But if you do marry, there is no sin in that. And if a girl marries, it is no sin. But those who marry will have worldly trouble, which I would like to spare you.

But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none,

But she will be happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is, and I think I have God's spirit as well as other people.

About food that has been offered to idols, it is true, as you say, that we all have some knowledge on that matter. Knowledge gives people airs; love is what builds up character.

As to eating things, then, that have been offered to idols, we all know that no idol has any real existence, and that there is no God but one.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the product of my work in the Lord's service?

Have we not a right to our food and drink?

Have we not a right to take a Christian wife about with us, like the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?

Or is it only Barnabas and I that have no right to give up working for a living?

If others enjoy such rights over you, have we not a still better claim? But, you say, we have never availed ourselves of this right. No, we will stand anything rather than put any hindrance in the way of the good news of the Christ.

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

For if I do it of my own accord, I have my pay, but if I do it because I must, it is still a responsibility that I am charged with.

Though I am free from anyone's control, I have made myself everyone's slave, so as to win over all the more.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law.

To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law??hough I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ??o as to win over those who are without any law.

To the overscrupulous I have become overscrupulous, so as to win the overscrupulous; I have become everything to everybody, so as by all means to save some of them.

But I beat and bruise my body and make it my slave, so that after I have called others to the contest I may not be disqualified myself.

For I would not have you forget, brothers, that though our forefathers were all protected by the cloud, and all passed safely through the sea,

These things happened to them as a warning to others, but they were written down to instruct us, in whose days the ages have reached their climax.

It is no superhuman temptation that you have had. And God can be depended on, not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to give you a way out of it, so that you can withstand it.

Therefore, my dear brothers, have nothing to do with the worship of idols.

Think of the Israelites' practices. Do not those who eat what is sacrificed have divine fellowship at the sacrificial altar?

No, but that what the heathen sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

For if a woman will not wear a veil, let her cut off her hair too. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her wear a veil.

Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly.

This is why many of you are sick and ill and a number have fallen asleep.

For we have all??ews or Greeks, slaves or free men??een baptized in one spirit to form one body, and we have all been saturated with one Spirit.

If all the body were eye, how would we hear? If it were all ear, how could we have a sense of smell?

I will show you a far better way. If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal.

If I am inspired to preach and know all the secret truths and possess all knowledge, and if I have such perfect faith that I can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

But as it is brothers, if I come back to you and speak ecstatically, what good will I do you, unless I have some revelation or special knowledge or message or teaching to give you?

If there is any ecstatic speaking, let it be limited to two or three people at the most, and have one speak at a time and someone explain what he says.

But if there is no one to explain it, have him keep quiet in church, and talk to himself and to God.

If anyone claims to be inspired to preach, or to have any other spiritual endowment, let him understand that what I am now writing you is a command from the Lord.

Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the form in which I presented to you the good news I brought, which you accepted and have stood by,

After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have fallen asleep.

But by God's favor I have become what I am, and the favor he showed me has not gone for nothing, but I have worked harder than any of them, although it was not really I but the favor God showed me.

and we are found guilty of misrepresenting God, for we have testified that he raised Christ, when he did not do it, if it is true that the dead are never raised.

Yes, and those who have fallen asleep in trust in Christ have perished.

If we have centered our hopes on Christ in this life, and that is all, we are the most pitiable people in the world.

But the truth is, Christ was raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep.

For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead.

Otherwise, what do people mean by having themselves baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why do they have themselves baptized on their behalf?

From the human point of view, what good is it to me that I have fought wild animals here in Ephesus? If the dead do not rise at all, "Let us eat and drink, for we will be dead tomorrow!"

But someone will say, "How can the dead rise? What kind of a body will they have when they come back?"

and when you sow it, it has not the form it is going to have, but is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or something else;

Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another.

and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven.

On the first of every week each of you is to put aside and store up whatever he gains, so that money will not have to be collected after I come.

for I have a great and promising opportunity here, as well as many opponents.

As for our brother Apollos, I have often urged him to visit you with the other brothers, and he is quite unwilling to come now, but he will come when he has a good opportunity.

Now I urge you, brothers??ou know that the family of Stephanas was the first to be converted in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people??16 I want you to enlist under such leaders, and under anyone who joins with you and works hard.

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come here, for they have made up for your absence.

They have cheered my heart, and yours too. You should appreciate such men.

For if I have a liberal share of Christ's sufferings, through Christ I have a liberal share of comfort too.

If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God.

as some of you have come to understand me, and that you will understand that you have a right to be proud of me, as I have of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

I was going to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia and have you see me off for Judea.

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus, Timothy, and I, you have not found wavering between "Yes" and "No." With him it has always been "Yes,"

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth.

This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

For I was in great trouble and distress of mind when I wrote you, and I shed many tears as I did it, yet it was not to hurt your feelings, but to make you realize the extraordinary affection I have for you.

Such is the confidence that I have through Christ in my relations to God.

For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all.

So since I have such a hope, I speak with great frankness,

But I have this treasure in a mere ear then jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me.

(for I have to guide my steps by faith, not by what is seen)??8 yet I am confident, and I prefer to leave my home in the body and make my home with the Lord.

It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died,

So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so.

For he says, "I have listened to you at a welcome time, And helped you on a day of deliverance!" Now the welcome time has come! This is the day of deliverance!

I have kept nothing back from you, men of Corinth; I have opened my heart to you.

Do not get into close and incongruous relations with unbelievers. What partnership can uprightness have with iniquity, or what can light have to do with darkness?

So since we have promises like these, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves of everything that can defile body or spirit, and by reverence for God make our consecration complete.

Make room for me in your hearts. I have not wronged or harmed or got the better of anybody.

I do not mean this as a reflection upon you, for as I said before, you will always have a place in my heart whether I live or die.

I have the greatest confidence in you. I take the greatest pride in you. I am fully comforted. After all my trouble, I am overjoyed.

See how earnest this God-given pain has made you! how eager to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how eager to see me, how zealous, how avenging! At every point you have proved that you are clear of this matter.

If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true.

For they have given to the utmost of their ability, as I can bear them witness, and beyond it,

Just as you excel in everything else??aith, expression, knowledge, perfect devotion, and the love we have awakened in you??ou must excel in this generous undertaking too.

but to equalize the burden, and in the present situation to have your plenty make up for what they need, so that some day their plenty may make up for what you need, and so things may be made equal??15 as the Scripture says, "The man who got much did not have too much, and the man who got little did not have too little."

I mean to have no one able to find any fault with the way I handle this munificence.

I send with them another brother of ours whose devotion we have often tested in many ways, which is now greater than ever, because of his perfect confidence in you.

But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will;

So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough for every situation, and ample means for every good enterprise:

and am prepared to punish any trace of disobedience when you have made your obedience perfectly clear.

For suppose I do boast a little too much of my authority??hich the Lord gave me to build you up, not to pull you down?? will not have to blush for it.

Even if I have no particular gifts in speaking, I am not wanting in knowledge. Why, I have always made that perfectly clear in my dealings with you.

I repeat, no one should think me a fool, but if you do, show me at least the patience you would show a fool, and let me have my little boast like the others.

Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews.

I have been beaten three times by the Romans, I have been stoned once, I have been shipwrecked three times, a night and a day I have been adrift at sea;

I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations given me by the Lord.

Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me,

I have been making a fool of myself, but you forced me to do it, when you ought to have been expressing your approval of me. For I am not a bit inferior to your superfine apostles, even if I am nobody!

Here it is the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I do not intend to be a burden to you now; for it is not your money but yourselves that I want; for children are not expected to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

And I will be glad to spend all I have and all I am for your sake. Are you going to love me the less for loving you so intensely?

Have you been supposing all along that it is before you I have been defending myself? It is in the sight of God and as a follower of Christ that I have been speaking. But it is all to do you good, dear friends,