Page images
PDF
EPUB

taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 21. Therefore let no man glory 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 ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

CHAP. IV.

1 How to account of Christ's ministers. 8 To a self-sufficient vanity Paul opposeth his own afflicted state, &c. Listers of Christ, and use wards of ET a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of

the mysteries of God.

2. Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

3. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

13. Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

15. For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel.

16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye fol

lowers of me.

17. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.

18. Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.

19. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will; and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20. For the kingdom of God is not in) word, but in power. 21. What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? CHAP. V.

5. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man 1 of the incestuous person. 6 Of necessity the old leaven have praise of God.

6. And these things, brethren, I have in|| a figure transferred to myself, and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

7. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

8. Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign; that we also might reign with you.

9. For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

10. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ve are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

11. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

12. And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless: being persecuted, we suffer it:

[ocr errors]

1.

must be purged out, &c.

T is reported commonly, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

2. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed;

4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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

6. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

7. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.

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

9. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10. Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

11. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat. 12. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within ?

13. But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

CHAP. VI. 1 of bringing controversies before heathen judges. 7 How

lawsuits may be avoided.

having matter

1.DARE any of you, have a before

the unjust, and not before the saints?

2. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ?

3. Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?

4. If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge, who are least esteemed in the church.

5. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren ?

6. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

7. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

8. Nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11. And such were some of you : but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are

lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

13. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

14. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15. Know ye not, that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.

16. What! know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. know ye that

is

the temple of the Holy Ghost your body you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. CHAP. VII.

1 The use of marriage: 10 Christ hath forbidden to dis

1.

NOW

solve the bond thereof, &c.

OW concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

2. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

3. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

4. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

5. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

6. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

7. For I would that all men were even as I myself: but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

8. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

9. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. 10. And unto the married I command

yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:

11. But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. 12. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none;

30. And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;

13. And the woman which hath a hus- 31. And they that use this world, as not band that believeth not, and if he be pleas-abusing it: for the fashion of this world ed to dwell with her, let her not leave him. passeth away. 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean: but now are they holy.

15. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

16. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

17. But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.

18. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any 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 every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.

21. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.

22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.

23. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

24. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress; I say, that it is

good for a man so to be.

27. Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

32. But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried, careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

33. But he that is married, careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

34. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit: but she that is married, careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

35. And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

36. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not let them marry.

37. Nevertheless, he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.

38. So then, he that giveth her in marriage doeth well: but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.

39. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth: but if her hus band be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

40. But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

[ocr errors]

CHAP. VIII.

1 Charity preferable to knowledge. 4 An idol is nothing to those who rightly know God. TOW as touching things offered unto we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

Nidols,

2. And if any man think that he know28. But and if thou marry, thou hast not eth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not li he ought to know.

3. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

4. As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

6. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

7. Howbeit, there is not in every man that knowledge for some, with conscience of the idol, unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9, But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak.

10. For if any man see thee, which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to cat those things which are offered to idols;

11. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

13. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. CHAP. IX.

1 Paul asserteth his apostolical character, 3 and right to a

1.

maintenance: 24 he striveth to obtain an incorruptible

crown.

·A1

M I not an apostle? am 1 not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not you my work in the Lord? 2. If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

3. Mine answer to them that do examine me, is this:

4. Have we not power to cat and to drink? 5. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? 6. Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

8. Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?

9. For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

10. Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that plougheth should plough in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

11. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

12. If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

13. Do ye not know, that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

14. Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

15. But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

16. For though I preach the gospel, 1 have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, wo is unto me if 1 preach not the gospel.

17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my wil, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

18. What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge; that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

19. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

20. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

21. To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

22. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

23. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

24. Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the

[blocks in formation]

1 The Jews had sacraments typical of ours. 6 Christians

. 1.

must not lust after evil things: 7 they must avoid idolatry; 13 God will in affliction make a way for them to escape, &c.

M OVER, brethren, I wou, hot OREOVER, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

2. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea;

3. And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4. And did all drink the same spiritual drink: (for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.)

5. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

7. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand.

9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

13. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

15. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.

16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17. For we, being many, are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.

18. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

19. What say I then? That the idol is any thing? or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?

20. But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, should have fellowship with devot and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

23. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.

25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake: 26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

27. If any of them that believe not, bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience' sake. This

28. But if any man say unto you, is offered in sacrifice unto idols; eat not, for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience' sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

29. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?

30. For, if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of, for that for which 1 give thanks?

31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

[ocr errors]

ej

32. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »