6:1 Does any of you dare, if you have a dispute against another, to go to law before the ungodly, instead of before the saints?
6:2 Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
6:3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life?
6:4 If then you have such disputes, set them before those who are least esteemed in the church.
6:5 I speak this to your shame. Can it be that there is not a wise man among you who shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6:6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before the unbelievers.
6:7 Now, it is utterly a defeat for you that you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather suffer the wrong? why do you not rather allow yourselves to be defrauded?
6:8 Instead, you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and you do this to your brethren.
6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexual offenders,
6:10 Nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
6:11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
6:12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not beneficial: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything.
6:13 Food is for the belly, and the belly for food: but God shall destroy both of them. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
6:14 And God has raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his power.
6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a prostitute? Never.
6:16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? for the two, he says, shall become one flesh.
6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
6:18 Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his body; but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own?
6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
7:1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid impurity, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
7:3 Let the husband fulfill his marital duty to his wife: and likewise the wife to the husband.
7:4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does: and likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
7:5 Do not deprive one another, except by consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and then come together again, that Satan may not tempt you for your lack of self-control.
7:6 But I speak this as a concession, and not as a commandment.
7:7 For I wish that all men were as I am. But every man has his proper gift from God, one of this type, and another of that.
7:8 Therefore I say to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them to remain single, as I am.
7:9 But if they cannot contain themselves, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
7:10 And to the married I give this command, not I, but the Lord, Let the wife not depart from her husband:
7:11 But if she does depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let the husband not divorce his wife.
7:12 But to the rest I say, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.
7:13 And the woman who has a husband who does not believe, and if he is willing to live with her, let her not leave him.
7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: otherwise your children would be unclean; but now are they holy.
7:15 But if the unbelieving one departs, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: for God has called us to peace.
7:16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? or how do you know, O man, whether you shall save your wife?
7:17 But as the Lord has assigned to every man, as God has called every one, so let him walk. And this is my rule in all the churches.
7:18 Was any man circumcised when he was called? let him not become uncircumcised. Was any uncircumcised when called? let him not be circumcised.
7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping of the commandments of God is what matters.
7:20 Let every man remain in the same situation in which he was called.
7:21 Were you called when a slave? do not let it trouble you: but if you may become free, do so.
7:22 For he who is called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman: likewise he who is called while free, is Christ's slave.
7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become the slaves of men.
7:24 Brethren, let every man, in whatever situation he was in when called, remain there with God.
7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment from the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.
7:26 I think then, in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.
7:27 Are you bound to a wife? do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? do not seek a wife.
7:28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, those who marry shall have trouble in this life: and I seek to spare you.
7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: from now on let those who have wives be as though they had none;
7:30 And those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess;
7:31 And those who use this world, as though not engrossed in it: for the form of this world passes away.
7:32 I would have you be without concern. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
7:33 But he who is married is concerned for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife,
7:34 And his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or the virgin cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she who is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
7:35 And this I speak for your own benefit; not to restrain you, but to promote that which is seemly, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.
7:36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, if she is passing the flower of her youth, and if need so requires, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin: let them marry.
7:37 Nevertheless, he who stands steadfast in his heart, being under no compulsion, but having power over his own will, and having determined in his heart that he will keep his virginity, does well.
7:38 So then he who marries does well; but he who does not marry does better.
7:39 The wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is at liberty to marry whom she wishes; only in the Lord.
7:40 But in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is: and I also think that I have the Spirit of God.
8:1 Now regarding things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 And if any man thinks that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
8:3 But if any man loves God, he is known by him.
8:4 Therefore, concerning the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.
8:5 For though there are things that are called gods, in heaven and on earth, (and indeed there are many gods, and many lords,)
8:6 But for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist through him.
8:7 Yet, not every man has this knowledge: for some are still accustomed to idols, and eat a thing as if it were really offered to an idol; and because their conscience is weak it is defiled.
8:8 But food does not commend us to God: if we eat, we are none the better; if we do not eat, we are none the worse.
8:9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
8:10 For if any man sees you, who have knowledge, eating in an idol's temple, shall not the conscience of the one who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?
8:11 And so through your knowledge the weak brother is ruined, he for whom Christ died.
8:12 Thus, when you sin against the brethren in this way, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food makes my brother fall, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother fall.
9:1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are you not my work in the Lord?
9:2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you: for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
9:3 My defence to those who examine me is this:
9:4 Do we not have the right to eat and to drink?
9:5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
9:6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working?
9:7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? or who feeds a flock, and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
9:8 Do I say these things merely on human authority? or does not the law say the same?
9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain. Is God concerned about oxen?
9:10 Or does he say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes it is written: that he who plows should plow in hope; and he who threshes should thresh in hope of a share of the crop.
9:11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
9:12 If others share this rightful claim upon you, do we not have a greater claim? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
9:13 Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat the food of the temple? and those who serve at the altar share what is offered at the altar?
9:14 In the same way the Lord ordained that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.
9:15 But I have used none of these things: nor am I writing these things that it should be done for me: for it would be better for me to die, than for any man to make my boast an empty one.
9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about: for it is a necessity laid upon me; woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
9:17 If I do this willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a commission has been entrusted to me.
9:18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, not taking advantage of my rights in the gospel.
9:19 For though I am free from all men, yet I have made myself the servant to all, that I might win the more.
9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;
9:21 To those who are without the law, as without the law, (though I am not without the law of God, but am under the law of Christ,) that I might win those who are without the law.
9:22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak: I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
9:23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be a partaker in its blessings.
9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
9:25 And every man who competes is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown; but we an imperishable.
9:26 Therefore, I do not run aimlessly; and I do not fight as one who beats the air:
9:27 But I beat my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
10:2 And were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
10:3 And all ate the same spiritual food;
10:4 And all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank from that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
10:5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
10:6 Now these things are examples for us, so we should not lust after evil things, as they lusted.
10:7 Nor be idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
10:8 Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
10:9 Nor let us tempt the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.
10:10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples: and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
10:12 Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to endure; but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
10:14 Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
10:15 I speak as to sensible men; judge for yourselves what I say.
10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
10:17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
10:18 Behold the people of Israel: are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers in the altar?
10:19 What do I say then? that an idol is anything, or that food offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?
10:20 No, but I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I do not want you to have fellowship with devils.
10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
10:22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
10:23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial: all things are lawful for me, but not all things are constructive.
10:24 Let no man seek his own good, but the good of others.
10:25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience sake:
10:26 For the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains.
10:27 If any of those who do not believe ask you to a meal, and you are disposed to go; eat whatever is set before you, without asking questions for conscience sake.
10:28 But if any man says to you, This has been offered in sacrifice to idols, do not eat, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience sake:
10:29 I do not mean your conscience, but his: for why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience?
10:30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
10:31 Therefore, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
10:32 Do not give offence to the Jews, or to the Greeks, or to the church of God:
10:33 Just as I try to please all men in all things, not seeking my own good, but that of the many, that they may be saved.