the faithfulness of the Messiah and not by doing what the Law requires, for no human being will be justified by doing what the Law requires.

Because the Scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the gentiles by faith, it announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand when it said, "Through you all nations will be blessed."

Now it is obvious that no one is justified in the sight of God by the Law, because "The righteous will live by faith."

But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, "The person who keeps the commandments will have life in them."

These people who have been instructing you are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They want you to avoid me so that you will be devoted to them.

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, the Messiah will be of no benefit to you.

I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view of this. However, the one who is troubling you will suffer God's judgment, whoever he is.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh.