I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine.

You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel.

I will come to you before long, if the Lord wills, and then I will find out from these puffed up creatures not what their talk but what their power amounts to.

For God's Reign does not show itself in talk but in power.

So let us celebrate our festival, not with any old leaven, not with vice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of innocence and integrity.

But instead of that you inflict wrong and practise frauds ??and that upon members of the brotherhood!

Some of you were once like that; but you washed yourselves clean, you were consecrated, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

'All things are lawful for me'? Yes, but not all are good for me. 'All things are lawful for me'? Yes, but I am not going to let anything master me.

'Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food'? Yes, and God will do away with the one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;

Shun immorality! Any other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his body.

but there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own and every woman a husband of her own.

But what I have just said is by way of concession, not command.

But a slave who is called to be in the Lord is a freedman of the Lord. Just as a free man who is called is a slave of Christ

I have no orders from the Lord for unmarried women, but I will give you the opinion of one whom you can trust, after all the Lord's mercy to him.

But the man of firm purpose who has made up his mind, who, instead of being forced against his will, has determined to himself to keep his maid a spiritual bride ??that man will be doing the right thing.

Thus both are right alike in marrying and in refraining from marriage, but he who does not marry will be found to have done better.

A woman is bound to her husband during his lifetime; but if he dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases ??only, it must be a Christian.

but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

(So-called gods there may be, in heaven or on earth ??as indeed there are plenty of them, both gods and 'lords' ??6 but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all comes, and for whom we exist; one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom all exists, and by whom we exist.)

But remember, it is not everyone who has this 'knowledge.' Some who have hitherto been accustomed to idols eat the food as food which has been really offered to an idol, and so their weaker conscience is contaminated.

But see that the exercise of your right does not prove any stumbling-block to the weak.

To other people I may be no apostle, but to you I am, for you are the seal set upon my apostleship in the Lord.

Human arguments, you say? But does not Scripture urge the very same?

Every athlete practises self-restraint all round; but while they do it to win a fading wreath, we do it for an unfading.

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

'All things are lawful'? Yes, but not all are good for us. 'All things are lawful'? Yes, but not all are edifying.

But if someone tells you, 'This was sacrificial meat,' then do not eat it; you must consider the man who told you, and also take conscience into account ??29 his conscience, I mean, not your own; for why should one's own freedom be called in question by someone else's conscience?

Such is my own rule, to satisfy all men in all points, aiming not at my own advantage but at the advantage of the greater number ??at their salvation.

But I would like you to understand this: Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

If a woman will not veil herself, she should cut off her hair as well. But she ought to veil herself; for it is disgraceful that a woman should have her hair cut off or be shaven.

Man does not require to have a veil on his head, for he represents the likeness and supremacy of God; but woman represents the supremacy of man.

and man was not created for woman, but woman for man.)

But in giving you the following injunction I cannot commend you; for you are the worse, not the better, for assembling together.

But this makes it impossible for you to eat the 'Lord's' supper when you hold your gatherings.

But I want you to understand about spiritual gifts, brothers.

There are varieties of talents, but the same Spirit;

varieties of service, but the same Lord;

varieties of effects, but the same God who effects everything in everyone.

But all these effects are produced by one and the same Spirit, apportioning them severally to each individual as he pleases.

Why, even the body consists not of one member but of many.

so that there may be no disunion in the body, but that the various members should have a common concern for one another.

Thus, I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal;

I may prophesy, fathom all mysteries and secret lore, I may have such absolute faith that I can move hills from their place, but if I have no love, I count for nothing;

I may distribute all I possess in charity, I may give up my body to be burnt, but if I have no love, I make nothing of it.

but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror, but then it will be face to face; at present I am learning bit by bit, but then I shall understand, as all along I have myself been understood.

Thus 'faith and hope and love last on, these three,' but the greatest of all is love.

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

Inanimate instruments, such as the flute or the harp, may give a sound, but if no intervals occur in their music, how can one make out the air that is being played either on flute or on harp?

For if I pray with a 'tongue,' my spirit prays, no doubt, but my mind is no use to anyone.

Very well then, I will pray in the Spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing praise in the Spirit, but I will also sing praise with my mind.

Your thanksgiving may be all right, but then ??the other man is not edified!

but in church I would rather say five words with my own mind for the instruction of other people than ten thousand words in a 'tongue.'

Brothers, do not be children in the sphere of intelligence; in evil be mere infants, but be mature in your intelligence.

It is written in the Law, By men of alien tongues and by the lips of aliens I will speak to this People; but even so, they will not listen to me, saith the Lord.

Thus 'tongues' are intended as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; whereas prophesying is meant for believers, not for unbelievers.

Very well then, brothers; when you meet together, each contributes something ??a song of praise, a lesson, a revelation, a 'tongue,' an interpretation? Good, but let every thing be for edification.

for God is a God not of disorder but of harmony. [Move 33b-36 to follow vs 40] As is the rule in all churches of the saints,

but let everything be done decorously and in order.

But by God's grace I am what I am. The grace he showed me did not go for nothing; no, I have done far more work than all of them ??though it was not I but God's grace at my side.

Ah, if in this life we have nothing but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied most!

But it is not so! Christ did rise from the dead, he was the first to be reaped of those who sleep in death.

But each in his own division: ??Christ the first to be reaped; after that, all who belong to Christ, at his arrival.

(Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.)

But, someone will ask, 'how do the dead rise? What kind of body have they when they come?'

There are heavenly bodies and also earthly bodies, but the splendour of the heavenly is one thing and the splendour of the earthly is another.

but the animate, not the spiritual, comes first, and only then the spiritual.

Here is a secret truth for you: not all of us are to die, but all of us are to be changed ??52 changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. The trumpet will sound, the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed.

As for our brother Apollos, I urged him to accompany the other brothers on a visit to you; he will come as soon as he has time, but for the present it is not the will of God that he should visit you.

in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead;

My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

For if I pain you, then who is to give me pleasure? None but the very people I am paining!

For I wrote you in sore distress and misery of heart, with many a tear ??not to pain you but to convince you of my love, my special love for you.

you make it obvious that you are a letter of Christ which I have been employed to inscribe, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart.

and he has further qualified me to be the minister of a new covenant ??a covenant not of written law but of spirit; for the written law kills but the Spirit makes alive.

But we all mirror the glory of the Lord with face unveiled, and so we are being transformed into the same likeness as himself, passing from one glory to another ??for this comes of the Lord the Spirit.

But I possess this treasure in a frail vessel of earth, to show that the transcending power belongs to God, not to myself;

on every side I am harried but not hemmed in, perplexed but not despairing,

persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed ??10 wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body:

But since our spirit of faith is the same, therefore ??as it is written I believed and so I spoke ??I too believe and so I speak,

I do sigh within this tent of mine with heavy anxiety ??not that I want to be stripped, no, but to be under the cover of the other, to have my mortal element absorbed by life.

and that he died for all in order to have the living live no longer for themselves but for him who died and rose for them.

amid honour and dishonour, amid evil report and good report, an 'impostor' but honest,

'unknown' but well-known, dying but here I am alive, chastened but not killed,

grieved but always glad, a 'pauper', but the means of wealth to many, without a penny but possessed of all.

But the God who comforts the dejected comforted me by the arrival of Titus.

but I am glad now ??not glad that you were pained but glad that your pain induced you to repent. For you were pained as God meant you to be pained, and so you got no harm from what I did;

So my letter was written to you, not on account of the offender nor for the sake of the injured party, but in order to let you realize before God how seriously you do care for me.

But I will tell you what I think about it; it is to your interest to go on with this enterprise, for you started it last year, you were the first not merely to do anything but to want to do anything.

he has indeed responded to my request, but he is off to you by his own choice, so keen is his interest in you.

I aim at being above reproach not only from God but also from men.

I appeal to you myself by the gentleness and consideration of Christ ??the Paul who is 'humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he gets away from you.'

I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh.

I do live in the flesh, but I do not make war as the flesh does;

the weapons of my warfare are not weapons of the flesh, but divinely strong to demolish fortresses ??5 I demolish theories and any rampart thrown up to resist the knowledge of God, I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ,

But I am not going to seem as if I were 'overawing you with a letter,' so to speak.

My opponent says, 'Paul's letters are weighty and telling, but his personality is weak and his delivery is beneath contempt.'

but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning.

I am no speaker, perhaps, but knowledge I do possess; I never failed to make myself intelligible to you.

But perhaps I did wrong in taking a humble place that you might have a high one ??I mean, in preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing!