Beginning

How Paul curses the man who committed fornication with his stepmother.

5 There is a report abroad that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not once named among the Gentiles: that a man should have his father’s wife. ² And you swell, and have not rather sorrowed, so that he who has done this deed might be put out from among you. ³ For indeed I, as absent in body yet present in spirit, have determined already (as though I were present) concerning him who has done this thing, ⁴ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵ to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Your complacency is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven sours the whole lump of dough? ⁷ Purge therefore the old leaven, so that you may be new dough, as you are sweet bread. For Christ our Passover lamb is offered up for us. ⁸ Therefore let us keep holy day – not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of immorality and wickedness, but with the sweet bread of pureness and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in an epistle that you should not keep company with fornicators. ¹⁰ And I did not at all mean the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or swindlers, or idolaters, because then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I write to you not to keep company together with anyone called a brother who is a fornicator, or covetous, or a worshipper of images, or a railer, or a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a one, see that you do not eat. ¹² For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are within? ¹³ Those who are without, God will judge. Put away from among you that evil person.

He rebukes them for going to law against each other before the heathen, and reproves uncleanness.

6 How dare one of you, having a problem with another, go to law under the unrighteous, and not rather under the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you not good enough to judge small trifles? ³ Do you not know that we will judge the angels? How much more may we judge things that pertain to this life? ⁴ If you have trials of worldly matters, take those who are least esteemed in the congregation and make them judges. ⁵ This I say to your shame. Is there really no wise man among you? What, no one at all who can judge between brother and brother? ⁶ But one brother goes to law against another, and that under the unbelievers?

⁷ Now therefore there is utterly a failing among you, because you go to law one with another. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather suffer yourselves to be robbed? ⁸ Nay, you yourselves do wrong, and rob – and that the brethren.

⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. For neither fornicators, nor worshippers of images, nor whoremongers, nor effeminates, nor abusers of themselves with the male sex, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor cursed speakers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified by the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

¹² All things are lawful to me, but all things are not profitable. I may do all things, but I will be brought under no man’s power. ¹³ Foods are for the belly, and the belly for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Let not the body be given to fornication, but to the Lord, and the Lord to the body. ¹⁴ God has raised up the Lord, and will raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Or do you not consider that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I now take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. ¹⁶ Do you not understand that he who couples himself with a harlot has become one body with her? For two (says he) shall be one flesh. ¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Flee fornication. All sins that a man does are outside the body, but he who is a fornicator sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have of God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you are dearly bought. Therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits, for they are God’s.

Of marriage, virginity, and widowhood.

7 As for the things you wrote to me about: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. ² Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his wife, and let every woman have her husband. ³ Let the man give due affection to his wife; likewise also the wife to the man. ⁴ The wife does not have right over her own body, but the husband, and likewise the husband does not have right over his own body, but the wife. ⁵ Do not withdraw yourselves one from another, unless it be with consent for a time to give yourselves to fasting and prayer. And afterward, come again to the same thing, lest Satan tempt you through your lack of self control.

⁶ This I say by way of concession, and not of commandment. ⁷ For I would that all men were as I myself am. But every one has his own gift from God – one of this kind, another of that. ⁸ I say to the unmarried men and widows that it is good for them if they remain just as I do. ⁹ But if they cannot abstain, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰ To the married command not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not separate herself from the man. ¹¹ But if she separates herself, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband again. And let not the husband put his wife away from him.

¹² To the rest I, and not the Lord, speak. If any brother has a wife who does not believe, if she is content to dwell with him, let him not put her away. ¹³ And the woman who has an unbelieving husband, if he consents to dwell with her, let her not put him away. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean; but now they are pure. ¹⁵ But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not bound to such. God has called us in peace. ¹⁶ For how do you know, O woman, whether you will save that man or not? Or how do you know, O man, whether you will save that woman or not? – ¹⁷ but even as God has granted to each.

As the Lord has called every person, so let him walk; and I so ordain in all the congregations. ¹⁸ If a man is called when circumcised, let him add nothing to it. If a man is called when uncircumcised, let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God is everything. ²⁰ Let every person abide in the same state in which he was called. ²¹ Are you called when a servant? Care not for it. But if you may be free, avail yourself of it rather. ²² For he who is called in the Lord when a servant, is the Lord’s free man. Likewise, he who is called when free is Christ’s servant. ²³ You are dearly bought; do not be men’s servants. ²⁴ Brethren, let each, in whatever state he is called, abide therein with God.

²⁵ Concerning virgins I have no commandment from the Lord, yet I give counsel as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful. ²⁶ I suppose that it is good for the present necessity. For it is good for a man so to be.

²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Seek not to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you take a wife, you do not sin. Likewise, if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Nevertheless, the married will have trouble in their flesh. But I make allowance for you.

²⁹ This I say, brethren: the time is short. It remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none, ³⁰ and those who weep should be as though they wept not, and those who rejoice should be as though they did not rejoice. And those who buy should be as though they did not possess, ³¹ and those who are occupied in this world should be as not consumed in it. For the fashion of this world is passing away.

³² I would have you be without preoccupation. The single man cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. ³³ But he who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. ³⁴ There is a difference between a virgin and a wife. The single woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be pure both in body and also in spirit. But she who is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵ This I say for your profit – not to tangle you in a snare, but for that which is fitting and agreeable for you, and so that you may quietly cleave unto the Lord without hindrance.

³⁶ If any man thinks that it is not best for his virgin, if she is passing the time of marriage and if need so requires, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin; let them be coupled in marriage. ³⁷ Nevertheless, he who purposes surely in his heart, having no need, but has power over his own will, and has thus determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin, does well. ³⁸ So then, he who joins his virgin in marriage does well, but he who does not join his virgin in marriage does better.

³⁹ The wife is bound to the law as long as her husband lives. If her husband sleeps, she is at liberty to marry whomever she wishes, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my judgment. And I think indeed that I have the Spirit of God.

He rebukes those who use their freedom to the detriment of others, and shows how people ought to behave towards the weak.

8 Now to speak of things dedicated to idols. We are sure that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes a man swell, but love edifies. ² If anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him.

⁴ To speak of meat dedicated to idols: we are sure that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. ⁵ And though there be what are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many and lords many), ⁶ yet to us there is but one God, who is the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. ⁷ But not everyone has knowledge. For some still suppose that an idol really is something, and eat a thing as offered to the idol, and so their consciences, still being weak, are defiled.

⁸ Meat does not make us acceptable to God. We are neither the better if we eat, nor the worse if we do not. ⁹ But take heed that your liberty does not cause the weak to fall. ¹⁰ For if someone sees you who have knowledge sitting at food in the idol’s temple, might not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things that are offered to the idol? ¹¹ And so through your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. ¹² When you sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak consciences, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore if meat hurts my brother, I will eat no flesh while the world stands, because I do not want to hurt my brother.