The commandments:

Do not commit adultery;
do not murder;
do not steal;
do not covet;

and whatever other commandment—all are summed up by this: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy.

Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about doubtful issues.

One person believes he may eat anything, but one who is weak eats only vegetables.

Who are you to criticize another’s household slave? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand. For the Lord is able to make him stand.

Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, yet he thanks God.

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.

For it is written:

As I live, says the Lord,
every knee will bow to Me,
and every tongue will give praise to God.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way.

(I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.)

For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy that one Christ died for by what you eat.

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.

Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to cause stumbling by what he eats.

It is a noble thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother stumble.

Do you have a conviction? Keep it to yourself before God. The man who does not condemn himself by what he approves is blessed.

But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from a conviction, and everything that is not from a conviction is sin.

Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

For even the Messiah did not please Himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me.

Therefore accept one another, just as the Messiah also accepted you, to the glory of God.

and so that Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written:

Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles,
and I will sing psalms to Your name.

And again, Isaiah says:

The root of Jesse will appear,
the One who rises to rule the Gentiles;
the Gentiles will hope in Him.

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of God’s good news. My purpose is that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the good news about the Messiah from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum.

My aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation,

but, as it is written:

Those who were not told about Him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.

That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae.

Greet also the church that meets in their home.
Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good, yet innocent about what is evil.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.

to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to Him be the glory forever! Amen.

Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Sosthenes our brother:

To God’s church at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours.

In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you,

so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

What I am saying is this: Each of you says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”

Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name?

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.

For it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts.

Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?

Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom,

because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something,

But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

But as it is written:

What eye did not see and ear did not hear,
and what never entered the human mind—
God prepared this for those who love Him.

Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.

because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.

If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness;

and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless.

A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God’s mysteries.

In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one of them be found faithful.

It is of little importance to me that I should be evaluated by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even evaluate myself.

For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. The One who evaluates me is the Lord.

Therefore don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us—and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you!

For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!

I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Now some are inflated with pride, as though I were not coming to you.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife.

For though I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already decided about the one who has done this thing as though I were present.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?

Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside?

Or 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 cases?

I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between his brothers?

Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?

“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be brought under the control of anything.

“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will do away with both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Don’t you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For Scripture says, The two will become one flesh.

But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Run from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body.” On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,