Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

²One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

³Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.

⁴Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

⁶The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

⁷For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.

⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;

¹¹for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

¹²So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

¹³Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

¹⁴I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.

¹⁵For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

¹⁶So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.

¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

¹⁹So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

²⁰Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

²¹It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

²²The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.

²³But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

¹We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

²Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

³For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

⁴For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

⁵May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

⁶that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

⁸For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,

⁹and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”

¹⁰And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

¹¹And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.”

¹²And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”

¹³May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

¹⁴I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

¹⁵But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God

¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

¹⁸For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience — by word and deed,

¹⁹by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God — so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

²⁰and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation,

²¹but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

²²This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

²³But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,

²⁴I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

²⁵At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

²⁶For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

²⁷For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

²⁸When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

²⁹I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

³⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,

³¹that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

³²so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

³³May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

¹I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,

²that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.

³Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

⁴who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

⁵Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.

⁶Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.

⁸Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.

¹²Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.

¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.

¹⁵Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

¹⁷I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

¹⁸For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

¹⁹For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

²²I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.

²⁴

²⁵Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages

²⁶but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith —

²⁷to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

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

²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

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

⁴I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

⁵that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge —

⁶even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you —

⁷so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁸who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

¹²What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

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

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

¹⁵so that no one may 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.)

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

¹⁸For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

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

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

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

²⁹so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

³⁰And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

³¹so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

¹And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

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

⁴and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

⁵so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

⁶Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

⁷But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

¹⁶“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

²I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

³for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

⁵What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.

⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

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

⁸He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

⁹For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

¹⁰According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

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

¹²Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw —

¹³each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

¹⁴If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

¹⁵If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

¹⁶Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

¹⁷If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

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

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

²⁰and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

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

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours,

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

¹This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

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

³But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

⁴For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵Therefore 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 his commendation from God.

⁶I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

⁷For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

⁸Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

⁹For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

¹¹To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,

¹²and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

¹³when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

¹⁴I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

¹⁵For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

¹⁶I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

¹⁷That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But 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.

²⁰For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

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

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.

²And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

³For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

⁴When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

⁵you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

⁷Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

⁸Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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

¹⁰not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

¹¹But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even to eat with such a one.

¹²For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

¹³God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

¹When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

²Or 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?

³Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

⁴So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

⁵I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,

⁶but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

⁸But you yourselves wrong and defraud — even your own brothers!

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

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

¹¹And such were some of you. 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“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

¹³“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” — and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

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

¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

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

¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

²⁰for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

¹Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

²But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

³The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

⁴For 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.

⁵Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

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

⁷I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

⁸To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.

⁹But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁰To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband

¹¹(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

¹²To the rest I say (I, 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.

¹³If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

¹⁵But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

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

¹⁷Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

¹⁸Was 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.

¹⁹For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

²⁰Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

²¹Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)

²²For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.

²³You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.

²⁴So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

²⁵Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.

²⁶I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.

²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

²⁸But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

²⁹This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,

³⁰and 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 goods,

³¹and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

³²I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

³³But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,

³⁴and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

³⁵I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

³⁶If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry — it is no sin.

³⁷But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well.

³⁸So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

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

¹Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

²If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

³But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

⁴Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”

⁵For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords” —

⁶yet 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.

⁷However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

⁸Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

⁹But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

¹⁰For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?

¹¹And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.

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

¹³Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?

²If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³This is my defense to those who would examine me.

⁴Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

⁵Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

⁶Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

⁷Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

⁸Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?

⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?

¹⁰Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

¹¹If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

¹²If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even 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.

¹³Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?

¹⁴In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

¹⁵But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

¹⁶For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

¹⁷For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.

¹⁸What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

¹⁹For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

²²To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

²⁵Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

²⁶So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.

²⁷But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

¹For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

²and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

³and all ate the same spiritual food,

⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

⁵Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

⁸We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

⁹We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,

¹⁰nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

¹³No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

²²Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

²⁴Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

²⁵Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

²⁶For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.”

²⁷If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience —

²⁹I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

³⁰If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

³¹So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

³²Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,

³³just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.