The BOOK of  1 CORINTHIANS

1Co 1:1)  I, Paul, have been called and sent by Jesus, the Messiah, according to God's plan, along with my friend Sosthenes.  (2)  I send this letter to you in God's church at Corinth, Christians cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life. I include in my greeting all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. He's their Master as well as ours!  (3)  May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father, and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours.  (4)  Every time I think of you--and I think of you often!--I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus.  (5)  There's no end to what has happened in you--it's beyond speech, beyond knowledge.  (6)  The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.  (7)  Just think--you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale.  (8)  And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus.  (9)  God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.  (10)  I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.  (11)  I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention--that you're fighting among yourselves!  (12)  I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."  (13)  I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?"  (14)  I was not involved with any of your baptisms--except for Crispus and Gaius--and on getting this report, I'm sure glad I wasn't.  (15)  At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name.  (16)  (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas's family, but as far as I can recall, that's it.)  (17)  God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center--Christ on the Cross--be trivialized into mere words.  (18)  The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.  (19)  It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots.  (20)  So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense?  (21)  Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb--preaching, of all things!--to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.  (22)  While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom,  (23)  we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle--and Greeks pass it off as absurd.  (24)  But to us who are personally called by God himself--both Jews and Greeks--Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one.  (25)  Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness."  (26)  Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families.  (27)  Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses,  (28)  chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"?  (29)  That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God.  (30)  Everything that we have--right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start--comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.  (31)  That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."  

1Co 2:1)  You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy.  (2)  I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did--Jesus crucified.  (3)  I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate--I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it--  (4)  and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it,  (5)  which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.  (6)  We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so.  (7)  God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest--what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene.  (8)  The experts of our day haven't a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn't have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross.  (9)  That's why we have this Scripture text: No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it-- What God has arranged for those who love him.  (10)  But you've seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along.  (11)  Who ever knows what you're thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God--except that he not only knows what he's thinking,  (12)  but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us.  (13)  We don't have to rely on the world's guesses and opinions. We didn't learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we're passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.  (14)  The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit. There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit--God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion.  (15)  Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and can't be judged by unspiritual critics.  (16)  Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.  

1Co 3:1)  But for right now, friends, I'm completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You're acting like infants in relation to Christ,  (2)  capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I'll nurse you since you don't seem capable of anything more.  (3)  As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything's going your way?  (4)  When one of you says, "I'm on Paul's side," and another says, "I'm for Apollos," aren't you being totally infantile?  (5)  Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us--servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment.  (6)  I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow.  (7)  It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow.  (8)  Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages.  (9)  What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working. Or, to put it another way, you are God's house.  (10)  Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation!  (11)  Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.  (12)  Take particular care in picking out your building materials.  (13)  Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you'll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won't get by with a thing.  (14)  If your work passes inspection, fine;  (15)  if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won't be torn out; you'll survive--but just barely.  (16)  You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you?  (17)  No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred--and you, remember, are the temple.  (18)  Don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times.  (19)  Be God's fool--that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It's written in Scripture, He exposes the chicanery of the chic.  (20)  The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls.  (21)  I don't want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift--  (22)  Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future--all of it is yours,  (23)  and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.  

1Co 4:1)  Don't imagine us leaders to be something we aren't. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God's most sublime secrets, not security guards posted to protect them.  (2)  The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge.  (3)  It matters very little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular opinion. I don't even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters are pointless.  (4)  I'm not aware of anything that would disqualify me from being a good guide for you, but that doesn't mean much. The Master makes that judgment.  (5)  So don't get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of--inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the "Well done!" of God.  (6)  All I'm doing right now, friends, is showing how these things pertain to Apollos and me so that you will learn restraint and not rush into making judgments without knowing all the facts. It's important to look at things from God's point of view. I would rather not see you inflating or deflating reputations based on mere hearsay.  (7)  For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn't everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what's the point of all this comparing and competing?  (8)  You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you're sitting on top of the world--at least God's world--and we're right there, sitting alongside you!  (9)  It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We're something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street.  (10)  We're the Messiah's misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we're mostly kicked around.  (11)  Much of the time we don't have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces,  (12)  and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, "God bless you."  (13)  When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We're treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture's kitchen. And it's not getting any better.  (14)  I'm not writing all this as a neighborhood scold just to make you feel rotten. I'm writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled.  (15)  There are a lot of people around who can't wait to tell you what you've done wrong, but there aren't many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God's Message to you that I became your father.  (16)  I'm not, you know, asking you to do anything I'm not already doing myself.  (17)  This is why I sent Timothy to you earlier. He is also my dear son, and true to the Master. He will refresh your memory on the instructions I regularly give all the churches on the way of Christ.  (18)  I know there are some among you who are so full of themselves they never listen to anyone, let alone me. They don't think I'll ever show up in person.  (19)  But I'll be there sooner than you think, God willing, and then we'll see if they're full of anything but hot air.  (20)  God's Way is not a matter of mere talk; it's an empowered life.  (21)  So how should I prepare to come to you? As a severe disciplinarian who makes you toe the mark? Or as a good friend and counselor who wants to share heart-to-heart with you? You decide.  

1Co 5:1)  I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother.  (2)  And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?  (3)  I'll tell you what I would do. Even though I'm not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what's going on. I'm telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master.  (4)  Assemble the community--I'll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power.  (5)  Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.  (6)  Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast.  (7)  So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast.  (8)  So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread--simple, genuine, unpretentious.  (9)  I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous.  (10)  I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that!  (11)  But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.  (12)  I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?  (13)  God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.  

1Co 6:1)  And how dare you take each other to court! When you think you have been wronged, does it make any sense to go before a court that knows nothing of God's ways instead of a family of Christians?  (2)  The day is coming when the world is going to stand before a jury made up of Christians. If someday you are going to rule on the world's fate, wouldn't it be a good idea to practice on some of these smaller cases?  (3)  Why, we're even going to judge angels! So why not these everyday affairs?  (4)  As these disagreements and wrongs surface, why would you ever entrust them to the judgment of people you don't trust in any other way?  (5)  I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you're doing. Is it possible that there isn't one levelheaded person among you who can make fair decisions when disagreements and disputes come up? I don't believe it.  (6)  And here you are taking each other to court before people who don't even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don't believe in the God of justice?  (7)  These court cases are an ugly blot on your community. Wouldn't it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it?  (8)  All you're doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.  (9)  Don't you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex,  (10)  use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don't qualify as citizens in God's kingdom.  (11)  A number of you know from experience what I'm talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you've been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.  (12)  Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims.  (13)  You know the old saying, "First you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!  (14)  God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power.  (15)  Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master's body. You wouldn't take the Master's body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.  (16)  There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one."  (17)  Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever--the kind of sex that can never "become one."  (18)  There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another.  (19)  Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you.  (20)  God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.  

1Co 7:1)  Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?  (2)  Certainly--but only within a certain context. It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder.  (3)  The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality--the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband.  (4)  Marriage is not a place to "stand up for your rights." Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out.  (5)  Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it's for the purposes of prayer and fasting--but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it.  (6)  I'm not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence--only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.  (7)  Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me--a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.  (8)  I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me.  (9)  But if they can't manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.  (10)  And if you are married, stay married. This is the Master's command, not mine.  (11)  If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And a husband has no right to get rid of his wife.  (12)  For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages--Christian married to nonChristian--we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her.  (13)  If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him.  (14)  The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God.  (15)  On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you've got to let him or her go. You don't have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can.  (16)  You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God.  (17)  And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don't think I'm being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches.  (18)  Were you Jewish at the time God called you? Don't try to remove the evidence. Were you non-Jewish at the time of your call? Don't become a Jew.  (19)  Being Jewish isn't the point. The really important thing is obeying God's call, following his commands.  (20)  Stay where you were when God called your name.  (21)  Were you a slave? Slavery is no roadblock to obeying and believing. I don't mean you're stuck and can't leave. If you have a chance at freedom, go ahead and take it.  (22)  I'm simply trying to point out that under your new Master you're going to experience a marvelous freedom you would never have dreamed of. On the other hand, if you were free when Christ called you, you'll experience a delightful "enslavement to God" you would never have dreamed of.  (23)  All of you, slave and free both, were once held hostage in a sinful society. Then a huge sum was paid out for your ransom. So please don't, out of old habit, slip back into being or doing what everyone else tells you.  (24)  Friends, stay where you were called to be. God is there. Hold the high ground with him at your side.  (25)  The Master did not give explicit direction regarding virgins, but as one much experienced in the mercy of the Master and loyal to him all the way, you can trust my counsel.  (26)  Because of the current pressures on us from all sides, I think it would probably be best to stay just as you are.  (27)  Are you married? Stay married. Are you unmarried? Don't get married.  (28)  But there's certainly no sin in getting married, whether you're a virgin or not. All I am saying is that when you marry, you take on additional stress in an already stressful time, and I want to spare you if possible.  (29)  I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple--in marriage,  (30)  grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things--your daily routines of shopping, and so on.  (31)  Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.  (32)  I want you to live as free of complications as possible. When you're unmarried, you're free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master.  (33)  Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life and in wanting to please your spouse,  (34)  leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy that married people spend on caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God.  (35)  I'm trying to be helpful and make it as easy as possible for you, not make things harder. All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.  (36)  If a man has a woman friend to whom he is loyal but never intended to marry, having decided to serve God as a "single," and then changes his mind, deciding he should marry her, he should go ahead and marry. It's no sin; it's not even a "step down" from celibacy, as some say.  (37)  On the other hand, if a man is comfortable in his decision for a single life in service to God and it's entirely his own conviction and not imposed on him by others, he ought to stick with it.  (38)  Marriage is spiritually and morally right and not inferior to singleness in any way, although as I indicated earlier, because of the times we live in, I do have pastoral reasons for encouraging singleness.  (39)  A wife must stay with her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is free to marry anyone she chooses. She will, of course, want to marry a believer and have the blessing of the Master  (40)  . By now you know that I think she'll be better off staying single. The Master, in my opinion, thinks so, too.  

1Co 8:1)  The question keeps coming up regarding meat that has been offered up to an idol: Should you attend meals where such meat is served, or not? We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions--  (2)  but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds.  (3)  We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.  (4)  Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there's nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God,  (5)  that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don't add up to anything but a tall story.  (6)  They say--again, quite rightly--that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master--Jesus the Messiah--and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It's true.  (7)  In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It's just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn't everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn't that insensitive. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we're not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating "idol meat," and are sure that there's something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn't going to change overnight.  (8)  But fortunately God doesn't grade us on our diet. We're neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can't stomach it.  (9)  But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a Christian still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track.  (10)  For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused--maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.  (11)  Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him--because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin!  (12)  When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these "weak ones."  (13)  So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there's any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.