the secrets of his heart are exposed, and he will fall down on his face and worship God, and declare that God is really among you.

Then what is the right course, brothers? When you meet together, suppose every one of you has a song, a teaching, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one; it must all be for the good of all.

If there is any ecstatic speaking, let it be limited to two or three people at the most, and have one speak at a time and someone explain what he says.

But if there is no one to explain it, have him keep quiet in church, and talk to himself and to God.

And let two or three who are inspired to preach speak, while the rest weigh what is said;

and if anything is revealed to another who is seated, the one who is speaking must stop.

For in this way you can all preach one after another, as you are inspired to, so that everyone may be instructed and stimulated,

for God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This is the rule in all Christian churches.

Women are to keep quiet in church, for they are not allowed to speak. They must take a subordinate place, just as the Law says.

If they want to find out about anything, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church.

If anyone claims to be inspired to preach, or to have any other spiritual endowment, let him understand that what I am now writing you is a command from the Lord.

For I passed on to you, as of first importance, the account I had received, that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures foretold,

that he was buried, that on the third day he was raised from the dead, as the Scriptures foretold,

and finally he was seen by me also, as though I were born at the wrong time.

But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Now if what we preach about Christ is that he was raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not raised,

and if Christ was not raised, there is nothing in our message; there is nothing in our faith either,

and we are found guilty of misrepresenting God, for we have testified that he raised Christ, when he did not do it, if it is true that the dead are never raised.

and if Christ was not raised, your faith is a delusion; you are still under the control of your sins.

If we have centered our hopes on Christ in this life, and that is all, we are the most pitiable people in the world.

But the truth is, Christ was raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep.

For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead.

For just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again.

for everything is to be reduced to subjection and put under Christ's feet. But when it says that everything is subject to him, he is evidently excepted who reduced it all to subjection to him.

And when everything is reduced to subjection to him, then the Son himself will also become subject to him who has reduced everything to subjection to him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

From the human point of view, what good is it to me that I have fought wild animals here in Ephesus? If the dead do not rise at all, "Let us eat and drink, for we will be dead tomorrow!"

Return to your sober sense as you ought, and stop sinning, for some of you are utterly ignorant about God. To your shame I say so.

and when you sow it, it has not the form it is going to have, but is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or something else;

and God gives it just such a form as he pleases, so that each kind of seed has a form of its own.

Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another.

There are heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies, but the beauty of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is of another.

It is so with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay.

It is sown in humiliation, it is raised in splendor. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength.

It is a physical body that is sown, it is a spiritual body that is raised. If there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body also.

This is also what the Scripture says: "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.

The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven.

Those who are of the earth are like him who was of the earth, and those who are of heaven are like him who is from heaven,

and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven.

But I can tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, and decay will not share in what is imperishable.

About the collection for God's people, I want you to do as I told the churches of Galatia to do.

On the first of every week each of you is to put aside and store up whatever he gains, so that money will not have to be collected after I come.

for I have a great and promising opportunity here, as well as many opponents.

If Timothy reaches you, put him at his ease among you, for he is devoted to the Lord's work, just as I am.

So no one is to slight him. But see him off cordially when he comes back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

As for our brother Apollos, I have often urged him to visit you with the other brothers, and he is quite unwilling to come now, but he will come when he has a good opportunity.

The churches of Asia wish to be remembered to you. Aquila and Prisca, with the congregation that meets at their house, send you their special Christian greetings.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, and all God's people all over Greece;

If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

My hopes for you are unshaken. For I know that just as surely as you share my sufferings, just so surely you will share my comfort.

For I do not want you, brothers, to misunderstand the distress that I experienced in Asia, for I was so utterly and unendurably crushed, that I actually despaired of life itself.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God.

For what I am writing to you is only what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it fully,

as some of you have come to understand me, and that you will understand that you have a right to be proud of me, as I have of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

As surely as God can be relied on, there has been no equivocation about our message to you.

for to all the promises of God he supplies the "Yes" that confirms them. That is why we utter the "Amen" through him, when we give glory to God.

But it is God who guarantees us and you to Christ; he has anointed us

and put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts, as earnest-money.

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth.

For if I hurt your feelings, who is there to cheer me up but the man whose feelings I hurt?

This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

For I was in great trouble and distress of mind when I wrote you, and I shed many tears as I did it, yet it was not to hurt your feelings, but to make you realize the extraordinary affection I have for you.

But if anyone has hurt anybody's feelings, it is not so much mine, as yours, or at least those of some of you, not to be too hard upon you all.

For that individual, this censure by the majority of you is punishment enough,

For that is why I wrote you??o find out how you would stand the test, and see if you would obey me absolutely.

When you forgive a man, I forgive him too. For anything I had to forgive has been forgiven on your account, and as in the very presence of Christ,

to keep Satan from getting the better of us. For we know what he is after.

But thank God! he always leads me in his triumphal train, through Christ, and spreads the perfume of knowledge of him everywhere through me as his censer-bearer.

to the one, a deathly, deadly odor, to the other a vital, life-giving one. Who is qualified for this task? I am!

Such is the confidence that I have through Christ in my relations to God.

Not that I am of myself qualified to claim anything as originating with me. My qualification is from God,

and he has qualified me to serve him in the interests of a new agreement, not in writing but of spirit. For what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if what faded away came with splendor, how much more splendid what is permanent must be!

Their minds were dulled. For to this day, that same veil remains unlifted, when they read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed.

Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds,

but "whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."