Beginning

5 I have heard a very bad report about you. I hear there are wrong sexual ways among you. Even the people who are not Jews do not allow wrong sex such as this among them. A man is living with his father's wife!

² Can it be that you are still proud? This should make you very sad. The man who has done this should be put out of the church meeting.

³ My body is not with you, but my spirit is. Just as if I were right there, I have decided what to do about the man who did such a thing as this.

⁴ Do this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you meet together my spirit will be with you. Then, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, give this man over to Satan. Let Satan punish his body. By this the man's spirit may yet be saved when the Lord Jesus comes.

⁵ Surely it is not right for you to be proud. Do you not know that only a little yeast in the bread will make all the bread rise?

⁶ Clean out the old yeast so that you will become like new bread. You are free from the old things. Christ, the Passover Lamb, has been killed for us.

⁷ Let us then remember the feast of Passover and have our bread. But let us not have our feast with old yeast in the bread. To do bad and wrong things is like that old yeast. But let us have it with new bread that has no old yeast in it. To be honest and true is like the new bread.

⁸ I wrote a letter to you. I told you not to be friends with people who use sex the wrong way [with a person they are not married to].

⁹ I did not mean the people of the world [people who are not Christians] - some of them use sex the wrong way; or always want more things; or steal; or worship idols. To keep away from them altogether would mean you would have to go out of the world.

¹⁰ But I wrote to you not to be friends with anyone who says he is a Christian and uses wrong sex, or always wants more, or has idols, or curses, or drinks too much strong drink, or steals. I told you not even to sit down to eat with such a person.

¹¹ Why should I judge the people who are outside the church? You are to judge the church people.

¹² God judges those who are outside. The holy writings say, `Send the bad person away from among you.'

6 When one of you has some complaint against a Christian brother, why does he take him to be judged by those who are not Christians? Why does he not take him to God's people?

² Do you not know that some day God's people will judge the world? If you are going to judge the world, can you not judge small things now?

³ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? Then we should surely be able to judge things in this life!

⁴ So if you have complaints about things in this life, why do you take them to those who are not church people?

⁵ Shame on you! Are none of you wise enough to judge between two Christian brothers?

⁶ But now one Christian brother takes another Christian brother to be judged by people who are not Christians.

⁷ It is wrong for you to take each other to court at all. You should be willing to take wrong. It would be better to lose.

⁸ Instead, you are doing wrong to your own Christian brothers.

^9-10 Do you not know that bad people will have no part in the kingdom where God rules? Do not be fooled. There are some people who will not have part in that place. They are those who commit adultery of any kind, those who have idols, or steal, or are always wanting more, or talk wrong things about people, or drink plenty of strong drink, or take things by force, or curse.

¹¹ Some of you were like that. But now you have been washed and made holy. The Spirit of our God has made you right by the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹² I am free to do anything I want, but some things are not good for me to do. I am free to do anything, but I will not become a slave of anything.

¹³ `Food is for the body, and the body is for food.' But God will bring both to an end. The body is not made to be used for wrong sex behaviour, but for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body.

¹⁴ God raised up the Lord and he will also raise us up by his power.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies belong to Christ? Shall I take parts of Christ and join them to a bad woman? No, never!

¹⁶ Do you not know that the person who joins himself to a bad woman becomes one person with her? The holy writings say, `The two people shall be like one body.'

¹⁷ But the one who joins himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Run away from every kind of wrong sex! Every other wrong thing which a person does is done outside of his body. But the person who uses sex the wrong way does a wrong thing to his own body.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is the house of the Holy Spirit who lives in you? God gave the Holy Spirit to you. Remember, you do not belong to yourself.

²⁰ But you were bought and paid for. So then, bring glory to God with your bodies.

7 You wrote me a letter. Here is my answer to the things in the letter. It is good if a man has nothing to do with a woman.

² But wrong sex is always a danger to us. So it is better for each man to have his own wife and each woman to have her own husband.

³ The husband should give his wife what is right. So also, the wife should give her husband what is right.

⁴ The wife does not have full right over her own body. But her husband has a right to it. In the same way, the husband does not have full right over his own body. But his wife has a right to it.

⁵ Do not keep from the other what is right for them to have. It is all right to stay from each other for a while, if you both agree to it. Then you will have time for prayer. Afterwards, come together again. If you do not, Satan might tempt you to do wrong.

⁶ I say you may do this. I do not say that you must do it.

⁷ I wish that all men were like I am. But God has made everyone different. One man can live one way and another man can live another way.

⁸ Here is what I say to those who are not married and to those whose husbands are dead. It is good for them to stay the way I am.

⁹ But if they cannot keep themselves under control, then they should marry. It is better to marry than to burn with desire for sex.

¹⁰ And here is what I say to those who are married. (And yet it is not what I say. It is what the Lord has said.) The wife may not leave her husband.

¹¹ But if she does leave him, she must not marry again, or she must come back to her husband again. And the husband may not send away his wife.

¹² Here is what I say to other people. (This is my word, not the Lord's.) Perhaps a Christian brother has a wife who is not a Christian. If she wants to stay with him, then he should not send her away.

¹³ Perhaps a woman has a husband who is not a Christian. If he wants to stay with her, then the woman should not leave him.

¹⁴ The husband who is not a Christian is made holy by the wife. And the wife who is not a Christian is made holy by the husband. If this were not so, then your children would not be holy. But they are holy.

¹⁵ If the one who is not a Christian really wants to leave, let him go. The Christian husband or wife is free then. God has called us to live in peace.

¹⁶ Wife, you do not know. Perhaps you will win your husband to the Lord. Husband, you do not know. Perhaps you will win your wife to the Lord.

¹⁷ Only let me say this. Every man should go on living in the way which the Lord chooses for him. He should go on as he was when God called him to be a Christian. I say this to people in all the churches.

¹⁸ If a man was already circumcised when God called him, he should not try to change the marks of it. If a man was not circumcised when God called him, he should not be circumcised.

¹⁹ It does not matter whether one is circumcised or not. The thing that matters is doing what God says we must do.

²⁰ Everyone should stay the way he was when God called him.

²¹ If you were a slave when God called you, do not let that trouble you. But if there is some way for you to get free, then do so.

²² If a man was a slave when the Lord called him, he is the Lord's free man. So also if a man was free when he was called, he is Christ's slave.

²³ You were bought and paid for. Do not become slaves of men!

²⁴ So, Christian brothers, everyone should go on living as he was when God called him. But now he lives with God.

²⁵ Here is what I say about those who are not married. (I have no law from the Lord about this. But here is what I think. You can trust me because the Lord has helped me.)

²⁶ I think that, since there is now trouble in the world, it is good for each one to stay as he is.

²⁷ If you have married a wife, do not try to be free from her. If you have no wife, do not look for one.

²⁸ But, if you marry, it is not wrong. And if a woman marries, it is not wrong. People who marry will have trouble in this life. And I want to keep you out of it.

²⁹ Here, my brothers, is what I mean. The time is short. In the time that is left, men who have wives should live as though they did not.

³⁰ People who cry should live as though they were not sad. People who laugh should live as though they were not glad. People who buy things should live as though they did not own them.

³¹ And people who are busy with things in this world should not be too busy. The world as we see it is passing away.

³² I want your minds to be free. The man who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. He tries to please the Lord.

³³ But the man who is married thinks about the things of this world. He tries to please his wife.

³⁴ In the same way, there is a difference between the woman who is married and the one who is not. The woman who is not married thinks about the things of the Lord. She wants her body and her spirit to be holy. But the married woman thinks about the things of this life. She tries to please her husband.

³⁵ I say this to help you, not to make it hard for you. I want to show you what is good. I do not want anything to stop you from serving the Lord.

³⁶ And if a man feels that he is doing the right thing for the woman he is to marry, then let him marry her. That is, if she is no longer young, and if he wants her very much. Then he must do as he thinks best. It is not wrong for him to do it.

³⁷ But the man who has made up his mind not to marry his woman will do well. That is, if he does not have to marry her, and is able to control himself, and if he is sure about it in his own mind.

³⁸ So the man who marries his woman will do what is good. But the man who does not marry her will do better.

³⁹ A wife may not leave her husband as long as he is living. But if he dies, she is free to marry any man she wants. Only this, he must be a Christian.

⁴⁰ But I think that she is happier if she stays as she is and does not marry again. (I think too that I am saying what the Spirit of God wants me to say in this matter.)

8 Now here is what I say about food given to idols. We all know something about this matter. Yet knowledge makes us proud. Love is the real teacher.

² If anyone thinks he knows much, then he does not know what he really should know.

³ But if anyone loves God, then God knows him.

⁴ So here is what I say about eating food that has been given to idols or false gods. We know that an idol really is nothing in this world. There is only one true and living God.

⁵ There are things in the sky and on earth which are called gods. Yes, there are many gods and lords.

⁶ Yet for us there is only one God. He is the Father. All things come from him. He is the one for whom we live. And there is only one Lord. He is Jesus Christ. He made all things. He is the one who gives us life.

⁷ But not every Christian knows these things. Some of them have always believed in idols. And when they eat food which has been given to an idol, they think the food belongs to the idol. And because they are weak Christians they feel they do wrong when they eat it.

⁸ One thing is sure, food will not bring us closer to God. If we eat it, it will not make us right with God. And if we do not eat, it will not make us wrong.

⁹ Perhaps you feel it is all right for you to do it. But be careful! It might make the weak Christian do wrong.

¹⁰ You know it is not wrong for you to eat these things. But if a weak Christian sees you eating in the idol's house, he will also want to eat food that has been given to an idol. He will do what is against his own belief.

¹¹ You know the truth, and yet your knowledge will make your weak brother do wrong. You have hurt the faith of a brother, for whom Christ died.

¹² In this way you do wrong to your brother. You hurt him because he is weak. And in so doing you do wrong to Christ.

¹³ If eating such food makes my brother do wrong, I will never eat it. I do not want my brother to do wrong.