and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper.

For when He finally judges, He will pay everyone with exactness for what he has done,

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves,

What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or, what benefit does circumcision confer?

What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness?

But if our wrongdoing brings to light the uprightness of God, what shall we infer? Is it wrong (I am using everyday human terms) for God to inflict punishment?

What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin,

So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith.

Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham?

For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."

Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised.

in full assurance that He was able to do what He had promised.

What is our conclusion then? Are we to continue to sin for His unmerited favor to multiply?

What are we to conclude? Are we to keep on sinning, because we are not living as slaves to law but as subjects to God's favor? Never!

What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death.

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate.

But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right.

For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right.

But a hope that is seen is not real hope, for who hopes for what he actually sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we keep on patiently waiting for it.

and He who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit thinks, for He pleads for His people in accordance with God's will.

What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?

What are we then to conclude? It is not that there is injustice in God, is it? Of course not!

And what if God, though wishing to display His anger and make known His power, yet, has most patiently borne with the objects of His anger, already ripe for destruction,

What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith;

Why? Because they did not try through faith but through what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble,

But here is what the faith-way to right standing says, "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?'" that is, to bring Christ down;

But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.

However, they have not all given heed to the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has put faith in what we told?"

So faith comes from hearing what is told, and hearing through the message about Christ.

No, God has not disowned His people, on whom He set His heart beforehand. Do you know what the Scripture says in Elijah's case, how he pleaded with God against Israel?

But if it is by His unmerited favor, it is not at all conditioned on what they have done. If that were so, His favor would not be favor at all.

What are we then to conclude? Israel has failed to obtain what it is still in search for, but His chosen ones have obtained it. The rest have become insensible to it,

For if the rejection of them has resulted in the reconciling of the world, what will the result be of the final reception of them but life from the dead?

Stop living in accordance with the customs of this world, but by the new ideals that mold your minds continue to transform yourselves, so as to find and follow God's will; that is, what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect.

Your love must be true. You must always turn in horror from what is wrong, but keep on holding to what is right.

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself against what God has established, and those who set themselves against Him will get the penalty due them.

Pay all of them what is due them -- tribute to the officer to receive it, taxes to the officer to receive them, respect to the man entitled to it, and honor to the man entitled to it.

For if your brother is hurt because of the food you eat, you are not living by the standard of love. Stop ruining, by what you eat, the man for whom Christ died.

For the kingdom of God does not consist in what we eat and drink, but in doing right, in peace and joy through the Holy Spirit;

For I would venture to mention only what Christ has accomplished through me in bringing the heathen peoples to obedience, by word and by work,

Yes, your obedience has been told to everybody; so I am delighted about you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is bad.

Now I beg you all, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be harmonious in what you say and not to have factions among you, but to be perfectly harmonious in your minds and judgments.

Just the opposite: God chose what the world calls foolish to put the wise to shame, what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame,

what the world calls of low degree, yea, what it counts as nothing and what it thinks does not exist, God chose to put a stop to what it thinks exists,

For what man can understand his own inner thoughts except by his own spirit within him? Just so no one but the Spirit of God can understand the thoughts of God.

Then what is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave each of us his task.

Now, brothers, for your sakes I have applied all this to Apollos and myself, that from us as illustrations you might learn the lesson, "Never go beyond what is written," so that you might stop boasting in favor of one teacher against another.

For who makes you superior? And what do you have that you did not get from someone? But if you got it from someone, why do you boast as though you had not?

But I am coming, and coming soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not only what those conceited fellows say but what they can do,

Now what I really meant was for you to stop associating with any so-called brother, if he is sexually immoral, a greedy grasper, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler -- with such a person you must even stop eating.

For what right have I to judge outsiders? Is it not for you to judge those who are inside the church,

The husband must always give his wife what is due her, and the wife too must do so for her husband.

You husbands and wives must stop refusing each other what is due, unless you agree to do so just for awhile, so as to have plenty of time for prayer, and then to be together again, so as to keep Satan from tempting you because of your lack of self-control.

Now if a father thinks that he is not doing the proper thing regarding his single daughter, if she is past the bloom of her youth, and she ought to do so, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin. Let the daughter and her suitor marry.

But the father who stands firm in his purpose, without having any necessity for doing so, and he has made the decision in his own heart to keep her single, will do what is right.

And so the man who gives his daughter in marriage does what is right, and yet the man who does not do so does even better.

What soldier ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its grapes? Who shepherds a flock and does not drink any of the milk the flock produces?

Then what is the pay that I am getting? To be able to preach the good news without expense to anybody, and so never to make full use of my rights in preaching the good news.

Now all these things occurred as warnings to us, to keep us from hankering after what is evil, in the ways they did.

No temptation has taken hold of you but what is common to human nature. And God is to be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to make a way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

I am speaking to sensible men; decide for yourselves about what I say.

Then what do I mean? That the sacrifice to an idol is a reality, or that an idol itself is a reality? Of course not!

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

It is not that you have no houses to eat and drink in, is it? Or, are you trying to show your contempt for the church of God and trying to humiliate those who have no houses? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, I cannot praise you for this.

For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete.

But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will be set aside.

For now we see a dim reflection in a looking-glass. But then we shall see face to face; Now what I know is imperfect, but then I shall know perfectly, as God knows me.

But as it now is, brothers, if I do come back to you speaking in ecstasy, what good shall I do you, unless my speech contains a revelation or new knowledge or a prophetic message or some teaching?

Therefore, the man who speaks in ecstasy must pray for power to explain what he says.

What is my conclusion then? I will certainly pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind in action too. I will certainly sing with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind in action too. For if you give thanks with your spirit only,

how is the man who occupies the place of the illiterate to say "Amen" to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying.

Then what is our conclusion, brothers? When you meet together, everybody has a song, something to teach, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one. It must all be for the upbuilding of all.

If anybody speaks in ecstasy, there must be only two, or three at most, and let one speak at a time, and someone explain what he says.

Let two or three prophets speak, and the rest consider carefully what is said;

If anyone claims to have the prophetic spirit, or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I now am writing is the Lord's command.

For I passed on to you, among the primary principles of the good news, what I had received, that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures,

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Otherwise, what do those people mean who submit to being baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead are never raised at all, why do they submit to being baptized on their behalf?

If from merely human motives I have fought wild beasts here in Ephesus, what profit will it be to me? If the dead are never raised at all, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead."

But someone will ask, "How can the dead rise? With what kind of body do they come back?"

and what you sow does not have the body that it is going to have, but is a naked grain, of wheat (it may be) or something else;

But this I tell you, brothers: Our physical bodies cannot take part in the kingdom of God; what is decaying will never take part in what is immortal.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come to see me, because they have supplied what you lacked.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

The man that you forgive I too forgive. For if I have forgiven him anything, it is what I have forgiven him in the very presence of Christ for your sake,

to keep us from being worsted by Satan, for we know what his intentions are.

For on account of its surpassing splendor, what was once so splendid has now no splendor at all.

For if what passed away was introduced with splendor, with how much greater splendor must what is permanent be attended?

not as Moses did, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was passing away.

(for here I live by what I believe and not by what I see),

For we must all appear before the judgment-bar of Christ, that each may get his pay for what he has done, whether it be good or bad.

So, since I know what the fear of God can do, I am trying to win men. My inner self is perfectly known to God, and I hope, to your consciences too.

Stop forming intimate and inconsistent relations with unbelievers. What partnership can right-doing have with law-breaking, or how can light participate with darkness?

What harmony exists between Christ and Belial, or what is common between a believer and an unbeliever?

And what agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: "I will live in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they will be my people."

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,