One man prefers one day to another; another man approves of every day. Let each one be convinced in his own mind; for he who favors a day favors it for the Lord. The eater eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; the abstainer abstains for the Lord, and he too gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one of us dies for himself; if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For that was why Christ died and came to life, to be Lord over the dead and the living. You, why do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you, in turn, ridicule your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; since it is written: I live, says the Lord, that every knee shall bend to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So each of us shall account for himself to God.
Then let us stop judging each other; rather, use your judgment to keep from offending your brother or putting a stumbling block in his way. I know and believe through the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; only if one thinks that something is unclean, it is unclean for him. If your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are not walking in the way of love. Do not undo him, for whom Christ died, through what you eat. Do not let what is good for you be cause for ill repute. For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; and he who in this Spirit serves the Christ is pleasing to God and respected by men. Let us then pursue the ways of peace and the edification of each other. Do not undo the work of God for the sake of food. All things are pure, but it is bad for a man to eat in a way that will mislead. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if by this your brother is misled; as for you, keep your own faith before God. Happy is he who does not have to judge himself in the matter of what he approves. If one doubts but eats, he is guilty, because he does not do it from faith; and anything done without faith is a sin.
!We who are strong have a duty to put up with the weaknesses of those who are not strong, rather than pleasing ourselves. Let every man try to please his neighbor, to build up the community; for Christ also did not please himself, but, as it is written: The revilements of those who reviled you fell upon me. All that was written in days before was written for our instruction so that, through steadfastness and through the exhortation of the scriptures, we may have hope. May the God of steadfastness and exhortation grant you concord among yourselves after the example of Christ Jesus, so that together with one voice you may glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So welcome each other, as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God. For I say that Christ was born to be the minister of the circumcised for the sake of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to our fathers; but also, for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore I shall acknowledge you among the Gentiles, and I will sing the praises of your n^e. And again it says: Rejoice, Gentiles, along with his people; and again: All nations, praise the Lord, and let all peoples praise him. And, once more, Isaiah says: There shall be a scion of Jesse who shall rise up to rule the nations, and in him the nations will have hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, by your faith, so that your hope will be abundant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Concerning you, my brothers, I am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, and complete in all understanding, and able to advise each other. But I have written to you rather boldly in part, to remind you, because God gave me the privilege of being the minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as priest the gospel of God; so that the offering up of the Gentiles to him may be acceptable and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I ^ full of exultation before God because of Christ Jesus, for I will not dare speak of anything except Christ working through me to make the Gentiles obedient to his will;
by word and act, by the power of miracles and portents, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus I have toured about from Jerusalem as far as Illyria to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ, so ^bitious was I to bring the gospel where the name of Christ was not kno^n, so as not to build on someone else's foundation but, as it is written: They who had not been told of him shall see him, and they who never heard of him shall know him.
Because of all this, I have been constantly prevented from coming to you. But now I no longer find any place for me in these regions, and for some years I have been longing to visit you, and then go on to Spain; for I hope to become acquainted with you as I pass through, and that you will see me on my way after I have first enjoyed something of your company. But now I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints. For Macedonia and Achaea have decided to make a contribution for the poor who are among the saints in Jerusalem. They have so decided and they are indebted to them; for since the Gentiles shared with them in matters of the spirit, they owe it to them to help them in a material way. When I have finished this business and set my seal upon this bounty for them, then I shall leave for Spain, stopping with you on the way; and I know that when I come to you I shall come with the full blessing of Christ.
Now I entreat you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to aid me in my struggle, through your prayers to God, for me, so that I may be kept safe from the faithless in Judaea and my ministry in Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, and so by God's will I may come to you in joy and take some rest with you. And may the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
1 recommend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is deaconess of the church in Cenchreae; to receive her, in the Lord's name, in a manner befitting the saints, and help her in anything she needs from you, for she has been the benefactor of many, myself among them.
Give greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They have risked their necks for my life, and not only ^ I grateful to them but so are all the churches among the Gentiles. Give greetings also to the church that is in their own house. Give greetings to my beloved Epaenetus, who is Asia's first offering to Christ. Give greetings to Mary, who has worked very hard for you. Give greetings to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow countrymen and fellow prisoners, who are distinguished among the apostles and were with Christ even before me. Give greetings to Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Give greetings to Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and to my beloved Stachys. Give greetings to Apelles, honored in Christ. Give greetings to the household of Aristobulus. Give greetings to Herodian, my fellow countryman. Give greetings to those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Give greetings to Try- phaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard for the Lord. Give greetings to the beloved Persis, who has worked very hard for the Lord. Give greetings to Rufus, excellent in the Lord, and to his mother, who is a mother to me. Give greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Give greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Give greetings to each other with the sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ give you greetings.
And I entreat you, brothers, to mark well those who cause dissension and misguidance, which are counter to the doctrine you have learned; and avoid them. Such people are the slaves not of our Lord Christ but of their own bellies; but by fair speech and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple. Your obedience has become known to everyone. Therefore I rejoice in you, and I wish you to be wise for good, but innocent for evil. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet soon.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, as do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen. And I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter send you greetings in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the entire church, sends you greetings. And Erastus, the treasurer of the city, sends you greetings, as does Quar- tus, his brother.
To the one w
ho has power to strengthen you, as in my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ; by the revelation of a mystery which was silenced through the ages but now has been brought to light, and has been made known through prophetic scriptures to all the nations by order of the everlasting God, to make them obedient to the faith; to the one God, who is wise, may the glory be given, through Jesus Christ, forever. Amen.
The First Letter to the Corinthians
1!PAUL, CALLED TO BE AN APOSTLE OF Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes, his brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints; together with all those who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every locality, theirs and ours: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank God at all times on your account for the grace of God given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you have been made rich in him, in every word and all understanding, as the testimony to the Christ has been confirmed among you, so that you do not come short in any gift of grace, as you look for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you firm until the end, without reproach on the Day of our Lord Jesus. One must believe in God, by whom you were summoned to the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Still, I entreat you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all to agree with each other, so that there will be no schisms among you, but you will be united in the same mind and the same understanding. For, my brothers, I have been told about you by Chloe and her people; that there are rivalries among you. I mean this: each of you says: I am for Paul; or else: I am for Apollos; or: I am for Peter; or: I am for Christ. Christ is partitioned! Was Paul ever crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I am thankful that I baptized no one of you (except Crispus and Gaius), so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. I did also baptize the household of Stephanas. For the rest, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me forth to baptize, but to preach the gospel; not in accomplished oratory, but so that the cross of the Christ might not be made meaningless.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who go the way of perdition, but to us who go the way of salvation it is the power of God. Since it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will make void the intelligence of the intelligent.
Where is the sage? Where is the scholar? Where is the student of this age? Did not God tum the wisdom of the world to folly? For since by the wisdom of God the world did not, because of its wisdom, know God, God saw fit to save the believers through the folly of what was preached to them. For the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the heathens, but to us who are chosen, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Since the folly of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: that not many of you are wise in the way of the flesh, not many are strong, not many are well born. But God chose out the fools of the world, to shame the wise, and God chose out the weak of the world, to shame the strong, and God chose out the humble and despised of the world; and what is not, to abolish what is; so that no flesh may take pride before God. For you are from him, in Christ Jesus, who was born our wisdom from God, and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written: Let him who takes pride take pride in the Lord.
And I myself when I came to you, brothers, did not come to you with any superiority of speech or wisdom when I proclaimed to you the mystery of God; for I did not judge that, among you, I knew anything except only Jesus Christ, that is, Jesus Christ crucified. And I came to you in weakness and much fear and trembling, and my message and my preaching did not consist in persuasive words of wisdom but in the revelation of spirit and power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. Still, what we say is wisdom, to the initiates, but not the wisdom of this age or of the leaders of this age, who are doomed; but what we say is the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory; which not one of the leaders of this age understood, since if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: All that God made ready for those who love him; which the eye did not see and the ear did not hear, nor did it enter into the heart of man.
For God made his revelation to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God. Who among men knows what is in a man except the spirit of man which is in him? So also no one knows what is in God except the Spirit of God. And we did not receive the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is from God, so that we may know what grace we were given by God; which we also now speak of, not in words which are the teaching of human wisdom, but in words which are the teaching of the Spirit, combining the spiritual with the spiritual. The sensual man does not accept what belongs to the Spirit of God, since it is folly to him, and he cannot understand, because these things are judged spiritually; but the spiritual man judges all things, while he himself is judged by no man. For who knows the mind of the Lord, which will instruct him? But we do have the mind of Christ.
11 And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons, but as fleshly ones, little children in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough. Nor are you even now, since you are still of the flesh. For when there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and going the way of mankind? When one of you says: I am for Paul, and another: I am for Apollos, are you not being human? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants, through whom you got belief, and each as the Lord gave it. I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. So he who plants is nothing, nor he who waters; only God who makes it grow. He who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own wages for his own labor. We are the fellow workers of God; you are God's field, God's architecture.
By the grace of God given to me I laid the foundation like a skilled architect, but another builds upon it. Let every man look to it how he builds; for no one can lay down any foundation beside the one that has been laid down, which is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds upon the foundation in gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, the work of each will become manifest, for the Day will make it plain; because revelation comes by fire, and the fire itself will prove the nature of each man's work. If the work a man has built endures, he will have his reward; if anyone's work bums up, he will be penalized, but he himself will be saved; but as if through fire.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. This you are.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks he is wise among you in this age, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise, for the wisdom of this world is folly with God. Since it is written: He who catches the wise in their shiftiness; and again: The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise; that they are vain. So let no one take pride among men; for all things are yours, whether it be Paul or Apollos or Peter or the world or life or death or present or future; all are yours, but you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
So let a man think of us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. But it is required of any steward that he be found reliable. It means very little to me to be judged by you or by any human day of judgment; nor again do I judge myself, for I am not conscious of any guilt; but I am not justified by that, but he who judges me is the Lord. Do not, therefore, make any judgment before it is time, not until the Lord comes; and he will illuminate what is hidden in darkness and bring to light the counsels of men's hearts; and that will be the time for ea
ch man's praise from God.
I have put this in terms of Apollos and myself for your sake, brothers, so that in us you may understand the saying: Nothing beyond what is written; so that you may not become too emotional each in favor of one against another. For who marks you out for distinction? What do you have which you were not given? And if you did receive something, why do you take pride as if you had been given nothing? Have you had your fill yet? Have you grown rich yet? Have you been made kings, without us? I wish you had been made kings, so that we could be kings along with you.
For I believe God displayed us, the apostles, at the end of the show like men condemned to death; because we have turned into a spectacle for the world, for angels and men alike. We are fools for Christ but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, you are strong. You are respected, we are despised. For until this very day we have been hungry and thirsty and naked, and beaten and driven from place to place, and worn ourselves out working with our own hands. We are reviled and give blessings; we are persecuted and put up with it; we are abused and are conciliatory. We have become the outcasts of the world, the offscouring of everything; to this very day.
I write you this, not to make you ashamed, but as if I were admonishing my own beloved children; for even if you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers; but I am your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So I implore you: copy me. For this reason I have sent you Timothy, who is my child, beloved and faithful in the Lord, and he will recall to you my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.
Some of you became inflated with pride as if I were not coming to you; but if the Lord is willing, I shall come to you soon, and le^n of the proud ones not what they say but what they can do, since the Kingdom of God is not in speech but in power to act. Which do you want? Shall I come to you with a stick, or in love and the spirit of gentleness?
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