1 Corinthians

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, ²to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; ⁵that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge; ⁶even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: ⁷so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; ⁸who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

¹⁰Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. ¹¹For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. ¹²Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.” ¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name. ¹⁶(I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.) ¹⁷For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void. ¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”

²⁰Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. ²²For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; ²⁷but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; ²⁸and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are: ²⁹that no flesh should boast before God. ³⁰Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: ³¹that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ²For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. ⁴My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

⁶We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. ⁷But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, ⁸which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹But as it is written,

“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,

which didn’t enter into the heart of man,

these God has prepared for those who love him.”

¹⁰But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. ¹²But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. ¹³Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. ¹⁴Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. ¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. ²I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready, ³for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? ⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly? ⁵Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him? ⁶I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. ⁷So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

¹⁰According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble; ¹³each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. ¹⁴If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

¹⁶Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” ²⁰And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.” ²¹Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²²whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, ²³and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries. ²Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful. ³But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self. ⁴For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. ⁵Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.

⁶Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another. ⁷For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? ⁸You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. ⁹For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. ¹¹Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. ¹²We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

¹⁴I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. ¹⁶I beg you therefore, be imitators of me. ¹⁷Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly. ¹⁸Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. ²⁰For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power. ²¹What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife. ²You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you. ³For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing. ⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? ⁷Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place. ⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; ¹⁰yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. ¹¹But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person. ¹²For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within? ¹³But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ²Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? ⁴If then, you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? ⁵I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? ⁶But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! ⁷Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸No, but you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that against your brothers. ⁹Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. ¹¹Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.

¹²“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. ¹³“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. ²But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife her husband. ⁴The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife. ⁵Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

⁶But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. ⁷Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. ⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. ⁹But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn. ¹⁰But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband ¹¹(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

¹²But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. ¹³The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. ¹⁶For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? ¹⁷Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

¹⁸Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called. ²¹Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. ²²For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant. ²³You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men. ²⁴Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

²⁵Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy. ²⁶Therefore I think that because of the distress that is on us, that it’s good for a man to remain as he is. ²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife. ²⁸But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you. ²⁹But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; ³⁰and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess; ³¹and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away. ³²But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; ³³but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. ³⁴There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. ³⁵This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction. ³⁶But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry. ³⁷But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well. ³⁸So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

³⁹A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. ³But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. ⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. ⁵For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”; ⁶yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him. ⁷However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better. ⁹But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? ¹¹And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. ¹²Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? ²If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. ³My defense to those who examine me is this. ⁴Have we no right to eat and to drink? ⁵Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? ⁶Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? ⁷What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? ⁸Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? ⁹For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares, ¹⁰or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. ¹¹If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? ¹²If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ. ¹³Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? ¹⁴Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. ¹⁵But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. ¹⁶For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News. ¹⁷For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. ¹⁸What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. ¹⁹For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; ²¹to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. ²²To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. ²³Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. ²⁴Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win. ²⁵Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. ²⁶I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, ²⁷but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; ²and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³and all ate the same spiritual food; ⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. ⁵However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. ⁶Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. ⁷Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” ⁸Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. ⁹Let us not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. ¹⁰Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. ¹¹Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. ¹²Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

¹³No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak as to wise men. Judge what I say. ¹⁶The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread. ¹⁸Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

¹⁹What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons. ²¹You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. ²²Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up. ²⁴Let no one seek his own, but each one his neighbor’s good. ²⁵Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience, ²⁶for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” ²⁷But if one of those who don’t believe invites you to a meal, and you are inclined to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience. ²⁸But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” don’t eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.” ²⁹Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other’s conscience. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience? ³⁰If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced for something I give thanks for? ³¹Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³²Give no occasion for stumbling, either to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the assembly of God; ³³even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

²Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. ³But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. ⁴Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. ⁵But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved. ⁶For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let her be covered. ⁷For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. ⁸For man is not from woman, but woman from man; ⁹for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man. ¹⁰For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

¹¹Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord. ¹²For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled? ¹⁴Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? ¹⁵But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. ¹⁶But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.

¹⁷But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. ¹⁹For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you. ²⁰When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. ²¹For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. ²²What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

²³For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. ²⁴When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁵In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. ²⁷Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. ²⁹For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. ³⁰For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. ³¹For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. ³²But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. ³³Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant. ²You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led. ³Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit.

⁴Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. ⁶There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. ⁷But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. ⁸For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; ⁹to another faith, by the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit; ¹⁰and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages. ¹¹But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires.

¹²For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. ¹³For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body. ¹⁶If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? ¹⁸But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired. ¹⁹If they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰But now they are many members, but one body. ²¹The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.” ²²No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. ²³Those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, on those we bestow more abundant honor; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant propriety; ²⁴whereas our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, ²⁵that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. ²⁶When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. ²⁸God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? ³⁰Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret? ³¹But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show a most excellent way to you.

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, ⁵doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; ⁶doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. ⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. ¹³But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

Follow after love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. ²For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God; for no one understands; but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. ³But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation, and consolation. ⁴He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly. ⁵Now I desire to have you all speak with other languages, but rather that you would prophesy. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets, that the assembly may be built up.

⁶But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching? ⁷Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped? ⁸For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war? ⁹So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air. ¹⁰There are, it may be, so many kinds of sounds in the world, and none of them is without meaning. ¹¹If then I don’t know the meaning of the sound, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me. ¹²So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly. ¹³Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

¹⁵What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. ¹⁶Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say? ¹⁷For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up. ¹⁸I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all. ¹⁹However in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in another language.

²⁰Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature. ²¹In the law it is written, “By men of strange languages and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people. Not even thus will they hear me, says the Lord.” ²²Therefore other languages are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to the unbelieving; but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to those who believe. ²³If therefore the whole assembly is assembled together and all speak with other languages, and unlearned or unbelieving people come in, won’t they say that you are crazy? ²⁴But if all prophesy, and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all. ²⁵And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. So he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed.

²⁶What is it then, brothers? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has another language, has an interpretation. Let all things be done to build each other up. ²⁷If any man speaks in another language, let it be two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let one interpret. ²⁸But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the assembly, and let him speak to himself, and to God. ²⁹Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others discern. ³⁰But if a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first keep silent. ³¹For you all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted. ³²The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, ³³for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints. ³⁴Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says, ³⁵if they desire to learn anything. “Let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.” ³⁶What!? Was it from you that the word of God went out? Or did it come to you alone?

³⁷If any man thinks himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. ³⁸But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

³⁹Therefore, brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking with other languages. ⁴⁰Let all things be done decently and in order.

Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, ²by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ¹¹Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

¹²Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. ¹⁴If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain. ¹⁵Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up, if it is so that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised. ¹⁷If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

²⁰But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. ²¹For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. ²²For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming. ²⁴Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy that will be abolished is death. ²⁷For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. ²⁸When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

²⁹Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead? ³⁰Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? ³¹I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. ³²If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” ³³Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.” ³⁴Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

³⁵But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind. ³⁸But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own. ³⁹All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. ⁴⁰There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial. ⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. ⁴²So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. ⁴⁹As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly. ⁵⁰Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.

⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵“Death, where is your sting?

Hades, where is your victory?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I commanded the assemblies of Galatia, you do likewise. ²On the first day of the week, let each one of you save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come. ³When I arrive, I will send whoever you approve with letters to carry your gracious gift to Jerusalem. ⁴If it is appropriate for me to go also, they will go with me. ⁵But I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia. ⁶But with you it may be that I will stay, or even winter, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go. ⁷For I do not wish to see you now in passing, but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits. ⁸But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost, ⁹for a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

¹⁰Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do. ¹¹Therefore let no one despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brothers.

¹²Now concerning Apollos, the brother, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers; and it was not at all his desire to come now; but he will come when he has an opportunity.

¹³Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong! ¹⁴Let all that you do be done in love.

¹⁵Now I beg you, brothers (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves to serve the saints), ¹⁶that you also be in subjection to such, and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. ¹⁷I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus; for that which was lacking on your part, they supplied. ¹⁸For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge those who are like that.

¹⁹The assemblies of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you much in the Lord, together with the assembly that is in their house. ²⁰All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand. ²²If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord! ²³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. ²⁴My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.