1 Corinthians 14:16-15:15

English Standard Version

¹⁶ Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider^[a] say ^(A)“Amen” to ^(B)your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. ¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰ Brothers, ^(C)do not be children in your thinking. ^(D)Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be ^(E)mature. ^21 (F)In the Law it is written, ^(G)“By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” ²² Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign^[b] not for unbelievers but for believers. ²³ If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, ^(H)will they not say that you are out of your minds? ²⁴ But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, ^25 (I)the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, ^(J)falling on his face, he will worship God and ^(K)declare that God is really among you.

Orderly Worship

²⁶ What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has ^(L)a hymn, ^(M)a lesson, ^(N)a revelation, ^(O)a tongue, or ^(P)an interpretation. ^(Q)Let all things be done for building up. ²⁷ If any speak in ^(R)a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others ^(S)weigh what is said. ³⁰ If a revelation is made to another sitting there, ^(T)let the first be silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, ³² and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. ³³ For God is not a God of ^(U)confusion but of peace.

As in ^(V)all the churches of the saints, ^34 (W)the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but ^(X)should be in submission, as ^(Y)the Law also says. ³⁵ If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

³⁶ Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? ^37 (Z)If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. ³⁸ If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. ³⁹ So, my brothers, ^(AA)earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. ^40 (AB)But all things should be done decently and ^(AC)in order.

The Resurrection of Christ

15 Now I would remind you, brothers,^[c] of the gospel ^(AD)I preached to you, which you received, ^(AE)in which you stand, ² and by which ^(AF)you are being saved, if you ^(AG)hold fast to the word I preached to you—^(AH)unless you believed in vain.

³ For ^(AI)I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died ^(AJ)for our sins ^(AK)in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised ^(AL)on the third day ^(AM)in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that ^(AN)he appeared to Cephas, then ^(AO)to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to ^(AP)James, then ^(AQ)to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, ^(AR)he appeared also to me. ⁹ For ^(AS)I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because ^(AT)I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, ^(AU)I worked harder than any of them, ^(AV)though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, ^(AW)how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, ^(AX)then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that ^(AY)he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.