1 Corinthians 3–16

¹And I, brethren, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly—as to babes in Christ; ²with milk I fed you, and not with meat, for ye were not yet able, but not even yet are ye now able, ³for yet ye are fleshly, for where there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not fleshly, and in the manner of men do walk? ⁴for when one may say, ‘I, indeed, am of Paul;’ and another, ‘I—of Apollos;’ are ye not fleshly?

⁵Who, then, is Paul, and who Apollos, but ministrants through whom ye did believe, and to each as the Lord gave? ⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God was giving growth; ⁷so that neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is watering, but He who is giving growth—God; ⁸and he who is planting and he who is watering are one, and each his own reward shall receive, according to his own labour, ⁹for of God we are fellow-workmen; God’s tillage, God’s building ye are. ¹⁰According to the grace of God that was given to me, as a wise master-builder, a foundation I have laid, and another doth build on it.

¹¹For other foundation no one is able to lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus the Christ; ¹²and if any one doth build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³of each the work shall become manifest, for the day shall declare it, because in fire it is revealed, and the work of each, what kind it is, the fire shall prove; ¹⁴if of any one the work doth remain that he built on it, a wage he shall receive; ¹⁵if of any the work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; and himself shall be saved, but so as through fire.

¹⁶Have ye not known that ye are a sanctuary of God, and the Spirit of God doth dwell in you? ¹⁷if any one the sanctuary of God doth waste, him shall God waste; for the sanctuary of God is holy, the which ye are.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself; if any one doth seem to be wise among you in this age—let him become a fool, that he may become wise, ¹⁹for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it hath been written, ‘Who is taking the wise in their craftiness;’ ²⁰and again, ‘The Lord doth know the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.’

²¹So then, let no one glory in men, for all things are yours, ²²whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things about to be—all are yours, ²³and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Chapter 4

¹Let a man so reckon us as officers of Christ, and stewards of the secrets of God, ²and as to the rest, it is required in the stewards that one may be found faithful, ³and to me it is for a very little thing that by you I may be judged, or by man’s day, but not even myself do I judge, ⁴for of nothing to myself have I been conscious, but not in this have I been declared right—and he who is discerning me is the Lord: ⁵so, then, nothing before the time judge ye, till the Lord may come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of the darkness, and will manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then the praise shall come to each from God. ⁶And these things, brethren, I did transfer to myself and to Apollos because of you, that in us ye may learn not to think above that which hath been written, that ye may not be puffed up one for one against the other.

⁷For who doth make thee to differ? and what hast thou, that thou didst not receive? and if thou didst also receive, why dost thou glory as not having received? ⁸Already ye are having been filled, already ye were rich, apart from us ye did reign, and I would also ye did reign, that we also with you may reign together, ⁹for I think that God did set forth us the apostles last—as appointed to death, because a spectacle we became to the world, and messengers, and men; ¹⁰we are fools because of Christ, and ye wise in Christ; we are ailing, and ye strong; ye glorious, and we dishonoured; ¹¹unto the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and wander about, ¹²and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer; ¹³being spoken evil of, we entreat; as filth of the world we did become—of all things an offscouring—till now.

¹⁴Not as putting you to shame do I write these things, but as my beloved children I do admonish, ¹⁵for if a myriad of child-conductors ye may have in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus, through the good news, I—I did beget you; ¹⁶I call upon you, therefore, become ye followers of me.

¹⁷Because of this I sent to you Timotheus, who is my child, beloved and faithful in the Lord, who shall remind you of my ways in Christ, according as everywhere in every assembly I teach. ¹⁸And as if I were not coming unto you certain were puffed up; ¹⁹but I will come quickly unto you, if the Lord may will, and I will know not the word of those puffed up, but the power; ²⁰for not in word is the reign of God, but in power? ²¹what do ye wish? with a rod shall I come unto you, or in love, with a spirit also of meekness?

Chapter 5

¹Whoredom is actually heard of among you, and such whoredom as is not even named among the nations—as that one hath the wife of the father!— ²and ye are having been puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he may be removed out of the midst of you who did this work, ³for I indeed, as being absent as to the body, and present as to the spirit, have already judged, as being present, him who so wrought this thing: ⁴in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—ye being gathered together, also my spirit—with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵to deliver up such a one to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ⁶Not good is your glorying; have ye not known that a little leaven the whole lump doth leaven?

⁷Cleanse out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened, for also our passover for us was sacrificed—Christ, ⁸so that we may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.

⁹I did write to you in the epistle, not to keep company with whoremongers— ¹⁰and not certainly with the whoremongers of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, seeing ye ought then to go forth out of the world— ¹¹and now, I did write to you not to keep company with him, if any one, being named a brother, may be a whoremonger, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—with such a one not even to eat together; ¹²for what have I also those without to judge? those within do ye not judge? ¹³and those without God doth judge; and put ye away the evil from among yourselves.

Chapter 6

¹Dare any one of you, having a matter with the other, go to be judged before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ²have ye not known that the saints shall judge the world? and if by you the world is judged, are ye unworthy of the smaller judgments? ³have ye not known that we shall judge messengers? why not then the things of life? ⁴of the things of life, indeed, then, if ye may have judgment, those despised in the assembly—these cause ye to sit; ⁵unto your shame I speak: so there is not among you one wise man, not even one, who shall be able to discern in the midst of his brethren! ⁶but brother with brother doth go to be judged, and this before unbelievers! ⁷Already, indeed, then, there is altogether a fault among you, that ye have judgments with one another; wherefore do ye not rather suffer injustice? wherefore be ye not rather defrauded? ⁸but ye—ye do injustice, and ye defraud, and these—brethren!

⁹Have ye not known that the unrighteous the reign of God shall not inherit? be not led astray; neither whoremongers, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, the reign of God shall inherit. ¹¹And certain of you were these! but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were declared righteous, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.

¹²All things are lawful to me, but all things are not profitable; all things are lawful to me, but I—I will not be under authority by any; ¹³the meats are for the belly, and the belly for the meats. And God both this and these shall make useless; and the body is not for whoredom, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body; ¹⁴and God both the Lord did raise, and us will raise up through His power. ¹⁵Have ye not known that your bodies are members of Christ? having taken, then, the members of the Christ, shall I make them members of an harlot? let it be not! ¹⁶have ye not known that he who is joined to the harlot is one body? ‘for they shall be—saith He—the two for one flesh.’ ¹⁷And he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit; ¹⁸flee the whoredom; every sin—whatever a man may commit—is without the body, and he who is committing whoredom, against his own body doth sin. ¹⁹Have ye not known that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own, ²⁰for ye were bought with a price; glorify, then, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Chapter 7

¹And concerning the things of which ye wrote to me: good it is for a man not to touch a woman, ²and because of the whoredom let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her proper husband; ³to the wife let the husband the due benevolence render, and in like manner also the wife to the husband; ⁴the wife over her own body hath not authority, but the husband; and, in like manner also, the husband over his own body hath not authority, but the wife. ⁵Defraud not one another, except by consent for a time, that ye may be free for fasting and prayer, and again may come together, that the Adversary may not tempt you because of your incontinence; ⁶and this I say by way of concurrence—not of command, ⁷for I wish all men to be even as I myself am; but each his own gift hath of God, one indeed thus, and…