⁵¹ Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,^[a] but we will all be changed,^(A)

¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.^{[a](A) 15} For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^{[b] 16} For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.^{(B) 17} Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.^(C)

²¹ He will transform the body of our humiliation^[a] that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,^[b] by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.^(A)

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.^[a](A)

⁹ he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,^(A)

The Ministry of the Apostles

4 Think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.^(A)

⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.^[a]

⁷ But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory

³² This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.

³ and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words,^[a](A)