New Testament Plan

¹Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,

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

³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

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

⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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

⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

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

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

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

¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

¹⁹If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

²¹For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

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

²³But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

²⁴Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

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

²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

²⁷For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

²⁸When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

³⁰Why are we in danger every hour?

³¹I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!

³²What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

³⁴Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

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

³⁶You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

³⁷And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

³⁸But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

³⁹For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.

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

⁴²So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

⁴⁸As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

⁴⁹Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

⁵¹Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.

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

⁵⁴When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

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 work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

¹Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

²On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

³And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

⁴If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

⁵I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia,

⁶and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go.

⁷For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

⁸But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,

⁹for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

¹⁰When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.

¹¹So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.

¹²Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.

¹³Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

¹⁴Let all that you do be done in love.

¹⁵Now I urge you, brothers — you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints —

¹⁶be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.

¹⁷I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence,

¹⁸for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.

¹⁹The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

²⁰All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

²²If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

⁴who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

⁶If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

¹⁰He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

¹¹You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

¹²For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

¹³For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand —

¹⁴just as you did partially understand us — that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

¹⁵Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace.

¹⁶I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?

¹⁸As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.

²⁰For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

²¹And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,

²²and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

²³But I call God to witness against me — it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.

²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.