Lawsuits Discouraged

6 Does any one of you, when he has a ^[a]case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the ^[b]saints? ² Or do you not know that the ^[c]saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to ^[d]constitute the smallest law courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? ⁴ So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, ^[e]do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, ⁶ but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷ Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.

⁹ Or 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 ^[f]effeminate, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

The Body Is the Lord’s

¹² All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ Food is for the ^[g]stomach and the ^[h]stomach is for food, but God will do away with both ^[i]of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. ¹⁸ Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the ^[j]immoral man sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a ^[k]temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from ^[l]God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

The Futility of Life

6 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent ^[a]among men— ² a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner ^[b]enjoys them. This is ^[c]vanity and a severe affliction. ³ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many ^[d]they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, ⁴ for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. ⁵ It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; ^[e]it is better off than he. ⁶ Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not ^[f]enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”

⁷ All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the ^[g]appetite is not ^[h]satisfied. ⁸ For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? ⁹ What the eyes see is better than what the soul ^[i]desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.

¹⁰ Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. ¹¹ For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? ¹² For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few ^[j]years of his futile life? He will ^[k]spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?