Otherwise, if you are praising God with your spirit, how can someone without the gift say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

For you are certainly giving thanks well, but the other person is not strengthened.

Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

It is written in the law: "By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me," says the Lord.

So then, tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.

So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and unbelievers or uninformed people enter, will they not say that you have lost your minds?

for God is not characterized by disorder but by peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. Rather, let them be in submission, as in fact the law says.

If someone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

So then, brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid anyone from speaking in tongues.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them -- yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty.

Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless; you are still in your sins.

For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says "everything" has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him.

Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?

If from a human point of view I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what did it benefit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."

Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed -- perhaps of wheat or something else.

All flesh is not the same: People have one flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another.

However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.

Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed --

So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside some income and save it to the extent that God has blessed you, so that a collection will not have to be made when I come.

For I do not want to see you now in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

With regard to our brother Apollos: I strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was simply not his intention to come now. He will come when he has the opportunity.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.

Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God -- not by human wisdom but by the grace of God -- we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.

For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely

Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I? Or do I make my plans according to mere human standards so that I would be saying both "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?

But as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No."

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us -- by me and Silvanus and Timothy -- was not "Yes" and "No," but it has always been "Yes" in him.

Now I appeal to God as my witness, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

I do not mean that we rule over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm.

So I made up my own mind not to pay you another painful visit.

And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you.

But if anyone has caused sadness, he has not saddened me alone, but to some extent (not to exaggerate) he has saddened all of you as well.

so that we may not be exploited by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes).

I had no relief in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and set out for Macedonia.

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don't need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?

revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry that produced death -- carved in letters on stone tablets -- came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory which was made ineffective),

and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective.

But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, we do not become discouraged.

But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience before God.

among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair;

we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed,

Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day.

because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.

if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked.

For we groan while we are in this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

for we live by faith, not by sight.

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who take pride in outward appearance and not in what is in the heart.

So then from now on we acknowledge no one from an outward human point of view. Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view, now we do not know him in that way any longer.

In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.

God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

We do not give anyone an occasion for taking an offense in anything, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying and yet -- see! -- we continue to live; as those who are scourged and yet not executed;

Our affection for you is not restricted, but you are restricted in your affections for us.

Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

I do not say this to condemn you, for I told you before that you are in our hearts so that we die together and live together with you.

We were encouraged not only by his arrival, but also by the encouragement you gave him, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your deep concern for me, so that I rejoiced more than ever.

For even if I made you sad by my letter, I do not regret having written it (even though I did regret it, for I see that my letter made you sad, though only for a short time).

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, so that you were not harmed in any way by us.

So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf before God.

For if I have boasted to him about anything concerning you, I have not been embarrassed by you, but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has proved true as well.

And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others.

For if the eagerness is present, the gift itself is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have.

For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality.

At the present time, your abundance will meet their need, so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality,

as it is written: "The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little."

because he not only accepted our request, but since he was very eager, he is coming to you of his own accord.

For we are concerned about what is right not only before the Lord but also before men.

For it is not necessary for me to write you about this service to the saints,

But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them.

For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you.

Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift and not as something you feel forced to do.

Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.

because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.

now I ask that when I am present I may not have to be bold with the confidence that (I expect) I will dare to use against some who consider us to be behaving according to human standards.

For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards,

for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments

For if I boast somewhat more about our authority that the Lord gave us for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of doing so.

I do not want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters,

For we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.