Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, 1 Corinthians

Produced by Martin Ward

Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, 1 Corinthians

Third Edition 1913

R. F. Weymouth

Book 46 1 Corinthians

001:001 Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God—and our brother Sosthenes:

001:002 To the Church of God in Corinth, men and women consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ— their Lord as well as ours.

001:003 May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

001:004 I thank my God continually on your behalf for the grace of God
bestowed on you in Christ Jesus—

001:005 that you have been so richly blessed in Him, with readiness
of speech and fulness of knowledge.

001:006 Thus my testimony as to the Christ has been confirmed
in your experience,

001:007 so that there is no gift of God in which you consciously come short while patiently waiting for the reappearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

001:008 who will also keep you stedfast to the very End, so that you will be free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

001:009 God is ever true to His promises, and it was by Him that you were, one and all, called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

001:010 Now I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to cultivate a spirit of harmony—all of you—and that there be no divisions among you, but rather a perfect union through your having one mind and one judgement.

001:011 For I have been distinctly informed, my brethren, about you by Chloe's people, that there are dissensions among you.

001:012 What I mean is that each of you is a partisan. One man says "I belong to Paul;" another "I belong to Apollos;" a third "I belong to Peter;" a fourth "I belong to Christ."

001:013 Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on
your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents?

001:014 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except
Crispus and Gaius—

001:015 for fear people should say that you were baptized to
be my adherents.

001:016 I did, however, baptize Stephanas' household also:
but I do not think that I baptized any one else.

001:017 Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Good News;
and not in merely wise words—lest the Cross of Christ should
be deprived of its power.

001:018 For the Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on
the way to perdition, but it is the power of God to those whom
He is saving.

001:019 For so it stands written, "I will exhibit the nothingness of
the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent
I will bring to nought."

001:020 Where is your wise man? Where your expounder of the Law? Where your
investigator of the questions of this present age?
Has not God shown the world's wisdom to be utter foolishness?

001:021 For after the world by its wisdom—as God in His wisdom had ordained— had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.

001:022 Seeing that Jews demand miracles, and Greeks go in search of wisdom,

001:023 while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified—to the Jews
a stumbling-block, to Gentiles foolishness,

001:024 but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews
or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

001:025 Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser
than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God
is mightier than men's might.

001:026 For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise
with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence,
not many of noble birth have been called.

001:027 But God has chosen the things which the world regards as foolish, in order to put its wise men to shame; and God has chosen the things which the world regards as destitute of influence, in order to put its powerful things to shame;

001:028 and the things which the world regards as base, and those which it sets utterly at nought—things that have no existence— God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that do exist;

001:029 to prevent any mortal man from boasting in the presence of God.

001:030 But you—and it is all God's doing—are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

001:031 in order that it may be as Scripture says, "He who boasts— let his boast be in the Lord."

002:001 And as for myself, brethren, when I came to you, it was not with surpassing power of eloquence or earthly wisdom that I came, announcing to you that which God had commanded me to bear witness to.

002:002 For I determined to be utterly ignorant, when among you, of everything except of Jesus Christ, and of Him as having been crucified.

002:003 And so far as I myself was concerned, I came to you in conscious feebleness and in fear and in deep anxiety.

002:004 And my language and the Message that I proclaimed were not adorned with persuasive words of earthly wisdom, but depended upon truths which the Spirit taught and mightily carried home;

002:005 so that your trust might rest not on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

002:006 Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom;
a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor
to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away.

002:007 But in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret we speak of
God's wisdom—that hidden wisdom which, before the world began,
God pre-destined, so that it should result in glory to us;

002:008 a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses,
for if they had possessed it, they would never have crucified
the Lord of glory.

002:009 But—to use the words of Scripture—we speak of things which eye has not seen nor ear heard, and which have never entered the heart of man: all that God has in readiness for them that love Him.

002:010 For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the
teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything,
including the depths of the divine nature.

002:011 For, among human beings, who knows a man's inner thoughts except
the man's own spirit within him? In the same way, also,
only God's Spirit is acquainted with God's inner thoughts.

002:012 But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings
that have been so freely given to us by God.

002:013 Of these we speak—not in language which man's wisdom teaches us,
but in that which the Spirit teaches—adapting, as we do,
spiritual words to spiritual truths.

002:014 The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God,
and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they
are spiritually judged.

002:015 But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is
himself judged by no one.

002:016 For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will
instruct Him? But *we* have the mind of Christ.

003:001 And as for myself, brethren, I found it impossible to speak
to you as spiritual men. It had to be as to worldlings—
mere babes in Christ.

003:002 I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this
you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are
not strong enough:

003:003 you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife
continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual
and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

003:004 For when some one says, "I belong to Paul," and another says,
"I belong to Apollos," is not this the way men of the world speak?

003:005 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are just God's servants, through whose efforts, and as the Lord granted power to each, you accepted the faith.

003:006 I planted and Apollos watered; but it was God who was,
all the time, giving the increase.

003:007 So that neither the planter nor the waterer is of any importance.
God who gives the increase is all in all.

003:008 Now in aim and purpose the planter and the waterer are one; and yet each will receive his own special reward, answering to his own special work.

003:009 Apollos and I are simply fellow workers for and with God, and you are *God's* field—God's* building.

003:010 In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I— like a competent master-builder—have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let every one be careful how and what he builds.

003:011 For no one can lay any other foundation in addition to that which is already laid, namely Jesus Christ.

003:012 And whether the building which any one is erecting on that foundation be of gold or silver or costly stones, of timber or hay or straw—

003:013 the true character of each individual's work will become manifest. For the day of Christ will disclose it, because that day is soon to come upon us clothed in fire, and as for the quality of every one's work—the fire is the thing which will test it.

003:014 If any one's work—the building which he has erected— stands the test, he will be rewarded.

003:015 If any one's work is burnt up, he will suffer the loss of it; yet he will himself be rescued, but only, as it were, by passing through the fire.

003:016 Do you not know that you are God's Sanctuary, and that the Spirit
of God has His home within you?

003:017 If any one is marring the Sanctuary of God, him will God mar;
for the Sanctuary of God is holy, which you all are.

003:018 Let no one deceive himself. If any man imagines that he is wise, compared with the rest of you, with the wisdom of the present age, let him become "foolish" so that he may be wise.

003:019 This world's wisdom is "foolishness" in God's sight; for it
is written, "He snares the wise with their own cunning."

003:020 And again, "The Lord takes knowledge of the reasonings of the wise—
how useless they are."

003:021 Therefore let no one boast about his human teachers.

003:022 For everything belongs to you—be it Paul or Apollos or Peter, the world or life or death, things present or future— everything belongs to you;

003:023 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

004:001 As for us Apostles, let any one take this view of us—
we are Christ's officers, and stewards of God's secret truths.

004:002 This being so, it follows that fidelity is what is
required in stewards.

004:003 I however am very little concerned at undergoing your scrutiny,
or that of other men; in fact I do not even scrutinize myself.

004:004 Though I am not conscious of having been in any way unfaithful, yet I do not for that reason stand acquitted; but He whose scrutiny I must undergo is the Lord.

004:005 Therefore form no premature judgements, but wait until
the Lord returns. He will both bring to light the secrets
of darkness and will openly disclose the motives that have
been in people's hearts; and then the praise which each man
deserves will come to him from God.

004:006 In writing this much, brethren, with special reference to
Apollos and myself, I have done so for your sakes, in order
to teach you by our example what those words mean, which say,
"Nothing beyond what is written!"—so that you may cease to take
sides in boastful rivalry, for one teacher against another.

004:007 Why, who gives you your superiority, my brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? And if you really did receive it, why boast as if this were not so?

004:008 Every one of you already has all that heart can desire; already you have grown rich; without waiting for us, you have ascended your thrones! Yes indeed, would to God that you had ascended your thrones, that we also might reign with you!

004:009 God, it seems to me, has exhibited us Apostles last of all,
as men condemned to death; for we have come to be a spectacle
to all creation—alike to angels and to men.

004:010 We, for Christ's sake, are labeled as "foolish"; you, as Christians,
are men of shrewd intelligence. We are mere weaklings:
you are strong. You are in high repute: we are outcasts.

004:011 To this very moment we endure both hunger and thirst,
with scanty clothing and many a blow.

004:012 Homes we have none. Wearily we toil, working with our own hands.
When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we bear it patiently;

004:013 when slandered, we try to conciliate. We have come to be regarded as the mere dirt and filth of the world— the refuse of the universe, even to this hour.

004:014 I am not writing all this to shame you, but I am offering you advice as my dearly-loved children.

004:015 For even if you were to have ten thousand spiritual instructors— for all that you could not have several fathers. It is I who in Christ Jesus became your father through the Good News.

004:016 I entreat you therefore to become like me.

004:017 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you. Spiritually he is my dearly-loved and faithful child. He will remind you of my habits as a Christian teacher— the manner in which I teach everywhere in every Church.

004:018 But some of you have been puffed up through getting the idea that I am not coming to Corinth.

004:019 But, if the Lord is willing, I shall come to you without delay; and then I shall know not the fine speeches of these conceited people, but their power.

004:020 For Apostolic authority is not a thing of words, but of power.

004:021 Which shall it be? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender spirit?

005:001 It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and of a kind unheard of even among the Gentiles—a man has his father's wife!

005:002 And you, instead of mourning and removing from among you the man who has done this deed of shame, are filled with self-complacency!

005:003 I for my part, present with you in spirit although absent in body, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has so acted.

005:004 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are all assembled and my spirit is with you, together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

005:005 I have handed over such a man to Satan for the destruction
of his body, that his spirit may be saved on the day of
the Lord Jesus.

005:006 It is no good thing—this which you make the ground of your boasting.
Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole
of the dough?

005:007 Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be dough of a new kind;
for in fact you *are* free from corruption. For our Passover Lamb
has already been offered in sacrifice—even Christ.

005:008 Therefore let us keep our festival not with old yeast nor with
the yeast of what is evil and mischievous, but with bread free
from yeast—the bread of transparent sincerity and of truth.

005:009 I wrote to you in that letter that you were not to associate with fornicators;

005:010 not that in this world you are to keep wholly aloof from
such as they, any more than from people who are avaricious
and greedy of gain, or from worshippers of idols.
For that would mean that you would be compelled to go out
of the world altogether.

005:011 But what I meant was that you were not to associate with
any one bearing the name of "brother," if he was addicted
to fornication or avarice or idol-worship or abusive language
or hard-drinking or greed of gain. With such a man you ought
not even to eat.

005:012 For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders?
Is it not for you to judge those who are within the Church

005:013 while you leave to God's judgement those who are outside?
Remove the wicked man from among you.

006:001 If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare
to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people?

006:002 Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgement upon the world? And if you are the court before which the world is to be judged, are you unfit to deal with these petty matters?

006:003 Do you not know that we are to sit in judgement upon angels— to say nothing of things belonging to this life?

006:004 If therefore you have things belonging to this life which need
to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the Church—
is it *they* whom you make your judges?

006:005 I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this,
that there does not exist among you a single wise man competent
to decide between a man and his brother,

006:006 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

006:007 To say no more, then, it is altogether a defect in you that you have law-suits with one another. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather submit to being defrauded?

006:008 On the contrary you yourselves inflict injustice and fraud, and upon brethren too.

006:009 Do you not know that unrighteous men will not inherit God's Kingdom? Cherish no delusion here. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor any who are guilty of unnatural crime,

006:010 nor theives, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language or to greed of gain, will inherit God's Kingdom.

006:011 And all this describes what some of you were. But now you have had every stain washed off: now you have been set apart as holy: now you have been pronounced free from guilt; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.

006:012 Everything is allowable to me, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable to me, but to nothing will I become a slave.

006:013 Food of all kinds is meant for the stomach, and the stomach is meant for food, and God will cause both of them to perish. Yet the body does not exist for the purpose of fornication, but for the Master's service, and the Master exists for the body;

006:014 and as God by His power raised the Master to life, so He will also raise us up.

006:015 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? No, indeed.

006:016 Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute is one with her in body? For God says, "The two shall become one."

006:017 But he who is in union with the Master is one with Him in spirit.

006:018 Flee from fornication. Any other sin that a human being commits
lies outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins
against his own body.

006:019 Or do you not know that your bodies are a sanctuary
of the Holy Spirit who is within you—the Spirit whom you
have from God?

006:020 And you are not your own, for you have been redeemed at
infinite cost. Therefore glorify God in your bodies.

007:001 I now deal with the subjects mentioned in your letter.
It is well for a man to abstain altogether from marriage.

007:002 But because there is so much fornication every man should have
a wife of his own, and every woman should have a husband.

007:003 Let a man pay his wife her due, and let a woman also pay
her husband his.

007:004 A married woman is not mistress of her own person: her husband has certain rights. In the same way a married man is not master of his own person: his wife has certain rights.

007:005 Do not refuse one another, unless perhaps it is just for a time and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and may then associate again; lest the Adversary begin to tempt you because of your deficiency in self-control.

007:006 Thus much in the way of concession, not of command.

007:007 Yet I would that everybody lived as I do; but each of us has his own special gift from God—one in one direction and one in another.

007:008 But I tell the unmarried, and women who are widows, that it
is well for them to remain as I am.

007:009 If, however, they cannot maintain self-control, by all means let
them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.

007:010 But to those already married my instructions are—yet not mine,
but the Lord's—that a wife is not to leave her husband;

007:011 or if she has already left him, let her either remain as she
is or be reconciled to him; and that a husband is not to send
away his wife.

007:012 To the rest it is I who speak—not the Lord. If a brother has
a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him,
let him not send her away.

007:013 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband—if he consents to live with her, let her not separate from him.

007:014 For, in such cases, the unbelieving husband has become—and is— holy through union with a Christian woman, and the unbelieving wife is holy through union with a Christian brother. Otherwise your children would be unholy, but in reality they have a place among God's people.

007:015 If, however, the unbeliever is determined to leave, let him
or her do so. Under such circumstances the Christian man
or woman is no slave; God has called us to live lives of peace.

007:016 For what assurance have you, O woman, as to whether you
will save your husband? Or what assurance have you, O man,
as to whether you will save your wife?

007:017 Only, whatever be the condition in life which the Lord has
assigned to each individual—and whatever the condition in which
he was living when God called him—in that let him continue.

007:018 This is what I command in all the Churches. Was any one already circumcised when called? Let him not have recourse to the surgeons. Was any one uncircumcised when called? Let him remain uncircumcised.

007:019 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing:
obedience to God's commandments is everything.

007:020 Whatever be the condition in life in which a man was,
when he was called, in that let him continue.

007:021 Were you a slave when God called you? Let not that weigh
on your mind. And yet if you can get your freedom,
take advantage of the opportunity.

007:022 For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's
freed man, and in the same way a free man, if called,
becomes the slave of Christ.

007:023 You have all been redeemed at infinite cost: do not become
slaves to men.

007:024 Where each one stood when he was called, there, brethren, let him
still stand—close to God.

007:025 Concerning unmarried women I have no command to give you from the Lord; but I offer you my opinion, which is that of a man who, through the Lord's mercy, is deserving of your confidence.

007:026 I think then that, taking into consideration the distress
which is now upon us, it is well for a man to remain as he is.

007:027 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to get free.
Are you free from the marriage bond? Do not seek for a wife.

007:028 Yet if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a maiden marries,
she has not sinned. Such people, however, will have
outward trouble. But I am for sparing you.

007:029 Yet of this I warn you, brethren: the time has been shortened—
so that henceforth those who have wives should be as though
they had none,

007:030 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice
as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they
did not possess,

007:031 and those who use the world as not using it to the full.
For the world as it now exists is passing away.

007:032 And I would have you free from worldly anxiety. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's business— how he shall please the Lord;

007:033 but a married man concerns himself with the business of the world— how he shall please his wife.

007:034 There is a difference too between a married and an unmarried woman. She who is unmarried concerns herself with the Lord's business— that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but the married woman concerns herself with the business of the world— how she shall please her husband.

007:035 Thus much I say in your own interest; not to lay a trap for you, but to help towards what is becoming, and enable you to wait on the Lord without distraction.

007:036 If, however, a father thinks he is acting unbecomingly towards his
still unmarried daughter if she be past the bloom of her youth,
and so the matter is urgent, let him do what she desires;
he commits no sin; she and her suitor should be allowed to marry.

007:037 But if a father stands firm in his resolve, being free from
all external constraint and having a legal right to act
as he pleases, and in his own mind has come to the decision
to keep his daughter unmarried, he will do well.

007:038 So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

007:039 A woman is bound to her husband during the whole period that he lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to marry whom she will, provided that he is a Christian.

007:040 But in my judgement, her state is a more enviable one if she remains as she is; and I also think that I have the Spirit of God.

008:001 Now as to things which have been sacrificed to idols. This is a subject which we already understand—because we all have knowledge of it. Knowledge, however, tends to make people conceited; it is love that builds us up.

008:002 If any one imagines that he already possesses any true knowledge, he has as yet attained to no knowledge of the kind to which he ought to have attained;

008:003 but if any one loves God, that man is known by God.

008:004 As to eating things which have been sacrificed to idols, we are fully aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.

008:005 For if so-called gods do exist, either in Heaven or on earth— and in fact there are many such gods and many such lords—

008:006 yet *we* have but one God, the Father, who is the source of all things
and for whose service we exist, and but one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom we and all things exist.

008:007 But all believers do not recognize these facts. Some, from force
of habit in relation to the idol, even now eat idol sacrifices
as such, and their consciences, being but weak, are polluted.

008:008 It is true that a particular kind of food will not bring us
into God's presence; we are neither inferior to others if we
abstain from it, nor superior to them if we eat it.

008:009 But take care lest this liberty of yours should prove a hindrance to the progress of weak believers.

008:010 For if any one were to see you, who know the real truth of this matter, reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience (supposing him to be a weak believer) be emboldened to eat the food which has been sacrificed to the idol?

008:011 Why, your knowledge becomes the ruin of the weak believer—
your brother, for whom Christ died!

008:012 Moreover when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their
weak consciences, you are, in reality, sinning against Christ.

008:013 Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall, never again
to the end of my days will I touch any kind of animal food,
for fear I should cause my brother to fall.

009:001 Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be denied that I
have seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you yourselves my work
in the Lord?

009:002 If to other men I am not an Apostle, yet at any rate I am one to you;
for your very existence as a Christian Church is the seal
of my Apostleship.

009:003 That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

009:004 Have we not a right to claim food and drink?

009:005 Have we not a right to take with us on our journeys a Christian sister as our wife, as the rest of the Apostles do— and the Lord's brothers and Peter?

009:006 Or again, is it only Barnabas and myself who are not at liberty to give up working with our hands?

009:007 What soldier ever serves at his own cost? Who plants a vineyard and yet does not eat any of the grapes? Or who tends a herd of cattle and yet does not taste their milk?

009:008 Am I making use of merely worldly illustrations?
Does not the Law speak in the same tone?

009:009 For in the Law of Moses it is written, "Thou shalt not muzzle
an ox while it is treading out the grain."

009:010 Is God simply thinking about the oxen? Or is it really in our interest that He speaks? Of course, it was written in our interest, because it is His will that when a plough-man ploughs, and a thresher threshes, it should be in the hope of sharing that which comes as the result.

009:011 If it is we who sowed the spiritual grain in you, is it a great thing that we should reap a temporal harvest from you?

009:012 If other teachers possess that right over you, do not we possess it much more? Yet we have not availed ourselves of the right, but we patiently endure all things rather than hinder in the least degree the progress of the Good News of the Christ.

009:013 Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites have their food from the sacred place, and that those who serve at the altar all alike share with the altar?

009:014 In the same way the Lord also directed those who proclaim the Good News to maintain themselves by the Good News.

009:015 But I, for my part, have not used, and do not use, my full rights in any of these things. Nor do I now write with that object so far as I myself am concerned, for I would rather die than have anybody make this boast of mine an empty one.

009:016 If I go on preaching the Good News, that is nothing for me to boast of; for the necessity is imposed upon me; and alas for me, if I fail to preach it!

009:017 And if I preach willingly, I receive my wages; but if against my will, a stewardship has nevertheless been entrusted to me.

009:018 What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.

009:019 Though free from all human control, I have made myself the slave of all in the hope of winning as many converts as possible.

009:020 To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews;
to men under the Law as if I were under the Law—although I am not—
in order to win those who are under the Law;

009:021 to men without Law as if I were without Law—although I am not
without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law—
in order to win those who are without Law.

009:022 To the weak I have become weak, so as to gain the weak.
To all men I have become all things, in the hope that in every
one of these ways I may save some.

009:023 And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that I may share with my hearers in its benefits.

009:024 Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty.

009:025 But every competitor in an athletic contest practices abstemiousness in all directions. They indeed do this for the sake of securing a perishable wreath, but we for the sake of securing one that will not perish.

009:026 That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

009:027 but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off
into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others,
I should myself be rejected.

010:001 For I would have you remember, brethren, how our forefathers
were all of them sheltered by the cloud, and all got safely
through the Red Sea.

010:002 All were baptized in the cloud and in the sea to be followers of Moses.

010:003 All ate the same spiritual food,

010:004 and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they long drank the water that flowed from the spiritual rock that went with them— and that rock was the Christ.

010:005 But with most of them God was not well pleased; for they
were laid low in the Desert.

010:006 And in this they became a warning to us, to teach us not to
be eager, as they were eager, in pursuit of what is evil.

010:007 And you must not be worshippers of idols, as some of them were. For it is written, "The People sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to dance."

010:008 Nor may we be fornicators, like some of them who committed
fornication and on a single day 23,000 of them fell dead.

010:009 And do not let us test the Lord too far, as some of them tested
Him and were destroyed by the serpents.

010:010 And do not be discontented, as some of them were, and they
were destroyed by the Destroyer.

010:011 All this kept happening to them with a figurative meaning; but it was put on record by way of admonition to us upon whom the ends of the Ages have come.

010:012 So then let him who thinks he is standing securely beware of falling.

010:013 No temptation has you in its power but such as is common to human nature; and God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. But, when the temptation comes, He will also provide the way of escape; so that you may be able to bear it.

010:014 Therefore, my dear friends, avoid all connection with the worship of idols.

010:015 I speak as to men of sense: judge for yourselves of what I say.

010:016 The cup of blessing, which we bless, does it not mean a joint-participation in the blood of Christ? The loaf of bread which we break, does it not mean a joint-participation in the body of Christ?

010:017 Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; we, all of us, share in that one loaf.

010:018 Look at the Israelites—the nation and their ritual. Are not those who eat the sacrifices joint-partakers in the altar?

010:019 Do I mean that a thing sacrificed to an idol is what it claims to be, or that an idol is a real thing?

010:020 No, but that which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice
to demons, not to God; and I would not have you have fellowship
with one another through the demons.

010:021 You cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons:
you cannot be joint-partakers both in the table of the Lord
and in the table of demons.

010:022 Or are we actually arousing the Lord to jealousy.
Are we stronger than He is?

010:023 Everything is allowable, but not everything is profitable.
Everything is allowable, but everything does not build others up.

010:024 Let no one be for ever seeking his own good, but let each seek
that of his fellow man.

010:025 Anything that is for sale in the meat market, eat, and ask
no questions for conscience' sake;

010:026 for the earth is the Lord's, and all that it contains.

010:027 If an unbeliever gives you an invitation and you are disposed
to accept it, eat whatever is put before you, and ask no
questions for conscience' sake.

010:028 But if any one tells you, "This food has been offered in sacrifice;"
abstain from eating it—out of respect for him who warned you,
and, as before, for conscience' sake.

010:029 But now I mean his conscience, not your own. "Why, on what ground,"
you may object, "is the question of my liberty of action
to be decided by a conscience not my own?

010:030 If, so far as I am concerned, I partake with a grateful heart,
why am I to be found fault with in regard to a thing for
which I give thanks?"

010:031 Whether, then, you are eating or drinking, or whatever you
are doing, let everything be done to the glory of God.

010:032 Do not be causes of stumbling either to Jews or to Gentiles,
nor to the Church of God.

010:033 That is the way that I also seek in everything the approval of all men, not aiming at my own profit, but at that of the many, in the hope that they may be saved.

011:001 Be imitators of me, in so far as I in turn am an imitator of Christ.

011:002 Now I commend you for remembering me in everything,
and because you hold fast truths and practices precisely as I
have taught them to you.

011:003 I would have you know, however, that of every man,
Christ is the Head, that of a woman her husband is the Head,
and that God is Christ's Head.

011:004 A man who wears a veil when praying or prophesying dishonors his Head;

011:005 but a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered
dishonors her Head, for it is exactly the same as if she
had her hair cut short.

011:006 If a woman will not wear a veil, let her also cut off her hair.
But since it is a dishonor to a woman to have her hair cut
off or her head shaved, let her wear a veil.

011:007 For a man ought not to have a veil on his head, since he is
the image and glory of God; while woman is the glory of man.

011:008 Man does not take his origin from woman, but woman takes
hers from man.

011:009 For man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for man's.

011:010 That is why a woman ought to have on her head a symbol
of subjection, because of the angels.

011:011 Yet, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man
independent of woman.

011:012 For just as woman originates from man, so also man comes into existence through woman, but everything springs originally from God.

011:013 Judge of this for your own selves: is it seemly for a woman
to pray to God when she is unveiled?

011:014 Does not Nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair
it is a dishonor to him,

011:015 but that if a woman has long hair it is her glory, because her
hair was given her for a covering?

011:016 But if any one is inclined to be contentious on the point,
we have no such custom, nor have the Churches of God.

011:017 But while giving you these instructions, there is one thing
I cannot praise—your meeting together, with bad rather
than good results.

011:018 for, in the first place, when you meet as a Church,
there are divisions among you. This is what I am told,
and I believe that there is some truth in it.

011:019 For there must of necessity be differences of opinion among you,
in order that it may be plainly seen who are the men of sterling
worth among you.

011:020 When, however, you meet in one place, there is no eating the Supper of the Lord;

011:021 for it is his own supper of which each of you is in a hurry to partake, and one eats like a hungry man, while another has already drunk to excess.

011:022 Why, have you no homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you wish to show your contempt for the Church of God and make those who have no homes feel ashamed? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I certainly do not praise you.

011:023 For it was from the Lord that I received the facts which, in turn, I handed on to you; how that the Lord Jesus, on the night He was to be betrayed, took some bread,

011:024 and after giving thanks He broke it and said, "This is my body which is about to be broken for you. Do this in memory of me."

011:025 In the same way, when the meal was over, He also took the cup. "This cup," He said, "is the new Covenant of which my blood is the pledge. Do this, every time that you drink it, in memory of me."

011:026 For every time that you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death—until He returns.

011:027 Whoever, therefore, in an unworthy manner, eats the bread or drinks from the cup of the Lord sins against the body and blood of the Lord.

011:028 But let a man examine himself, and, having done that,
then let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.

011:029 For any one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgement
to himself, if he fails to estimate the body aright.

011:030 That is why many among you are sickly and out of health,
and why not a few die.

011:031 If, however, we estimated ourselves aright, we should
not be judged.

011:032 But when we are judged by the Lord, chastisement follows,
to save us from being condemned along with the world.

011:033 Therefore, brethren, when you come together for this meal,
wait for one another.

011:034 If any one is hungry, let him eat at home; so that your coming together may not lead to judgement. The other matters I will deal with whenever I come.

012:001 It is important, brethren, that you should have clear knowledge
on the subject of spiritual gifts.

012:002 You know that when you were heathens you went astray after
dumb idols, wherever you happened to be led.

012:003 For this reason I would have you understand that no one speaking under the influence of The Spirit of God ever says, "Jesus is accursed," and that no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

012:004 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but there is one and the same Spirit;

012:005 various forms of official service, and yet one and the same Lord;

012:006 diversities in work, and yet one and the same God—He who in
each person brings about the whole result.

012:007 But to each of us a manifestation of the Spirit has been
granted for the common good.

012:008 To one the utterance of wisdom has been granted through the Spirit; to another the utterance of knowledge in accordance with the will of the same Spirit;

012:009 to a third man, by means of the same Spirit, special faith; to another various gifts of healing, by means of the one Spirit;

012:010 to another the exercise of miraculous powers; to another the gift of prophecy; to another the power of discriminating between prophetic utterances; to another varieties of the gift of `tongues;' to another the interpretation of tongues.

012:011 But these results are all brought about by one and the same Spirit,
who bestows His gifts upon each of us in accordance with
His own will.

012:012 For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts,
and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body,
so it is with the Church of Christ.

012:013 For, in fact, in one Spirit all of us—whether we are Jews
or Gentiles, slaves or free men—were baptized to form but one body;
and we were all nourished by that one Spirit.

012:014 For the human body does not consist of one part, but of many.

012:015 Were the foot to say, "Because I am not a hand I am not a part
of the body," that would not make it any the less a part
of the body.

012:016 Or were the ear to say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not
a part of the body," that would not make it any the less
a part of the body.

012:017 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were an ear, where would the nostrils be?

012:018 But, as a matter of fact, God has arranged the parts in the body—
every one of them—as He has seen fit.

012:019 If they were all one part, where would the body be?

012:020 But, as a matter of fact, there are many parts and but one body.

012:021 It is also impossible for the eye to say to the hand, "I do not need you;" or again for the head to say to the feet, "I do not need you."

012:022 No, it is quite otherwise. Even those parts of the body which are apparently somewhat feeble are yet indispensable;

012:023 and those which we deem less honorable we clothe with more abundant honor; and so our ungraceful parts come to have a more abundant grace, while our graceful parts have everything they need.

012:024 But it was God who built up the body, and bestowed more abundant honor on the part that felt the need,