Beginning

5 ¶ It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

² And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

³ For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, him that has so done this deed.

⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁵ let such a one be delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

⁷ ¶ Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us;

⁸ therefore let us celebrate the feast, not in the old leaven, neither in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ ¶ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to associate with fornicators,

¹⁰ yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then ye would need to go out of the world.

¹¹ But now I have written unto you not to associate with anyone calling himself a brother if he is a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner; with such a one do not even eat.

¹² For why shall I judge those that are without? do ye not judge those that are within?

¹³ But those that are without, God shall judge. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

6 ¶ Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go unto judgment before the unjust, and not before the saints?

² Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

³ Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more the things that pertain to this life?

⁴ If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set as judges the most humble who are in the congregation. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}

⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brothers?

⁶ But brother goes to judgment against brother, and that before the unbelievers.

⁷ Now therefore there is certainly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather suffer the wrong? why do ye not rather be defrauded?

⁸ But ye do wrong and defraud and do this to your brothers.

⁹ ¶ Know ye not that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals

¹⁰ nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified, but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.

¹² ¶ All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

¹³ Foods are for the belly, and the belly for foods; but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴ And God, who raised up the Lord, will also raise up us by his own power.

¹⁵ Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? In no wise.

¹⁶ What? know ye not that he who is joined to the harlot is one body with her? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.

¹⁷ But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

¹⁸ Flee fornication. Any other sin that a man does is outside the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.

¹⁹ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have of God, and that ye are not your own?

²⁰ For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

7 ¶ Now concerning the things of which ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

⁴ The wife does not have authority of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband does not have authority of his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Do not defraud one another, except it be with mutual consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, that Satan not tempt you for your incontinency.

⁶ But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment.

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one after this manner and another after that.

⁸ I say, therefore, to the unmarried men and widowers, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

⁹ But if they do not have the gift of continence, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰ ¶ And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife separate from her husband;

¹¹ and if she separates, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband, and let not the husband put away his wife.

¹² But to the rest I speak, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife that does not believe, and she consents to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

¹³ And the woman who has a husband that does not believe and if he consents to dwell with her, let her not leave 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 unbelieving spouse separates, let them separate. The brother or the sister is not under slavery in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

¹⁶ For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or what knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

¹⁷ ¶ But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let them walk. And so I ordain in all the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}

¹⁸ Is anyone called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is anyone called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.

¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God.

²⁰ Let each abide in the same calling in which he was called.

²¹ Art thou called being a slave? care not for it; but if thou may be made free, use it rather.

²² For he that is called in the Lord, being a slave, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s slave.

²³ Ye are bought with a price; do not make yourselves the slaves of men.

²⁴ Each one, brothers, in that state in which he was called, let him abide with God.

²⁵ ¶ Now concerning virgins I have no com­mandment of the Lord, yet I give my advice, as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

²⁶ I hold, therefore, this to be good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to be thus:

²⁷ Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.

²⁸ But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have affliction in the flesh, but I forbear you.

²⁹ But this I say, brothers, the time is short; for the rest, let those that have wives be as though they had none;

³⁰ and those that weep, as though they wept not; and those that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not;

³¹ and those that use this world, as not using it as their own, for the fashion of this world passes away.

³² But I would have you without worry. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

³³ but he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

³⁴ There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

³⁵ And this I speak for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is honourable and that ye may attend upon the Lord without impediment.

³⁶ ¶ But if anyone thinks it uncomely regarding his daughter, if she passes the bloom of life, and need so requires, let him do what he will, he does not sin: let them marry.

³⁷ Nevertheless, he that stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has liberty regarding his own, and has so determined in his heart that he will keep his daughter, does well.

³⁸ So then he that gives her in marriage does well, but he that does not give her 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 free and may be married to whom she will, if it is in the Lord.

⁴⁰ But she shall be more blessed if she so abides, after my counsel, and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

8 ¶ Now as concerning things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies.

² And if anyone thinks that they know anything, they know nothing yet as they ought to know.

³ But if anyone loves God, the same is known of him.

⁴ ¶ As concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

⁵ For though there are some that are called gods, whether in heaven or in the earth (as there are many gods and many lords),

⁶ but to us there is but one God, 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 ¶ Howbeit there is not in everyone that knowledge, for some with conscience of the idol unto now, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

⁸ But food does not make us more acceptable unto God; for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse.

⁹ But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumblingblock to those that are weak.

¹⁰ For if anyone sees thee who hast this knowledge sit at food in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?

¹¹ and through thy knowledge the weak brother shall perish, for whom Christ died.

¹² In this manner, therefore, sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

¹³ Therefore, if food makes my brother to fall, I will never eat flesh nor do anything which may cause my brother to fall.