1 Corinthians 14:5-16:24 I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically—unless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

Goodspeed⁽ⁱ⁾ ⁵ I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically—unless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good. ⁶ But as it is brothers, if I come back to you and speak ecstatically, what good will I do you, unless I have some revelation or special knowledge or message or teaching to give you? ⁷ Even inanimate things, like the flute or the harp, may produce sound, but if there is no difference in the notes, how can you tell what is being played? ⁸ If the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle? ⁹ So if you in your ecstatic speaking utter words no one can understand, how will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the empty air! ¹⁰ There are probably ever so many different languages in the world, each with its own meaning. ¹¹ So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall seem to the man who is speaking to be a foreigner, and he will seem to me to be one too. ¹² So since you are ambitious for spiritual endowments, you must try to excel in them in ways that will do good to the church. ¹³ Therefore, the man who can speak ecstatically should pray for the power to explain what he says. ¹⁴ For if I pray ecstatically, it is my spirit that prays, but my mind is helping nobody. ¹⁵ Then what am I to do? I will pray ecstatically, but I will pray intelligently too. I will sing ecstatically, but I will sing intelligently too. ¹⁶ For if you utter blessings in ecstatic speech, how is an ordinary man to say Amen to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying. ¹⁷ You are giving thanks well enough, but it is doing him no good. ¹⁸ Thank God, I speak in ecstasy more than any of you. ¹⁹ But in public worship I would rather say five words with my understanding so as to instruct others also than ten thousand words in an ecstasy. ²⁰ Brothers, you must not be children mentally. In evil be babies, but mentally be mature. ²¹ In the Law it says, "By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this nation, and not even then will they listen to me, says the Lord." ²² So this ecstatic speaking is meant as a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but inspired preaching is a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe. ²³ Hence, if the whole church assembles and they all speak ecstatically, and ordinary people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy? ²⁴ But if they are all inspired to preach and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convinced of his sin by them all, he is called to account by them all, ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ But if there is no one to explain it, have him keep quiet in church, and talk to himself and to God. ²⁹ And let two or three who are inspired to preach speak, while the rest weigh what is said; ³⁰ and if anything is revealed to another who is seated, the one who is speaking must stop. ³¹ For in this way you can all preach one after another, as you are inspired to, so that everyone may be instructed and stimulated, ³² for the spirits of prophets will give way to prophets, ³³ for God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This is the rule in all Christian churches. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ Did God's message start from you Corinthians? Or are you the only people it has reached? ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ If anyone pays no attention to it, pay no attention to him. ³⁹ So, my brothers, set your hearts on being inspired to preach, and yet do not hinder people from speaking ecstatically. ⁴⁰ But let everything be done in a proper and orderly way. ¹⁵ ¹ Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the form in which I presented to you the good news I brought, which you accepted and have stood by, ² and through which you are to be saved, if you hold on, unless your faith has been all for nothing. ³ 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, ⁴ that he was buried, that on the third day he was raised from the dead, as the Scriptures foretold, ⁵ and that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the Twelve. ⁶ After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles, ⁸ and finally he was seen by me also, as though I were born at the wrong time. ⁹ For I am the least important of the apostles, and am not fit to be called an apostle, because I once persecuted God's church. ¹⁰ But by God's favor I have become what I am, and the favor he showed me has not gone for nothing, but I have worked harder than any of them, although it was not really I but the favor God showed me. ¹¹ But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. ¹² 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? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not raised, ¹⁴ and if Christ was not raised, there is nothing in our message; there is nothing in our faith either, ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ For if the dead are never raised, Christ was not raised; ¹⁷ and if Christ was not raised, your faith is a delusion; you are still under the control of your sins. ¹⁸ Yes, and those who have fallen asleep in trust in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If we have centered our hopes on Christ in this life, and that is all, we are the most pitiable people in the world. ²⁰ But the truth is, Christ was raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ 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. ²² 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. ²³ But each in his own turn; Christ first, and then at Christ's coming those who belong to him. ²⁴ After that will come the end, when he will turn over the kingdom to God his Father, bringing to an end all other government, authority, and power, ²⁵ for he must retain the kingdom until he puts all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be overthrown will be death, ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ 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. ²⁹ Otherwise, what do people mean by having themselves baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why do they have themselves baptized on their behalf? ³⁰ Why do we ourselves run such risks every hour? ³¹ By the very pride I take in you, brothers, through our union with Christ Jesus our Lord, I face death every day. ³² 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!" ³³ Do not be misled. Bad company ruins character. ³⁴ 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. ³⁵ But someone will say, "How can the dead rise? What kind of a body will they have when they come back?" ³⁶ You foolish man, the very seed you sow never comes to life without dying first; ³⁷ 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; ³⁸ and God gives it just such a form as he pleases, so that each kind of seed has a form of its own. ³⁹ Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another. ⁴⁰ 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. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of beauty, and the moon another, and the stars another; why, one star differs from another in beauty. ⁴² It is so with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay. ⁴³ It is sown in humiliation, it is raised in splendor. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength. ⁴⁴ 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. ⁴⁵ This is also what the Scripture says: "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit. ⁴⁶ It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ 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, ⁴⁹ and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven. ⁵⁰ 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. ⁵¹ I will tell you a secret. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² 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 free from decay, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ And when this mortal nature puts on immortality, then what the Scripture says will come true—"Death has been triumphantly destroyed. ⁵⁵ Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your sting?" ⁵⁶ Sin is the sting of death, and it is the Law that gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ So my dear brothers, be firm and unmoved, and always devote yourselves to the Lord's work, for you know that through the Lord your labor is not thrown away. ¹⁶ ¹ About the collection for God's people, I want you to do as I told the churches of Galatia to do. ² 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. ³ When I come I will send whatever persons you authorize with credentials, to carry your gift to Jerusalem. ⁴ And if it seems worth while for me to go myself, they can go with me. ⁵ I will come to you after passing through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia, ⁶ and I will probably stay some time with you, or even pass the winter, so that you may start me off for wherever I may be going. ⁷ For I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits it. ⁸ But I shall stay in Ephesus until the Harvest Festival, ⁹ for I have a great and promising opportunity here, as well as many opponents. ¹⁰ If Timothy reaches you, put him at his ease among you, for he is devoted to the Lord's work, just as I am. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ Be on the watch. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men. Show yourselves strong. ¹⁴ Do everything with love. ¹⁵ Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the family of Stephanas was the first to be converted in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people— ¹⁶ I want you to enlist under such leaders, and under anyone who joins with you and works hard. ¹⁷ And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come here, for they have made up for your absence. ¹⁸ They have cheered my heart, and yours too. You should appreciate such men. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ All the brothers wish to be remembered to you. Greet one another with a sacred kiss. ²¹ This farewell I, Paul, add in my own hand. ²² A curse upon anyone who has no love for the Lord. Lord, come quickly! ²³ The blessing of the Lord Jesus be with you! ²⁴ My love be with you all through Christ Jesus.