Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

²For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables.

³Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them.

⁴Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.

⁵In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable.

⁶Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

⁷For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves.

⁸If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

⁹Christ died and rose again for this very purpose — to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

¹⁰So why do you condemn another believer ? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

¹¹For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the LORD, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God. ’”

¹²Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.

¹³So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

¹⁴I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat. But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong.

¹⁵And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died.

¹⁶Then you will not be criticized for doing something you believe is good.

¹⁷For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too.

¹⁹So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

²⁰Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble.

²¹It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble.

²²You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right.

²³But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

¹We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves.

²We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.

³For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.”

⁴Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

⁵May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.

⁶Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.

⁸Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors.

⁹He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”

¹⁰And in another place it is written, “Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”

¹¹And yet again, “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”

¹²And in another place Isaiah said, “The heir to David’s throne will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”

¹³I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them.

¹⁵Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. For by God’s grace,

¹⁶I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God.

¹⁸Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them.

¹⁹They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.

²⁰My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.

²¹I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.”

²²In fact, my visit to you has been delayed so long because I have been preaching in these places.

²³But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you.

²⁴I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey.

²⁵But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there.

²⁶For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem.

²⁷They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.

²⁸As soon as I have delivered this money and completed this good deed of theirs, I will come to see you on my way to Spain.

²⁹And I am sure that when I come, Christ will richly bless our time together.

³⁰Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.

³¹Pray that I will be rescued from those in Judea who refuse to obey God. Pray also that the believers there will be willing to accept the donation I am taking to Jerusalem.

³²Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other.

³³And now may God, who gives us his peace, be with you all. Amen.

¹I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church in Cenchrea.

²Welcome her in the Lord as one who is worthy of honor among God’s people. Help her in whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many, and especially to me.

³Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus.

⁴In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches.

⁵Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epenetus. He was the first person from the province of Asia to become a follower of Christ.

⁶Give my greetings to Mary, who has worked so hard for your benefit.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews, who were in prison with me. They are highly respected among the apostles and became followers of Christ before I did.

⁸Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, a good man whom Christ approves. And give my greetings to the believers from the household of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet the Lord’s people from the household of Narcissus.

¹²Give my greetings to Tryphena and Tryphosa, the Lord’s workers, and to dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own; and also his dear mother, who has been a mother to me.

¹⁴Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them.

¹⁵Give my greetings to Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas and all the believers who meet with them.

¹⁶Greet each other with a sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ send you their greetings.

¹⁷And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them.

¹⁸Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.

¹⁹But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong.

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

²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you his greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.

²²I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, send my greetings, too, as one of the Lord’s followers.

²³Gaius says hello to you. He is my host and also serves as host to the whole church. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you his greetings, and so does our brother Quartus.

²⁴

²⁵Now all glory to God, who is able to make you strong, just as my Good News says. This message about Jesus Christ has revealed his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time.

²⁶But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him.

²⁷All glory to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, forever. Amen.

¹This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes.

²I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

³May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

⁴I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.

⁵Through him, God has enriched your church in every way — with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge.

⁶This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.

⁷Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

⁹God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

¹¹For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters.

¹²Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, ” or “I follow only Christ.”

¹³Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!

¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵for now no one can say they were baptized in my name.

¹⁶(Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.)

¹⁷For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News — and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

¹⁸The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

¹⁹As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

²⁰So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.

²¹Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.

²²It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.

²³So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

²⁴But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

²⁵This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

²⁶Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.

²⁷Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.

²⁸God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.

²⁹As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

³⁰God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

³¹Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.”

¹When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.

²For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.

³I came to you in weakness — timid and trembling.

⁴And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.

⁵I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

⁶Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.

⁷No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God — his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.

⁸But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.

⁹That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

¹⁰But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.

¹¹No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

¹²And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

¹³When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

¹⁴But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

¹⁵Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.

¹⁶For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

¹Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.

²I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,

³for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?

⁴When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

⁵After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.

⁶I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.

⁷It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

⁸The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.

⁹For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

¹⁰Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.

¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have — Jesus Christ.

¹²Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials — gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

¹³But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.

¹⁴If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.

¹⁵But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

¹⁶Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

¹⁷God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

¹⁸Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”

²⁰And again, “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”

²¹So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you —

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you,

²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

¹So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries.

²Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful.

³As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point.

⁴My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.

⁵So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time — before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.

⁶Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another.

⁷For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

⁸You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.

⁹Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world — to people and angels alike.

¹⁰Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed.

¹¹Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home.

¹²We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us.

¹³We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash — right up to the present moment.

¹⁴I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

¹⁵For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you.

¹⁶So I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.

¹⁸Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again.

¹⁹But I will come — and soon — if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power.

²⁰For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.

²¹Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?

¹I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you — something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

²You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

³Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man

⁴in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus.

⁵Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

⁶Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?

⁷Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

⁸So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.

¹⁰But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

¹¹I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

¹²It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.

¹³God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

¹When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers !

²Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves?

³Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life.

⁴If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church?

⁵I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues?

⁶But instead, one believer sues another — right in front of unbelievers!

⁷Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?

⁸Instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your fellow believers.

⁹Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,

¹⁰or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people — none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.

¹¹Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

¹²You say, “I am allowed to do anything” — but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.

¹³You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.

¹⁴And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

¹⁵Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!

¹⁶And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”

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

¹⁸Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

¹⁹Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

²⁰for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

¹Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, 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 should have her own husband.

³The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.

⁴The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

⁵Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

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

⁷But I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or another.

⁸So I say to those who aren’t married and to widows — it’s better to stay unmarried, just as I am.

⁹But if they can’t control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It’s better to marry than to burn with lust.

¹⁰But for those who are married, I have a command that comes not from me, but from the Lord. A wife must not leave her husband.

¹¹But if she does leave him, let her remain single or else be reconciled to him. And the husband must not leave his wife.

¹²Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her.

¹³And if a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him.

¹⁴For the believing wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the believing husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy.

¹⁵(But if the husband or wife who isn’t a believer insists on leaving, let them go. In such cases the believing husband or wife is no longer bound to the other, for God has called you to live in peace.)

¹⁶Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?

¹⁷Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches.

¹⁸For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now.

¹⁹For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is to keep God’s commandments.

²⁰Yes, each of you should remain as you were when God called you.

²¹Are you a slave? Don’t let that worry you — but if you get a chance to be free, take it.

²²And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord. And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ.

²³God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.

²⁴Each of you, dear brothers and sisters, should remain as you were when God first called you.

²⁵Now regarding your question about the young women who are not yet married. I do not have a command from the Lord for them. But the Lord in his mercy has given me wisdom that can be trusted, and I will share it with you.

²⁶Because of the present crisis, I think it is best to remain as you are.

²⁷If you have a wife, do not seek to end the marriage. If you do not have a wife, do not seek to get married.

²⁸But if you do get married, it is not a sin. And if a young woman gets married, it is not a sin. However, those who get married at this time will have troubles, and I am trying to spare you those problems.

²⁹But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage.

³⁰Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions.

³¹Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.

³²I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him.

³³But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife.

³⁴His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband.

³⁵I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

³⁶But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin.

³⁷But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can control his passion, he does well not to marry.

³⁸So the person who marries his fiancée does well, and the person who doesn’t marry does even better.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.

⁴⁰But in my opinion it would be better for her to stay single, and I think I am giving you counsel from God’s Spirit when I say this.

¹Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.

²Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.

³But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

⁴So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.

⁵There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords.

⁶But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.

⁷However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.

⁸It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

⁹But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.

¹⁰For if others see you — with your “superior knowledge” — eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol?

¹¹So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed.

¹²And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ.

¹³So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live — for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

¹Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? Isn’t it because of my work that you belong to the Lord?

²Even if others think I am not an apostle, I certainly am to you. You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord’s apostle.

³This is my answer to those who question my authority.

⁴Don’t we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals?

⁵Don’t we have the right to bring a believing wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers do, and as Peter does?

⁶Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?

⁷What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk?

⁸Am I expressing merely a human opinion, or does the law say the same thing?

⁹For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this?

¹⁰Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.

¹¹Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink?

¹²If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.

¹³Don’t you realize that those who work in the temple get their meals from the offerings brought to the temple? And those who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrificial offerings.

¹⁴In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it.

¹⁵Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge.

¹⁶Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!

¹⁷If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust.

¹⁸What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News.

¹⁹Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.

²⁰When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.

²¹When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.

²²When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.

²³I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

²⁴Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!

²⁵All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.

²⁶So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.

²⁷I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

¹I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.

²In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses.

³All of them ate the same spiritual food,

⁴and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,

⁷or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”

⁸And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.

⁹Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites.

¹⁰And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

¹²If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.

¹³The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

¹⁴So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.

¹⁵You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true.

¹⁶When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ?

¹⁷And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.

¹⁸Think about the people of Israel. Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar?

¹⁹What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods?

²⁰No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons.

²¹You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.

²²What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?

²³You say, “I am allowed to do anything” — but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything” — but not everything is beneficial.

²⁴Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.

²⁵So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience.

²⁶For “the earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it.”

²⁷If someone who isn’t a believer asks you home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you without raising questions of conscience.

²⁸(But suppose someone tells you, “This meat was offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you.

²⁹It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person.) For why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks?

³⁰If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it?

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

³²Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God.

³³I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.