Letters to the Churches

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised;

and if the Messiah has not been raised, then what we have proclaimed is in vain; also your trust is in vain;

furthermore, we are shown up as false witnesses for God in having testified that God raised up the Messiah, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either;

and if the Messiah has not been raised, your trust is useless, and you are still in your sins.

Also, if this is the case, those who died in union with the Messiah are lost.

If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone.

But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died.

For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man.

For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive.

But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming;

then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power.

For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be done away with will be death,

for “He put everything in subjection under his feet.” But when it says that “everything” has been subjected, obviously the word does not include God, who is himself the one subjecting everything to the Messiah.

Now when everything has been subjected to the Son, then he will subject himself to God, who subjected everything to him; so that God may be everything in everyone.

Were it otherwise, what would the people accomplish who are immersed on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not actually raised, why are people immersed for them?

For that matter, we ourselves — why do we keep facing danger hour by hour?

Brothers, by the right to be proud which the Messiah Yeshua our Lord gives me, I solemnly tell you that I die every day.

If my fighting with “wild beasts” in Ephesus was done merely on a human basis, what do I gain by it? If dead people are not raised, we might as well live by the saying, “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

Don’t be fooled. “Bad company ruins good character.”

Come to your senses! Live righteously and stop sinning! There are some people who lack knowledge of God — I say this to your shame.

But someone will ask, “In what manner are the dead raised? What sort of body do they have?”

Stupid! When you sow a seed, it doesn’t come alive unless it first dies.

Also, what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare seed of, say, wheat or something else;