You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
But 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.
A 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.
But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Who 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?
For 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.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To 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.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
The 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?
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?
Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,
but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
If all were a single member, where would the body be?
But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.
If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
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