So you owe it all to Him through union with Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our means of right standing, our consecration, and our redemption,

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

Now we have not received the spirit that belongs to the world but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may get an insight into the blessings God has graciously given us.

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct Him? But we now possess Christ's thoughts.

Are you not conscious that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God has His permanent home in you?

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

And yet, you are proud of it, instead of being sorry for it, and seeing to it that the man who has done this be removed from your membership!

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and so as really present, by the authority of our Lord Jesus, I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this --

You must clean out the old yeast, that you may be a fresh lump, as you are to be free from the old yeast. For our Passover Lamb, Christ, has already been sacrificed.

When one of you has a grievance against his neighbor, does he dare to go to law before a heathen court, instead of laying the case before God's people?

I ask this to make you blush with shame. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a grievance of one brother against another,

but one brother has to go to law with another, and that before unbelieving judges?

Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one."

The wife does not have the right to do as she pleases with her own body; the husband has his right to it. In the same way the husband does not have the right to do as he pleases with his own body; the wife has her right to it.

However, I should like for everyone to be just as I am myself, yet each of us has his own special gift from God, one for one way, another for another.

To the rest of the people I myself would say -- though the Lord Himself has said nothing about it -- if a Christian has a wife that is not a believer and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her;

and a woman who has a husband that is not a believer, but he consents to live with her, must not divorce her husband.

But if the unbelieving consort actually leaves, let the separation stand. In such cases the Christian husband or wife is not morally bound; God has called us to live in peace.

Has a man been called after he was circumcised? He must not try to change it. Has a man been called without being circumcised? He must not be circumcised.

Being circumcised or not being circumcised has no value, but keeping God's commands is important.

For the slave who has been called to union with the Lord is the Lord's freedman; in the same way the freeman who has been called is a slave of Christ.

But if you do get married, you have not sinned in doing so. And if a girl gets married, she has not sinned in doing so. But those who do will have trouble in their earthly life, and I am trying to spare you this.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

But the father who stands firm in his purpose, without having any necessity for doing so, and he has made the decision in his own heart to keep her single, will do what is right.

Now about the foods that have been sacrificed to idols: We know that every one of us has some knowledge of the matter. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

If a man supposes that he has already gotten some true knowledge, as yet he has not learned it as he ought to know it.

For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol?

Just so the Lord has issued orders that those who preach the good news shall get their living out of it.

Those things continued to befall them as warnings to others, and they were written down for the purpose of instructing us, in whose lives the climax of the ages has been reached.

No temptation has taken hold of you but what is common to human nature. And God is to be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to make a way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered as a heathen sacrifice," make it your rule not to eat it, for the sake of the man who warned you and for conscience' sake;

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with Christ.

But as it now is, God has placed the parts, every one of them, in the body just as He wanted them to be.

while our well-shaped parts do not want for anything. Yes, God has perfectly adjusted the body, giving great honor to its apparently inferior parts,

And God has placed people in the church, first as apostles, second as prophets, third as teachers, then wonder-workers; then people with power to cure the sick, helpers, managers, ecstatic speakers.

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

Then what is our conclusion, brothers? When you meet together, everybody has a song, something to teach, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one. It must all be for the upbuilding of all.

Did the message of God begin with you Corinthians? Or, are you the only people it has reached?

Now if we preach that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised,

and if Christ was not raised, the message which we preach has nothing in it; there is nothing in our faith either,

For if the dead are never raised, Christ has not been raised;

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is a mere delusion; you are still under the penalty of your sins.

But in reality Christ has been raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep.

for He has put everything in subjection under His feet. But when He says that everything has been put in subjection to Him, He Himself is evidently excepted who put it all in subjection to Him.

And when everything has been put in subjection to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has put everything in subjection to Him, so that God may be everything to everybody.

This is the way the Scripture puts it too, "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

For I have an opportunity here that is great and calls for work, and it has many opponents.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

But it is God who makes us as well as you secure through union with Christ, and has anointed us,

For if I make you sad, who is there to make me glad but the very man who has been made sad by me?

But if anyone has made anyone sad, it is not I, but you that he has made sad, at least, some of you, not to be severe on all of you.

To a man like that, this censure by the majority has been sufficient punishment,

He has qualified even me as a minister of the new covenant, which is not a written but a spiritual covenant. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For on account of its surpassing splendor, what was once so splendid has now no splendor at all.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, to keep the glorious light of the good news of Christ, who is the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

Now it is God Himself who has put the finishing touches on me for this change, because He has given me the Spirit as the first installment of future bliss.

For we must all appear before the judgment-bar of Christ, that each may get his pay for what he has done, whether it be good or bad.

For if anybody is in union with Christ, he is the work of a new creation; the old condition has passed away, a new condition has come.

This has all originated with God, for He through Christ has reconciled me to Himself and has given me the ministry of reconciliation.

For it was through Christ that God was reconciling the world to Himself instead of debiting men's offenses against them, and He has committed to me the message of this reconciliation.

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

For see what this very sorrow, suffered in accordance with the will of God, has done for you! How earnest it has made you, how concerned to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how much it made you long to see me, how loyal to me, how determined to punish the offender! At every point you have cleared yourselves in the matter.

In addition to my own comfort, I was made so glad that my cup ran over at the gladness Titus felt, because his spirit has been set at rest by you.

Indeed, if I have been doing some boasting of you to him, I have never been ashamed of it; but just as all I said to him was true, so now my boasting before Titus has been shown to be true.

because in spite of a terrible test of trouble, the mighty flood of their gladness mingling with the depths of their poverty has overflowed and resulted in the abundance of their liberality.

If a man is ready and willing to give, his gift is acceptable in accordance with what he has, not with what he does not have.

because he has acceded to my request, or rather, because he is so enthusiastic for you, of his own accord he is off to visit you.

Not only that, but he has been selected by the churches to travel with me for this gracious contribution which is being raised by me, so that it may turn out for the glory of the Lord and a proof of my readiness to serve.

for I know your readiness to help in it. I am boasting of you about it to the Macedonians, reminding them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has stimulated the most of them.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

as the Scripture says: "He has generously given to the poor; His deeds of charity go on forever."

Are they ministers of Christ? So am I. I am talking like a man that has gone crazy -- as such I am superior! -- serving Him with labors greater by far, with far more imprisonments, with floggings vastly worse, and often at the point of death.

I have to keep on boasting. There is no good to be gotten from it, but I will go on to visions and revelations which the Lord has given me.

was actually caught up into paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no man has a right even to mention.

This is why I am writing this while far away from you, that when I do come, I may not have to deal harshly with you in accordance with the authority which the Lord has given me, for building you up, not for tearing you down.

O senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was pictured as the crucified One?

and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."

Brothers, I am going to use a human illustration: Even a human contract, once it has been ratified, no one can annul or change.

So the law has been our attendant to lead us to Christ, so that we might through faith obtain right standing with God.

But now that this faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba," that is, "Father."

For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one."

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.

As for me, myself, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In such a case the hindrance done by the cross has presumably ceased!

But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!

For neither circumcision nor the lack of it has any value, but only a new creation.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.

so that we might praise the splendid favor which He has shown us in His beloved Son.

He has made known to us the secret of His will, which is in accordance with His purpose which He planned in Christ,

And so He has put all things under His feet and made Him the supreme Head of the church,

But God, who is so rich in mercy on account of the great love He has for us,

has made us, though dead because of our shortcomings, live again in fellowship with Christ -- it is by His unmerited favor that you have been saved.

For He has made us what we are, because He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do.

For He Himself is our peace, He is the one who has made us both into one body and has broken down the barrier that kept us apart;

through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body

that is, if you have heard how God's favor has been entrusted to me for you,