Sage, rabbi, skeptic of this present age??here are they all? Has not God made foolish the philosophy of the world?

Jews continue to ask for miracles and Greeks are ever wanting philosophy,

but to those who are the called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The world's base things has God chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are;

It is of him that you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Notwithstanding, among those who are mature I do teach philosophy; though not the philosophy of the present age, nor of its rulers who are coming to nought.

You are not able even now, for you are still unspiritual. While there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not still unspiritual, and behaving like worldlings?

When one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere worldlings?

Now, though he who plants and he who waters are one, each will receive his own reward, according to his own service.

For we are God's fellow workers; and you are God's field, you are God's building.

Do you not know what you are God's sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God is dwelling within you?

If any one tear down God's sanctuary, God will tear him down; for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are.

and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, how futile they are.

So let no one make boast in men. For all things are yours;

Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, things present or things to come; all things are yours;

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

For who makes you a differ, brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you had not received it?

But you, forsooth, are already full, are you? You are already rich? Without us you are already reigning? Yes, and I would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you.

But it seems to me that God has exhibited us apostles, last of all, like men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the whole world, both to men and to angels.

For Christ's sake we are fools, but you are quite philosophic in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are outcast.

Even to his very hour we are enduring hunger and thirst and nakedness and blows.

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

Yet you are puffed up instead of mourning and removing from among you the man who has done this thing.

When you are gathered together, and my spirit is with you together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

Then get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be like a new lump, as you are now unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb has already been sacrificed, Christ himself.

What have I to do with the judging of outsiders? Must not you judge those who are within the church, while God judges outsiders?

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try such trifling cases?

Do you not know that we are to try angels? How much more, then, the affairs of life.

Why then, if you have cases relating to earthly affairs which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the church whom you make your judges?

On the contrary, you yourselves are inflicting injustice and fraud, and that upon your brothers.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. None who are immoral, or idolaters, or adulterers, or catamites, or sodomites,

"All things are lawful for me"? Yes, but not all things are good for me. "All things are lawful for me"? Yes, but I will not let myself be enslaved by the power of any.

You know, do you not, that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid!

You are not your own; for you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies.

If, however, they are not exercising self-control, by all means let them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through union with his believing wife; and the unbelieving wife, through union with her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but now they are consecrated to God.

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from the marriage bond? Do not seek for a wife.

Now in regard to food which has been offered to idols, we are sure of course that "we all have knowledge." But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up.

For though there be so-called "gods," celestial of terrestrial, as indeed there are gods many and lords many,

yet for there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

In so sinning against your brothers, and in ever and again wounding their weak consciences, you are sinning against Christ.

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

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

Are we the only ones, Barnabas and I, who have no right to give up manual labor?

Because we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all do share in the one loaf.

Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?

What! would we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

"All things are lawful," you say? But not all things are expedient; "all things are lawful"; but not all build up.

for the earth and its fulness are the Lord's.

Because whether you are eating or whether you are drinking, you are to do it all for the glory of God.

Indeed I praise you for remembering me in everything, and because you are holding fast to the traditions just as you received them.

To begin with, I am told??nd I believe there is some truth in it??hat when you meet at a church there are divisions among you.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming your Lord's death until he come.

This is why many among you are feeble and sickly, and many sleep.

but through our condemnation by the Lord, we are trained so that we may not be condemned;

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;

there are various forms of service, and the same Lord;

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, although they be many, are one body; so also is Christ.

But now there are many members, but one body.

When one member suffers, all the others suffer with it; and when one member is honored, all the members are glad with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? teachers? workers of miracles?

Love never fails; but though there are prophecies, they will fail; though there are tongues, they will cease; though there is knowledge, it will be superseded.

For now we see as in a mirror, and are baffled, but then face to face; now I know in fragments, but then shall I understand even as I also have been understood.

There are, let us say, so many languages in the world, and none without its meaning.

So also in your case, since you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them for the upbuilding of the church.

For if you in your spirit bless God, how shall he who fills the place of the unlearned say the Amen to your thanksgiving, when he does not know what you are talking about?

Accordingly, when the whole church assemblies, and everybody is speaking "with tongues," if there enter men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that you are mad?

But if all are prophesying when an unlearned or unbelieving man enters, he is convicted in conscience by your speaker, he feels himself judged by all,

and the secret depths of his heart are laid open. So he will fall upon his face and worship God, saying, "Of a truth, God is with you."

The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets,

"In your congregation" you write, "as in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. On the contrary let them be subordinate, as also says the law.

by which also you are saved, if you are holding fast the message which I preached to you; unless indeed you have believed in vain.

Afterward he was seen at one time by more than five hundred brethren, most of whom are still alive, but some are fallen asleep.

If then, we are preaching Christ, that he rose from the dead, how are some of you saying that there is no resurrection from the dead?

More than that, we are detected in bearing false witness against God; because we testified of God that he raised Christ from the dead, whom he did not raise, if indeed the dead rise not.

and if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, you are still in your sins.

More than that, those who are sleeping in Christ have perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all mankind most pitiable.

For He hast put all things under his feet, but in that quotation All things are put under him, it is evident that God is excepted, who put all things under Him.

Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are really not raised, why are they baptized for them?

But some one will ask. "How are the dead raised? and with what body are they coming?"

And when you sow the seed you are not sowing the body that it will become, but bare grain, of wheat perhaps, or some other grain.

There are both celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; but the splendor of the celestial is one thing, and the splendor of the terrestrial is another.

Like him who was of earth, are the earthy; and like Him who is of heaven, are the heavenly;

Now concerning the offering for the saints, you also are to do as I directed the church of Galatia.

for a door has opened to me, great and effectual, and the opponents are many.

who ever comforts me in all my troubles, so that I may be continually able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort with which God is ever comforting me.

My hope for you is firm; for I know that as you are comrades in my sufferings, so also are you comrades in my comfort.

while all of you also are helping me by your prayers; so that from many lips thanksgiving may rise on my behalf for the blessings vouchsafed to me through the intercessions of many.

For however many are the promises of God, in him they are "Yes." Therefore also through him let the Amen be said by our voices to the glory of God.

I am Christ's fragrance upwafted unto God, among those who are being saved and those who are perishing;

You are my letter, written on my heart, known and read by all men.

Since all can see that you are a letter of Christ transcribed by men, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.

And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are ourselves continually being transformed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit.

But even if my gospel, too, is "veiled," it is among those who are on the way to perish that it is "veiled."

while I am gazing not at things seen, but at things unseen; for things seen are temporal, but things unseen are eternal.

And what compact has God's temple with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, as he has said: I will dwell among them, and walk about among them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

As these promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, and perfect our holiness in the fear of God.

Nor are other people to be relieved, and you to be distressed;