So I want to inform you that no one speaking under the power of the Spirit of God can say, "Jesus is accursed!" and no one except one under the power of the Holy Spirit can really say, "Jesus is Lord!"

There are varieties of gifts, but the Spirit is the same in all;

there are varieties of service, but the Lord to be served is the same;

there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who does all things by putting energy in us all.

To each of us is given a special spiritual illumination for the common good.

To one, wise speech is given by the Spirit; to another, by the same Spirit, intelligent speech is given;

But the one and same Spirit accomplishes all these achievements, and apportions power to each of us as He chooses.

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with Christ.

For by one Spirit all of us, Jews or Greeks, slaves or freemen, have been baptized into one body, and were all imbued with one Spirit.

But as it now is, God has placed the parts, every one of them, in the body just as He wanted them to be.

But as it now is, there are many parts, but one body.

so that there is no disharmony in the body, but all the parts have a common care for one another.

And God has placed people in the church, first as apostles, second as prophets, third as teachers, then wonder-workers; then people with power to cure the sick, helpers, managers, ecstatic speakers.

But you must earnestly continue to cultivate your higher spiritual gifts. And yet I will show you a way that is better by far:

Love is so patient and so kind; love never boils with jealousy; it never boasts, is never puffed with pride;

Is never glad when wrong is done, but always glad when truth prevails;

It bears up under anything; it exercises faith in everything; it keeps up hope in everything; it gives us power to endure in anything.

Love never fails; if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside;

For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete.

But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will be set aside.

For now we see a dim reflection in a looking-glass. But then we shall see face to face; Now what I know is imperfect, but then I shall know perfectly, as God knows me.

And so these three, faith, hope, and love endure, but the greatest of them is love.

For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

But whoever prophesies is speaking to men for their upbuilding. encouragement, and comfort.

But as it now is, brothers, if I do come back to you speaking in ecstasy, what good shall I do you, unless my speech contains a revelation or new knowledge or a prophetic message or some teaching?

Even inanimate things, like the flute or the harp, may give out sounds, but if there is no difference in the notes, how can the tune that is played on the flute or the harp be told?

So it is with you; unless in your ecstatic speaking you speak a message that is clearly intelligible, how can the message spoken by you be understood? You might just as well be talking to the air!

There are, supposedly, ever so many languages in the world, and not one is without its own meaning.

So, as you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, you must keep trying to excel for the upbuilding of the church.

For if I pray in ecstasy, my spirit is praying, but my mind produces no results for anyone.

What is my conclusion then? I will certainly pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind in action too. I will certainly sing with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind in action too. For if you give thanks with your spirit only,

how is the man who occupies the place of the illiterate to say "Amen" to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying.

You are, indeed, doing right to give thanks, but your neighbor is not built up.

Brothers, stop being children in intelligence, but as to evil keep on being babies; and yet as to intelligence be men of maturity.

In the law it is written, "By men of foreign languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

So speaking in ecstasy is meant as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is meant, not for unbelievers but for believers.

But if everybody prophesies, and some unbeliever or illiterate man comes in, he is convinced of his sins by all, he is closely questioned by all,

the secrets of his heart are laid bare, he falls upon his face and worships God, declaring, "God is really among you."

Then what is our conclusion, brothers? When you meet together, everybody has a song, something to teach, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one. It must all be for the upbuilding of all.

But if there is no one to explain it, let him keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God alone.

Let two or three prophets speak, and the rest consider carefully what is said;

and if anything is revealed to another who is seated, let the speaker stop.

for God is not a God of disorder but of order, as it is in all the churches of God's people.

Women must keep quiet in the churches, for no permission is given them to speak. On the contrary, they must take a subordinate place, just as the law says.

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

If anyone claims to have the prophetic spirit, or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I now am writing is the Lord's command.

He was seen by me, too, as though I were born out of time.

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

Now if we preach that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

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

and if Christ was not raised, the message which we preach has nothing in it; there is nothing in our faith either,

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is a mere delusion; you are still under the penalty of your sins.

For just as all men die by virtue of their descent from Adam, so all such as are in union with Christ will be made to live again.

Death is the last enemy to be stopped,

for He has put everything in subjection under His feet. But when He says that everything has been put in subjection to Him, He Himself is evidently excepted who put it all in subjection to Him.

If from merely human motives I have fought wild beasts here in Ephesus, what profit will it be to me? If the dead are never raised at all, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead."

Sober up, as is right, and stop sinning, for some of you -- to your shame I say so -- are without any true knowledge of God.

and what you sow does not have the body that it is going to have, but is a naked grain, of wheat (it may be) or something else;

Every kind of flesh is different. One kind belongs to men, another to cattle, another to birds, another to fish.

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

It is just like this with the resurrection of the dead.

The body is sown in decay, it is raised without decay; it is sown in humiliation, it is raised in splendor; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength;

it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body too.

This is the way the Scripture puts it too, "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

But it is not the spiritual that comes first; it is the physical, and then the spiritual.

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

Now those who are made of the dust are just like him who was first made of dust, and those who are heavenly are like Him who is from heaven,

and as we have reflected the likeness of him who was made of dust, let us also reflect the likeness of the Man from heaven.

But this I tell you, brothers: Our physical bodies cannot take part in the kingdom of God; what is decaying will never take part in what is immortal.

For this decaying part of us must put on the body that can never decay, and this part once capable of dying must put on the body that can never die.

O Death, where is your victory now? O Death, where is your sting?"

But thank God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, my dear brothers, continue to be firm, incapable of being moved, always letting the cup run over in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the service of the Lord is never thrown away.

Now about the contribution for God's people, I want you to do as I directed the churches of Galatia to do.

On the first day of every week each of you must put aside and store up something in proportion as he is prospered, so that no contributions need be made when I come back.

And if it seems proper for me to go too, they shall go as my companions.

For I have an opportunity here that is great and calls for work, and it has many opponents.

If Timothy gets there, see that he is at ease among you, for he is devotedly doing the work of the Lord, just as I am.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

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

The final greeting is mine -- Paul's -- with my own hand.

A curse upon anyone who does not love the Lord! Our Lord is coming.

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

For just as my sufferings for Christ are running over the cup, so through Christ my comfort is running over too.

If I am in sorrow, it is on behalf of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is for the comfort that is experienced by you in your patient endurance of the same sort of sufferings that I am enduring too.

My hope for you is well founded; because I know that just as you, brothers, are sharers of my sufferings, so you will be sharers of my comfort too.

For I do not want you to be uninformed about the sorrow that I suffered in Asia, because I was so crushed beyond any power to endure that I was in dire despair of life itself.

He saved me from a death so horrible, and He will save me again! He it is on whom I have set my hope that He will still save me,

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

that is, to understand that you have grounds for boasting of me just as I have for boasting of you, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

that is, to go by you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on to Judea.

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

But with Him it is always "Yes," for, as many as the promises of God may be, through Him they are always "Yes." This is why our "Amen" through Him is for the glory of God when spoken by us.

But it is God who makes us as well as you secure through union with Christ, and has anointed us,

and put His seal upon us, and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a first installment of future rewards.

For if I make you sad, who is there to make me glad but the very man who has been made sad by me?

This is the very thing I wrote you, that when I did come I might not be made sad by the very people who ought to make me glad, for I had confidence in you all that my gladness would be gladness to you all.

But if anyone has made anyone sad, it is not I, but you that he has made sad, at least, some of you, not to be severe on all of you.