In very truth, a case of immorality is reported in your community, and such immorality as is not found even among the heathens: a man has taken his father's wife. And are you pleased with yourselves, rather than so grieved that the man who did this thing must be removed from your presence? For I, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged the man who did this as if I were really there; in the name of our Lord Jesus; with yourselves and my spirit gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus; to hand over a man like this to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his soul may be saved on the Day of the Lord. Your pride is not good. Do you not know that a little leavening raises the whole mass of dough? Clean out the old leavening so that you may be a new baking, unleavened as you are. For even Christ, our paschal lamb, was sacrificed; so let us keep the festival, not in the old leavening, nor in the leavening of baseness and corruption, but in the unleavened bread of purity and truth.
I wrote in my letter to you that you should have nothing to do with lechers; not, that is, meaning the lechers of this world in general, nor the covetous or the rapacious or the idolatrous, since then you would have had to take leave of the world; but in fact I wrote to you that you should have nothing to do with one who is named a brother if he is a lecher, or covetous or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or rapacious; not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those who are outside our number? Do you not judge those who are inside our number, while God judges those who are outside? Drive the evil one out from among you.
1 Does any one of you, who has a case against any other one of you, presume to have it judged before the unjust rather than before the saints? Do you not know, then, that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you then ^^t for the most trivial lawsuits? Do you not know that we shall be judging angels, let alone ordinary cases? And if you have ordinary cases, do you seat in judgment those who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is there among you no man wise enough to be able to decide between brother and brother? Does brother go to law with brother, and before unbelievers too? It is a real fault in you that you have lawsuits against each other at all. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why not rather let yourselves be robbed? But you do wrong and rob, and to brothers too. Or do you not know that wrongdoers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither lechers nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminates nor pederasts nor thieves nor the covetous, none who are drunken or abusive or rapacious, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And some of you have been these very things; but you have been washed clean and sanctified and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful for me; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful for me, but I shall not be in the power of anything. Foods are for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will put an end to both the one and the other. But the body is not for lechery but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body; and God both raised the Lord from the dead and also will raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are the limbs of Christ? Then shall I take the limbs of Christ and make them the limbs of a whore? Never. Or do you not know that he who clings to a whore is one body with her; for, says scripture, the two shall be one flesh. But he who clings to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee from lechery. Any other sin a man may commit is outside his body, but the lecher sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, which you have from God? And you are not your own, since you were bought for a price. Then glorify God in your body.
Concerning the matters you wrote me of, it is a good thing for a man not to touch any woman; but to save you from loose living, let each man have his own wife, and each woman have her own husband. Let the husband give his wife her due, and so likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body; her husband does; and so likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body; his wife does. Do not deny each other, except by agreement for a time when you can devote yourselves to prayer, and then be as you were before; for fear Satan may entice you through incontinence. I tell you this as a concession, not as a command. What I should like is for all people to be as I but each person has his own endowment from God, some of one kind and some of another.
And I say to the unmarried and the widows, that it is good to remain as I am; but if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire. And to those who are married, I command; no, not I, but the Lord: that a wife should not separate from her husband; and if she does separate herself, she must remain single or else be reconciled with her husband; and a man should not divorce his wife.
And to the others I, not the Lord, say this: If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her; and a woman who has a husband who is an unbeliever and who consents to live with her should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is hallowed by his wife, and the unbelieving wife is hallowed by one who is a brother; since otherwise your children are impure, but this way they are hallowed. But if the unbeliever separates, let him or her be separate; the brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God called you in peace. For how do you know, wife, if you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, if you will save your wife?
Unless the Lord has so directed, let everyone go on as he was when God called him; and I so order in all the churches. Was one circumcised when he was called? Let him not try to undo it. Was one uncircumcised when he was called? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision means nothing and uncircumcision means nothing; only keeping the commandments of God means anything. Let each remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Let it not trouble you; but even if you can become free, make the best of your condition; for the slave called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman, and so likewise the free man called is the
Lord's slave. You were bought for a price; do not become the slaves of human beings. As each one was when called, brothers, so let him remain before God.
Concerning those who are unmarried I have no mandate from the Lord, but I give you my opinion as one who has been mercifully granted by the Lord to be trustworthy. I think that, because of the impending peril, it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek freedom. Are you free of a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if an unmarried girl marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have affliction in the flesh. I am trying to spare you. But this I do say, brothers: our time is now short. For the time that remains, let even those who have wives be as if they did not; let those who mourn be as if they did not mourn, and those who rejoice be as if they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as if they kept nothing; and those who use the world, as if they got no use of it. For the form of this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from care. The unmarried man cares about the things of the Lord and how he can please the Lord; but the married man cares about the things of the world and how he can please his wife, and he is of two minds. And the unmarried woman and the virgin care about the things of the Lord, how to be pure in body and spirit; but the married woman cares about the things of the world, and how she can please her husband. I say this for your own good, not to throw a noose around you, but for the sake of propriety, and undistracted devotion to the Lord.
But if a man thinks he is acting shamefully toward his girl if he becomes too impassioned, and it has to be so, let him do what he wants. He is not sinning; let them marry. But the man who stands firm in his heart, and is not constrained, but has control over his will and decides in his own heart to keep his girl a virgin, will be doing well. Thus the one who marries his girl does well, and the one who does not marry does b
etter.
A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as it is marriage in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my opinion; for I think I myself have the spirit of God.
Concerning idol offerings, we are sure that we all have knowledge. Knowledge inflates with pride; love builds. If a man thinks he knows something, he still does not know it as he ought to know it; but if one loves God, he is known by him. Concerning, then, the eating of idol offerings, we know that an idol has no existence in the world, and that there is no god but the one God. For if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and we are his; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and we exist through him.
But this knowledge is not in all; and some, through being accustomed hitherto to idols, eat food as if it were idol offerings, and their conscience, being weak, is soiled. But food will not bring us to God; nor, if we do not eat, do we have less; nor, if we do eat, do we have more. But see to it that your freedom does not become a cause of trouble to the weak. For if one sees you, the possessor of understanding, dining in an idol temple, will not his conscience, being weak, be encouraged to eat idol offerings? Then the weak man is undone by your understanding; your brother, for whom Christ died. Thus by s^ming against your brothers and battering their weak conscience you are sinning against Christ. Therefore if my eating drives my brother astray, I will never eat meat any more, so as not to drive my brother astray.
11 ^m I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord? Are you not my handiwork in the Lord? Even if to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, since you are the proof of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my answer to those who call me to account. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take one of our number with us as wife, like the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers and Peter? Do only B^abas and I not have the right not to be laborers? Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who herds a flock and does not drink milk from the flock? Do I speak as an individual or does the law also say this? For in the law of Moses it is written: You shall not muzzle the ox who threshes the grain. Can God be concerned with the oxen, or is he really speaking about us? For it is for us that it is written that the plower must plow in hope, and the thresher must be in hope, of getting his share. If we sowed the things of the spirit among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? If others have this right from you, should we not even more?
But we have not used that right, but we suffer everything so as not to offer any obstruction to the gospel of the Christ. Do you not know that those who perform sacrifices eat some of what has been sacrificed, and those who serve at the altar have their share from the altar? Even so has the Lord instructed those who bring the gospel to live from the gospel. But I have not made use of any of these privileges. I did not write this so that it should be thus for me; for it is better for me to die than that anyone should make my pride an empty thing. For if I preach the gospel, that is no source of pride for me, since the necessity has been laid upon me; woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I have my reward; but if I do it not of my own will, I have been entrusted with a duty. What then is my reward? That, as I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel be free of charge, so as not to use up the privilege which the gospel gives me.
For, being free from all, I have enslaved myself to all, so that I may win over the more people. And I have made myself like a Jew to the Jews so as to win over Jews; to those subject to the law like one subject to the law, though I ^ not myself subject to the law, so as to win over those subject to the law; to those outside the law like one outside the law, though I am not outside the law of God but within the law of Christ, so as to win over those outside the law. To the weak I have made myself weak, to win over the weak. I have made myself all things to all people, so that by some means or other I may save some. And I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may have my share in the gospel.
Do you not know that when they run in the stadium they all run, but only one wins the prize? Run to win. And everyone who competes keeps in training in every way; but they, to win a perishable wreath; we, for an imperishable one. I myself do not race without a goal; I do not box to punish the air; but I batter my own body and enslave it; so that, while calling others to action, I may not myself be disqualified.
11 Now I do not wish you to be unmindful of the fact, brothers, that our fathers all went under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized into Moses under the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock which went with them, and the rock was the Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them; for they died in the desert. These things took place as examples for us, to keep us from desiring evil things as they desired them. Do not become idolaters like some of them; as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and they stood up to play. And let us not be lecherous as some of them were lecherous, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. And let us not make trial of the Lord as some of them made trial of him, and they were killed by the snakes. And do not grumble as some of them grumbled, and they were killed by the angel of death. These things made an example of them, and were written of for our instruction, for us with whom the end of the world coincides.
So let him who thinks he is standing see to it that he does not fall. No trial has come upon you which is not human; and God is to be trusted, who will not let you be tried beyond your powers, but with the trial will give you a way out by your being able to endure.
Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. The cup of blessing which we bless, is that not participation in the blood of the Christ? The loaf which we break, is that not participation in the body of the Christ? Because we many are one loaf, one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Consider Israel in the matter of the flesh. Do not those who eat the sacrifices share in the altar of sacrifice? What then am I saying? That what is sacrificed to idols amounts to something, or that the idol amounts to something? Rather, that what they sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I would not have you be partners of demons. You cannot dr^^ the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we challenging the Lord? Surely we are not stronger than he?
All things are lawful; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful; but not all are helpful. Let no one look for his o^ good, but for that of the other man.
Eat anything that is sold in the butcher shop without discriminating because of conscience, for the earth with all that fills it belongs to the Lord. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, eat everything that is set before you without discriminating because of conscience. But if someone says to you: This is sacrificial meat, do not eat it, for the sake of him who told you, and for conscience; the conscience, I mean, not of oneself but of the other man. For why is my freedom judged by the conscience of another? And if I partake in thankfulness, why ^ I insulted because of that for which I ^ thankful?
Then, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Be inoffensive toward Jews and
Greeks and the church of God, as I also try to please all in all ways, looking not for my own advantage but for that of the many, so that they may be saved.
Copy me, as I copy Christ.
I have praise for you because you remember everything I say and maintain traditions as I have handed
them on to you. But I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of the Christ is God. Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered disgraces his head; and any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head; for it is one and the same thing as having a shaven head. If a woman unveils her head, let it be shorn also; but if it is shameful for a woman to have a shorn or shaven head, let her cover it. A man does not need to cover his head, since he is the image and semblance of God; but a woman is the semblance of a man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man; since indeed man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. Therefore a woman should take care of her head, because of the angels. But, in the Lord, woman does not exist apart from man, nor man apart from woman. For as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; and all is from God.
Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? Does not nature herself teach you that, if a man has long hair, it is his disgrace, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? Since her hair is given to her for a covering. But if I seem to be arbitrary, it is because we do not have that custom, nor do the churches of God.
In giving you my instructions, I have this fault to find with you, that your meetings do more harm than good. For in the first place, I hear that, when you meet together in church, there are dissensions among you; and this in part I believe. For there must be factions among you, so that those who are the true ones may become known among you. Then again, when you meet together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's supper; because each one at dinner seizes his own portion first; and one man goes hungry, another man gets d^^k. Do you not have your homes for eating and drinking? Or do you despise the church of God, and put to shame those who are needy? What am I to say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you.
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