ONE
Paulus (a called envoy of Anointed Jesus through God's wishes) and Sosthenes the brother
To God's assembly, made holy by Anointed Jesus, which is in Korinth, called holy ones, with each of those who call on the name of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, in every place (theirs and ours).
1:3 Hello to you, and peace from God our Father and from Lord Anointed Jesus.
I always give thanks to my God about you, for that generosity of God which was given to you in Anointed Jesus, because in all things you were enriched in him--in all speech and all knowledge--just as the testimony of the Anointed One was established in you so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revelation of our Lord, Anointed Jesus. He will also establish you finally as blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus. God is trustworthy, through whom you were called into sharing with his son, Anointed Jesus our Lord.
10 Now I am advising you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, so that you would all say the same thing and so that there would not be a division among you, but that you would be completely united with the same mindset and in the same opinion. For it was pointed out to me about you, brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are rivalries among you. Now I am saying this because each one of you is saying, "Indeed, I am Paulus'," but, "I am Apollos'," but, "I am Kefa's," but, "I am the Anointed's."
Has the Anointed One been divided? Or was Paulus crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paulus? I am thankful <[>to God] that I baptized none of you except Krispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized into my name. (Now I also baptized Stefanos's household. As for the rest, I don't know if I baptized any others.) For the Anointed One did not sent me out to baptize, but to tell the good message, not in a saying of wisdom, so that the cross of the Anointed One would not be made worthless.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But to those of us who are being saved, it is God's power. For it was written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise people and the reason of the reasoners I will put away."
20 Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the truth-seeker of this age? Didn't God make foolish the wisdom of creation? For when, in God's wisdom, the creation did not know God through its wisdom, God was well pleased to save those who trust by means of the foolishness of this heralding.
And while Jews are asking for signs and Greeks are seeking wisdom, now we are heralding an Anointed One who was crucified, a cause of falling indeed to Jews but foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who were called, both Jews and Greeks, the Anointed One is God's power and God's wisdom, because God's foolishness is wiser than people are, and God's weakness is stronger than people are.
For you see your calling, brothers: that not many are wise according to the flesh. Not many are powerful. Not many are aristocrats. But God chose out the foolish things of creation, so that he would disgrace the wise. And God chose out the weak things of creation, so that he would disgrace the strong. And God chose the ordinary things and the things that are rejected and the things that do not exist, so that he would cause the things that do exist to pass away--so that no flesh would boast in the presence of the Lord.
30 But you are from him in Anointed Jesus, who became our wisdom from God, justification and also holiness and redemption, in order that (just as it was written),"The one who boasts should boast in Yahweh."
2:1 And when I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with superior speech or wisdom when I declared to you God's secret. For I decided not to make anything known mong you except Anointed Jesus and the fact that this one had been crucified. And I happened to be with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, and my message and my heralding were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a display of spirit and power--so that your trust would not be in human wisdom but in God's power.
Now we are speaking about wisdom among the complete ones, but this is wisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age (those who are passing away), but we are speaking about God's wisdom which was hidden in secret, and which God marked out for our glory before the ages. None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it was written, "Things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard and which did not go up into the human heart, God prepared these things for those who love him."
For God has revealed it to us through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For what human knows the ways of human beings except the spirit of the person (that is in him)? Likewise also, no one knows God's ways except the spirit of God.
12 Now we have not received the spirit of creation, but the spirit from God, so that we may know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things also we are speaking about, not in teachings of sayings of human wisdom, but in spiritual teachings--interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people.
Now a person of this life doesn't embrace the matters of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him and he is unable to know them, because they must be examined spiritually. But the spiritual person examines all things, but he is examined by no one. For "who knew God's mind? Who will school him?" Now we have the mind of the Anointed One.
3:1 And I, brothers, was unable to speak to you as though you were spiritual, but as fleshly people--as newborns in the Anointed. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were unable then to eat it. But you are unable now for you are fleshly. For where there are jealousy and strife and divisions among you, aren't you fleshly, and walking according to humanity?
For when someone says, "Indeed, I am Paulus'," but another, "I am Apollos'," aren't you human beings? What then is Apollos? And what is Paulus? Servants through whom you trusted, just as the Lord also gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God made you grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who made you grow. Now the planter and the waterer are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's coworkers. You are God's farm...God's building.
I have laid down a foundation like a wise architect according to the generosity that was given to me, and another one is constructing. But each one should look at how he is constructing. For no one is able to lay down any foundation other than the one that was put there, which is Anointed Jesus. But if someone constructs on the foundation--gold and silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw--each one's work will become obvious. For the daylight will point it out, because it is revealed by fire. And the fire will test to see what kind of work each one's is. If the work that someone constructed remains, he will receive a reward. If someone's work is burnt up, he will forfeit it, but he will be saved, but saved as though having gone through fire.
16 Don't you know that you are God's temple, and God's spirit lives in you? If someone makes God's temple decay, God will make that person decay, for God's temple is holy--which you are.
Don't let anyone totally deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks to have wisdom in this age, he should become a fool so that he might become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it was written, "He is trapping the wise ones in their craftiness." And again, "Yahweh knows the reasonings of the" wise, "that they are worthless." And so, let no one boast in human beings, for all things are yours: Whether Paulus, or Apollos, or Kefa, whether the creation, or life, or death, whether things that are, or things that are about to be--all things are yours. But you are the Anointed One's. Now the Anointed One is God's.
4:1 In this way, every human being should regard us as the Anointed One's assistants, and house-stewards of God's secrets. For those among the stewards who remain here, it is sought that each one be found trustworthy. Now to me it is a minute thing that I am being judged by you, or that I am under a day of human judgment. But I am not even judging myself, for I am conscious of nothing wrong in myself. But I have not been justified by THIS, but the Lord is the one who judges me.
And so, don't judge anything before its season--until the Lord comes. He will both enlighten the things hidden in the darkness and will make the plans of hearts appear. And then the praise will be to each one from God.
6 Now brothers, I have applied these things to myself and to Apollos on your account, so that from us you might learn not to be more than what was written, so that none would be puffed up about one person, against another.
For which of you discriminates? Yet what do you have that you didn't receive as a gift? Now if also you received it, why are you boasting as though you didn't receive it? Already you are full, already you were wealthy--you reigned without us, and I wish that you did indeed reign so that we might reign with you. For I think God put us (the envoys) out last, as though we were chosen for death, because we were made a spectacle in the arena to the whole world, both to messengers and to people.
We are fools on the Anointed One's account, but you are thoughtful ones in the Anointed One. We are weak, but you are strong. You are glorious, but we lack honor.
Up to the present hour, we are hungry, and we are thirsty, and we are naked, and we are being beaten, and we have no place to stay, and we are laboring (working with our own hands). When we are verbally abused, we say good things. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are defamed, we provide comforting advice. Even until now, we have become like the scum of creation, the scraps of all things.
14 I am not writing these things to shame you; rather, I am admonishing you as beloved children. For though you have tens of thousands of schoolmasters in the Anointed One, you do not have but one father. For I fathered you in Anointed Jesus through the good message. Therefore I advise you to become my imitators.
For this reason I am sending you Timotheos, who is my beloved child and who is trustworthy in the Lord. He will remind you of those ways of mine that are in Anointed Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every assembly.
Now some of you are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you quickly if the Lord wants it, and I will know not the message but the power of those who are puffed up. For God's kingdom is not in a message but in power.
21 What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and in a spirit of meekness? Sexual sin is wholly heard among you, and sexual sin like that which is not even heard of among the Gentiles--such as one person having his step mother! And you have been puffed up and did not lament instead (so that the one who did this deed might be removed from your midst).
5:3 For indeed I have already judged the one who practiced this as though I were present--I am absent bodily but present spiritually. You should be gathered together in the name of our Lord, Anointed Jesus, along with my spirit together with the powe r of Lord Jesus, to deliver up that person to the Enemy to the point where his flesh is ruined, so that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not a nice thing. Don't you know that a small amount of yeast leavens the whole loaf? Cleanse out the old yeast, so that you would be a new loaf, since you are unleavened. For our Passover Lamb, the Anointed One, was also slaughtered. And so we should keep the feast, not with old leaven (nor with the leaven of bad things and evil) but with the unleavened matters of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in the letter not to be close associates with those who practice sexual sins--not that you should avoid altogether the sexual sinners of this world, or the greedy people and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would have to go out of creation! But now I wrote to you not to be close associates with a brother, if he is named as someone who practices sexual sins, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such a person!
For what is it for me to judge those who are outside? Judge the ones who are inside; God will judge those who are outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."
6:1 When one of you has a business problem with the other, does he dare to be judged by the unjust ones, and not by the holy ones? Or don't you know that the holy ones will judge creation? And if the creation will be judged by you, are you unworthy to be the smallest tribunals? Don't you know that you will judge messengers? Why not then the matters of this life?
Therefore, if indeed you have judgments to make about matters of this life, select those people to judge it who were rejected in the assembly. I am saying these things to nourish you. In the same way, is there no one wise among you...not one who would be able to discern his brother in your midst? Instead, brother is judged with brother--and this by those who do not trust.
Indeed, it is already wholly your fault that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather be deprived? But you are doing unjust things and are depriving--and you do this to brothers! Or don't you know that the unjust will not inherit God's kingdom? Don't be deceived: neither those who sin sexually, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor unmanly men, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor greedy people, nor drunks--not slanderers, not swindlers--will inherit God's kingdom.
And some of you were these things, but you washed yourselves from them, but you were made holy, but you were made just in the name of the Lord, Anointed Jesus, and in the spirit of our God.
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things make sense. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be under anything's authority. Foods are for the stomach, and the stomach is for foods, but God will cause both it and them to pass away. Now the body does not exist for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God also raised up the Lord, and he will raise us up through his power.
Don't you know that your bodies are members of the Anointed One? Then should I take away the members of the Anointed One and make them members of a prostitute? Don't let it happen!
Don't you know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, "The two will become one flesh." Now the one who joins himself to the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee prostitution. All sins that a person may do are outside of the body, but the one who commits prostitution is sinning against his own body. Or don't you know that your bodies are a temple of the holy spirit within you, which you have from God? And you are not your possession, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your bodies.
7:1 Now, concerning the things you wrote about: it is a nice thing for a man not to touch a woman. But on account of the prostitutions, each man should have his wife, and each woman should have her husband. The husband should forgive the debt; the wife should do likewise for the husband. It is not the wife who has her body's authority. On the contrary, the husband does. Now likewise also, it is not the husband who has his body's authority. On the contrary, the wife does.
Don't deprive one another, except by agreement for a season, in order for you to be relaxed and pray. And you should get together again, so that the Enemy would not test you because you are out of control.
Now I am saying this as an opinion, not as a direction. But I want all people to be like myself. But each one has his own gift of generosity from God: one indeed has this; one has that.
8 But I say to those who are not married, and to the widows, it is a nicer thing for them if they remain as I am also. Yet if they cannot control themselves, they should get married. For it is better to be married than to be on fire.
10 Now I charge those who are married--it is not I, but the Lord: a wife should not separate herself from her husband. But even if she should depart, she should remain unmarried or be reconciled to the husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
12 Now I say to those who remain--it is I, not the Lord: If a certain brother has an untrusting wife and if she considers it good to dwell with him, he should not divorce her. And if a certain woman has an untrusting husband and if this one thinks it good to dwell with her, she is not to divorce the husband. For the untrusting husband is made holy by the wife and the untrusting wife is made holy by the brother: otherwise indeed your children were unclean, but now they are holy.
But if the untrusting one departs, let him separate himself. The brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases, but God has called us in peace. For how do you know, woman, if you will save your husband? Or how do you know, man, if you will save your wife? If it is not as the Lord has given to each, each one should still walk as God has called. And I arrange it this way in all the assemblies.
18 Was someone called while he was circumcised? He should not have skin put on. Was someone called while he had a foreskin? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and a foreskin is nothing; but keeping God's precepts is something. Let each one remain in this--in the calling in which he was called.
Were you called as a slave? Don't let it bother you. But if you are also able to become free, do this instead. For the one in the Lord who is called as a slave is God's free person. Likewise, the one who is called as a free person is the Anointed One's slave. Were you bought for a price? Do not become people's slaves. In the condition he was called in, brothers, each person should remain in this with God.
25 Now concerning the virgins, I have no arrangements from the Lord, but I give an opinion as a person who is considered trustworthy (since I received mercy from the Lord). I give the opinion, then, that it is a nicer thing for a person to be this way; it is a nicer thing on account of the situation of distress in which you stand: Have you been bound to a wife? Do not seek to be let go. Are you free from a wife? Don't seek a wife.
But even if you should marry, you are not sinning. And even if the virgin should marry, she is not sinning. Now those who are like this will have physical affliction. But I will spare you the details.
29 But I say this, brothers: since the season is short, what remains is this--that both those who have wives should be as those who don't have one, and those who cry should be as those who aren't crying, and those who rejoice should be as those who aren't rejoicing, and those who buy should be as those who do not possess anything, and those who use creation should be as those who don't abuse it.
For the scheme of this creation is going by, and I want you to be carefree. The unmarried person cares for the Lord's things--how he might please the Lord. But the married person cares about the things of creation-- how he might please his wife --and he is divided. And the unmarried woman; that is, the unmarried virgin, cares for the Lord's things so that she might be holy in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares about the things of creation--how she might please her husband.
Now I am saying this to benefit you yourselves, not so that I might throw a snare on top of you but for the order and devotion to the Lord without wandering around. But if someone thinks to act improperly toward his virgin, if she is getting older, and if it is proper to be this way, then he should do what he wants to do. He is not sinning; they should get married.
But the one who has stood in his heart (not having necessity but having authority concerning what he wants) and who resolved in his own heart to keep himself a virgin, this one is doing nicely.
And so, the one who marries his virgin is doing nicely, and the one who does not marry is doing better. A woman is bound for as long a time as her husband is living. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she wants--in the Lord only. But she is more blessed if she remains unmarried, according to my opinion. (But I think I also have God's spirit.)
8:1 Now concerning the idol sacrifices: We know that we all have knowledge. But knowledge puffs up; but love constructs. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he doesn't yet know what it is necessary to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.
Therefore, about the eating of the idol sacrifices: we know that an idol is nothing in creation, and that there is no god but one. For although they are indeed called gods, whether in the sky or on the land (since there are many gods and many lords), to us there is one God, the Father, out of whom all things came. And we live for him and for Lord Anointed Jesus, through whom all things came; and through him we are.
But the knowledge is not in all people. But certain people who are conscious until now of the idols are eating as though it were sacrificed to an idol, and they are defiled since their consciences are weak. But food does not station us near God. Neither do we lack if we don't eat nor do we abound if we eat.
But see that your freedom of choice does not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if someone should notice the one who has knowledge reclining in a place of idol-worship, won't his conscience which is weak be built up to the point of partaking of the idol-sacrifices? For the weak one, the brother on whose account the Anointed One died, will be destroyed by your knowledge. Now since you are sinning this way against your brothers and are striking their [weak] consciences, you are sinning against the Anointed One. For this reason if food causes my brother to fall, I should not eat meat for the age, so that I would not make my brother fall.
9:1 Am I not a free person? Am I not an envoy? Haven't I seen Jesus our Lord? Aren't you my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an envoy, on the contrary, to you I am indeed! For you are the seal of my dispensation in the Lord. My defense to those who judge me harshly is this:
Haven't we the authority to eat and drink? Haven't we the authority to bring along a sister, a wife, as do the other envoys, and the Lord's brothers, even Kefa? Or do I and Bar-Nabas alone not have the authority to not work?
What person ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? What person plants a vineyard and doesn't partake of its fruit? Or what person tends sheep and doesn't partake of the sheeps' milk?
Am I saying these things according to humanity? Or doesn't the Torah also say these things? For it was written in the Torah, "Do not muzzle an ox that is threshing grain." Is it the oxen that concern God? Or is it for us altogether that he says it? For it was written on our accounts that, "It is bound for the one who plows to plow in hope and for the one who threshes to use that hope." If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?
If others of you are using the authority, shouldn't we use it instead? But we did not take advantage of this authority. Instead, we are enduring all things so that we would not provide any hindrance to the good message of the Anointed One. Don't you know that the ones who work with the sacred things partake of food from the temple? The ones who attend at the altar are those who partake of the altar? In this way also, the Lord arranged for those who announce the good message to live off of the good message.
But I have not made use of any of these things. Yet I didn't write these things so that it would be that way for me. For it would be a nice thing for me rather to die than to have anyone empty me of this boast. For if I should speak the good message, it is not a thing for me to boast about, for a necessity lies with me: for it is my woe if I should not speak the good message. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship; what reward is it to me then?
So that as I announce the good message, I will place the good message without cost, so that I would not wear out my authority in in the good message. For since I am free from all people, I enslaved myself to all people in order that I might gain more. And I became like a Jew to the Jews, so that I would gain Jews; to those under a code as though under a code (though I am not under law myself). To those without a code as though I were under a code (though I am not without God's code, but I am inside of the Anointed One's code), so that I would gain those who are without a code. I became weak to those who are weak, so that I would gain those who are weak. To all people I became all things, so that I might in all things save some. Now I am doing all things on account of the good message, so that I might share together with it.
24 Don't you know that those who run in a race indeed all run, but one takes the prize? In this way, run so that you might claim it. Now each one who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. Indeed then they do it so that they might obtain a perishable wreath, but we are obtaining an imperishable one.
Now then, I am running that way--not as though I had no goal. I box that way--not as though I were beating the air. But I subdue and enslave my body, so that I myself should not become disqualified after heralding to others.
10:1 For, brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and they all passed through the sea, and they all baptized themselves into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they all ate the spiritual food and drank the spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock which followed them. (Now the rock was the Anointed One.)
But God was not well pleased with the majority of them, for they were sitting down in the desert. Now these things happened as types for us, so that we would not be strongly desiring bad things, like they strongly desired bad things. Neither should you become idolaters as some of them were, just as it was written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they stood up to revel."
Neither should we sin sexually, as some of them sinned sexually--and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Neither should we test out the Anointed One, as some of them tested him out and were destroyed by the serpents. Neither should you grumble, even as some of them grumbled and were destroyed by the Slayer.
11 Now these things happened to these people as types; now it was written for our admonition, to whom the completion of the ages has come upon. And so, the one who thinks he is standing should look that he may not fall. No trial has gripped you except for what suits human beings. But God is trustworthy; he will not allow you to be tested beyond what power you have. Instead, with the trial he will make also the way out for you to be able to undergo it.
For this reason, my beloved ones, flee from the idolatries. I am speaking as to thoughtful people: you judge what I am saying. The cup of praise, which we praise God for, isn't it a sharing in the Anointed One's blood? The bread that we break, isn't it a sharing in the Anointed One's body? Because there is one bread, we the many are one body, for we all partake of one bread.
18 Look at Israel according to the flesh. Aren't the ones who eat the sacrifices ones who share in the altar? Then what am I saying? That an idol sacrifice is something? On the contrary, I am saying that the things that the gentiles are sacrificing, they are sacrificing to spirit beings and not to God. Now I don't want you to become ones who share with spirit beings: you are unable to drink the Lord's cup and a cup of spirit beings; you are unable to partake of the Lord's table and of a table belonging to spirit beings. Or are we making the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he is?
23 All things are lawful, but not all things make sense. All things are lawful, but not all things are constructive. No one should seek his own interests, but the other person's. Eat up everything that is sold in a meat market, examining nothing on account of conscience. For "the earth and its fullness is the Lord's." If someone of those who do not trust calls you, and you want to go, eat up everything that is set in front of you, examining nothing on account of conscience. But if someone says to you, "This was a sacrifice," don't eat it up, on account of that one who is pointing it out, and on account of conscience.
Now I say "conscience" not about his own but about the other person's. For why is my freedom being judged by another person's conscience? If I partake gratefully, why am I spoken evil about because of what I am giving thanks for? Therefore, whether you eat or whether you drink--or whether you do anything--[do] all things to God's glory. Become no cause of stumbling both to Jews and to Greeks, and to God's assembly, just as I also I please all people in all things, not seeking my ad vantage but that of the many, so that might be saved. Become my imitators, just as I am also the Anointed One's imitator.
11:2 Now I praise you, because you remember me in all things, and you are holding to the things that were passed down, just as I passed them down to you. Now I want you to know that each man's head is the Anointed One. Now man is woman's head; now God is the Anointed One's head.
Each man who prays or prophesies with something down on his head is disgracing his head. But each woman who prays or prophesies with her head totally uncovered is disgracing her head, for it is one and the same with the one who has been shaved.
For if a woman is uncovered, she should also be shaved. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shaved, she should be covered. For indeed, a man is not bound to cover his head, since he is God's image and glory. But woman is man's glory. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. For also, man was not created through the woman, but woman through the man.
10 On account of this, the woman is bound to have authority over her head: on account of the messengers. Regardless, neither is woman without man nor man without woman in the Lord. For just as woman came from the man, so also man comes on account of a woman. But all things come from God.
You judge among yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered?
Now nature itself does not teach you that if indeed a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him. But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, because the long hair has been given instead of a covering. But if someone thinks to be argumentative, we have no such custom; neither do God's assemblies.
17 Now with these charges I do not praise you, because you are coming together not for the better but for the worse. For first indeed, when you are coming together in an assembly, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe some part of it. (For it is even necessary that there be differing schools of thought among you, so that the approved ones may also become apparent.) When you come together in the same place, it is not the Lord's dinner that you are eating. For each one is grabbing his own dinner to eat: and one indeed is famished; now one is drunk.
For don't you have houses in which to have dinner and drink? Or do you hold a bad attitude about God's assembled, and do you disgrace the ones who have not? What should I say to you? Do I praise? In this I do not praise. For what I also handed down to you I got from the Lord: that Jesus the Lord took bread on the night that he was betrayed, and he gave thanks, broke it, and said, "This is my body on your behalf. Do this for my remembrance." In the same way also, he took the cup after dinner, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Just as frequently as you drink, do this for my remembrance." For just as frequently as you eat up this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he should come, so that whoever eats up the bread or drinks the Lord's cup unworthily will be guilty of the Lord's body and blood.
Now a person should think about himself carefully--and he should eat up the bread and drink the cup in this way. For the one who eats and drinks without judging the body carefully, eats and drinks judgment upon himself. For this reason many among you are weak and are feeble, and a considerable number are sleeping. But if we judged ourselves carefully, we wouldn't be judged. But we are judged by the Lord and are trained, so that we would not be condemned along with creation. So then, my brothers, those who come together to eat should wait for one another. If someone is famished, he should eat at home, so that you would not come together into judgment. Now whenever I come, I will arrange the rest.
12:1 Now brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant of the spiritual things. You know that when you were gentiles, you were being carried away (however you were led) by voiceless idols. So, I am making it known to you that no one speaking with God's breath says, "A curse on Jesus." And no one is able to say, "The Lord is Jesus," except in holy breath. Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same breath. And there are different kinds of service, and the same Lord. And there are different kinds of workings, and the same god is working all things in all people.
Now each one is given the appearance of the breath for benefit. For to one indeed is given through the breath a saying of wisdom. But another receives a saying of knowledge according to the same breath. To another is given trust, in the same breath. Now to another is given free gifts of healings in the breath. Now to another is given workings of power, to another prophecy, to another careful judgment of spirits. To another is given kinds of tongues, but to another the interpretation of tongues. But in all these things, the one and the same spirit is working, distributing as it wishes to everyone.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members--but all members of the body, although they are many, are one body--so also is the Anointed One. For also we were all baptized in one spirit into one body (whether Jews, whether Greeks, whether slaves, whether free people), and all were made to drink one spirit. For also the body is not one part but many.
If the foot should say that, "I am not a hand. I do not belong to the body," does it for this reason not belong to the body? And if the ear should say that, "I am not an eye. I do not belong to the body," does it for this reason not belong to the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were an ear, where would the smelling be? But now God put each one of the members in the body just as he wanted. But if the entirety were one member, where would the body be?
Now the eye is unable to say to the hand, "I have no need of you." Or again, the head is unable to say to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, those members of the body which are thought to be weaker are rather much more necessary. And those which we think are less honorable in the body, more abundant honor is lavished on these. And those of us that are unattractive have more abundant attractiveness. Now the more attractive of us have no need of this, but God has meshed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the ones who lacked it, so that there would not be a division in the body. On the contrary, the members should care the same for one another. And if one member suffers, all members suffer together. When a member is glorified, all the members rejoice together.
Now you are the Anointed One's body, and compose it partially as members. And God indeed set some in the assembly first to be envoys, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, then free gifts of healings, of assistance, of guidance, of kinds of tongues. Not all are envoys; not all are prophets; not all are teachers; not all work powers; not all have the free gift of healings; not all speak in tongues; not all interpret. But be jealous for the greater gifts.
31 And yet I am showing you a way according to excellence: If I speak with the tongues of people and of messengers but do not have love, I have become a clanging gong or crashing cymbal. And if I have prophecy and know all secrets and all knowledge, and even if I have all trust (so as to remove mountains), but if I don't have love, I am nothing. And if I hand out all that is mine, and even if I offer up my body so that I may boast, but if I don't have love, it profits me nothing.
13:4 Love suffers long; it is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not promote itself. It is not puffed up. It is not showy. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily provoked. It does not record bad things. It does not rejoice over injustice, but it rejoices together with the truth. It covers all, trusts all, hopes all, endures all.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will pass away. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but the partial things will pass away when the complete thing comes. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I had the attitude of a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away the things of a child.
For we see now a riddle in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. I still know partially, but then I will know fully, just as I am known fully. But now, these three remain: trust, hope, love. Now the greatest of these is love. Pursue love, but be jealous for the spiritual things. But rather so that you may prophesy, for the one who speaks in a tongue says nothing to human beings but to God. For no one hears him, but he tells secrets spiritually. But the one who prophesies is speaking constructive things, and advice, and consolation to people. The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the assembly.
14:5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but I want rather for you to prophesy. Now the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues--unless someone is interpreting, so that the assembly might receive construction.
But now, brothers, if I should come to you speaking in tongues, what would I profit you unless I am speaking to you in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophecy, or a teaching? And the same with soulless things which give off sounds, whether a pipe or a harp: if they give no difference in notes, how can it be known what is being played on the pipe or harp? For also if a trumpet should give an unsure sound, who would prepare himself for combat? Similarly also, if you don't give a clear message through the tongue, how will it be know what was spoken? For you will be talking to the air.
Since one may obtain so many kinds of sounds in creation, and none is soundless, if then I don't know the power of the voice, I will be a barbarian to the one who is speaking, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.
So also it is with you, since you are jealous for things of the spirit, seek in order that you may be abundant for the construction of the assembly. So, the one who speaks in a tongue should pray, so that one might interpret. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit is praying but my mind is fruitless. What is it then? I will pray for the spirit, but I will pray also for the mind. I will play music for the spirit, but I will play music also for the mind. Otherwise if you should praise for the spirit, how will the one who fills the ungifted person's place say "A-mein" with your words of thanksgiving? For indeed you are giving thanks well, but the other person is not being constructed.
I give thanks to God that I speak more with tongues than all of you, but in an assembly I want to say five words with my mind, so that I may also instruct others rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, don't become children in your attitudes, but be childlike toward bad things and become complete in your attitudes. It was written in the Torah that, ""In other tongues and with others' lips I will speak to this people;" they will "not listen to me" this way, says Yahweh".
And so, tongues are for a sign not to those who trust but to those who are untrusting. But prophecy is not for the untrusting but for the trusting. Therefore, if the whole assembly should come to the same place, and if all should speak with tongues, and if untrusting or ungifted people should enter, wouldn't they say that you have gone insane? But if all should prophesy, and if an untrusting or ungifted person should enter, he would be convinced by everything. He would be examined by everyone when the secrets of his heart become apparent. And so, he will worship God, falling on his face and announcing that, "God is really among you!"
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each person has music, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things should be for construction. And if someone speaks in a tongue, it should be according to two or at most three sentences, and in turn, and someone should interpret. But if there is no interpreter, he should be silent in the assembly; now he should speak to himself and to God.
Now two or three prophets should speak, and others should carefully judge. But if there should be a revelation to another person sitting by, the first should be silent. For you are all able to prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be adv ised. And the spirits of the prophets submit to the prophets. For he is not a god of disorder but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the holy ones.
34 The wives should be silent in the assemblies. For it is not allowed for them to speak; on the contrary, they should be submissive, just as the law says also. Now if they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home. For the wives' speaking in the assembly is a social disgrace.
36 Did God's message leave you? Or did it go to you alone? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or a spiritual person, he should recognize what I am writing to you, because it is a precept of the Lord. But if anyone is mindless, let him be mindless. And so, brothers, be jealous to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should happen in an attractive and orderly way.
15:1 Now I am making known to you, brothers, the good message that I announced to you, which you also received, in which you have been standing, and through which you are being saved if you hold to a certain message that I announced to you--unless you trusted inconsiderably. For I delivered to you among the first things what I also received, that the Anointed One died on behalf of your sins according to the writings, and that he was buried, and that he was raised up on the third day according to the writings, and that he was seen by Kefa, then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen on high by five hundred brothers at once, of whom the majority remain to the present day, but some have gone to sleep. After that, he was seen by Jacob. After that, by all of the envoys. But last of all, he was seen by me as well, as though I were born late.
9 For I am the least of the envoys; I am not fit to be called an envoy because I persecuted God's assembled. But by God's generosity, I am what I am, and his generosity toward me did not become worthless. On the contrary, I worked more abundantly than all of them. (Now it was not I, but God's generosity that is with me.) Therefore, whether it is I or they, we are heralding this way, and you trusted this way. But since it is being heralded that the Anointed One was raised from among the dead, how come some of you are saying that there is no resurrection from among the dead?
Now if there is no resurrection from among the dead, not even the Anointed One has been raised. Now if the Anointed One has not been raised, then our heralding is meaningless, and your trust is meaningless. But we would also be found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified according to God that the Anointed One was raised; God did not raise him up if indeed the dead are not raised. For if dead people are not raised, neither was the Anointed One raised; but if the Anointed One was not raised, your trust is deceptive: you are still in your sins. Then also those who have gone to sleep in the Anointed One have been destroyed. If only in this life we have hope in the Anointed One, then we are the most pitiful of all people.
20 But now, the Anointed One has been raised from among the dead as a first fruit of those who have gone to sleep. For since there is death through a human being, there is also a resurrection of the dead through a human being. For just as in Adam all people die, in the same way also all people will be made alive in the Anointed One. But each one will do so by his own arrangement. The Anointed One was a first fruit. After that, those who were the Anointed One's in his presence. Then the end will come, when he will have delivered up the kingdom to Father God, when he will have deactivated all rule and all authority and power. For it is necessary for him to be king until indeed "he has placed all of his enemies under his feet." Death, the last enemy, has been stripped of power, for "he has arranged all things under his feet." But when it is said, "all things are arranged under him," it is a given that the one who arranged all things under him is an exception. But when he has arranged all things under him, then also the son himself will arrange himself under the one who arranged everything under him, so that God may be everything in everything.
29 Otherwise, what will those people do who are being baptized on behalf of the dead, if dead people go wholly unraised? And why are they being baptized on their behalf? And why are we in danger every hour? "I die each day." I say this by the boasting about you that I have in Anointed Jesus our Lord. If I were to fight a wild animal in Ephesus, according to my humanity, what would it profit me? If dead people are not raised up, "we should eat and drink, for we die tomorrow."
33 Do not be led astray: "Bad relationships corrupt beneficial ethics." Be awake justly, and do not sin, for some people have an ignorance of God. I am saying this to nourish you.
35 But someone will say, "How are the dead people raised? Now what kind of bodies do they come in?" People without wisdom! What you are sowing is not made alive unless it dies, and what you are sowing--you are not sowing the body that will be made, but a naked grain, which might happen to be wheat or one of the others. But God gives it a body just like he wanted to, and he gives each of the seeds its own body. Not all flesh is the same flesh, but one kind is indeed human, another is fish-like, another is birdlike. And there are heavenly bodies as well as earthly bodies, but the brightness of the heavenly ones is different than the brightness of the earthly ones. There is one brightness of the sun, and another brightness of the moon, and another brightness of stars. For a star differs from the other stars in brightness.
42 It is also the same way with the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised up in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised up in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised up in power. It is sown as a physical body; it is raised up as a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one, just as it was also written, "The" first "person," Adam, "was made into a living soul." The last Adam was made into a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual one was not the first one; that was the physical one. The spiritual one came afterwards.
The first person was from the earth, dusty. The second person was from heaven. Whatever kind the dusty one was, this kind also the dusty ones are. And whatever kind the heavenly one was, this kind also the heavenly ones are. And just as we carried the image of the dusty one, we should also carry the image of the heavenly one. Now I sound like this, brothers, because flesh and blood are not able to inherit God's kingdom, nor will the corrupt thing inherit incorruptibility.
51 Look, I am telling you a secret: indeed, not all will go to sleep, but we will all be changed in the smallest amount of time, in the blinking of an eye, during the last trumpet. For it will blast, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For it is necessary for this corruptible thing to be clothed with incorruptibility, and for this mortal thing to be clothed with immortality. Now when this mortal thing is clothed with immortality, then the message that was written will occur:
"Death was swallowed in victory. Where, death, is your victory; where, death, is your sting?" Death's sting is sin, but the power of sin is the Torah. But thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord, Anointed Jesus. And so, my beloved brothers, become steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, knowing that your toil in the Lord is not worthless.
16:1 Now concerning that collection for the holy ones: just as I arranged it for the assemblies in Galatia, I am doing also for you. On the first day of the week, each of you should put by itself what he has treasured up--whatever he might be prospered--so that collections will not be made when I come.
Now when I happen by, I will send those persons of whom you approve with letters to bear your gift to Jerusalem. But if it is worthy for even me to go, they will go with me. But I will come to you when I have gone through Makedonia (for I am going through Makedonia). It may happen that I will remain with you or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on wherever I may go. For I don't want to see you now as I make my way by, for I hope to stay on with you for some time, if the Lord should allow it. But I will stay on in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great and working door door has been opened for me, and there are many who are set against me.
10 Now if Timotheos should come, you see to it that he may be there without fearing you, for he is working the Lord's work as am I. Therefore, no one should despise him, but send him onward in peace so that he may come to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.
Now concerning brother Apollos, I advised him alot, so that he would come to you with the brothers. And that he should come now was not what he wanted at all, but he will come when he finds the opportunity.
Watch out. Stand firm in trust. Be manly, be strong. Let everything of yours be done in love.
You know the household of Stefanas--that it is a first fruit of Asia and that they have arranged themselves for service to the holy ones. I am advising you, brothers, that you also be submissive to such people and to everyone who is working and toiling with them. Now I rejoice at the presence of Stefanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because these ones fulfilled your need. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore, recognize such people.
19 [The assemblies of Asia greet you.] Akila and Prisca, with the assembly at their house, greet you many times in the Lord. All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Paulus' greeting, in my own handwriting.
If someone does not affectionately love the Lord, he should be accursed. Marana tha. May the generosity of the Lord Jesus be with you. May my love be with you in Anointed Jesus.
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