God’s Response and Promise

God’s Spirit Poured Out

³⁰ I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.^{(N) 31} The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.^{(O) 32} Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.^(P)

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.^{(A) 21} In the law it is written,

says the Lord.^{(B) 22} Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers. ²³ If, therefore, the entire church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?^{(C) 24} But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. ²⁵ After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship, declaring, “God is really among you.”

Orderly Worship

²⁶ What should be done then, my brothers and sisters? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.^{(D) 27} If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each in turn, and let one interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. ³⁰ If someone sitting receives a revelation, let the first person 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 the prophets, ³³ for God is a God not of disorder but of peace), as in all the churches of the saints.

³⁴ Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate, as the law also says.^{(E) 35} If there is something they want to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.^[a] For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.^{[b] 36} Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?

³⁷ Anyone who claims to be a prophet or spiritual must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command^[c] of the Lord.^{(F) 38} Anyone who does not recognize this is not to be recognized. ³⁹ So, my brothers and sisters, strive to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues,^{(G) 40} but all things should be done decently and in order.

3 ^[a]For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,^{(A) 2} I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land^{(B) 3} and cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine and drunk it down.^(C)

⁴ What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.^{(D) 5} For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.^{[b] 6} You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. ⁷ But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads.^{(E) 8} I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.^(F)

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

The Glorious Future of Judah

The Resurrection of Christ

15 Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news^[a] that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,^{(A) 2} through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.^(B)

³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures^{(C) 4} and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures^{(D) 5} and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.^{(E) 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.^{[b] 7} Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.^{(F) 8} Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.^{(G) 9} For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.^{(H) 10} But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been 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.^{(I) 11} Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, ¹⁴ and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.^{(J) 16} For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have died^[c] in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.^{[d](K) 21} For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human,^{(L) 22} for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. ²³ But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power.^{(M) 25} For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.^{(N) 26} The last enemy to be destroyed is death.^{(O) 27} For “God^[e] has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.^{(P) 28} When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.^(Q)

²⁹ Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

³⁰ And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?^{(R) 31} I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.^{(S) 32} If I fought with wild animals at Ephesus with a merely human perspective, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised,

³³ Do not be deceived:

³⁴ Sober up, as you rightly ought to, and sin no more, for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.^(U)