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.

After that comes the end, when He will turn the kingdom over to God His Father, when He will put an end to all other government, authority, and power;

And when everything has been put in subjection to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has put everything in subjection to Him, so that God may be everything to everybody.

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."

But someone will ask, "How can the dead rise? With what kind of body do they come back?"

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.

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised with bodies not subject to decay, and we shall be changed.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

When I get there, I will send on, with credentials, the persons whom you approve, to carry your gift of charity to Jerusalem.

I will come to see you after I pass through Macedonia -- for I am to pass through Macedonia --

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:

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.

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,

because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

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;

For if the service connected with condemnation had such splendor, the service resulting in right standing with God will surely far surpass it in splendor.

because I know that He who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me too in fellowship with you.

And what agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: "I will live in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they will be my people."

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters of mine,' The Lord Almighty said."

I am glad of it now, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you took your sorrow in accordance with the will of God, so that you should not suffer any loss at all from me.

For the sorrow that comes in accordance with the will of God results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but the sorrow the world produces results in death.

For see what this very sorrow, suffered in accordance with the will of God, has done for you! How earnest it has made you, how concerned to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how much it made you long to see me, how loyal to me, how determined to punish the offender! At every point you have cleared yourselves in the matter.

They did not do as I expected but even more; they first by God's will gave themselves to the Lord, and then to me;

Now I will give you my opinion on this matter. For this is for your interest, because you were not only the first to do anything about it, but the first to want to do so; you started it a year ago.

As for Titus, he is my partner and comrade in the work for you, while these brothers of ours, the representatives of the churches, will bring glory to Christ.

But I send the brothers that in this matter my boasting of you may not turn out to be an idle boasting, that you all may be ready, as I have told them you will be,

Now this is the way it is: Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly too, but whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully too.

And God is able to make your every spiritual blessing overflow for you, so that you will always have in every situation an entire sufficiency and so overflow for every good cause;

He who always supplies the sower with seed and the eater with bread will supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest which your deeds of charity yield.

In every way you will grow richer and richer so as to give with perfect liberality, which will through me result in thanksgiving to God for it.

For through the test you get by doing this service you will continue praising God for your fidelity to your confession of the good news of Christ, and for the liberality of your contributions to them and all others;

and so in their prayers for you they will continue longing for you, because of God's surpassing favor shown you.

Since many boast in accordance with their human nature, I will do it too.

I am ashamed to say that I was, as it were, so weak in the matter. And yet in whatever respect anyone else is daring to boast -- I am talking like a fool -- I too will dare to boast.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness!

I have to keep on boasting. There is no good to be gotten from it, but I will go on to visions and revelations which the Lord has given me.

On behalf of this man with such an experience I will boast, but on behalf of myself personally I will boast only about my weaknesses.

However, if I want to boast, I will not play the fool, for it will be nothing but the truth that I will tell. But I refrain from doing so, to keep anybody, on account of the superiority of the revelations, from giving me a higher rating than my actions and teachings deserve.

It is now the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I will never ask you for financial support, for it is not your money but you yourselves that I want; for children are not by duty bound to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

So in my own case, I will most happily spend my money and myself for your sakes. If I love you much more than I love others, am I to be loved less by you?

I have already warned those who formerly committed shocking sins, and all the rest, and though so far away I warn them now, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will not spare them,

Now I hope that you will learn that I am standing the test.

Finally, brothers, goodbye! Practice the perfecting of your characters, keep listening to my appeals, continue thinking in harmony and living in peace, and the loving, peace-giving God will be with you.

who gave Himself for our sins, to save us from the present wicked world in accordance with the will of our God and Father;

Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed."

Now it is evident that through the law no man is brought into right standing with God, for "The man in right standing with God will live by faith,"

and the law has nothing to do with faith, but it says, "It is the man who does these things that will live by doing them."

Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says?

For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us.

A little yeast will transform the whole dough.

By our union with the Lord I have confidence in you that you will take no other view of the matter. The man who is unsettling you will certainly pay the penalty for it, no matter who it turns out to be.

I mean this: Practice living by the Spirit and then by no means will you gratify the cravings of your lower nature.

Everyone should test his own work until it stands the test, and then he will have ground for boasting with reference to himself alone, and not with reference to someone else.

Do not be deceived anymore; God is not to be scoffed at. A person will reap just what he sows, whatever it is.

The person who sows to gratify his lower nature will reap destruction from that lower nature, and the person who sows to gratify his higher nature will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus;

He foreordained us to become His sons by adoption through Christ Jesus, to carry out the happy choice of His will,

He has made known to us the secret of His will, which is in accordance with His purpose which He planned in Christ,

in union with whom we were made God's portion, since we had been foreordained in accordance with the purpose of Him who in everything carries out the plan of His will,

By reading this you will be able to understand my insight into the secret about the Christ --

You must stop letting any bad word pass your lips, but only words that are good for building up as the occasion demands, so that they will result in spiritual blessing to the hearers.

So it is said: "Wake up, sleeper; get up from the dead, and Christ will make day dawn on you."

So stop becoming senseless, but understand what the Lord's will is.

not serving them as though they were watching you, but as true slaves of Christ, trying to carry out the will of God.

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will get his reward from the Lord for anything good he has done.

Besides all these, take on the shield which faith provides, for with it you will be able to put out all the fire-tipped arrows shot by the evil one,

That you may also know how I am, Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and a faithful minister in the Lord's service, will give you all the information;

For I am certain of this very thing, that He who began the good work in you will go on until the day of Jesus Christ to complete it.

Some, indeed, are actually preaching Christ because they are moved by jealousy and partisanship, but others are doing so from the motive of good will;

What difference then does it make? In one way or another, whether in pretense or in sincerity, Christ is being preached, and that is the thing that makes me glad; yes, more too, I will continue to be glad of it,

for I know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my spiritual welfare,

in accordance with my eager expectation and hope that I shall never disgrace myself, but that now as always hitherto, by my all-conquering courage, whether by living or dying, Christ will be honored in me.

which will result in your joy; so that, through union with Christ Jesus, you may have more than sufficient ground for boasting about me, through my being with you again.

Never in the slightest degree be frightened by your opponents, for such fearlessness will be strong evidence to them of their impending destruction, but to you a sure sign, and that from God, of your salvation.

to hold up the message of life. That will give me ground for boasting on the day of Christ, because neither my career nor my labor has been a failure.

So let us all who are mature have this attitude. If you have a different attitude, God will make it clear to you.

He will so change the outward appearance of our lowly bodies that they will be like His glorious body, by the exertion of the power He has to subject everything to Himself.

By the help of the Lord always keep up the glad spirit; yes, I will repeat it, keep up the glad spirit.

Then, through your union with Christ Jesus, the peace of God, that surpasses all human thought, will keep guard over your hearts and thoughts.

Practice the things you learned, received, and heard from me, things that you saw me do, and then the God who gives us peace will be with you.

My God will amply supply your every need, through Christ Jesus, from His riches in glory.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy,

This is why, ever since I heard of it, I have never ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full wisdom and spiritual insight, with a clear knowledge of His will,

then you will be perfectly empowered by His glorious might for every sort of joyous endurance and forbearance,

and you will always be thanking the Father who has qualified you to share the lot of His people in the realm of light.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, you too will appear to be glorified in fellowship with Him.

For the man who wrongs another will be paid back the wrong he has done; and there are no exceptions.

My dearly loved Tychicus, a faithful minister and my fellow-servant in the Lord's work, will tell you all about me.

he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always earnestly pleading for you in his prayers that you may stand fast as men mature and of firm convictions in everything required by the will of God.

For it is God's will that you should keep pure in person, that you should practice abstinence from sexual immorality,

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then through Jesus, God will bring back with Him those who have fallen asleep.

For on the Lord's own authority we say that those of us who may be left behind and are still living when the Lord comes back, will have no advantage at all over those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,

then those of us who are still living will be caught up along with them on clouds in the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever.

Make it a habit to give thanks for everything, for this is God's will for you through Christ Jesus.

He who calls you is trustworthy and He will do this.

in a flame of fire, who will take vengeance on those who do not know God, that is, those who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus.

These will receive the punishment of eternal destruction as exiles from the presence of the Lord and His glorious might,