For we are God's co-workers. You are God's farmland and God's building.

the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's action.

You know that you are God's sanctuary and that God's Spirit lives in you, don't you?

If anyone destroys God's sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God's sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!

For the wisdom of this world is nonsense in God's sight. For it is written, "He catches the wise with their own trickery,"

So let no one boast about human beings, since everything belongs to you,

Think of us as servants of the Messiah and as servant managers entrusted with God's secrets.

Brothers, I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what the Scriptures say. Then you will stop boasting about one person at the expense of another.

You already have all you want! You have already become rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you really were kings so that we could be kings with you!

We are fools for the Messiah's sake, but you are wise in the Messiah. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

So I urge you to imitate me.

That's why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and dependable son in the Lord and will help you remember how I live for the Messiah Jesus as I teach everywhere in every church.

But I will come to you soon if it's the Lord's will. Then I'll discover not only what these arrogant people are saying but also what power they have,

It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, and of a kind that is not found even among the gentiles. A man is actually living with his father's wife!

turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of his body, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you are to be free from yeast. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed.

So let's keep celebrating the festival, neither with old yeast nor with yeast that is evil and wicked, but with yeast-free bread that is both sincere and true.

But now I am writing to you to stop associating with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunk, or a robber. You must even stop eating with someone like that.

So if you have cases dealing with this life, why do you appoint as judges people who have no standing in the church?

I say this to make you feel ashamed. Has it come to this, that there is not one person among you who is wise enough to settle disagreements between brothers?

Because sexual immorality is so rampant, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.

Do not withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so just for a set time, in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should come together again so that Satan does not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

But I say this as a concession, not as a command.

I say to those who are unmarried, especially to widows: It is good for them to remain like me.

I (not the Lord) say to the rest of you: If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she is willing to live with him, he must not abandon her.

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying God's commandments is everything.

For the slave who has been called to belong to the Lord is the Lord's free person. In the same way, the free person who has been called is the Messiah's slave.

Now concerning virgins, although I do not have any command from the Lord, I will give you my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

and so his attention is divided.

An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the affairs of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, that is, about how she can please her husband. I'm saying this for your benefit, not to put a noose around your necks, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.

If a man thinks he is not behaving properly toward his virgin, and if his passion is so strong that he feels he ought to marry her, let him do what he wants; he isn't sinning. Let them get married.

So then the man who marries the virgin acts appropriately, but the man who refrains from marriage does even better.

However, in my opinion she will be happier if she stays as she is. And in saying this, I think that I, too, have God's Spirit.

For even if there are "gods" in heaven and on earth (as indeed there are many so-called "gods" and "lords"),

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are so accustomed to idolatry that when they eat food that has been offered to an idol, their conscience becomes contaminated because it is weak.

But you must see to it that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block for those who are weak.

For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you, who know better, eating in an idol's temple, he will be encouraged to eat what has been offered to idols, won't he?

We have the right to take a believing wife with us like the other apostles, the Lord's brothers, and Cephas, don't we?

But I have not used any of these rights, and I'm not writing this so that they may be applied in my case. I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason for boasting.

What, then, is my reward? It is to be able to preach the gospel free of charge, and so I never resort to demanding my rights when I'm preaching the gospel.

Although I am free from everyone's expectations, I have made myself a servant to all of them to win more people.

To those who do not have the Law, I became like a man who does not have the Law in order to win those who do not have the Law. However, I am not free from God's Law, but I'm subject to the Messiah's law.

To the weak I became weak in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some of them.

No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the fact that all of our ancestors who left Egypt were under the cloud. They all went through the sea,

and they all were immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

But God wasn't pleased with most of those people, and so they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now their experiences serve as examples for us so that we won't set our hearts on evil as they did.

Let's stop being idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play."

Let's stop sinning sexually, as some of them were doing, and on a single day 23,000 fell dead.

Let's stop putting the Lord to the test, as some of them were doing, and were destroyed by snakes.

Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing securely should watch out so he doesn't fall.

No temptation has overtaken you that is unusual for human beings. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it.

And so, my dear friends, keep on running away from idolatry.

No one should seek his own welfare, but rather his neighbor's.

I mean, of course, his conscience, not yours. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else's conscience?

just as I myself try to please everybody in every way. I don't look out for my own benefit, but rather for the benefit of many people, so that they might be saved.

So if a woman does not cover her head, she should cut off her hair. If it is a disgrace for a woman to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her own head.

A man should not cover his head, because he exists as God's image and glory. But the woman is man's glory.

For as woman came from man, so man comes through woman. But everything comes from God.

nor that hair is a woman's glory, since hair is given as a substitute for coverings.

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we do not have any custom like this, nor do any of God's churches.

When you gather in the same place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

You have homes in which to eat and drink, don't you? Or do you despise God's church and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!

For as often as you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the cup in an unworthy manner will be held responsible for the Lord's body and blood.

That's why so many of you are weak and sick and a considerable number are dying.

Now, while we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so we won't be condemned along with the world.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather it may not bring judgment on you. And when I come I will give instructions concerning the other matters.

For this reason I want you to be aware that no one who is speaking by God's Spirit can say, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, form a single body, so it is with the Messiah.

So there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you," or the head to the feet, "I don't need you."

so that there might be no disharmony in the body, but that its parts should have the same concern for each other.

Now you are the Messiah's body and individual parts of it.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing.

is never glad with sin; she's always glad to side with truth, and pleased that truth will win.

Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Now I wish that all of you could speak in foreign languages, but especially that you could prophesy. The person who prophesies is more important than the person who speaks in a foreign language, unless he interprets it so that the church may be built up.

In the same way, lifeless instruments like the flute or harp produce sounds. But if there's no difference in the notes, how can a person tell what tune is being played?

In the same way, since you're so desirous of spiritual gifts, you must keep on desiring them for building up the church.

Otherwise, if you say a blessing with your spirit, how can an otherwise uneducated person say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you're saying?

It's good for you to give thanks, but it does not build up the other person.

Now if the whole church gathers in the same place and everyone is speaking in foreign languages, when uneducated people or unbelievers come in, they will say that you are out of your mind, won't they?

But if everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that's happening.

His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, "God is truly among you!"

If anyone speaks in a foreign language, only two or three at the most should do so, one at a time, and somebody must interpret.

For everyone can prophesy in turn, so that everyone can be instructed and everyone can be encouraged.

Did God's word originate with you? Are you the only ones it has reached?

If anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual person, he must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.

For I am the least of the apostles and not even fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted God's church.

But by God's grace I am what I am, and his grace shown to me was not wasted. Instead, I worked harder than all the others not I, of course, but God's grace that was with me.

So, whether it was I or the others, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God because we testified on God's behalf that he raised the Messiah whom he did not raise if in fact it is true that the dead are not raised.

For as in Adam all die, so also in the Messiah will all be made alive.

For he must rule until God puts all the Messiah's enemies under his feet.

But when everything has been put under him, then the Son himself will also become subject to the one who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

If I have fought with wild animals in Ephesus from merely human motives, what do I get out of it? If the dead are not raised, "Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Come back to your senses as you should, and stop sinning! For some of you I say this to your shame don't fully know God.

Now death's stinger is sin, and sin's power is the Law.