Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same,

for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn't bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Therefore let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion for falling.

I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Don't overthrow God's work for food's sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.

Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves.

Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name."

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.

But I write the more boldly to you in part, as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God,

that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God's Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ;

yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another's foundation.

I know that, when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ.

Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints;

that I may come to you in joy through the will of God, and together with you, find rest.

I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,

that you receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.

Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.

For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil.

that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge;

so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas," and, "I follow Christ."

I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,

so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.

For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News -- not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn't be made void.

For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.

For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:

that no flesh should boast before God.

that, according as it is written, "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord."

that your faith wouldn't stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,

But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

"For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?" But we have Christ's mind.

For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

And again, "The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless."

Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's judgment. Yes, I don't judge my own self.

Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.

For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn't receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father's wife.

You are puffed up, and didn't rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.

are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Don't you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers!

Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

No, but you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that against your brothers.

Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,

Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Or don't you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh."

Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own,

Don't deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn't tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.

But to the married I command -- not I, but the Lord -- that the wife not leave her husband

(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called.

Were you called being a bondservant? Don't let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.

Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world -- how she may please her husband.

This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn't sin. Let them marry.

But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God's Spirit.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;"

However, that knowledge isn't in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.

For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it for the oxen that God cares,

If others partake of this right over you, don't we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.

Don't you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?

Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.

But I have used none of these things, and I don't write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;