1 Corinthians 5–8

1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?

3Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.

4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,

5hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

7Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

9I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

10I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

11But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

1If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints!

2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

4So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?

5I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

6Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!

7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

12“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

13“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

14By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.

15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

16Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

18Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.

2But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.

5Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

6I say this as a concession, not as a command.

7I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

8Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.

9But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

12To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

13And if a woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.

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

15But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

16How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

17Regardless, each one should lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is what I prescribe in all the churches.

18Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man still uncircumcised when called? He should not be circumcised.

19Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts.

20Each one should remain in the situation he was in when he was called.

21Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let it concern you—but if you can gain your freedom, take the opportunity.

22For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman. Conversely, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.

23You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

24Brothers, each one should remain in the situation he was in when God called him.

25Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

26Because of the present crisis, I think it is good for a man to remain as he is.

27Are you committed to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you free of commitment? Do not look for a wife.

28But if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

29What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;

30those who weep, as if they did not; those who are joyful, as if they were not; those who make a purchase, as if they had nothing;

31and those who use the things of this world, as if not dependent on them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

32I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

33But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife,

34and his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the work of the Lord, how she can be holy in both body and spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband.

35I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but in order to promote proper decorum and undivided devotion to the Lord.

36However, if someone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his betrothed, and if she is beyond her youth and they ought to marry, let him do as he wishes; he is not sinning; they should get married.

37But the man who is firmly established in his heart and under no constraint, with control over his will and resolve in his heart not to marry the virgin, he will do well.

38So then, he who marries the virgin does well, but he who does not marry her does even better.

39A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he belongs to the Lord.

40In my judgment, however, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

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

2The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

3But the one who loves God is known by God.

4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

5For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),

6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

7But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.

8But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

9Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

10For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?

11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

12By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

13Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.