Evening Devotion

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
¹ Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
² It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
³ Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.
¹ Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
² No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
³ The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
⁴ They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
⁵ so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
⁶ O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
⁷ Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
⁸ Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
⁹ Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹¹ Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.
¹ Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me;
² deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men.
³ For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD,
⁴ for no fault of mine, they run and make ready. Awake, come to meet me, and see!
⁵ You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah
⁶ Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
⁷ There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips— for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”
⁸ But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.
⁹ O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.
¹⁰ My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.
¹¹ Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!
¹² For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,
¹³ consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah
¹⁴ Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
¹⁵ They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.
¹⁶ But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
¹⁷ O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.
¹ O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.
² You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters.
³ You have made your people see hard things; you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.
⁴ You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. Selah
⁵ That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!
⁶ God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
⁷ Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.
⁸ Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
⁹ Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
¹⁰ Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies.
¹¹ Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!
¹² With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes. (ESV)

¹⁵ When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
¹⁶ But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
¹⁷ And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’
¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’
²⁰ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
²¹ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
²² And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
²³ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” (ESV)

⁴ These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
⁵ When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,
⁶ and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—
⁷ then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
⁸ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
⁹ And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
¹¹ The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
¹² And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.
¹⁴ And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
¹⁸ Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
¹⁹ Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
²¹ So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
²² And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
²³ Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (ESV)

²⁹ And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
³⁰ Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.
³¹ And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
³² That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.
³³ And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
³⁴ And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
³⁵ And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
³⁶ And Simon and those who were with him searched for him,
³⁷ and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
³⁸ And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
³⁹ And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
⁴⁰ And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
⁴¹ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
⁴² And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
⁴³ And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once,
⁴⁴ and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
⁴⁵ But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. (ESV)

¹ “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits.
² And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze.
³ You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze.
⁴ You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.
⁵ And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar.
⁶ And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze.
⁷ And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried.
⁸ You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.
⁹ “You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side the court shall have hangings of fine twined linen a hundred cubits long for one side.
¹⁰ Its twenty pillars and their twenty bases shall be of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
¹¹ And likewise for its length on the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, its pillars twenty and their bases twenty, of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
¹² And for the breadth of the court on the west side there shall be hangings for fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten bases.
¹³ The breadth of the court on the front to the east shall be fifty cubits.
¹⁴ The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases.
¹⁵ On the other side the hangings shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and three bases.
¹⁶ For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have four pillars and with them four bases.
¹⁷ All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their bases of bronze.
¹⁸ The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height five cubits, with hangings of fine twined linen and bases of bronze.
¹⁹ All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use, and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.
²⁰ “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.
²¹ In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.

¹ “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
² And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
³ You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.
⁴ These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests.
⁵ They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen.
⁶ “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked.
⁷ It shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges, so that it may be joined together.
⁸ And the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen.
⁹ You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel,
¹⁰ six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.
¹¹ As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree.
¹² And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance.
¹³ You shall make settings of gold filigree,
¹⁴ and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.
¹⁵ “You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work. In the style of the ephod you shall make it—of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen shall you make it.
¹⁶ It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth.
¹⁷ You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row;
¹⁸ and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond;
¹⁹ and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
²⁰ and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree.
²¹ There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes.
²² You shall make for the breastpiece twisted chains like cords, of pure gold.
²³ And you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece.
²⁴ And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece.
²⁵ The two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings of filigree, and so attach it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod.
²⁶ You shall make two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod.
²⁷ And you shall make two rings of gold, and attach them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod.
²⁸ And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it may lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod.
²⁹ So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the LORD.
³⁰ And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.
³¹ “You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue.
³² It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, so that it may not tear.
³³ On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them,
³⁴ a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe.
³⁵ And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die.
³⁶ “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the LORD.’
³⁷ And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban.
³⁸ It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.
³⁹ “You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework.
⁴⁰ “For Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty.
⁴¹ And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.
⁴² You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs;
⁴³ and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him. (ESV)

²¹ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
²² Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet
²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.”
²⁴ And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years,
²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.”
²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?”
³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
³² And he looked around to see who had done it.
³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”
⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.
⁴¹ Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.
⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

¹ He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?
³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
⁴ And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”
⁵ And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
⁶ And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. (ESV)

A Psalm of David.
¹ The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
² for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah (ESV)

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
² And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
³ For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
⁴ When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
⁵ you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—
¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
¹² For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
¹³ God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

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 judge 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 I 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. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
⁸ But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
¹² “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 “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 God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
¹⁵ 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 prostitute? Never!
¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

¹ Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
² But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
³ The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
⁴ For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
⁵ Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
⁶ Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.
⁷ I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
⁸ To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
⁹ But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
¹⁰ To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband
¹¹ (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
¹² To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
¹³ If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
¹⁵ But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
¹⁶ For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
¹⁷ Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
¹⁸ Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.
¹⁹ For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.
²⁰ Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.
²¹ Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)
²² For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.
²³ You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
²⁴ So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
²⁵ Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
²⁶ I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.
²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
²⁸ 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.
²⁹ This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,
³⁰ and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods,
³¹ and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
³² I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
³³ But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,
³⁴ and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
³⁵ I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
³⁶ If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin.
³⁷ But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well.
³⁸ So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
³⁹ 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.
⁴⁰ Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

¹ Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
² If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
³ But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
⁴ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
⁵ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
⁶ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
⁷ However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
⁸ Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
⁹ But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
¹⁰ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
¹¹ And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
¹² Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
¹³ Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (ESV)