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.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus,

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

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

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.

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

For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.

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.

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,

When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.

so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.

On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.

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.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

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

For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

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.

Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

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

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

and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

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

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.

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.

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

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

But God judges outsiders. Put away the evil person from among yourselves.

Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality,

no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.

And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“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 your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

Now in response to the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have relations with a woman.”

I wish that all people were just like me. But each has his own gift from God, one person in this way and another in that way.

I say to the unmarried and to widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am.

But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

However, each one must live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him. This is what I command in all the churches.

Was anyone already circumcised when he was called? He should not undo his circumcision. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? He should not get circumcised.

Circumcision does not matter and uncircumcision does not matter, but keeping God’s commands does.

Brothers, each person should remain with God in whatever situation he was called.

Therefore I consider this to be good because of the present distress: It is fine for a man to remain as he is.

However, if you do get married, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

But if any man thinks he is acting improperly toward his virgin, if she is past marriageable age, and so it must be, he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my opinion. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

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

About eating food offered to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.”

yet for us there is one God, the Father.
All things are from Him,
and we exist for Him.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.
All things are through Him,
and we exist through Him.

Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.

For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned with oxen?

To those who are without that law, like one without the law—not being without God’s law but within Christ’s law—to win those without the law.

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

Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.

No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons!

No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.

Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the church of God,

But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

So if a woman’s head is not covered, her hair should be cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, she should be covered.

A man, in fact, should not cover his head, because he is God’s image and glory, but woman is man’s glory.

For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman, and all things come from God.

Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this!

Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

And there are different activities, but the same God activates each gift in each person.

But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted.

But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable,

And God has placed these in the church:

first apostles, second prophets,
third teachers, next miracles,
then gifts of healing, helping,
managing, various kinds of languages.

For the person who speaks in another language is not speaking to men but to God, since no one understands him; however, he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

I thank God that I speak in other languages more than all of you;

The secrets of his heart will be revealed, and as a result he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is really among you.”

But if there is no interpreter, that person should keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.

since God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints,

Did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only?

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.

In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ—whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised.

Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He abolishes all rule and all authority and power.

And when everything is subject to Christ, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all.

If I fought wild animals in Ephesus with only human hope, what good did that do 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.”

Come to your senses and stop sinning, for some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame.

But God gives it a body as He wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

Brothers, I tell you this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ!