Chapter 3
CHAPTER XII. It is important, brethren, that you should have clear knowledge on the subject of spiritual gifts. You know that when you were heathens you went astray after dumb idols, wherever you happened to be led.
For this reason I would have you understand that no one speaking under the influence of the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed, and that no one is able to say, Jesus is Lord except under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Now there are various kinds of gifts, but there is one and the same Spirit, various forms of official service, and yet one and the same Lord, diversities in work, and yet
the same God, He who in each person brings about the whole result. But to each of us a manifestation of the Spirit has been granted for the common good. To one the utterance of wisdom has been granted through the Spirit. To another the utterance of knowledge in accordance with the will of the same Spirit. To a third man, by means of the same Spirit, special faith.
To another various gifts of healing, by means of the one Spirit. To another the exercise of miraculous powers. To another the gift of prophecy. To another the power of discriminating between prophetic utterances. To another varieties of the gift of tongues.
To another the interpretation of tongues. But these results are all brought about by one and the same Spirit, who bestows His gifts upon each of us in accordance with His own will. For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ.
For in fact, in one Spirit, all of us, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men, were baptized to form but one body, and we were all nourished by that one Spirit. For the human body does not consist of one part, but of many. Were the foot to say, because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, that would not make it any the less a part of the body.
Or were the ear to say, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, that would not make it any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the nostrils be? But as a matter of fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them,
as He has seen fit. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But as a matter of fact, there are many parts and but one body. It is also impossible for the eye to say to the hand, I do not need you, or again for the head to say to the feet, I do not need you.
No, it is quite otherwise. Even those parts of the body which are apparently somewhat feeble are yet indispensable. And those which we deem less honorable, we clothe with more abundant honor, and so our ungrateful parts come to have a more abundant grace, while our graceful parts have everything they need.
That it was God who built up the body and bestowed more abundant honor on the part that felt the need, that there might be no disunion in the body, but that all the members might entertain the same anxious care for one another's welfare. And if one part is suffering, every other part suffers with it. Or if one part is receiving special honor, every other part shares in the joy.
As for you, you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it. And by God's appointment there are in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers. Then come miraculous powers, and then ability to cure diseases or render loving service, or powers of organization, or varieties of the gift of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Have all miraculous powers? Have all ability to cure diseases?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But always seek to excel in the greater gifts. And now I will point out to you a way of life which transcends all others. Chapter 13 If I can speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, but am destitute of love, I have but become a loud sounding trumpet or a clinging cymbal. If I possess the gift of prophecy, and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned,
but am destitute of love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited. She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate
anger, nor brood over wrongs. She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth. She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance. Love never fails.
But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be brought to an end. For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying. But when the perfect state of things is come, all that is imperfect will be brought to an
end. When I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like a child, reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put from me childish ways. For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled. But then we shall see them face to face.
For the present, the knowledge I gain is imperfect. But then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And so there remain faith, hope, love, these three. And of these the greatest is love. Chapter 14.
Be eager in your pursuit of this love, and be earnestly ambitious for spiritual gifts. But let it be chiefly so, in order that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in an unknown tongue is not speaking to men, but to God. For no one understands him. Yet in the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.
But he who prophesies speaks to men words of edification, encouragement, and comfort. He who speaks in an unknown tongue does good to himself. But he who prophesies does good to the church. I should be right glad were you all to speak in tongues, but yet more glad were you all to prophesy.
And in fact, the man who prophesies is superior to him who speaks in tongues, except when the latter can interpret, in order that the church may get a blessing. But brethren, as things are, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what benefit shall I confer on you if the utterance is neither in the form of a revelation, nor of additional knowledge, nor of prophecy, nor of teaching?
Even inanimate things, flutes or harps for instance, when yielding a sound, if they make no distinction in the notes, how shall the tune which is played on the flute or the harp be known? If the bugle, to take another example, gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? And so with you, if with the living voice you fail to utter intelligible words, how
will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the winds. There are, we will suppose, a great number of languages in the world, and no creature is without a language. If, however, I do not know the meaning of the particular language, I shall seem to the
speaker of it, and he to me, to be merely talking some foreign tongue. Therefore, seeing that you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them so as to benefit the church. Therefore, let a man who has the gift of tongues pray for the power of interpreting them. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is barren.
How then does the matter stand? I will pray in spirit, and I will pray with my understanding also. I will praise God in spirit, and I will praise him with my understanding also. Otherwise, if you bless God in spirit only, how shall he who is in the position of an ungifted man say the Amen to your giving of thanks, when he does not know what your words
mean? Rightly enough, you are giving thanks, and yet your neighbor is not benefited. I speak in a tongue, thank God, more than all of you, but in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, so as to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Brethren, do not prove yourselves to be children in your minds. As regards evil, indeed, be utter babes, but as regards your minds, prove yourselves to be men of ripe years. In the law it stands written, By men of unknown tongues, and by the lips of an unknown nation will I speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.
This shows that the gift of tongues is intended as a sign not to those who believe, but to unbelievers, but prophecy is intended not for unbelievers, but for those who believe. Accordingly, if the whole church has assembled, and all are speaking in tongues, and there come in ungifted men or unbelievers, will they not say that you are all mad? If on the other hand everyone is prophesying, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man comes
in, he is convicted by all, and closely examined by all, and the hidden evils of his heart are brought to light, and as the result he will fall on his face and worship God, and will report to others that have a truth God is among you. But then, brethren, whenever you assemble, there is not one of you who is not ready either with a song of praise, a sermon, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.
Let everything be done with a view to the building up of faith and character. If there is speaking in an unknown tongue, only two or at the most three should speak, and they should do so one at a time, and one should interpret. Or if there is no interpreter, let the man with the gift be silent in the church, speaking to himself and to God.
But if there are prophets, let two or three speak, and let the rest judge. And if anything is revealed to someone else who is seated there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets yield submission to prophets. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as he is in all the churches of his people.
Let married women be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. They must be content with a subordinate place, as the law also says. And if they wish to ask questions, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a married woman to speak at a church assembly. Was it from you that God's message first went forth, or is it to you only that it has come?
If anyone deems himself to be a prophet or a man with spiritual gifts, let him recognize as the Lord's command all that I am now writing to you. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. The conclusion, my brethren, is this. Be earnestly ambitious to prophesy, and do not check speaking with tongues.
Only let everything be done in a becoming and orderly manner. CHAPTER 15 But let me recall to you, brethren, the good news which I brought you, which you accepted, and on which you are standing, through which also you are obtaining salvation, if you bear in mind the words in which I proclaimed it, unless indeed your faith has been unreal from the very first.
For I repeated to you the all-important fact which also I had been taught, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose to life again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and was seen by Peter, and then by the Twelve Afterwards, he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have now fallen asleep.
Afterwards, he was seen by James, and then by all the Apostles. And last of all, as to one of untimely birth, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the Apostles, and am not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But what I am, I am by the grace of God, and his grace bestowed upon me did not prove
ineffectual. But I laboured more strenuously than all the rest, yet it was not I, but God's grace working with me. But whether it is I or they, this is the way we preach, and the way that you came to believe. But if Christ is preached as having risen from the dead, how is it that some of you
say that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead? If there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead, then Christ himself has not risen to life. And if Christ has not risen, it follows that what we preach is a delusion, and that your faith also is a delusion.
Nay, more, we are actually being discovered to be bearing false witness about God, because we have testified that God raised Christ to life, whom he did not raise if in reality none of the dead are raised. For if none of the dead are raised to life, then Christ has not risen. And if Christ has not risen, your faith is a vain thing, you are still in your sins.
It follows also that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this present life we have a hope resting on Christ, and nothing more, we are more to be pitied than all the rest of the world. But in reality Christ has risen from among the dead, being the first to do so of those who are asleep.
For seeing that death came through man, through man comes also the resurrection of the dead. For just as through Adam all die, so also through Christ all will be made alive again. But this will happen to each in the right order, Christ having been the first to rise, and afterwards Christ's people rising at his return. Later on comes the end, when he is to surrender the kingship to God the Father, when he shall
have overthrown all other government and all other authority and power. For he must continue king until he shall have put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that is to be overthrown is death. For he will have put all things in subjection under his feet. And when he shall have declared that all things are in subjection, it will be with a manifest
exception of him who has reduced them all to subjection to him. But when the whole universe has been made subject to him, then the Son himself will also become subject to him who has made the universe subject to him, in order that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what will become of those who got themselves baptized for the dead?
If the dead do not rise at all, why are these baptized for them? Why also do we apostles expose ourselves to danger every hour? I protest, brethren, as surely as I glory over you, which I may justly do in Christ Jesus our Lord, that I die day by day. If from merely human motives I have fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what profit is
it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die. Do not deceive yourselves. Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Take from this drunken fit, live righteous lives, and cease to sin, for some have no
knowledge of God. I speak thus in order to move you to shame. But someone will say, How can the dead rise, and with what kind of body do they come back? Foolish man! The seed you yourself sow has no life given to it unless it first dies, and as for what
you sow, it is not the plant which is to be that you are sowing, but a bare grain of wheat it may be, or of something else, and God gives it a body as he has seen fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. All flesh is not the same. There is human flesh, and flesh of cattle, of birds, and of fishes.
There are bodies which are celestial, and there are bodies which are earthly, but the glory of the celestial ones is one thing, and that of the earthly ones is another. There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead.
The body is sown in a state of decay, it is raised free from decay. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. An animal body is sown, a spiritual body is raised. As surely as there is an animal body, so there is also a spiritual body.
In the same way, also it is written, The first man Adam became a living animal. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit. Nevertheless it is not what is spiritual that came first, but what is animal, what is spiritual came afterwards.
The first man is a man of earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven. What the earthy one is, that also are those who are earthy. And what the heavenly one is, that also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne a resemblance to the earthy one, let us see to it that we also
bear a resemblance to the heavenly one. But this I tell you, brethren, our mortal bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor will what is perishable inherit what is imperishable. I tell you a truth hitherto kept secret. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the sounding of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incapable of decay, and we shall be changed. For so it must be, this perishable nature must clothe itself with what is imperishable, and this mortality must clothe itself with immortality.
But when this perishable nature has put on what is imperishable, and this mortality has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture be fulfilled. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?
Now sin is the sting of death, and sin derives its power from the law. But God be thanked who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brethren, be firm, unmovable, busily occupied at all times in the Lord's knowing that your toil is not fruitless in the Lord. Chapter 16 As to the collection for God's people, what
I have directed the churches of Galatia to do, you must do also. On the first day of every week, let each of you put on one side, and store up at his home whatever gain has been granted to him, so that whenever I come, there may then be no collections going on. And when I am with you, whatever brethren you accredit by letter, I will send to carry
your kind gift to Jerusalem. And if it is worthwhile for me also to make the journey, they shall go as my companions. I shall come to you after passing through Macedonia, for my plan will be to pass through Macedonia. And I shall make some stay with you perhaps, or even spend the winter with you, in order
that you may help me forward, whichever way I travel. For I do not wish to see you on this occasion merely in passing, but if the Lord permits, I hope to remain some time with you. I shall remain in Ephesus, however, until the time of the harvest festival. For a wide door stands open before me which demands great efforts, and we have many opponents.
If Timothy pays you a visit, see that he is free from fear in his relations with you, for he is engaged in the Master's work just as I am. Therefore let no one slight him, but all of you should help him forward in peace to join me, for I am waiting for him and others of the brethren. As for our brother Apollos, I have repeatedly urged him to accompany the brethren who are
coming to you, but he is quite resolved not to do so at present. He will come, however, when he has a good opportunity. Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, acquit yourselves like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done from motives of love. And I beseech you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanus, how they were the
earliest Greek converts to Christ and have devoted themselves to the service of God's people. I beseech you on your part to show deference to such men, and to everyone who participates in their work and toils hard. It is a joy to me that Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have now arrived, because what
was wanting so far as you are concerned, they have supplied. They have refreshed my spirit and yours, acknowledge such men as these. The churches in the province of Achaicus send you greetings, and Aquila and Prisca, in hearty Christian love, do the same, together with the church which meets at their house. The brethren all send greetings to you, greet one another with a holy kiss.
The final greeting of me, Paul, with my own hand. If anyone is destitute of love to the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord is coming. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love in Christ Jesus, be with you all.
The End of chapters 12-16 And the End of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians from the New Testament in Modern Speech translated by Richard Francis Weymouth. Recording by Mark Penfold.
