Beginning

Immoral Behavior and Church Discipline

5 It is reported everywhere that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which does not even exist among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of his father. ² And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? ³ For although I^[a] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as if I^[b] were present. ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus, when^[c] you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ I have decided^[d] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. ⁸ So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ By no means did I mean the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world. ¹¹ But now I have written to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is a sexually immoral person or a greedy person or an idolater or an abusive person or a drunkard or a swindler—with such a person not even to eat. ¹² For what is it to me to judge those outside? Should you not judge those inside? ¹³ But those outside God will judge. Remove the evil person from among yourselves^[e].

Lawsuits between Believers

6 Does anyone among you, if he^[f] has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters? ⁴ Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat^[g] these despised people in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. So is there not anyone wise among you who will be able to render a decision between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers! ⁷ Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you wrong and defraud, and do this to brothers!

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus^[h] and by the Spirit of our God.

Avoid Sexual Immorality

¹² All things are permitted for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³ Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish both of them^[i]. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”^{[j] 17} But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.

Concerning Christian Marriage

7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch^[k] a woman.” ² But because of sexual immorality, let each man have^[l] his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. ³ The husband must fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. ⁵ Do not defraud one another, except perhaps by agreement, for a time, in order that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then you should be together^[m] again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self control. ⁶ But I say this as a concession, not as a command. ⁷ I wish all people could be like myself, but each one has his own gift from God, one in this way and another in that way.

⁸ Now I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain as I am. ⁹ But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire.

¹⁰ To the married I command—not I, but the Lord—a wife must not separate from her husband. ¹¹ But if indeed she does separate, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

¹² Now to the rest I say—not the Lord—if any brother has an unbelieving wife and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³ And if any wife has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the brother, since otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not bound in such cases. But God has called us^[n] in peace. ¹⁶ For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁷ But to each one as the Lord has apportioned. As God has called each one, thus let him live—and thus I order in all the churches. ¹⁸ Was anyone called after^[o] being circumcised? He must not undo his circumcision. Was anyone called in uncircumcision? He must not become circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰ Each one in the calling in which he was called—in this he should remain. ²¹ Were you called while a slave? Do not let it be a concern to you. But if indeed you are able to become free, rather make use of it. ²² For the one who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedperson. Likewise the one who is called while free is a slave of Christ. ²³ You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. ²⁴ Each one in the situation in which he was called, brothers—in this he should remain with God.

Concerning the Unmarried

²⁵ Now concerning virgins I do not have a command from the Lord, but I am giving an opinion as one shown mercy by the Lord to be trustworthy. ²⁶ Therefore, I consider this to be good because of the impending distress, that it is good for a man to be thus. ²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you marry, you have not sinned, and if the virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have affliction in the flesh, and I would spare you. ²⁹ But I say this, brothers: the time is shortened, that from now on even those who have wives should be as if they do not have wives, ³⁰ and those who weep as if they do not weep, and those who rejoice as if they do not rejoice, and those who buy as if they do not possess, ³¹ and those who make use of the world as if they do not make full use of it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

³² But I want you to be free from care. The unmarried person cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. ³³ But the one who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife, ³⁴ and he is divided. And the unmarried woman or the virgin cares for the things of the Lord, in order that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵ Now I am saying this for your own benefit, not that I may put a restriction on you, but to promote appropriate and devoted service to the Lord without distraction.

³⁶ But if anyone thinks he is behaving dishonorably concerning his virgin, if she is past her prime^[p] and it ought to be thus, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin. Let them marry. ³⁷ But he who stands firm in his heart, not having necessity, but has authority concerning his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin, he will do well. ³⁸ So then, the one who marries^[q] his own virgin does well, and the one who does not marry her will do better.

³⁹ A wife is bound for as long a time as her husband lives. But if her husband dies^[r], she is free to marry whomever she wishes, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But she is happier if she remains thus, according to my opinion—and I think I have the Spirit of God.

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols

8 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that “we all have knowledge.”^[s] Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² If anyone thinks he knows anything, he has not yet known as it is necessary to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.

⁴ Therefore, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world” and that “there is no God except one.”^{[t] 5} For even if after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many gods and many lords,

⁷ But this knowledge is not in everyone. But some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat this food as food sacrificed to idols, and their conscience, because it^[u] is weak, is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us close to God. For neither if we eat do we have more, nor if we do not eat do we lack.^{[v] 9} But watch out lest somehow this right of yours becomes a cause for stumbling to the weak. ¹⁰ For if someone should see you who has knowledge reclining for a meal in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, because it^[w] is weak, be strengthened so that he eats the food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ For the one who is weak—the brother for whom Christ died—is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹² Now if you^[x] sin in this way against the brothers and wound their conscience, which is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat forever^[y], in order that I may not cause my brother to sin.