Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians

1* Paul, a chosen apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, and Brother Sosthenes, 2 to God’s church at Corinth, men sanctified in Christ Jesus, holy men called,—with all who in every place invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, theirs and ours,— 3 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I am always thanking God for you on account of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus, 5* that in everything you have been enriched in him, in all the gift of speech and in all knowledge, 6 as the testimony of the Christ has become a settled thing among you, 7 so that you do not come short in any grace while you await the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also settle you to be entirely blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into solidarity with his son Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 But I urge you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all to say the same thing and not to have rifts among you, but to be welded into the same mind and the same sentiments. 11 For it was stated to me about you by Chloe’s people, my brothers, that there are discords among you. 12 I mean this: that each of you is saying “I am a Paul man,” “And I am an Apollos man,” “And I am a Cephas man,” “And I am a Christ man”; 13 the Christ is broken up! Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized into Paul’s name? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you but Crispus and Gaius, 15 so as not to have someone say you were baptized into my name. 16 And I did baptize Stephanas’s family too; after all, I do not know whether I baptized anybody else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to bring the gospel; not in wisdom of language, in order that the Christ’s cross may not be nullified.

18 For speech about the cross is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction, but to us the saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will discredit.” 20 What becomes of a philosopher? of a scholar? of a scientist? did not God make the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since in God’s wisdom the world had not through wisdom known God, God was pleased to save believers through the foolishness of the preached message— 22 since Jews ask for tokens and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach a crucified Christ, to Jews a thing unmentionable, and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to the called themselves, Jews and Greeks both, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God; 25 because what is foolish of God’s is wiser than men, and what is weak of God’s is stronger than men. 26 For, brothers, look at your calling, that it is not a case of many who are wise in a mortal sense, many powerful, many aristocratic, 27 but God chose the foolish parts of the world in order to shame the wise men, and God chose the weak parts of the world in order to shame the strong parts, 28* and God chose the lowborn parts and the scorned parts, the nothings, in order to supersede with them the somethings, 29 so that no mortal should boast in the presence of God. 30 And from him you are something in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order to have it as is written, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

2* And I, brothers, when I came to you, came not announcing God’s testimony to you with a superior quality of language or wisdom; 2 for I decided not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; 3 and I showed weakness and fear and much trembling while I was with you, 4* and my language and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with proof by Spirit and power, 5 in order that your faith may not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.

6 But we do speak wisdom among those who are qualified; but a wisdom not of this world nor of this world’s supersedable rulers, 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a secret knowledge, the wisdom hidden away, which God foreordained for our glory before time was; 8 which no one of this world’s rulers knows,—for if they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory,— 9 but, as it is written, what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and man’s heart has not thought of, the things that God has prepared for those who love him; 10 for God has revealed them to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God. 11 For who of men knows the things personal to a man except the man’s spirit which is in him? in the same way nobody knows the things personal to God except God’s Spirit. 12 And we received not the world’s spirit but the Spirit from God, in order that we might know the things granted to us by God; 13 which things we likewise speak not in words taught by human wisdom but in Spirit-taught, matching spiritual with spiritual. 14 But an animal man does not accept the things that belong to God’s Spirit; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are to be spiritually examined; 15 but the spiritual man examines everything and is himself examined by nobody. 16* For “who knows the Lord’s mind and will instruct him?” And we have Christ’s mind.

3 And on my part, brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual men but as flesh men, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you milk, not regular food, for as yet you did not have the capability; why, even now you do not. 3 For you are still fleshly. For where there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not fleshly and walking in human fashion? 4 For when one says “I am a Paul man,” but another “I an Apollos man,” are you not human?

5 What is Apollos, then? And what is Paul? Servitors through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him: 6 I did the setting out, Apollos the watering, but God made the growth. 7 So that neither the setter-out is anything nor the waterer, but God who makes the growth. 8 And the setter-out and the waterer are one. But each will get his pay appropriately to his labor. 9* For we are God’s assistants; you are God’s farm—God’s building. 10 In accordance with the grace given to me, like a wise master-builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it.

But let each one look out how he builds on it. 11 For nobody can lay any other foundation beside the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12* But if one builds onto the foundation gold, silver, fine stones, wood, weed-stalks, straw, 13* each man’s work will show up. For the day will reveal it, because in fire it is disclosed, and the very fire will test what sort of work each man’s is. 14 If anyone’s work that he built on it stands, he will receive payment; 15 if anyone’s work burns up, he will be the loser, but he will himself come safe through, but in such fashion as one comes through a fire. 16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and God’s Spirit makes its home in you? 17 If anybody undoes God’s temple, God will undo him. For God’s temple is sacred; and you are it.

18 Let nobody deceive himself. If anybody thinks he is a wise one among you, in these times let him become a fool in order that he may come to be wise; 19 for this world’s wisdom is foolishness in the presence of God, for it is written “he who clutches the wise in the midst of their shiftiness” 20 and again “The Lord knows wise men’s ponderings to be futile.” 21 Consequently let nobody boast about men. For everything belongs to you, 22 be it Paul or Apollos or Cephas or world or life or death or present or future: everything belongs to you, 23 and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

4 Let a man rate us as agents, and trustees of God’s secrets. 2 Now then, what is wanted in trustees is that one should be found faithful. 3* But to me it is highly unimportant that I should be examined by you or by a human investigation. Why, I do not even examine myself; 4 for I have nothing on my conscience, but I am not made out righteous by this. But it is the Lord that is my examiner. 5 Consequently do not pass judgment on anything too soon; not till the Lord comes, who will both throw light on the things hidden in darkness and make the intentions of hearts visible; and then each will get his praise from God.

6** But in treating all this as though it applied to myself and Apollos I did it on your account, brothers, in order that you might learn on us not to go beyond the record, so that you should not be puffed up one of you on one’s behalf against another. 7 For who is differentiating you? and what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you had not? 8 You have had all you could hold already; you have already grown rich; you have come into the kingship without us—and I wish you had come into the kingship so that we too might come into it with you. 9 For I guess God has put us apostles last on the program like men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle for the world, men and angels both. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are intelligent men in Christ; we weak, but you strong; you in high standing, but we disreputable. 11 Down to the present moment we go hungry, go thirsty, go naked, get hit with fists, go homeless, 12 work hard with our own hands, pronounce blessings while we are being abused, bear up while we are being persecuted, 13* give encouragement while we are being disparaged; it comes to be as if we were the offscourings of the world, the scum of everything, up to now.

14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to admonish you as dearly-loved children of mine. 15 For if you should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, many fathers you would not; for I, through the gospel, brought you to birth in Christ Jesus. 16 So I urge you, be imitators of me. 17 That was the very reason why I sent you Timothy, who is my dearly-loved and trusted child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach everywhere in every church. 18 But some have been puffed up as if I were not coming to you; 19* but come to you I speedily will, if the Lord permit, and know not the words of the puffed-up ones but their power, 20 for the Reign of God is not in words but in power. 21 What do you want? am I to come to you with a rod or in love and the spirit of meekness?

5 There is talk of such a thing as unchastity among you, and such unchastity as there is not even among the heathen, so that one has his father’s wife; 2 and you are puffed up, and did not rather go to mourning, so that the one who had done that thing would be got out from your midst? 3 For I, absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as present, come to the decision—you and my spirit, 4 together with the power of our Lord Jesus, being assembled in the Lord Jesus Christ’s name— 5 to hand over to Satan the man with such a record, the one that did that in that fashion, for destruction of the flesh in order that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. 6 Your boast is not a good one. Do you not know that a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough yeasty? 7 Clean out the old yeast in order that you may be a new batch as you are unyeasty men—for our passover is sacrificed, Christ, 8 so let us keep the feast not with old yeast nor with yeast of viciousness and villainy but with yeastless bread of candor and truth.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to be mixed up with libertines; 10 not in general, this world’s libertines, or overreaching and grasping people or idolaters, since you would be obliged to go out of the world; 11 but I did tell you not to be mixed up if anyone who goes by the name of brother is a libertine or overreaching or an idolater or abusive or drunken or grasping, not even to eat with the one who is like that. 12 For what business is it of mine to judge the outsiders? do not you do the judging of the insiders, 13* but God the judging of the outsiders? Get the vicious man out of your company.

6 Does anyone of you, when he has a difficulty with another, dare to bring the case before the lawless and not before the holy? 2 Or do you not know that the holy will judge the world? and if the world gets judged by you, are you unfit for petty trials? 3 Do you not know we shall judge angels? not to say secular matters.

4 Then if you do have secular cases to try, it is just those who do not amount to anything in the church that you set on the bench! 5* I say it to your shame. Are you so totally without any wise man among you who can decide between his brothers, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 It is a blot on you anyhow, to begin with, that you do have lawsuits with each other; why not sooner have injustice done you? why not sooner have your rightful dues held back? 8 But you yourselves do injustice and hold back rightful dues, and to brothers at that; 9 or do you not know that unjust men will not inherit God’s Reign? Make no mistake: neither libertines nor idolaters nor adulterers nor any who practice sodomy or submit to it 10 nor thieves nor overreaching or drunken or abusive or grasping people will inherit the Reign of God. 11* And that is what you, some of you, were; but you were washed clean! you were sanctified! but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God!

12 Everything is free to me, but not everything is advantageous. Everything is free to me, but I for my part am not going to be brought into subjection by anything. 13 Foods for the stomach, and the stomach for foods—but God will supersede both that and those. But the body is not for unchastity but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body; 14 and God both raised the Lord and will raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are organs of Christ? So am I to take away the Christ’s organs and make them organs of a loose woman? away with the thought! 16* Or do you not know that he who has a connection with a loose woman is one body? for “the two shall become one flesh,” it says. 17* But he who has a connection with the Lord is one spirit.

18** Keep clear of unchastity! Any sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who has unchaste relations sins against his own body. 19* Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that you have in you, which comes to you from God, and you do not belong to yourselves? 20* For you were bought and paid for. Glorify God in your body.

8* But I say to the unmarried and the widows, it is a good thing for them if they remain the same as I am; 9 but if they are not masters of themselves let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be burned. 10 But married couples I enjoin, not I but the Lord, that wife must not separate from husband— 11 or if she does, let her remain unmarried or make up with her husband—and that husband must not divorce wife. 12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is satisfied to live with him, let him not divorce her, 13 and whatever woman has an unbelieving husband and he is satisfied to live with her, let her not divorce her husband. 14 For the unbelieving husband is consecrated in the wife and the unbelieving wife is consecrated in the husband; else your children would be unclean; but in fact they are holy. 15* But if the unbeliever separates, let him; the brother or sister is not fettered in such cases. But it is in peace that God has called us. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

17 Only, as the Lord has allotted each his share, as God has called each one, so let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. 18 One was called in circumcised condition—let him not obliterate the mark; one was called in uncircumcised condition—let him not get himself circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of God’s commandments. 20 In the call that came to each, in that let him remain. 21* You were called as a slave—do not be concerned about it, but if you do have the chance to become free, prefer to carry on. 22 For the slave who has been called in the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; likewise the freeman when he is called is Christ’s slave; 23 you were bought and paid for—do not become slaves of men. 24 Let each one, brothers, as a member of God’s household remain in what he was called in.

25 But as to maidens I do not have any order given by the Lord, but give my judgment as one to whom the Lord has granted the mercy of being trusted. 26 I think this is best, then, in view of the straits we are in: it is best for a man to be so. 27 You are bound to a wife—do not try for release; you are free from a wife—do not try for a wife. 28 But if you do marry you have not sinned, and if the maiden marries she has not sinned; but such will have distress for the flesh, and I am having consideration for you. 29 But this I do say, brothers, the times are under pressure, so that hereafter those who have wives should be as if they did not have them, 30 and those who weep as if they were not weeping, and those who rejoice as if they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as not having obtained title, 31 and those who deal with the world as not having the use of it; for this world’s shows are transient.

32 But I want you free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious over what belongs to the Lord, how to please the Lord; 33 but the man who has married is anxious over what belongs to the world, how to please his wife, 34 and is divided. And the unmarried woman and the maiden is anxious over what belongs to the Lord in order that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but the woman who has married is anxious over what belongs to the world, how to please her husband. 35 But I am saying this in your own interest, not in order to put a halter on you but with a view to what will be respectable and favorable to undistracted listening to the Lord.

36 But if anybody feels that he will be acting discreditably toward his maiden if she is overage, and that is the way it has to be, let him do what he will, he is not sinning; let them marry. 37 But he who stands fast in his heart, not being under a compulsion but having freedom to go by his own will, and has come to this decision in his own heart, to keep his maiden, will be doing well. 38* So that equally he who marries his maiden is doing well, and he who does not will be doing better.

39 A wife is bound for such time as her husband is alive; but if her husband goes to his rest she is free to marry whom she will, only in the Lord; 40 but she is happier if she remains so, in my opinion. And I think I too have God’s spirit.

8 And as to meat from idol-sacrifices: we are aware that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anybody thinks he knows anything, he has not known yet as one needs to know. 3 But if anybody loves God, that man is known by him.

4 Well, then, as to the eating of meat from idol-sacrifices, we are aware that there is no such thing in the world as an idol-god and that there is no God but one— 5 for, though it be a fact that there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6* yet for us there is one God, the Father, out of whom comes everything and into whom come we; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom comes everything, and through him we. 7 But not everybody has the knowledge in him; and some, by habituation to the idol-god heretofore, eat as from an idol-sacrifice, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 And a food will not be a recommendation to God for us: we are neither in inferior standing if we do not eat nor in especially good standing if we do. 9 But look out that this right of yours does not possibly become a snag for the feet of the weak. 10 For if one sees you, the one who has the knowledge, taking a meal in an idol-temple, will not his conscience, weak as he is, be built up into eating meat from idol-sacrifices? 11 why, by your knowledge the weak one is perishing, the brother on whose account Christ died! 12 And so, sinning against the brothers and battering their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13* Wherefore if a food is tripping my brother up I will go without meat forever in order not to trip my brother up.

19 For when I was free from everybody I enslaved myself to everybody in order to get the greatest number; 20* and I behaved to the Jews like a Jew in order to get Jews, to those under the law like one under the law when I was not myself under the law, in order to get those under the law, 21 to the lawless like a lawless man when I was not lawless for God but law-abiding for Christ, in order to get the lawless; 22 I became anything to anybody in order anyhow to save some. 23 And I do everything on account of the gospel, in order to become a fellow-participant in it.

24 Do you not know that those who run in the races all run, but one gets the prize? Run in such a way that you may arrive. 25 And everybody who goes into the contests masters himself in every respect; they, indeed, aiming to win a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26* Well, then, I run not in aimless fashion; I spar not in the way of shadowboxing, 27* but bang my body about and make a slave of it, for fear that after I had been herald to others I should myself fail to make good.

10 For we do not want you to lack the knowledge, brothers, that our fathers were all of them under the cloud and all went through the sea 2 and all had themselves baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink (for they drank out of a spiritual rock that went along with them; and the rock was the Christ), 5* but God was not pleased with most of them; for they fell along the desert road. 6* And in these respects they were types of us, so that we may not take to desiring bad things as some of them did. 7 And do not become idolaters, as did some of them, as it is written “The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.” 8 And let us not go into sexual debauchery, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9* And let us not put the Lord to a test, as some of them tested him and perished by the snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them grumbled and perished by the destroyer. 11* And these things befell them by way of types, and were recorded for admonition to us, in whom the ages have reached their goal. 12 Consequently, let him who thinks he is standing look out that he does not fall. 13 There has not any temptation caught you but such as is the lot of man. And God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond your power, but with the temptation will also make the way out so that you may be able to stand it. 14 Wherefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

15 I speak as one does to sensible men; judge of what I say yourselves. 16 The blessing-cup that we bless, is it not participation in the blood of the Christ? the loaf of bread that we break, is it not participation in the body of the Christ? 17 because we, many as we are, are one loaf, one body; for we all share in the one loaf. 18 Look at Israel, Israel in the fleshly sense: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants with the altar?

19 What am I saying then? that an idol-sacrifice is anything, or that there is any such thing as an idol-god? 20* no, but that what they sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the Lord’s cup and demons’ cup! you cannot share the Lord’s table and demons’ table! 22 Or are we teasing the Lord into jealousy? are we stronger than he?

23 Everything is permissible, but not everything is advantageous. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. 24 Let nobody look after what is for himself, but what is for the other man. 25 Eat anything that is offered for sale at a market, without making any inquiries for reasons of conscience; 26 for “the earth and all that fills it belong to the Lord.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you and you choose to go, eat anything that is brought to the table without making any inquiries for reasons of conscience. 28 But if somebody tells you “this is sacrifice meat,” do not eat, because of him, the one that informed you, and for reasons of conscience— 29* and I do not mean one’s own conscience but the other man’s; for to what purpose is my liberty judged by another conscience? 30 If I partake with gratitude, why am I vilified over what I give thanks for?

31 So, whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything, do everything to God’s glory. 32 Have nothing about you that either Jew or Greek or the church of God could stub their toes on, 33 in the same way as I am pleasing everybody about everything, not looking out for my own interests but for those of the many, that they may be saved.

11 Be imitators of me in the same way as I am of Christ.

2* And I praise you that you thoroughly remember me and stick to the correct line as I passed it on to you. 3* But I want you to know that every man’s head is the Christ, and a woman’s head the man, and the Christ’s head God. 4 Any man praying or prophesying with anything on his head is disgracing his head. 5 But a woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered is disgracing her head, for it is one and the same thing as a shaved woman. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her have her hair cut too; but if having her hair cut or shaved is disgraceful for a woman, let her be covered. 7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, he being the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man, 8 for man does not have his being out of woman but woman out of man; 9 for, also, man was not created on account of the woman but a woman on account of the man. 10 For this reason the woman ought to have a safeguard over her head because of the angels. 11 There is not in the Lord, though, woman apart from man nor man apart from woman; 12 for as the woman comes out of the man, so does the man too come through the woman; and everything comes out of God.

13* Judge in your own consciences: is it proper for a woman to pray uncovered to God? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him, 15 but if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her, because she is given her hair to serve as a wrap?

16 But if anybody sees fit to be disputatious,—we do not have such a custom, and neither do God’s churches.

17* But this injunction I give without praise for your way of coming together not for the better but for the worse: 18 for, in the first place, when you come together in a church meeting I hear there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it, 19* for there do have to be factions among you in order that it may become apparent among you which ones are of the right kind. 20 So when you meet together there is no eating a supper of the Lord’s, 21 for each one is getting a start in the eating to take his own supper, and one goes hungry and another has had too much drink. 22 Why, have you no houses for eating and drinking? or are you despising the church of God and shaming those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? am I to praise you over this? I do not.

23 For I received from the Lord that same thing that I handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was to be arrested, took bread 24 and gave thanks and broke it and said “This is my body that goes for you; do this in remembrance of me”; 25 in the same way the cup too, after eating the supper, saying “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, as often as you drink, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are announcing the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 Consequently one who eats the Lord’s bread or drinks his cup in unworthy fashion will be liable for the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man see how he is to be rated, and in such fashion eat from the loaf and drink from the cup; 29 for he who eats and drinks is eating and drinking a judgment upon himself when he does not distinguish the body. 30 That is why there are among you many weakly and sick, and a number have gone to their rest. 31 But if we saw how we stood, we should not be judged; 32 but in being judged we are being disciplined by the Lord, in order that we may not be condemned with the world.

33 Consequently, my brothers, when you come together to eat wait for each other. 34* If anybody is hungry let him eat at home, in order that your coming together may not run you into judgment. And as to the rest I will give directions when I shall come.

12 And about the workings of the Spirit, brothers, I do not wish you to be ignorant. 2 You know when you were heathen you were carried away to the voiceless idols, however it was done. 3* For this reason I make it known to you that nobody speaking in the Spirit of God says “Jesus is accursed,” and nobody can say “Jesus is Lord” except in Holy Spirit.

4 But there are different lines of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are different lines of service and the same Lord; 6 and there are different lines of divine workings and the same God, he who works everything in everybody. 7 But each one is given such a manifestation of the Spirit as will be advantageous. 8 For one through the Spirit is given words of wisdom, and another words of knowledge after the same Spirit, 9 somebody else faith, in the same Spirit, and another gifts of healing, in the one Spirit, 10 and another miracle-workings, another prophecy, another discrimination between spirits, somebody else different kinds of languages, and another the translating of languages. 11 But in all these one and the same Spirit is at work, distributing to each individually as it wishes.

12 For just as the body is one and has many organs, but all the organs of the body, many as they are, are one body, so it is with the Christ; 13 for we too were all baptized in one Spirit into one body, be we Jews or Greeks, be we slaves or freemen, and were all given one Spirit to drink in.

14 For neither is the body one organ, but many. 15 If the foot says “Because I am not a hand I am no part of the body” it is not on that account no part of the body, 16 and if the ear says “Because I am not an eye I am no part of the body” it is not on that account no part of the body. 17 If the body were wholly eye, where would be the hearing? if wholly ear, where the smelling? 18 But now God did put the organs each one of them in the body as he chose; 19 and if all were one organ, where would be the body? 20 but now there are many organs but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand “I have no need of you,” or again the head to the feet “I have no need of you,” 22 but, much rather, what seem to be weak organs of the body are necessary, 23 and it is just what we think are less honorable parts of the body that we invest with special honor, and the indecorous parts of us have special decorum, 24 but the decorous parts of us stand in no need. But God commingled the body, giving special honor to what came short, 25 in order that there might not be division in the body, but the organs might feel the same solicitude for each other; 26 and be it that one organ suffers, all the organs suffer with it; be it that one organ is decorated, all the organs rejoice with it.

27 And you are Christ’s body, and, individually, organs; 28* and in the church God has put some, first, as apostles; secondly, as prophets; thirdly, as teachers; then miracles, then gifts of healing, assistance, management, different kinds of languages. 29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? do all work miracles? 30 do all have gifts of healing? do all speak languages? do all translate?

31* But aspire to the greater gifts. And let me point out to you an even preeminent course.

13* If I speak the languages of men and angels but do not have love, I turn into a gong sounding or a cymbal clashing; 2 and if I have prophecy and know all secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing; 3 and if I give all my possessions in charity, and if I give up my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I am none the better. 4 Love is patient, kind; love is not jealous; love does not show off, does not get inflated, 5 does not shock people, does not look out for its own interests, does not get provoked, does not count its injuries, 6 is not glad at a wrong deed but glad to have the truth made glad, 7 stands everything, believes everything, hopes everything, holds out through everything. 8* Love never drops away; but as for prophecies they will be superseded, as for languages they will come to a stop, as for knowledge it will be superseded; 9 for it is in part that we know and in part that we prophesy, 10 but when the complete comes the partial will be superseded. 11 When I was a child I used a child’s language, took a child’s views, made a child’s calculations; since I have become a man I have superseded the child’s ways. 12 For we see now by a mirror, as a puzzle to be guessed at, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall be aware in the same way as he was aware of me. 13 And now there remain faith, hope, love—these three. And greatest of these is love.

14 Aim at love; but aspire to the manifestations of the Spirit, but preferably that you should prophesy. 2* For he who speaks a language is speaking not to men but to God, for nobody understands, but in spirit he is speaking secrets; 3 but he who prophesies is speaking upbuilding and exhortation and comfort for men. 4 He who speaks a language is building himself up; but he who prophesies is building up the church. 5* And I want to have you all speak languages, but preferably to have you prophesy; and he who prophesies is superior to him who speaks languages, except in case he translates so that the church may get an upbuilding.

6 And now, brothers, if I come to you speaking languages what good shall I do you unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or teaching? 7 It is the same with lifeless sound-producers: be it flute or be it harp, if it does not make a distinction in the notes how will the tune that is being played be known? 8* For, again, if a trumpet makes an unclear sound, who will get ready for war? 9 So with you too: if by your tongues you do not produce plain speech, how will the meaning that is being spoken be known? for you will be talking into the air. 10 There are so many kinds, say, of sounds in the world, and none unvocal; if, then, 11* I do not know the force of the sound, I shall be senseless to the speaker and the speaker senseless to me. 12* In the same way you: since you are aspirants to spirit-gifts, try to excel for the upbuilding of the church.

13 Wherefore, let him who speaks a language pray that he may translate. 14 For if I pray in a language, my spirit is praying but my mind is not fruiting. 15 So what is the thing to do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind too; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind too.— 16 Since if you bless in spirit, how is he who occupies the commoner’s place to say the Amen to your thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 you are giving thanks well, but the other man is not being built up. 18 I thank God, I speak languages more freely than any of you; 19 but in meeting I had rather speak five sentences with my mind, in order to enlighten others too, than ten thousand sentences in a language.

20 Brothers, do not be children in intelligence; as to viciousness do be childlike, but in intelligence be adult. 21 In the law it stands written “By men of alien language and by alien lips I will speak to this people, and not even so will they listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Consequently languages are for a token not to believers but to unbelievers, but prophecy not to unbelievers but to believers. 23* If then the whole church meets together and all are speaking languages, and commoners or unbelievers come in, will they not say you are crazy? 24 But if all are prophesying, and some unbeliever or commoner comes in, he is reproved by all, he is put through an examination by all, 25 the things hidden in his heart come out; and thus he will throw himself down on his face and do reverence to God, declaring that God really is among you.

39 Consequently, brothers, aspire to prophesying, and do not bar speaking languages; 40 but let everything be done in a respectable and orderly way.

15 But, brothers, let me make you acquainted with the gospel I preached to you, the same that you received, the same that you stand on, 2 the same that you are saved by, in what terms I preached it to you, if you are holding to it—except in case you believed for nothing! 3 For I handed on to you as a foremost thing the same thing I received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with scripture, 4 and that he was buried, and that he rose the third day in accordance with scripture, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve; 6* then he appeared to above five hundred brothers at a time, of whom the majority are with us until now, but some have gone to their rest; 7 then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as it were to the runt born by abortion, he appeared to me too. 9* For I am the most insignificant of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s church; 10 but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not a failure, but I out-toiled all of them—yet not I, but God’s grace with me.

11 So, be it I or they, we preach that way and you believed that way. 12 But if Christ is preached to have risen from the dead, how do some among you say there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has risen; 14 and if Christ has not risen, then our preaching has nothing in it, your faith has nothing in it either, 15 and into the bargain we are found to be false witnesses against God, because we testified as to God that he raised the Christ, whom he did not raise if we are to take it that the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, not even Christ has risen; 17 and if Christ has not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. 18 Then those who have gone to their rest in Christ perished too. 19 If we are hoping in Christ in this life only, we are most pitiable of all men.

20* But now Christ has risen from the dead, first to come in of those who have gone to their rest. 21 For since death came through a man, resurrection of the dead came through a man too. 22* For as by Adam all are dying, so too by the Christ all are going to be brought to life, 23* but each when his turn comes: Christ the first to come in; then those who belong to Christ, at his coming; 24 then the end, when he hands the empire over to God the Father, when he has superseded every government and every authority and power, 25 for he has to reign “until he has put all enemies under his feet.” 26* Last of the enemies death is superseded. 27 For “he has subjected everything under his feet”; but, when it says “everything” is subjected, evidently exclusive of him who subjected everything to him. 28 But when everything has been subjected to him, then the Son himself too will be subjected to him who subjected everything to him, in order that God may be everything in everything.

29 Because what will those who get baptized for the dead do? if dead men do not rise anyhow, why go the length of getting baptized for them? 30 Why, too, do we ourselves run risks every moment? 31 I am dying day after day, I swear it by the boast of you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If as far as men were concerned I fought the beasts in Ephesus, what good does it do me? if dead men do not rise, “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Make no mistake; “keeping bad company spoils good characters”; 34* sober up honestly and do not sin; for some folks are sheer materialists—I speak to stir your sense of shame.

35 But somebody will say “How do the dead rise? and with what sort of body do they come?” 36 Silly man, what you yourself sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37 and of what you sow you sow not the body that is to come but a naked grain, of wheat say or some one of the rest; 38 and God gives it a body as he has willed, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39 Flesh is not all of it the same flesh, but there is one of men, and another flesh of cattle, and another flesh of fowl, and another of fishes. 40 And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one type and that of the earthly is other: 41 one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. 42 So too the resurrection of the dead: it is sowed in dissolution, it rises in imperishability; 43 it is sowed in ignominy, it rises in glory; it is sowed in weakness, it rises in power; 44* it is sowed an animal body, it rises a spiritual body. If there is an animal body there is a spiritual too. 45 It is written so too, the first man Adam “became a living soul”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 But there is not first the spiritual, but the animal, then the spiritual. 47 The first man was out of the earth, a figure of clay; the second man, out of heaven. 48 Such as the figure of clay, such also are those who are of clay, and such as the heavenly one, such also are those who are heavenly; 49 and as we have worn the likeness of the figure of clay, let us wear the likeness of the heavenly one also.

50 But this I do say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Reign of God, nor does dissolution inherit imperishability. 51 Here I tell you a secret: we shall not all go to our rest, but we shall all be changed in an instant, 52 in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this that is perishable has to dress itself in imperishability, and this that is mortal to dress itself in immortality. 54 But when this that is mortal does dress itself in immortality, then the words that are written will come true, 55 “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” Where is your victory, death? where is your sting, death? 56 But the sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. 57 And thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Consequently, dear brothers, be firm in your footing, not easy to knock about, always abundant in work for the Lord, knowing that your labor does not come to nothing in the Lord.

16 And as to the collection for the members of the church, do the same as I directed the churches of Macedonia: 2 the first day of every week let each of you lay by to accumulate whatever he is prospered to, in order that when I come there may not be taking up of collections then. 3 And when I arrive, whomever you approve I will send with letters to take your kindness to Jerusalem; 4 and if it is worth while for me to go too, they shall go with me. 5 But I will come to you when I have been through Macedonia; for I am going through Macedonia, 6 but with you I shall maybe stay a while or over the winter, in order that you may give me a send-off wherever I may be going. 7 For I do not want to pay you a passing visit now; for I hope to stay with you some time, if the Lord permits. 8 But I shall stay in Ephesus till Pentecost; 9* for a great door for effective work has been opened to me, and there are many opponents.

10 But if Timothy comes, see to it that he is free from fear among you; for he is working at the Lord’s work the same as I am, 11 so let nobody scorn him, but start him on his way in peace to come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. 12 But as to Brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers, and it positively was not willed that he should come now, but he will when he gets a chance.

13 Keep awake, stand firm in the faith, be manly, take on strength. 14* Let everything you are concerned in be done in love.

15* But I urge you, brothers,—you know Stephanas’s family, how it was the first to come in in Achaea and they charged themselves with service to God’s people,— 16 that you too put yourselves at the disposal of folks like that and of everybody who cooperates and does the hard work. 17* And I am glad of the arrival of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus because these filled out the shortage of you; 18 for they set my spirit at rest, and yours too. So recognize folks like that.

19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, with the meeting at their home, send you many greetings in the Lord. 20 All the brothers send you greetings. Give my greetings to each other with a holy kiss.

21 Greeting with my own hand from me, Paul. 22* If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be for God’s destruction. Maran atha. 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love is with you all in Christ Jesus.

MARGINAL NOTES TO FIRST CORINTHIANS