Be watchful over yourselves, and over the whole flock, of which the Holy Spirit has placed you in charge, to shepherd the Church of God, which he won for himself at the cost of his life.
Have you no houses in which you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show your contempt for the Church of God, and to humiliate the poor? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I cannot praise you.
In the Church God has appointed, first, Apostles, secondly Preachers, thirdly Teachers; then he has given supernatural powers, then power to cure diseases, aptness for helping others, capacity to govern, varieties of the gift of 'tongues.'
In any case, a man should continue to live in the condition which the Lord has allotted to him, and in which he was when God called him. This is the rule that I lay down in every Church.
To the Church of God in Corinth, and to all Christ's People throughout Greece, from Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and from Timothy, a Brother.
For you, Brothers, began to follow the example of the Churches of God in Judea which are in union with Jesus Christ; you, in your turn, suffering at the hands of your fellow-citizens, in the same way as those Churches did at the hands of the Jews--
but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know what your conduct ought to be in the Household of God, which is the Church of the Living God--the pillar and stay of the Truth.