1 Corinthians 13–15

1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.

3If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

4Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

5doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;

6doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

9For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.

12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

13But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

1Follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

2For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands, but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries.

3But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation, and consolation.

4He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly.

5Now I desire to have you all speak with other languages, but even more that you would prophesy. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets, that the assembly may be built up.

6But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?

7Even lifeless things that make a sound, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped?

8For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war?

9So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air.

10There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without meaning.

11If then I don’t know the meaning of the language, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me.

12So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly.

13Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret.

14For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

15What should I do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

16Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say?

17For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up.

18I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.

19However, in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in another language.

20Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.

21In the law it is written, “By men of strange languages and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people. They won’t even listen to me that way, says the Lord.”

22Therefore other languages are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to the unbelieving; but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to those who believe.

23If therefore the whole assembly is assembled together and all speak with other languages, and unlearned or unbelieving people come in, won’t they say that you are crazy?

24But if all prophesy, and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all.

25And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. So he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed.

26What is it then, brothers? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has another language, or has an interpretation. Let all things be done to build each other up.

27If any man speaks in another language, let there be two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let one interpret.

28But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the assembly, and let him speak to himself and to God.

29Let two or three of the prophets speak, and let the others discern.

30But if a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first keep silent.

31For you all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be exhorted.

32The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,

33for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.

34Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says,

35if they desire to learn anything. “Let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.”

36What!? Was it from you that the word of God went out? Or did it come to you alone?

37If any man thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.

38But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

39Therefore, brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking with other languages.

40Let all things be done decently and in order.

1Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,

2by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.

7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,

8and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

9For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.

10But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

11Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

12Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.

14If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain.

15Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up if it is true that the dead are not raised.

16For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.

17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

18Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

20But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.

21For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.

22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming.

24Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

26The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

27For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.

28When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

29Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?

30Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

32If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

33Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

34Wake up righteously and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”

36You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.

37That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.

38But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

40There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.

41There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

42So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.

43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

45So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46However, that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.

47The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

48As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.

50Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.

51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

53For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.