World English Bible

1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven.

3 I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows),

4 how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.

6 For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than that which he sees in me, or hears from me.

7 By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.

8 Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

9 He has said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

11 I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

12 Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works.

13 For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong.

14 Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I seek not your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?

16 But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.

17 Did I take advantage of you by anyone of them whom I have sent to you?

18 I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same steps?

19 Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying.

20 For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire; that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, riots;

21 that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness and sexual immorality and lustfulness which they committed.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/2CO/12-434c186f35b8111acf5d7232a2bb8e51.mp3?version_id=206—

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

2 I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare;

3 seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you.

4 For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.

5 Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

6 But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.

7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we are as reprobate.

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

9 For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also pray for, even your perfecting.

10 For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.

11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

13 All the saints greet you.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/2CO/13-4022a6feb4c6b70bb749e324f7ac7413.mp3?version_id=206—

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

2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;

5 that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge;

6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7 so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

10 Now I beg you, brothers,through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,

15 so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.

16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”

20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.

22 For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

27 but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

28 and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:

29 that no flesh should boast before God.

30 Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:

31 that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/1-000890c0563eac9ffc43189451f9ba22.mp3?version_id=206—

1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.

7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,

8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written,

“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,

which didn’t enter into the heart of man,

these God has prepared for those who love him.”

10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

11 For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.

12 But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

13 Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

14 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?”But we have Christ’s mind.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/2-e1ce21625bc685be9eaa4dd8a7210052.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,

3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;

13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.

14 If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.

15 If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

16 Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”

20 And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,

23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/3-32e3244165266138711a826a2cf7275e.mp3?version_id=206—

1 So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries.

2 Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful.

3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self.

4 For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.

5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.

6 Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.

7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

8 You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

9 For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.

10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.

11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.

12 We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.

13 Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

14 I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

15 For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.

16 I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

17 Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly.

18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.

20 For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power.

21 What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/4-e7e97abdec20d0e5cc8586e471efd0e0.mp3?version_id=206—

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.

2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.

3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

7 Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;

10 yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world.

11 But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.

12 For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within?

13 But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/5-11c378f10d8beaf3b6805d281b1aa37e.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

2 Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

4 If then, you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly?

5 I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers?

6 But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers!

7 Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

8 No, but you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that against your brothers.

9 Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,

10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.

11 Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything.

13 “Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord 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 Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

16 Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.”

17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/6-07cbc926b643155e664a45f71e2be619.mp3?version_id=206—

1 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 sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

3 Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her,and likewise also the wife her husband.

4 The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife.

5 Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6 But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.

7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.

9 But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn.

10 But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband

11 (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.

12 But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.

13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

15 Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

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?

17 Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.

18 Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been 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 man stay in that calling in which he was called.

21 Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.

22 For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.

23 You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.

24 Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

25 Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.

26 I think that it is good therefore, because of the distress that is on us, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

27 Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.

28 But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.

29 But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

30 and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;

31 and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

33 but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

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

35 This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.

36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.

37 But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well.

38 So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

39 A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.

40 But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/7-b1f99e091726c03d4b9122681fc03833.mp3?version_id=206—

1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

2 But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.

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

4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

5 For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”;

6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.

7 However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8 But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

9 But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.

10 For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

11 And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

12 Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

13 Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/9/32k/1CO/8-98374cf88d66e11faff07ce42b527292.mp3?version_id=206—