Corinthians

To the church of God in Corinth,

God is pleased to save those who, despite and throughout the foolishness of what is preached, believe.

My message and my preaching are not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

It is written that, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him," But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit,

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the earth but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement. For don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

Do not, therefore, be sexually or otherwise immoral, nor associate yourselves with such people. Do not be deceived, God's kingdom does not include the wicked. That is what some of you were, but you were washed by the Spirit of our God. There is no God but one, the Father, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The person who loves God is known by God. Food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.

And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that there is no physical resurrection of the dead.

If Christos has not been raised within you, then our preaching is useless and so is your faith. But Christos has indeed been born from the dead, the first-fruits of those that have fallen asleep. For as in the flesh all die, so in the resurrected spirit all will be made alive.

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God.

Someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! The spirit which is sown in your body is perishable, but when raised is imperishable, resurrected into the same physical body. This is being born again.

The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The carnal is of the dust of the earth, to which it will return, but the spirit is from heaven and its continuation after the death of the body is dependent upon you resurrecting it incorruptible. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable spirit automatically become imperishable.

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.