Letters to the Churches

but God gives it the body he intended for it; and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

Not all living matter is the same living matter; on the contrary, there is one kind for human beings, another kind of living matter for animals, another for birds and another for fish.

Further, there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the beauty of heavenly bodies is one thing, while the beauty of earthly bodies is something else.

The sun has one kind of beauty, the moon another, the stars yet another; indeed, each star has its own individual kind of beauty.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. When the body is “sown,” it decays; when it is raised, it cannot decay.

When sown, it is without dignity; when raised, it will be beautiful. When sown, it is weak; when raised, it will be strong.

When sown, it is an ordinary human body; when raised, it will be a body controlled by the Spirit. If there is an ordinary human body, there is also a body controlled by the Spirit.

In fact, the Tanakh says so: Adam, the first man, became a living human being; but the last “Adam” has become a life-giving Spirit.

Note, however, that the body from the Spirit did not come first, but the ordinary human one; the one from the Spirit comes afterwards.

The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.

People born of dust are like the man of dust, and people born from heaven are like the man from heaven;

and just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so also we will bear the image of the man from heaven.

Let me say this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, nor can something that decays share in what does not decay.

Look, I will tell you a secret — not all of us will die! But we will all be changed!

It will take but a moment, the blink of an eye, at the final shofar. For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed.

For this material which can decay must be clothed with imperishability, this which is mortal must be clothed with immortality.

When what decays puts on imperishability and what is mortal puts on immortality, then this passage in the Tanakh will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.

“Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin; and sin draws its power from the Torah;

but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah!

So, my dear brothers, stand firm and immovable, always doing the Lord’s work as vigorously as you can, knowing that united with the Lord your efforts are not in vain.

Now, in regard to the collection being made for God’s people: you are to do the same as I directed the congregations in Galatia to do.

Every week, on Motza’ei-Shabbat, each of you should set some money aside, according to his resources, and save it up; so that when I come I won’t have to do fundraising.

And when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the people you have approved, and I will send them to carry your gift to Yerushalayim.

If it seems appropriate that I go too, they will go along with me.