Beginning

Judgment Against Immorality

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father’s wife. ² But you are arrogant. Instead you should have mourned, so that he who has done this deed might be removed from among you. ³ For indeed, though absent in body but present in spirit, I have already, as if I were present, judged him who has done this deed, ⁴ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are assembled, along with my spirit, in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵ deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch? ⁷ Therefore purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, nor with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ Yet I did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world, or the covetous and extortioners, or the idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But I have written to you not to keep company with any man who is called a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Do not even eat with such a person.

¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? ¹³ But God judges those who are outside. Therefore “put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”^[a]

Going to Law Before Unbelievers

6 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? ⁴ If then you have judgments dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint as judges those who are least esteemed in the church? ⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it true that there is not even one wise man among you who shall be able to judge between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to the law against brother, and before unbelievers, at that.

⁷ Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and do this to your brothers. ⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God.

Glorify God in Your Body

¹² “All things are lawful to me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. ¹³ “Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food,” but God will destroy both of them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ God has raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His own power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are the parts of Christ? Shall I then take the parts of Christ and make them the parts of a harlot? God forbid! ¹⁶ What? Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”^{[b] 17} But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Escape from sexual immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body. But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Questions About Marriage

7 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” ² Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. ³ Let the husband render to the wife due affection, and likewise the wife to the husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ⁵ Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you for lack of self-control. ⁶ I speak this as a concession and not as a command. ⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man has his proper gift from God, one after this manner and another after that.

⁸ I say to the unmarried and widows that it is good for them if they live even as I am. ⁹ But if they cannot restrain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁰ Now to the married I command, not I, but the Lord, do not let the wife depart from her husband. ¹¹ But if she departs, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And do not let the husband divorce his wife.

¹² To the rest I speak, not the Lord: If any brother has an unbelieving wife who consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³ And if the woman has an unbelieving husband who consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 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 holy.

¹⁵ But if the unbeliever departs, let that one depart. A brother or a sister is not bound in such cases. God has called us to peace. ¹⁶ For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

Living as God Called You

¹⁷ But as God has given to every man and as the Lord has called every man, so let him walk. This I command in all churches. ¹⁸ Is any man called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any man called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God is everything. ²⁰ Let each man remain in the same condition in which he was called.

²¹ Were you called while a servant? Do not worry about it. But if you may become free, do so. ²² For he who is called in the Lord while a servant is the Lord’s freeman. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ’s servant. ²³ You were bought at a price. Do not be the servants of men. ²⁴ Brothers, let every man, in whatever condition he is called, remain there with God.

The Unmarried and Widows

²⁵ Now concerning virgins, I have no command from the Lord. Yet I will give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful. ²⁶ I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. ²⁷ Are you committed to a wife? Do not seek to be uncommitted. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless they will have trouble in this life, but I would spare you that.

²⁹ But this I say, brothers, the time is short. It remains that those who have wives should be as though they had none; ³⁰ those who weep, as though they did not weep; those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; those who buy, as though they possessed nothing; ³¹ and those who use this world, as though they did not make full use of it. For the form of this world is passing away.

³² But I prefer that you have no concern. He who is unmarried 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 wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵ I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.

³⁶ If any man thinks that he is behaving improperly toward his virgin,^[c] and if she is past the flower of her youth, and passions so require, let him do what he will. He does not sin. Let them marry. ³⁷ Nevertheless he who stands steadfast in his heart without necessity, and has power over his own will, and has so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, does well. ³⁸ So then he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who gives her not in marriage does better.

³⁹ The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, but only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But in my judgment she is happier if she so remains as she is. And I think that I have the Spirit of God.

Food Offered to Idols

8 Now as concerning food offered to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge produces arrogance, but love edifies. ² So if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

⁴ So concerning the eating of foods that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. ⁵ For there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there are many gods and many lords. ⁶ But for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. And there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

⁷ However, not everyone has this knowledge. Some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat the food as a thing offered to an idol. So their weak conscience is defiled. ⁸ But food does not commend us to God. Neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

⁹ But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak. ¹⁰ For if anyone sees you, who have knowledge, eating in the idol’s temple, shall the conscience of him who is weak not be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols, ¹¹ and by your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹² When you thus sin against the brothers, wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to stumble.