1 Corinthians 5:7-8

21st Century King James Version

⁷ Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

⁸ Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators—

¹⁰ yet not meaning altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for to do so ye would need to go out of the world.

¹¹ But I now have written unto you not to keep company with any man who is called a brother if he is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. With such a one you are not even to eat.

¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do not ye judge those who are within?

¹³ But those who are outside, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

6 Dare any of you, having a complaint against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

² Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

³ Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

⁴ If then ye have judgments to make on things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church!

⁵ I speak to shame you! Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, no, not one, who shall be able to judge between his brethren?

⁶ But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers!

⁷ Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one against another. Why do ye not rather accept wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

⁸ Nay, ye do wrong and defraud, and that your own brethren!

⁹ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

¹¹ And such were some of you. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

¹² “All things are lawful unto me,” but all things are not expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of any.

¹³ “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats,” but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴ And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own power.

¹⁵ Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid!

¹⁶ What? Know ye not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? “For two,” saith He, “shall be one flesh.”

¹⁷ But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

¹⁸ Flee fornication. Every other sin which a man doeth is outside the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

¹⁹ What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and which ye have from God, and that ye are not your own?

²⁰ For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

7 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² Nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

⁴ The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Defraud ye not one the other, unless it be with consent for a time only, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not through your lack of selfrestraint.

⁶ But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself am. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one in this manner and another in that.

⁸ I say therefore to the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I.

⁹ But if they cannot contain themselves, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰ And unto the married I command (yet not I, but the Lord): let not the wife depart from her husband.

¹¹ But if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife.

¹² But to the rest I speak (not the Lord): if any brother hath a wife who believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

¹³ And the woman who hath a husband who believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

¹⁵ But if the unbelieving spouse depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases, for God hath called us to peace.

¹⁶ For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

¹⁷ But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all churches.

¹⁸ Is any man called, being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called, being uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised.

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

²⁰ Let every man abide in the same calling as when he was called.

²¹ Art thou a servant when called? Be not concerned; but if thou mayest be made free, then make use of it.

²² For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.

²³ Ye are bought with a price; be ye not the servants of men.

²⁴ Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

²⁵ Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one who hath obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.

²⁶ I suppose therefore that in this present distress, I say, it is good for a man so to be.

²⁷ Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.

²⁸ But if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you.

²⁹ But this I say, brethren: the time is short. It remaineth that those who have wives should be as though they had none;

³⁰ and those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those who buy, as though they possessed not;

³¹ and those who use this world, as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away.

³² But I would have you be without cares. He that is unmarried careth for the things which belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

³³ but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

³⁴ There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

³⁵ And this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and so that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

³⁶ But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age and need so require, let him do what he will—he sinneth not: let them marry.

³⁷ Nevertheless, he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.

³⁸ So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well, but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.

³⁹ The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, but only in the Lord.

⁴⁰ But she is happier if she so remain, in my judgment; and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

8 Now concerning things offered unto idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

² And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

³ But if any man love God, the same is known by Him.

⁴ Concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but One.

⁵ For though there be what are called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many “gods” and many “lords”),

⁶ yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.

⁷ However, there is not in every man that knowledge; for some, with conscience of the idol until this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.