Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the first
epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapters
3 through 6. Chapter 3 And I, brethren, could
not speak to you as to spiritual people, but
as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you
with milk and not with solid food. For until
now you were not able to receive it, and even
now you are still not able, for you are still
carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and
divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving
like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul,
and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers
through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to
each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God
gave the increase. So then neither he who plants
is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives
the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters
are one, and each one will receive his own reward
according to his own labor. For we are God's
fellow workers. You are God's field, you are
God's building. According to the grace of God
which was given to me, as a wise master builder
I have laid the foundation, and another builds
on it. But let each one take heed how he builds
on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
each one's work will become clear. For the day
will declare it, because it will be revealed
by fire, and the fire will test each one's work
of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he
has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss.
But he himself will be saved, yet so as through
fire. Do you not know that you are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in
you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God
will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy,
which temple you are. Let no one deceive himself.
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or
things present or things to come. All are yours,
and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Yet
I am not justified by this, but he who judges
me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before
the time, until the Lord comes, who will both
bring to light the hidden things of darkness
and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each
one's praise will come from God. Now these things,
brethren, I have figuratively transferred to
myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may
learn in us not to think beyond what is written,
that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of
one against the other. For who makes you differ
from another? And what do you have that you did
not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it,
why do you boast as if you had not received it?
You are already full, you are already rich, you
have reigned as kings without us. And indeed
I could wish you did reign, that we also might
reign with you. For I think that God has displayed
us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death.
For we have been made a spectacle to the world,
both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's
sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak,
but you are strong. You are distinguished, but
we are dishonored. To the present hour we both
hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed
and beaten and homeless, and we labor working
with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless.
Being persecuted, we endure. Being defamed, we
entreat. We have been made as the filth of the
world, the offscouring of all things until now.
I do not write these things to shame you. But
as my beloved children, I warn you, for though
you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ
Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason
I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved
and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind
you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere
in every church. Now some are puffed up, as though
I were not coming to you. But I will come to
you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know
not the word of those who are puffed up, but
the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word,
but in power. What do you want? Shall I come
to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of
gentleness? Chapter 5 It is actually reported
that there is sexual immorality among you. and
such sexual immorality as is not even named among
the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife,
and you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned,
that he who has done this deed might be taken
away from among you. For I indeed, as absent
in body, but present in spirit, have already
judged as though I were present, him who has
so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when you are gathered together, Along
with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not
good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump, since you truly are
unleavened. for indeed christ our passover was
crucified for us therefore let us keep the feast
not with old leaven nor with the leaven of malice
and wickedness but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth I wrote to you in my epistle
not to keep company with sexually immoral people,
yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually
immoral people of this world or with the covetous
or extortioners or idolaters, since then you
would need to go out of the world. But now I
have written to you not to keep company with
anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral
or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a
drunkard or an extortioner, not even to eat with
such a person. For what have I to do with judging
those also who are outside? Do you not judge
those who are inside? But those who are outside
God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves
the evil person. Chapter 6 Dare any of you, having
a matter against another, go to law before the
unrighteous and not before the saints? Do you
not know that the saints will judge the world?
And if the world will be judged by you, Are you
unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you
not know that we shall judge angels? How much
more things that pertain to this life? If then
you have judgments concerning things pertaining
to this life, do you appoint those who are least
esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to
your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise
man among you, not even one, who will be able
to judge between his brethren? But brother goes
to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.
Now therefore, it is already an utter failure
for you that you go to law against one another.
Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you
not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you
yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these
things to your brethren. Do you not know that
the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers. nor homosexuals,
nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some
of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified,
but you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things
are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.
All things are lawful for me, but I will not
be brought under the power of any. for foods,
but God will destroy both it and them. Now the
body is not for sexual immorality, but for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both
raised up the Lord and will also raise us up
by his power. Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ? Shall I then take the
members of Christ and make them members of a
harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that
he who is joined to a harlot is one body with
her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh,
but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit
with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that
a man does is outside the body, but he who commits
sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple
of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
from God, and you are not your own? for you were
bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. I hope
you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did,
and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow
to continue on our journey. God bless you and
have a great day.