The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (182 page)

13
 Therefore, he who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.
¹⁴
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but
my mind is unfruitful
.
¹⁵
What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.
¹⁶
Otherwise, if you bless
^w
with the spirit, how can any one in the position of an outsider
^x
say the "
Amen
" to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?
¹⁷
For you may give thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.
¹⁸
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all;
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
 Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; be infants in evil, but
in thinking be mature
.
²¹
In
the law
it is written, "By men 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 not for unbelievers but for believers.
²³
If, therefore, the whole Church assembles and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?
²⁴
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,
²⁵
the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that
God is really among you
.

Orderly Worship

26
 What then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
²⁷
If any speak
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 each of them keep silence in church and speak to himself and to God.
²⁹
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others
weigh what is said
.
³⁰
If a revelation is made to another sitting by, 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 confusion but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints,
³⁴
the women should keep silence
in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says.
³⁵
If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
³⁶
What! Did the word of God originate with you, or are you the only ones it has reached?

37
 If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a
command of the Lord
.
³⁸
If any one does not recognize this, he is not recognized.
³⁹
So, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues;
⁴⁰
but all things should be done decently and in order.

The Resurrection of Christ

15
  
Now I would remind you
, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand,
²
by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain.

3
 For
I delivered
to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died
for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
⁴
that
he was buried
, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
⁵
and that he
appeared to Ce'phas
, then to the Twelve.
⁶
Then he appeared to
more than five hundred
brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
⁷
Then he appeared to
James
, then to all the apostles.
⁸
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he
appeared also to me
.
⁹
For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because 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, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which 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 preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is
no resurrection of the dead
?
¹³
But if there is no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ has not been raised
;
 
*
¹⁴
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 of God that
he raised Christ
, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
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 fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
¹⁹
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.

20
 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits
of those who have fallen asleep.
²¹
For as
by a man came death
, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
²²
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
²³
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then
at his coming
those who belong to Christ.
²⁴
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every
rule and every authority and power
.
²⁵
For he must
reign
until
he has put all his enemies under his feet.
²⁶
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
²⁷
"For God
^z
has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him.
²⁸
When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be
everything to every one
.

29
 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are
people baptized on their behalf
?
 
*
³⁰
Why am I in peril every hour?
³¹
I protest, brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!
³²
What do I gain
if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
³³
Do not be deceived: "
Bad company ruins good morals
."
³⁴
Come to your right mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

The Resurrection of the Body

35
 But some one will ask, "
How are the dead raised
? With what kind of body do they come?"
³⁶
You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life
unless it dies
.
³⁷
And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
³⁸
But
God gives it a body
as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
³⁹
For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
⁴⁰
There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
⁴¹
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

42
 
So is it with the resurrection of the dead
. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.
⁴³
It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
⁴⁴
It is sown a physical body, it is raised a
spiritual body
. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
⁴⁵
Thus it is written, "
The first man
Adam became a living soul"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
⁴⁶
But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual.
⁴⁷
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
⁴⁸
As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
⁴⁹
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall
^a
also bear the image of the man of heaven.
⁵⁰
I tell you this, brethren:
flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51
 Behold! I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep
, but we shall all be changed,
⁵²
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet
. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
⁵³
For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must
put on immortality
.
⁵⁴
When the perishable puts on the imperishable
, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

  
"Death is swallowed up in victory."

⁵⁵
"O death, where is your victory?

  
O death, where is your sting?"

⁵⁶
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
⁵⁷
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58
 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain
.

The Contribution for the Saints

16
  
Now concerning
the contribution for the saints:
 
*
as I directed
the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.
²
On the
first day of every week
, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come.
³
And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
⁴
If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

Plans for Travel

5
 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia,
⁶
and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may speed me on my journey, wherever I go.
⁷
For I do not want to see you now just in passing; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.
⁸
But I will stay in
Ephesus
until Pentecost,
⁹
for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.