Beginning
Removing the “Hametz” from Your House
5 It is actually reported that among you there is sexual immorality, and such immorality as is not even among the pagans—that someone has his father’s wife. 2 And you are puffed up! Shouldn’t you have mourned instead, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from among you? 3 For even though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit—I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this thing, as though I were present. 4 When you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Yeshua, I am with you in spirit. With the power of our Lord Yeshua, 5 you are to turn such a fellow over to satan for the destruction of his fleshly nature,[a] so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.
6 Your boasting is no good. Don’t you know that a little hametz leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old hametz,[b] so you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old hametz,[c] the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread—the matzah of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to mix together[d] with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters, for then you would have to exit the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to mix together with anyone who is being called a brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler—not even to eat with such a fellow. 12 For what business do I have judging outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Put away the wicked fellow from among yourselves.[e]
Settle Disputes Within the Community
6 Does any one of you, when he has a matter against his neighbor, dare to go to court before the unrighteous and not before the kedoshim? 2 Don’t you know that the kedoshim will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial matters? 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life! 4 So if you have courts for matters of this life, why do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the community? 5 I say this to put you to shame! Isn’t there even one wise man among you who will be able to settle disputes between his brethren? 6 Instead, a brother goes to court against a brother—and before unbelievers at that!
7 Therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 But you yourselves do wrong and cheat—and against your brothers and sisters at that!
Morality in the Temple of God
9 Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 That is what some of you were—but you were washed, you were made holy, you were set right in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and by the Ruach of our God.
12 “Everything is permitted for me”—but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. 13 “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food”—but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15 Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Messiah? Shall I then take the members of Messiah and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or don’t you know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall become one flesh.” [f] 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18 Flee from sexual immorality! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body—but the one committing sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Ruach ha-Kodesh who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.[g]
Counsel 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 But because of much immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband fulfill his obligation to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have the rights to her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband does not have the rights to his own body, but the wife. 5 Do not deprive one another—except by mutual consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.[h] Then come together again, so that satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 But this I say as a concession, not as a command. 7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this way and another that.
8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them to remain as I am. 9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
10 But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord[i]—a wife is not to be separated from her husband 11 (but if she gets separated, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband is not to divorce his wife.
12 But to the rest I say—I, not the Lord—if any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she agrees to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if any woman has a husband who is not a believer, and he agrees to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy through the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband.[j] Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever separates, let him be separated. The brother or the sister is not bound in such cases, but God has called you to shalom. 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?
Remain As You Were Called
17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, let him walk in this way. I give this rule in all of Messiah’s communities. 18 Was anyone called when he already had been circumcised? Let him not make himself uncircumcised. Has anyone been called while uncircumcised? Let him not allow himself to be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing[k]—but keeping God’s commandments matters. 20 Let each one remain in the calling in which he was called. 21 Were you called as a slave? Don’t let that bother you—but if indeed you can become free, make the most of the opportunity. 22 For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise the one who was called while free is Messiah’s slave. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 Brothers and sisters, let each one—in whatever way he was called—remain that way with God.
25 Now concerning virgins I have no command from the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 I think then, because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek a divorce. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife. 28 But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such people will have trouble in this fleshly life, and I am trying to spare you. 29 But this I say, brothers and sisters—the time is short. From now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30 and those who weep, as though not weeping; and those who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and those who buy, as though not possessing; 31 and those who use the world, as though not using it to the fullest. For the present form of this world is passing away.
32 But I want you to be free from cares. An unmarried man cares about the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord; 33 but the married man cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife— 34 and he is divided. The unmarried woman, as well as the virgin, cares about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. 35 Now I say this for your own benefit—not to put a restraint on you, but to promote proper and constant service to the Lord without distraction.
36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if the time is ripe and it is meant to be, let him do what he decides. He does not sin. Let them marry. 37 But he who stands firm in his heart—who has no pressure, but has power over his own will and has so determined in his own heart to keep her a virgin—he will do well. 38 So then both he who marries the virgin does well, and he who doesn’t marry her does better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wishes—only in the Lord. [l] 40 But in my judgment she is happier if she stays as she is—and I also think that I have the Ruach Elohim.
Concerning Idol Sacrifices
8 Now concerning idol sacrifices, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of idol sacrifices, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. [m] 5 For even if there are so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father,[n]
from whom are all things,
and we exist for Him;
and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah,
through whom are all things,
and we exist through Him.
7 But that knowledge is not in everyone—some, so accustomed to idols up until now, eat food as an idol sacrifice; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food will not bring us before God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do eat. 9 But watch out that this freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. [o] 10 For suppose someone sees you—who have this knowledge—dining in an idol’s temple. If his conscience is weak, won’t he be emboldened to eat idol sacrifices? 11 For the one who is weak is destroyed by your knowledge—the brother for whom Messiah died. 12 In this way, when you sin against the brothers and sisters and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Messiah. 13 For this reason, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I do not cause my brother to stumble.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.