To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Thanksgiving

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

Dealing With a Case of Incest

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife.

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife.

But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—

and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.

If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married.

But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing.

Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?

Paul’s Use of His Freedom

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

Warnings From Israel’s History

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.