1 Corinthians 5-7

I Corinthians 5

¹It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.

²And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.

³For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing,

⁴in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

⁵to 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.

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

⁷Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:

⁸wherefore 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.

⁹I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators;

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

¹¹but now I write unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat.

¹²For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within,

¹³whereas them that are without God judgeth? Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.

I Corinthians 6

¹Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

²Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

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

⁴If then ye have to judge things pertaining to this life, do ye set them to judge who are of no account in the church?

⁵I say this to move you to shame. Is it so, that there cannot be found among you one wise man, who shall be able to decide between his brethren,

⁶but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded?

⁸Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

⁹Or 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 men,

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

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

¹²All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.

¹³Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body:

¹⁴and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power.

¹⁵Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid.

¹⁶Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.

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

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

¹⁹Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;

²⁰for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.

I Corinthians 7

¹Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

²But, because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

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

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

⁵Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency.

⁶But this I say by way of permission, not of commandment.

⁷Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

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

⁹But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

¹⁰But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband

¹¹(but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband); and that the husband leave not his wife.

¹²But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave her.

¹³And the woman which hath an unbelieving husband, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

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

¹⁶For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O husband, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

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

¹⁸Was any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Hath any been called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God.

²⁰Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called.

²¹Wast thou called being a bondservant? care not for it: but if thou canst become free, use it rather.

²²For he that was called in the Lord, being a bondservant, is the Lord’s freedman: likewise he that was called, being free, is Christ’s bondservant.

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

²⁴Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.

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

²⁶I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is.

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

²⁸But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Yet such shall have tribulation in the flesh: and I would spare you.

²⁹But this I say, brethren, the time is shortened, that henceforth both those that have wives may be as though they had none;

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

³¹and those that use the world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

³²But I would have you to be free from cares. He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

³³but he that is married is careful for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

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

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

³⁶But if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself unseemly toward his virgin daughter, if she be past the flower of her age, and if need so requireth, let him do what he will; he sinneth not; let them marry.

³⁷But he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power as touching his own will, and hath determined this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, shall do well.

³⁸So then both he that giveth his own virgin daughter in marriage doeth well; and he that giveth her not in marriage shall do better.

³⁹A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

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