Lawsuits Against Believers
1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will mjudge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 nI say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. oWhy not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!1
9 pOr do you not know that the unrighteous2 will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the qsexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,3 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And rsuch were some of you. But you were swashed, you were tsanctified, you were ujustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Flee Sexual Immorality
12 v“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 w“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And xGod raised the Lord and will also yraise us up zby his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are amembers of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined4 to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, b“The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes cone spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin5 a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that dyour body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? eYou are not your own, 20 for you were fbought with a price. So gglorify God in your body.
How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song?
1 By the waters of lBabylon,
mthere we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows1 there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I nforget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my otongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!
7 pRemember, O Lord, against the Edomites
qthe day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who rrepays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and sdashes them against the rock!
