1 Does any one of you, who has a case against any other one of you, presume to have it judged before the unjust rather than before the saints? Do you not know, then, that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you then ^^t for the most trivial lawsuits? Do you not know that we shall be judging angels, let alone ordinary cases? And if you have ordinary cases, do you seat in judgment those who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is there among you no man wise enough to be able to decide between brother and brother? Does brother go to law with brother, and before unbelievers too? It is a real fault in you that you have lawsuits against each other at all. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why not rather let yourselves be robbed? But you do wrong and rob, and to brothers too. Or do you not know that wrongdoers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither lechers nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminates nor pederasts nor thieves nor the covetous, none who are drunken or abusive or rapacious, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And some of you have been these very things; but you have been washed clean and sanctified and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful for me; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful for me, but I shall not be in the power of anything. Foods are for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will put an end to both the one and the other. But the body is not for lechery but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body; and God both raised the Lord from the dead and also will raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are the limbs of Christ? Then shall I take the limbs of Christ and make them the limbs of a whore? Never. Or do you not know that he who clings to a whore is one body with her; for, says scripture, the two shall be one flesh. But he who clings to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee from lechery. Any other sin a man may commit is outside his body, but the lecher sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, which you have from God? And you are not your own, since you were bought for a price. Then glorify God in your body.
Concerning the matters you wrote me of, it is a good thing for a man not to touch any woman; but to save you from loose living, let each man have his own wife, and each woman have her own husband. Let the husband give his wife her due, and so likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body; her husband does; and so likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body; his wife does. Do not deny each other, except by agreement for a time when you can devote yourselves to prayer, and then be as you were before; for fear Satan may entice you through incontinence. I tell you this as a concession, not as a command. What I should like is for all people to be as I but each person has his own endowment from God, some of one kind and some of another.
And I say to the unmarried and the widows, that it is good to remain as I am; but if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire. And to those who are married, I command; no, not I, but the Lord: that a wife should not separate from her husband; and if she does separate herself, she must remain single or else be reconciled with her husband; and a man should not divorce his wife.
And to the others I, not the Lord, say this: If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her; and a woman who has a husband who is an unbeliever and who consents to live with her should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is hallowed by his wife, and the unbelieving wife is hallowed by one who is a brother; since otherwise your children are impure, but this way they are hallowed. But if the unbeliever separates, let him or her be separate; the brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God called you in peace. For how do you know, wife, if you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, if you will save your wife?
Unless the Lord has so directed, let everyone go on as he was when God called him; and I so order in all the churches. Was one circumcised when he was called? Let him not try to undo it. Was one uncircumcised when he was called? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision means nothing and uncircumcision means nothing; only keeping the commandments of God means anything. Let each remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Let it not trouble you; but even if you can become free, make the best of your condition; for the slave called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman, and so likewise the free man called is the
Lord's slave. You were bought for a price; do not become the slaves of human beings. As each one was when called, brothers, so let him remain before God.
Concerning those who are unmarried I have no mandate from the Lord, but I give you my opinion as one who has been mercifully granted by the Lord to be trustworthy. I think that, because of the impending peril, it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek freedom. Are you free of a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if an unmarried girl marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have affliction in the flesh. I am trying to spare you. But this I do say, brothers: our time is now short. For the time that remains, let even those who have wives be as if they did not; let those who mourn be as if they did not mourn, and those who rejoice be as if they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as if they kept nothing; and those who use the world, as if they got no use of it. For the form of this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from care. The unmarried man cares about the things of the Lord and how he can please the Lord; but the married man cares about the things of the world and how he can please his wife, and he is of two minds. And the unmarried woman and the virgin care about the things of the Lord, how to be pure in body and spirit; but the married woman cares about the things of the world, and how she can please her husband. I say this for your own good, not to throw a noose around you, but for the sake of propriety, and undistracted devotion to the Lord.
But if a man thinks he is acting shamefully toward his girl if he becomes too impassioned, and it has to be so, let him do what he wants. He is not sinning; let them marry. But the man who stands firm in his heart, and is not constrained, but has control over his will and decides in his own heart to keep his girl a virgin, will be doing well. Thus the one who marries his girl does well, and the one who does not marry does better.
A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as it is marriage in the Lord. But she is happier if she remains as she is, in my opinion; for I think I myself have the spirit of God.
Concerning idol offerings, we are sure that we all have knowledge. Knowledge inflates with pride; love builds. If a man thinks he knows something, he still does not know it as he ought to know it; but if one loves God, he is known by him. Concerning, then, the eating of idol offerings, we know that an idol has no existence in the world, and that there is no god but the one God. For if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and we are his; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and we exist through him.