HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1402
1 C O RIN T H I A N S 5
will bring our darkest secrets to light and will
reveal our private motives. Then God will give
to each one whatever praise is due.
6 Dear 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. 7 For
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?
8 You 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. 9 Instead,
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.
10 Our 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. 11 Even now we go
hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough
clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and
have no home. 12 We work wearily with our own
hands to earn our living. We bless those who
curse us. We are patient with those who abuse
us. 13 We 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.
— promises —
from God
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.
1 C O R I N T H I A N S 6:1 1
14 I am not writing these things to shame you,
but to warn you as my beloved children. 15 For
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. 16 So I
urge you to imitate me.
17 That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved
and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind
page 1032
you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach
in all the churches wherever I go.
18 Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. 19 But 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. 20 For the Kingdom of God is
not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.
21 Which do you choose? Should I come with a
rod to punish you, or should I come with love
and a gentle spirit?
Paul Condemns Spiritual Pride
I 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.* 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow
and shame. And you should remove this man
from your fellowship.
3 Even 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 4 in 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. 5 Then 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.
6 Your 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? 7 Get
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.* 8 So let
us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread*
of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread*
of sincerity and truth.
9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not
to associate with people who indulge in sexual
sin. 10 But 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.
11 I 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.
5
4:6a Greek Brothers. 4:6b Or If you learn not to go beyond
“what is written.” 5:1 Greek his father’s wife. 5:3 Or in spirit.
5:4 Or In the name of the Lord Jesus, you must call a meeting
of the church. 5:5a Or so that his body will be destroyed;
Greek reads for the destruction of the flesh. 5:5b Greek
and the spirit. 5:5c Other manuscripts read the Lord Jesus;
still others read our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:7 Greek has been
sacrificed. 5:8a Greek not with old leaven. 5:8b Greek but
with unleavened [bread]. 5:11 Greek a brother.