menu_book Chapter 1

CHAPTER I Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 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.

May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God continually on your behalf for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that you have been so richly blessed in him with readiness of speech and fullness of knowledge. Thus, my testimony as to the Christ has been confirmed in your experience, 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, who will also keep you steadfast to the very end, so that you will be free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 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.

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

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.

Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for fear people should say that you were baptized to be my adherents.

I did, however, baptize Stephanus' household also, but I do not think that I baptized anyone else. 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. 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. 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 naught. 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? 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.

Seeing that Jews demand miracles and Greeks go in search of wisdom, while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who have received the call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 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. 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. 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. And the things which the world regards as base and those which it sets utterly at naught, things that have no existence, God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that

do exist, to prevent any mortal man from boasting in the presence of God. 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, in order that it may be as Scripture says, He who boasts, let his boast be in the Lord.

Chapter 2 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, for I determined to be utterly ignorant when among you of everything except of Jesus Christ and of Him as having been crucified.

And so far as I myself was concerned, I came to you in conscious feebleness and in fear and in deep anxiety, 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, so that your trust might rest not on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God.

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, but in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret, we speak of God's wisdom, that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God predestined so that it should result in glory to us, 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged.

But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is himself judged by no one. For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Chapter 3. 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. 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. 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? For when someone says, I belong to Paul, and another says, I belong to Apollos, is not this the way men of the world speak? 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. I planted and Apollos watered, but it was God who was all the time giving the increase, so that neither the planter nor the waterer is of any importance. God who gives the increase is all in all.

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. Apollos and I are simply fellow workers for and with God, and you are God's field, God's building. In discharge of the task which God graciously entrusted to me, I, like a competent master

have laid a foundation, and others are building upon it. But let everyone be careful how and what he builds. For no one can lay any other foundation in addition to that which is already laid, namely Jesus Christ. And whether the building which anyone is erecting on that foundation be of gold or silver or

costly stones, of timber or hay or straw, 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 everyone's work, the fire is the thing which will test it. If anyone's work, the building which he has erected, stands the test, he will be rewarded.

If anyone'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. Do you not know that you are God's sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God has his home within you? If anyone is marring the sanctuary of God, him will God mar, for the sanctuary of God

is holy, which you all are. 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. This world's wisdom is foolishness in God's sight, for it is written, He snares the wise

with their own cunning. And again, the Lord takes knowledge of the reasonings of the wise, how useless they are. Therefore let no one boast about his human teachers. 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, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Chapter 4 As for us apostles, let anyone take this view of us. We are Christ's officers and stewards of God's secret truths. This being so, it follows that fidelity is what is required in stewards.

I, however, am very little concerned at undergoing your scrutiny or that of other men. In fact, I do not even scrutinize myself. 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.

Therefore form no premature judgments, 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. 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. 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? 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. 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. We for Christ's sake are labelled 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. To this very moment we endure both hunger and thirst, with scanty clothing and many a

blow. Homes we have none. For all that, you could not have several fathers. It is I who in Christ Jesus became your father through the good news. I entreat you therefore to become like me.

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

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. For apostolic authority is not a thing of words, but of power. Which shall it be? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender spirit?

Chapter 5. 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. And you, instead of mourning and removing from among you the man who has done this deed of shame, are filled with self-complacency.

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. 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, 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.

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? 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. 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. I wrote to you in that letter that you were not to associate with fornicators, not that in this world you are to keep holy 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. But what I meant was that you were not to associate with anyone 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. For what business of mine is it to judge outsiders?

Is it not for you to judge those who are within the church while you leave to God's judgment those who are outside? Remove the wicked man from among you! Chapter 6 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?

Do you not know that God's people will sit in judgment 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? Do you not know that we are to sit in judgment upon angels to say nothing of things belonging to this life?

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? 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, but brother goes to law with brother and that before unbelievers? To say no more, then, it is altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather endure injustice? Why not rather submit to being defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves inflict injustice and fraud and upon brethren too.

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, nor thieves, nor avaricious people, nor any who are addicted to hard drinking, to abusive language, or to greed of gain, will inherit God's kingdom?

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. Everything is allowable to me, but not everything is profitable.

Everything is allowable to me, but to nothing will I become a slave. 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.

And as God by His power raised the Master to life, so He will also raise us up. 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. 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. But he who is in union with the Master is one with Him in spirit. 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.

Or do you not know that your bodies are a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is within you? For you are a spirit whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you have been redeemed at infinite cost. Therefore glorify God in your bodies.