Chapter 5

Immorality Rebuked

1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has ahis father’s wife.

2 1You ahave become 2arrogant and 1have not bmourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be cremoved from your midst.

3 For I, on my part, though aabsent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

4 aIn the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and 1I with you in spirit, bwith the power of our Lord Jesus,

5 I have decided to adeliver such a one to bSatan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in cthe day of the Lord 1Jesus.

6 aYour boasting is not good. bDo you not know that ca little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our aPassover also has been sacrificed.

8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, anot with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote you in my letter anot to associate with immoral people;

10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with aidolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

11 But 1actually, I wrote to you not to associate 2with any so-called abrother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or ban idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

12 For what have I to do with judging aoutsiders? bDo you not judge those who are within the church?

13 But those who are outside, God 1judges. aRemove the wicked man from among yourselves.

Chapter 6

Lawsuits Discouraged

1 Does any one of you, when he has a 1case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and anot before the 2saints?

2 Or ado you not know that bthe 1saints will judge cthe world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to 2constitute the smallest law courts?

3 aDo you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, 1do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

5 aI say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his bbrethren,

6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before aunbelievers?

7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. aWhy not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your abrethren.

9 Or ado you not know that the unrighteous will not binherit the kingdom of God? cDo not be deceived; dneither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 1effeminate, nor homosexuals,

10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ainherit the kingdom of God.

11 aSuch were some of you; but you were bwashed, but you were csanctified, but you were djustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

The Body Is the Lord’s

12 aAll things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

13 aFood is for the 1stomach and the 1stomach is for food, but God will bdo away with both 2of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but cfor the Lord, and dthe Lord is for the body.

14 Now God has not only araised the Lord, but bwill also raise us up through His power.

15 aDo you not know that byour bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? cMay it never be!

16 Or ado you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “bThe two shall become one flesh.”

17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is aone spirit with Him.

18 aFlee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the 1immoral man sins against his own body.

19 Or ado you not know that byour body is a 1temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from 2God, and that cyou are not your own?

20 For ayou have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in byour body.

Chapter 7

Teaching on Marriage

1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is agood for a man not to touch a woman.

2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

3 The husband must 1fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

5 aStop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and 1come together again so that bSatan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6 But this I say by way of concession, anot of command.

7 1Yet I wish that all men were aeven as I myself am. However, beach man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is agood for them if they remain beven as I.

9 But if they do not have self-control, alet them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 But to the married I give instructions, anot I, but the Lord, that the wife should not 1leave her husband

11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not 1divorce his wife.

12 But to the rest aI say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not 1divorce her.

13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not 1send her husband away.

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through 1her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are aholy.

15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called 1us 2ato peace.

16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will asave your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

17 Only, aas the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And bso I direct in call the churches.

18 Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? aHe is not to be circumcised.

19 aCircumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is bthe keeping of the commandments of God.

20 aEach man must remain in that 1condition in which he was called.

21 Were you called while a slave? 1Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather 2do that.

22 For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is athe Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is bChrist’s slave.

23 aYou were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.

24 Brethren, aeach one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.

25 Now concerning virgins I have ano command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who 1bby the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

26 I think then that this is good in view of the 1present adistress, that bit is good for a man 2to remain as he is.

27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

28 But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have 1trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

29 But this I say, brethren, athe time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;

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;

31 and those who use the world, as though they did not amake full use of it; for bthe form of this world is passing away.

32 But I want you to be free from concern. One who is aunmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

33 but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

34 and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

35 This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but 1to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

36 But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let 1her marry.

37 But he who stands firm in his heart, 1being under no constraint, but has authority 2over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

38 So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

39 aA wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband 1is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only bin the Lord.

40 But ain my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.