For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea,

But God was not pleased with the majority of them, for they were struck down in the desert.

Now these [things] happened [as] examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil [things], just as those also desired [them],

and not become idolaters, as some of them [did], just as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play,"

Temptation has not come upon you except [what is] common to humanity. But God [is] faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will also make a way out together with the temptation, [so that you] may be able to endure [it].

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Consider Israel according to the flesh: are not the ones who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?

[No], but that [the things] which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with demons.

You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Or are we attempting to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he [is, are we]?

All [things] are permitted, but not all [things] are profitable. All [things] are permitted, but not all [things] build up.

But if someone says to you, "This is offered to idols," do not eat [it], for the sake of that one who informed [you] and the conscience.

Now I am not speaking about your own conscience, but the [conscience] of the other [person]. For why [is] my freedom judged by another's conscience?

just as I also please all [people] in all [things], not seeking my own benefit, but the [benefit] of the many, in order that they may be saved.

For if a woman does not cover herself, let her [hair] be shorn off. But if [it is] shameful for a woman to [have her head] shorn or shaved, let her cover her [head].

For indeed a man ought not to cover his head, [because he] is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

For man is not from woman, but woman from man.

For indeed man was not created for the sake of the woman, but woman for the sake of the man.

And does not nature itself teach you that a man, if he wears long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

But in giving this instruction I do not praise [you], because you come together not for the better but for the worse.

Therefore, [when] you come together in the same [place], it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

For do you not have houses for eating and drinking? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who do not have [anything]? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise [you]!

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread,

For the one who eats and drinks, [if he] does not recognize the body, eats and drinks judgment against himself.

But if we were evaluating ourselves, we would not be judged.

But [if we] are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined, in order that we will not be condemned with the world.

Now concerning spiritual [gifts], brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

For the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not [a part] of the body," not because of this is it not [a part] of the body.

And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not [a part] of the body, not because of this is it not [a part] of the body.

Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, "I do not have need of you," or again, the head to the feet, "I do not have need of you."

but our presentable [parts] do not have need [of this]. Yet God composed the body by giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked [it],

in order that there not be a division in the body, but the members would have the same concern for one another.

Not all [are] apostles, [are they]? Not all [are] prophets, [are they]? Not all [are] teachers, [are they]? Not all [are workers of] miracles, [are they]?

Not all have gifts of healing, [do they]? Not all speak with tongues, [do they]? Not all interpret, [do they]?

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a ringing brass gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have [the gift of] prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that [I can] remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I parcel out all my possessions, and if I hand over my body in order that I will be burned, but do not have love, it benefits [me] nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, [it] does not boast, [it] does not become conceited,

[it] does not behave dishonorably, [it] {is not selfish}, [it] does not become angry, [it] does not keep a record of wrongs,

[it] does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,

For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, because no one understands, but by the Spirit he speaks mysteries.

Likewise, the inanimate things which produce a sound, whether flute or lyre, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the lyre?

Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a barbarian to the one who is speaking, and the one who is speaking [will be] a barbarian in my [judgment].

For otherwise, if you praise in [your] spirit, how will the one who fills the place of the outsider say the "amen" at your thanksgiving, because he does not know what you are saying?

For indeed you are giving thanks well, but the other person is not edified.

Brothers, do not become children in [your] understanding, but with respect to wickedness be as a child, and in [your] understanding be mature.

In the law it is written: "By those who speak a foreign language and by the lips of others I will speak to this people, and not even in this way will they obey me," says the Lord.

So then, tongues are for a sign not to those who believe, but to unbelievers, but prophecy [is] not for unbelievers, but for those who believe.

Therefore, if the whole church comes together at the same [time] and all speak with tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

For God is not [a God of] disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

the women must be silent in the churches, for it is not permitted for them to speak, but they must be in submission, just as the law also says.

So then, my brothers, desire to prophesy, and do not prevent speaking with tongues.

For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain, but I labored even more than all of them, and not I, but the grace of God with me.

But if [there] is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised [either].

But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching [is] in vain, and your faith [is] in vain.

And also we are found [to be] false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if after all, then, the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised [either].

But if Christ has not been raised, your faith [is] empty; you are still in your sins.

For "he subjected all [things] under his feet." But when it says "all [things]" are subjected, [it is] clear that the one who subjected all [things] to him [is] not included.

Otherwise, why do they do [it], those who are being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why indeed are they being baptized on behalf of them?

If according to a human perspective I fought wild beasts at Ephesus, what benefit [is it] to me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Do not be deceived! "Bad company corrupts good morals."

Foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow [is] not the body which it will become, but you sow the bare seed, whether perhaps of wheat or of some of the rest.

Not all flesh [is] the same, but [there is] one flesh of human beings, and another flesh of animals, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish,

But the spiritual [is] not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

But I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruptibility.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

So then, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, [because you] know that your labor is not [in] vain in the Lord.

On the first [day] of the week, each one of you {put aside} [something], saving up {to whatever extent he has prospered}, in order that whenever I come, at that time collections do not take place.

For I do not want to see you now in passing, for I hope to remain some time with you, if the Lord allows [it].

Therefore do not let anyone disdain him, but send him [on his way] in peace in order that he may come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

Now concerning Apollos our brother, I urged him many [times] that he should come to you with the brothers, and he was not at all willing that he should come now, but he will come whenever he has [an] opportunity.

If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that happened in the [province of] Asia, that we were burdened to an extraordinary degree, beyond [our] strength, so that we were in despair even of living.

But [we] ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not be putting confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, in holiness and purity of motive from God, not in merely human wisdom, but by the grace of God.

For we are not writing [anything] else to you except what you can read or also understand. But I hope that you will understand {completely},

But God [is] faithful, so that our word to you is not "yes" and "no."

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, did not become "yes" and "no," but has become "yes" in him.

But I call upon God [as] witness against my life, that [in order to] spare you, I did not come again to Corinth.

Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy, because by faith you stand firm.

For I have decided this for myself, not to come to you again in sorrow.

And I wrote this very [thing] in order that [when I] came, I would not experience sorrow from those who ought to have made me glad, [because I] have confidence about you all, that my joy {belongs to all of you}.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not so that you may be caused to be sad, but so that you may know the love that I have especially for you.

But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not caused me sorrow, but {to some degree}--{in order not to say too much}--[to] all [of] you.

in order that we may not be exploited by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes).

I did not experience rest in my spirit, [because] I did not find Titus my brother, but saying farewell to them, I departed for Macedonia.

For we are not like the majority who peddle the word of God, but as from pure motives--but as from God--we speak before God in Christ.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or [do we], like some, need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as from ourselves, but our adequacy [is] from God,

who also makes us adequate [as] servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry of death in letters carved on stone came with glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look intently into the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was transitory,

how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more with glory?

For indeed what had been glorified has not been glorified in this case, on account of the glory that surpasses [it].

and not as Moses used to place a veil over his face, in order that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was transitory.

But their minds were hardened. For until this very day, the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant, not being uncovered, because it is done away with in Christ.