1 Corinthians 1-9

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Salutation

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord^[a] and ours:^(A)

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.^(B)

⁴ I give thanks to my^[b] God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶ just as the testimony of^[c] Christ has been strengthened among you^(C)— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.^{(D) 8} He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.^(E)

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.^{(F) 11} For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. ¹² What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” ¹³ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?^{(G) 14} I thank God^[d] that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,^{(H) 15} so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.^{(I) 17} For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.^(J)

Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.^{(K) 19} For it is written,

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?^{(L) 21} For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.^{(M) 22} For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³ but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,^{(N) 24} but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,^[e] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.^{(O) 27} But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;^{(P) 28} God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, ²⁹ so that no one^[f] might boast in the presence of God.^{(Q) 30} In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,^{(R) 31} in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in^[g] the Lord.”^(S)

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony^[h] of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.^{(T) 2} For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴ My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom^[i] but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,^{(U) 5} so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

The True Wisdom of God

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.^{(V) 7} But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

¹⁰ God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.^{(X) 11} For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.^{(Y) 12} Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. ¹³ And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.^[j](Z)

¹⁴ Those who are unspiritual^[k] do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.^{(AA) 15} Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

But we have the mind of Christ.^(AB)

On Divisions in the Corinthian Church

3 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people but rather as fleshly, as infants in Christ.^{(AC) 2} I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,^{(AD) 3} for you are still fleshly. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling^[l] among you, are you not fleshly and behaving according to human inclinations?^{(AE) 4} For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not all too human?^(AF)

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will receive wages according to their own labor.^{(AG) 9} For we are God’s coworkers, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.^(AH)

¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Let each builder choose with care how to build on it.^{(AI) 11} For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.^{(AJ) 12} Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³ the work of each builder will become visible, for the day^[m] will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.^{(AK) 14} If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. ¹⁵ If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?^{[n](AL) 17} If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.^{(AM) 19} For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

²⁰ and again,

²¹ So let no one boast about people.^[o] For all things are yours,^{(AO) 22} whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.^(AP)

The Ministry of the Apostles

4 Think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.^{(AQ) 2} Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. ³ But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. ⁴ I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵ Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.^(AR)

⁶ I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us what “Not beyond what is written” means, so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of one against another. ⁷ For who sees anything different in you?^[p] What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive?^(AS)

⁸ Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! If only you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! ⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to humans.^{(AT) 10} We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are sensible people in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.^{(AU) 11} To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are naked and beaten and homeless,^{(AV) 12} and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;^{(AW) 13} when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Fatherly Admonition

¹⁴ I am not writing this to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.^{(AX) 16} I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.^{(AY) 17} For this reason I sent^[q] you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. ¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.^{(AZ) 20} For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. ²¹ What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick or with love in a spirit of gentleness?^(BA)

Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church

5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and the sort of sexual immorality that is not found even among gentiles, for a man is living with his father’s wife.^{(BB) 2} And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?

³ For I, though absent in body, am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgment ⁴ in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing.^[r] When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus,^{(BC) 5} you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.^[s](BD)

⁶ Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all of the dough?^{(BE) 7} Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.^{(BF) 8} Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.^(BG)

Sexual Immorality Must Be Judged

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons, ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world.^{(BH) 11} But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Do not even eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging those outside? Are you not judges of those who are inside?^{(BI) 13} God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”^(BJ)

Lawsuits among Believers

6 When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? ² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?^{(BK) 3} Do you not know that we are to judge angels, to say nothing of ordinary matters? ⁴ If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one person wise enough to decide between brothers and sisters? ⁶ Instead, brothers and sisters go to court against one another, and this before the unbelievers.^(BL)

⁷ In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?^{(BM) 8} But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers and sisters at that.

⁹ Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes,^[t] men who engage in illicit sex,^{[u](BN) 10} thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ^[v] and in the Spirit of our God.^(BO)

Glorify God in Body and Spirit

¹² “All things are permitted for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. ¹³ “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,”^[w] and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.^{(BP) 14} And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.^{(BQ) 15} Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!^{(BR) 16} Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.”^{(BS) 17} But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.^{(BT) 18} Shun sexual immorality!^[x] Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person^[y] sins against the body itself.^{(BU) 19} Or do you not know that your body is a temple^[z] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?^{(BV) 20} For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.^(BW)

Directions concerning Marriage

7 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” ² But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. ³ The husband should give to his wife what is due her and likewise the wife to her husband.^{(BX) 4} For 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 perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer,^[aa] and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.^{(BY) 6} This I say by way of concession, not of command.^{(BZ) 7} I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.^(CA)

⁸ To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain unmarried as I am.^{(CB) 9} But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.^(CC)

¹⁰ To the married I give this command—not I but the Lord—that the wife should not separate from her husband^{(CD) 11} (but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

¹² To the rest I say—I and not the Lord—that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.^{(CE) 13} And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce the husband. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother.^[ab] Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.^{(CF) 15} But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. It is to peace that God has called us.^{[ac](CG) 16} Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife.^(CH)

The Life that the Lord Has Assigned

¹⁷ However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches.^{(CI) 18} Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.^{(CJ) 19} Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but obeying the commandments of God is everything.^{(CK) 20} Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.^(CL)

²¹ Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make the most of it.^{[ad] 22} For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave belonging to Christ.^{(CM) 23} You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of humans.^{(CN) 24} In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God.

The Unmarried and the Widows

²⁵ Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.^{(CO) 26} I think that, in view of the impending^[ae] crisis,^[af] it is good for you to remain as you are.^{(CP) 27} Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Yet those who marry will experience distress in the flesh, and I would spare you that. ²⁹ I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none,^{(CQ) 30} and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, ³¹ and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.^(CR)

³² I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord,^{(CS) 33} but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, ³⁴ and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit, but the married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please her husband.^{(CT) 35} I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.

³⁶ If anyone thinks that he is behaving indecently toward his fiancée,^[ag] if his passions are strong and so it has to be, let him marry as he wishes; it is no sin. Let them marry. ³⁷ But if someone stands firm in his resolve, being under no necessity but having his own desire under control, and has determined in his own mind to keep her as his fiancée,^[ah] he will do well. ³⁸ So then, he who marries his fiancée^[ai] does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do better.

³⁹ A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies,^[aj] she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord.^{(CU) 40} But in my opinion she is more blessed if she remains as she is. And I think that I, too, have the Spirit of God.

Food Offered to Idols

8 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.^{(CV) 2} Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge,^{(CW) 3} but anyone who loves God is known by him.^(CX)

⁴ Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.”^{(CY) 5} Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— ⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.^(CZ)

⁷ It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.^{(DA) 8} “Food will not bring us close to God.”^[ak] We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do.^{(DB) 9} But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.^{(DC) 10} For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed.^{(DD) 12} But when you thus sin against brothers and sisters and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never again eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.^(DE)

The Rights of an Apostle

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?^{(DF) 2} If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.^(DG)

³ This is my defense to those who would examine me. ⁴ Do we not have the right to our food and drink?^{(DH) 5} Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife,^[al] as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?^{(DI) 6} Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?^{(DJ) 7} Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?^(DK)

⁸ Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? ⁹ For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?^{(DL) 10} Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we harvest material^[am] things?^{(DM) 12} If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.^{(DN) 13} Do you not know that those who work in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar?^{(DO) 14} In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.^(DP)

¹⁵ But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this so that they may be applied in my case. Indeed, I would rather die than that—no one will deprive me of my ground for boasting! ¹⁶ If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a wage, but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission.^{(DQ) 18} What then is my wage? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

¹⁹ For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might gain all the more.^{(DR) 20} To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might gain those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not outside God’s law but am within Christ’s law) so that I might gain those outside the law.^{(DS) 22} To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I might become a partner in it.

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.^{(DT) 25} Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.^{(DU) 26} So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air, ²⁷ but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.^(DV)