1 Corinthians 2:12

2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

1 Corinthians 4:8

4:8 Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

1 Corinthians 6:12

Flee Sexual Immorality

6:12 “All things are lawful for me” ¹  – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything.

1 Corinthians 8:13

8:13 For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them ²  to sin.

1 Corinthians 9:22

9:22 To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.

1 Corinthians 13:12

13:12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly, ³  but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 14:15

14:15 What should I do? ⁴  I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing praises with my spirit, but I will also sing praises with my mind.

1 Corinthians 15:9

15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

[6:12]  ¹ sn All things are lawful for me. In the expressions in vv. 12-13 within quotation marks, Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior. Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.

[8:13]  ¹ tn Grk “my brother.” Both “my brother or sister” earlier in the verse and “one of them” here translate the same Greek phrase. Since the same expression occurs in the previous line, a pronoun phrase is substituted here to suit English style, which is less tolerant of such repetition.

[13:12]  ¹ tn Grk “we are seeing through [= using] a mirror by means of a dark image.” Corinth was well known in the ancient world for producing some of the finest bronze mirrors available. Paul’s point in this analogy, then, is not that our current understanding and relationship with God is distorted (as if the mirror reflected poorly), but rather that it is “indirect,” (i.e., the nature of looking in a mirror) compared to the relationship we will enjoy with him in the future when we see him “face to face” (cf. G. D. Fee, First Corinthians [NICNT], 648). The word “indirectly” translates the Greek phrase ἐν αἰνίγματι (ejn ainigmati, “in an obscure image”) which itself may reflect an allusion to Num 12:8 (LXX οὐ δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων), where God says that he speaks to Moses “mouth to mouth [= face to face]…and not in dark figures [of speech].” Though this allusion to the OT is not explicitly developed here, it probably did not go unnoticed by the Corinthians who were apparently familiar with OT traditions about Moses (cf. 1 Cor 10:2). Indeed, in 2 Cor 3:13-18 Paul had recourse with the Corinthians to contrast Moses’ ministry under the old covenant with the hope afforded through apostolic ministry and the new covenant. Further, it is in this context, specifically in 2 Cor 3:18, that the apostle invokes the use of the mirror analogy again in order to unfold the nature of the Christian’s progressive transformation by the Spirit.

[14:15]  ¹ tn Grk “what then is it?”