Beginning

Gifts from God's Spirit

12 My Christian friends, I want you to understand clearly about spiritual gifts. ² You know how you lived before you came to know God. You let idols lead you in many wrong ways. And those idols cannot even speak! ³ This is what I want you to understand now. God's Spirit will never lead anyone to say, ‘God has cursed Jesus.’ And it is only God's Spirit that will lead someone to say, ‘Jesus is Lord.’

⁴ The Holy Spirit helps us with different kinds of gifts. But it is the same Spirit who gives them. ⁵ We serve the Lord in different ways, but all of us serve the same Lord. ⁶ We do different kinds of work. But it is the same God who helps us all to work in different ways.

⁷ God helps each of us with a gift from his Spirit. He does that so that we can help others.

⁸ The Spirit helps some people to speak wise messages. Other people can speak messages that help people to know what is true. It is the same Spirit that helps them to do that. ⁹ The same Spirit causes other people to trust God strongly. He gives to other people gifts to make sick people well. ¹⁰ The same Spirit gives other people power to do miracles. Other people can speak messages from God. Some people can recognize whether spirits are good or bad. Some people can speak in different kinds of languages. And other people can explain what those languages mean. ¹¹ There is only one Holy Spirit. The same Spirit helps people to do all these different things. He decides which gifts he will give to each person.

One body with many parts

¹² Each person has only one body, but that body has many parts. All those different parts make only one body. It is like that with Christ too. ¹³ When they baptized us, we all became parts of one body. It was the one Spirit who brought us together. It made no difference whether we were Jews or Gentiles. It made no difference whether we were slaves or free people. God poured his one Spirit into all of us.

¹⁴ A person's body does not have only one part. It has many parts. ¹⁵ If the foot could speak, it might say, ‘I am not a hand, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It is still a part of the body. ¹⁶ If the ear could speak, it might say, ‘I am not an eye, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It still belongs to the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body was an eye, the body would not hear anything. If the whole body was an ear, it would not recognize different smells. ¹⁸ But God has decided where each different part of our body should be.

¹⁹ If our body was all the same part, it would not be a proper body. ²⁰ But as it is, a body has many parts. It is still only one whole body. ²¹ For that reason, the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you.’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ ²² No. Even the parts of a body that seem to be weaker are very necessary. ²³ Think about the parts of our body that are not very special. We dress them carefully! And we take special care of those parts that we do not want people to see. ²⁴ But we do not need to do this with the beautiful parts of our body.

God has put all these parts together in one body. Some parts seem to be not very special. But God has shown that those parts are very valuable. ²⁵ He has done that to bring all the parts together as one body. All the parts work together to help each other. ²⁶ Then if one part of the body hurts, every other part also hurts. If people praise one part, every part of the body is also happy.

²⁷ All of you together are Christ's body. And each of you is a part of that body. ²⁸ Like the parts of a body, God has put people in different places in his church. First, there are apostles. Second, there are people who speak messages from God. Third, there are teachers. After that, there are people who do miracles. There are people who have gifts to make sick people well. There are people who help others in special ways. There are people who can lead others. And there are people who can speak different kinds of languages.

²⁹ Not everyone in the church is an apostle. Not everyone speaks messages from God. Not everyone is a teacher. Not everyone can do miracles. ³⁰ Not everyone has the gifts to make sick people well. Not everyone can speak in different kinds of languages. Nor can everyone explain what messages in those languages mean. You know that. ³¹ But it is good if you really want the more valuable gifts from God.

Now I will show you a way that is better than anything else.

Love is most important

13 I may be able to speak many different languages that people or angels speak. But that is worth nothing if I do not love other people. I would only be making a loud noise, like someone who hits a piece of metal. ² I may be able to speak messages from God. I may understand all God's secret things, and know all the facts. I may have great faith so that I trust God enough to move mountains. But I am nothing if I do not love others. ³ I may give all my things to help poor people. I may let other people take my body to burn it.^[a] But that would not help me if I do not love others.

⁴ If I love people, I will be patient. I will be kind. I will not be jealous of other people. I will not be proud and say that I am great. ⁵ If I love people, I will be polite. I will not just want to please myself. I will not quickly become angry. If someone does a wrong thing against me, I will not keep it in my thoughts. ⁶ If I love people, I will not be happy when bad things happen. Instead, I will be happy when things happen that are right and true. ⁷ If I love people, I will always accept their problems. I will always believe them. I will always hope for what is best. I will always be patient in troubles.

⁸ Love will always continue. The gift to speak messages from God will not always be necessary. The gift to speak in different languages will stop one day. The gift to know special things will not always be necessary. ⁹ At this time, we know only a part of everything. We can only speak a part of God's whole message. ¹⁰ But a time will come when everything becomes complete. When God does that, we will not need the small parts that we have now.

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child. My thoughts were a child's thoughts. I understood things in a way that a child understands. But now that I have become a man, I have stopped being like a child. ¹² At this time, we see things as if we were looking at them in a mirror. What we see now is not clear. But the time will come when we do not need a mirror. We will see everything clearly. Now we know only a part of what is true. But then we will know everything completely. We will understand completely, just as God understands us completely.

¹³ At this time there are three things that continue. We continue to trust God. We continue to hope for his good things. We continue to love other people. But the most important of these things is love.

Messages from God

14 So you must always want to love other people. Also, want very much to receive spiritual gifts from God. More than anything else, want to speak messages from God. ² If someone speaks in a different language, he is speaking only to God. The people who hear him do not understand his message. God's Spirit is causing him to speak about secret things. It does not help people. ³ But if someone speaks a clear message from God, he helps the people who hear him. He helps them to become stronger as believers. He helps them to be happy and strong in their troubles. ⁴ Anyone who speaks in a different language only helps himself. But a person who speaks a message from God helps the believers in the church to become strong.

⁵ I would like all of you to speak in different kinds of languages. But even more, I want you to speak God's message clearly to people. Anyone who can speak a message from God is important in the church. He is more important than someone who speaks in different kinds of languages. That person only helps the church if someone can explain what he says. Only in that way will his message help the church to become stronger.

⁶ My Christian friends, if I come to visit you, then I want to help you. But if I speak to you in languages that you do not understand, that will not help you at all. I would need to explain to you what God has shown to me. I would need to help you to understand something. I would need to speak a clear message from God, or teach you something. Only that would help you. ⁷ Think about how people make music with flutes or harps. Those things are not alive. We have to use them to make clear sounds. If we do not use them properly, then nobody can recognize the music. ⁸ Soldiers will not prepare to fight unless they hear a clear sound from the trumpet.

⁹ It is the same for you. You must use your tongue to speak clearly. If not, nobody will understand what you are saying. You will only be speaking words into the air. ¹⁰ There are many different kinds of languages in this world. They all mean something to the people who speak them. ¹¹ Perhaps somebody may speak to me in a language that I do not understand. Then we are like foreign people to each other. ¹² So think about what is best for you. You really want the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Most of all, you should want the gifts that will help the whole church to become stronger.

¹³ So, if you speak a message in a different language, you should pray to God about it. Pray that you may be able to explain to people what the message means. ¹⁴ If I pray in a different language, only my spirit is praying. But I do not use my mind while I pray like that. ¹⁵ This is what I should do: I will not only pray with my spirit. I will also pray with my mind. I will sing to praise God with my spirit. And I will also do that with my mind. ¹⁶ If you are praising God only with your spirit, not everyone will understand. Believers who have not learned these things will not know what you are saying. They cannot agree and say ‘Amen’. ¹⁷ You may really be able to thank God very well in your spirit. But your words do not help those other believers to become strong.

¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in different kinds of languages more than all of you. ¹⁹ But when the church meets together, I want to help other believers and teach them. So I would rather say five words that people understand than thousands of words in a different language.

²⁰ My Christian friends, do not continue to think like children think. Instead, think properly like men and women should think. The only way you should be like babies is to keep away from evil things. ²¹ This is written in the Bible:

²² So the gift to speak in different languages is like a sign. It shows God's power to people who do not believe in him. It is not a sign to help believers. But the gift to speak clear messages from God shows his power to believers. It is not a sign for those people who do not believe.

²³ Think about what happens when the whole church meets together. Perhaps some people come in who do not believe in God. Or perhaps they have not learned much about God. If all of you are speaking in strange languages, those visitors would not understand. They would say that you are all crazy! ²⁴ But if all of you are speaking clear messages from God, a visitor will understand you. He may not believe in God. He may not have learned much about God. But he will hear God's message. He will understand that he has done wrong things. He will know that God will judge him. He will learn this from what all of you are saying. ²⁵ The visitor's secret thoughts will become clear. As a result, he will bend down to the ground and he will worship God. He will say, ‘God is really here among you!’

Church meetings

²⁶ My Christian friends, this is what you should do when you meet together. Some of you may have a song to praise God. Some of you may have a lesson to teach about God. Other people may have a special thing that God has shown to them. Some people may have a message in a special language. Other people may explain what the message means. Do all these things to help the church become stronger.

²⁷ If some people speak in special languages, it should only be two or three people. They should speak one person at a time. Then someone must explain what each person said. ²⁸ But perhaps there is nobody among you who can explain like that. Then, anyone who wanted to speak in a special language must be quiet in your meeting. When they are on their own, they should speak to God.

²⁹ When you meet together, two or three people should speak a message from God. Then the other people there should think carefully about each message. ³⁰ Someone who is sitting in your meeting may receive a special message from God. Then, the person who is already speaking should stop. ³¹ In that way, each person can speak a message from God, one person at a time. Then everyone will learn something that helps them. ³² All of you who speak messages from God have authority over your own spirits. ³³ When we meet together as God's people, he wants there to be peace among us. He does not want to bring trouble.

This is what happens in all the churches where God's people meet together. ³⁴ The women should be quiet during the meetings. They should not speak. They should remember that they are under authority. That is also what God's Law teaches. ³⁵ If a woman wants to ask about something, she should ask her husband at home. Women should be ashamed if they speak in the church.^{[c] 36} Remember that God's message did not start from you in Corinth! You are not the only people who have heard it, either.

³⁷ Someone may think that he has the gift to speak messages from God. Or he may think that he has received other spiritual gifts. Anyone who thinks like that should agree with what I have written to you. He should recognize that it is what the Lord himself is telling his people to do. ³⁸ If anyone refuses to accept this, you should not accept that person.

³⁹ My Christian friends, this is what I am saying to you: It is good when you want to speak clear messages from God. And if anyone has the gift to speak in a special language, do not stop them. ⁴⁰ But you must do everything in a proper way that helps people.