Tag: body

  • Our Imperishable Resurrection Body Raised in Glory and Power

    Our Imperishable Resurrection Body Raised in Glory and Power

    1 Corinthians 15: CSB

    Paul , in a first letter to the Corinthians, addresses the logic (Promethean though it be to some skeptics of the Gospel), and presents a body of evidence about the resurrection body.

    Resurrection is Certain

    The Apostle begins with Christ’s resurrection. Then Paul argues (logically to these wisdom-seeking Achaeans) to the nature of death and resurrection of the dead in general. The Apostle’s closing arguments of this logic-based epistle calls the question of the nature of our resurrection body.


    OUTLINE
    • The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection
      • 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
    • Resurrection Essential to the Gospel (CSB)
    • The Risen Christ, Faith’s Reality (NKJV)
    • The Resurrection of the Dead
      • 1 Corinthians 15:12-34 KJV
    Our Look at the Resurrection Body on TalkofJESUS.com will also separate these topics more fully. 
    • Resurrection Essential to the Faith (CSB)
      • 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
      • Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees Ours
      • 1 Corinthians 15:20-28
    • The Risen Christ, Our Hope (NKJV)
      • 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
      • The Last Enemy Destroyed
      • 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

    ..that God may be all in all.

    A LOGICAL ARGUMENT — a COURT CASE — a testimony, a closing argument. Call the Apostle’s defense of the Gospel GOOD NEWS of the resurrection of the body what you will.

    Paul concludes his letter with an authoritative approach to separating the heretical hopes of life and death (as our end) from the foundational NEW Testament of the glory of the resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus as the first-fruits of our GOOD NEWS!

    The last enemy to be abolished is death.

    1 Corinthians 15:26 CSB


    IF the Resurrection Body Perishes

    Remember, Paul writes to defend Christ, who he has seen! 

    And now the Apostle takes the stand opposing the prosecutorial case of the Promethean philosophers accusing the saints of Corinth of worshiping a 'dead Jesus.'

    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?

    1 Corinthians 15:29 ESV

    Great question, right?

    Rhetorical, certainly; but Paul may have been responding to an actual case and question presented to him by the leadership of the Corinthian church.


    WHY REPENT, for Christ’s sake— if our Savior is now dead?

    (Baptism, of course, is a public witness that you have permanently changed your lifestyle – fruit of your beliefs —  having given up your former sins in order to follow the living Lord, Christ Jesus of the Cross.)

    Paul then testifies(as I included previously) that he had been willing to die in Ephesus (which, of course, most the the Corinthians would have already heard the Apostle proclaim in person).

    His prosecution of those who doubt the resurrection is direct:

    Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

    1 Corinthians 15:33 CSB


    ARE SOME in Corinth deceiving the saints who have heard and proclaimed Paul’s Gospel?

    No doubt.

    And the Apostle gently reminds the faithful of how they remain ignorant concerning the gospel, after which he will answer some questions of their ignorance.

    Come to your senses [lit. sober up] and stop sinning; for some people are ignorant about God.

    I say this to your shame.

    1 Corinthians 15:34

    The Nature of the Resurrection Body

    The example of Christ

    • Christ died.
    • After three days Christ rises from the grave.
    • He appears for forty days to many, (as Paul has already witnessed) with a resurrection body
      • DIFFERENT from His incarnate body;
      • DIFFERENT than simply a spirit;
      • and actually different in appearance to several witnesses — JESUS had a resurrection body
      • and THEN ASCENDS into the clouds of HEAVEN!

    Will OUR resurrection body be like HIS?

    Paul assures those in Corinth who receive such questions

    (as if WE must explain HOW God does such things).

    But someone will ask,

    “How are the dead raised?

    What kind of body will they have when they come? ”

    1 Corinthians 15:35 CSB

    'Would you rather be dead?' I might quickly reply to the Promethean prosecutor with the cunning to take CHRIST out of my personal witness.

    Paul responds:

    You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

    And as for what you sow ​— ​you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain. But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

    1 Corinthians 15:37-38 CSB

    A Perishable Body and our Resurrection Body

    For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans,

    another for animals,

    another for birds,

    and another for fish.

    There are heavenly bodies

    and earthly bodies,

    but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind,

    and the glory of the earthly is of another.

    1 Corinthians 15:(39),40 ESV

    Paul points to the sun and moon and stars all being different in nature, as well as distinct from each other.

    What is sown is perishable

    THEN the Apostle compares DEATH to the seed planted —

    • It is sown in dishonor;
    • It is sown in weakness;
    • It is sown a natural body;

    ζῳοποιέω – zōopoieō

    • it is raised in glory.
    • it is raised in power.
    • it is raised a spiritual body.
    Then Paul proceeds logically from mortal death to the spiritual body, with a comparison of ADAM (the first man) to CHRIST (the first fruits from death).
    • If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

    So it is written,
    The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

    1 Corinthians 15:45 CSB

    The Apostle refers to JESUS as ‘the last adam,’ in Greek: eschatos — a superlative for the last or extreme [adam] — Ἀδάμ.

    THEN the Spirit adds through Paul:

    πνεῦμα ζῳοποιοῦν –

    [became] a life-giving spirit.

    CHRIST [the quintessential adam in the image of GOD —  born, buried and risen in a resurrection body —  ζῳοποιέω – zōopoieō [quicken (9x), give life (2x), make alive (1x)] pneuma [spirit].

    Christ + the LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

    Paul THEN compares the adam from the dust of the earth to the second adam from heaven — HE IS the very perfect incarnate IMAGE of God the Father — Creator and Authority over all creation and creatures.

    And as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly.

    1 Corinthians 15:49

    the soul of man is immortal and imperishable - Plato background stars and earth For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Paul to Greek Corinthians

    ἰδού – Behold..

    ἰδού, a demonstrative particle (in Greek writings from Sophocles down) 

    Beloved saint of Christ, you have heard this before — hundreds of times in the preaching of the Gospel. And the apostle to the gentiles uses it here — ‘idou‘ or in English, behold.

    Behold, G2400 a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

    Gospel of Matthew 1:23 KJV

    And, behold, G2400 one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

    Gospel of Matthew 19:16 KJV

    And, behold, G2400 there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

    Gospel of Matthew 28:2 KJV

    And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, G2400 Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

    Gospel of Matthew 28:9 –

    And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

    manger of a timeless Christ "I will be with you always even to the end of the earth
    (‘lo’ and ‘behold’ are the same Greek word drawing forth our attention)
    (Beloved saint, you know the rest — and Paul reminds of our hope in the Gospel and of our commission by Christ.)

    mystērion

    Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I am telling you a mystery:

    We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

    1 Corinthians 15:50b-52a


    Don’t we want that? CHANGED immediately? SLEEPERS AWAKE!


    For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

    For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.

    When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place:

    Paul quotes the Prophet Isaiah 

    He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

    Isaiah 25:8 KJV

    O death, where is thy sting?
    O grave, where is thy victory?

    1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV

    a Closing Call for Repentance

    Surely Paul's letter will be received by all the saints of Corinth with thanksgiving and a renewed faith in the resurrection body because of Christ. 

    The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

    But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

    1 Corinthians 15:56-57 KJV

    And the Apostle's plea to all saints in every time and each temporal place: 

    So then, dear brothers and sisters,

    be firm.

    Do not be moved!

    Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

    1 Corinthians 15:58 New English Translation


    P.S.

    As is his custom, Paul will close his epistle with some personal greetings and instructions [Chapter 16]

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

    God-willing, perhaps you and I should add our own personal applications of the Apostle’s great instructions to the church concerning issues of the resurrection body, death, resurrection, ascension and time of the last judgment and eternal life.

    Talk of JESUS . com


  • Death Put Under the Authority of God —Resurrection — in Order

    Death Put Under the Authority of God —Resurrection — in Order

    For God has put everything under his feet.

    1 Corinthians 15:27a CSB

    How can this include DEATH?

    Is death not the antithesis of LIFE —decay into deep darkness the defeat of created man?

    How can the resurrection of the dead — even those martyred in Christ — take place?

    The Apostle Paul continues to address the concerns of the Corinthian church putting all things in order and now addressing THE END.


    The Order of Resurrection

    The apostle to the gentiles (Hellenists, that is, Greeks including Corinthians) began his logical argument with
    The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection and logically continued to connect those facts.

    LAST TIME, we ended with Paul’s astounding opening statement about death and resurrection about an ORDER of the Resurrection:

    Then comes the end…

    1 Corinthians 15:24a CSB


    I stumbled over it. Do you?

    THE END…

    Isn’t DEATH, after all, the end?

    And in the end
    The love you take
    Is equal to the love
    You make…

    “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,
    All good children go to heaven…
    Everybody’s laughing
    Everybody’s happy
    Here come the Sun King…

    Of course, we all have much anti-Christ philosophy replaying in the mortal minds of our imaginings (it isn’t hard to do..).


    The cultural challenges of the resurrection were no less for Paul and the Corinthians than the Promethean philosophical objections of the 20th century and this Common Era.


    AGAIN, as we first addressed in the Facts: 

    Cultural ‘science‘ of Promethean Logic

    Prometheus, in Greek religion, one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire. His intellectual side was emphasized by the apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. In common belief he developed into a master craftsman, and in this connection he was associated with fire and the creation of mortals.

    Source: Britannica

    Perhaps they also hope against hope that these things aren’t really so..

    in a self-deceived way..

    the problem here is not merely cognitive..

    but.. Promethean…

    from WARRANTED CHRISTIAN BELIEF PP290-294

    NO – Death is NOT ‘The End.’

    The Apostle Paul will address this — DEATH and its threats did not phase him and should not prevent those possibly facing martyrdom for claiming Jesus Christ and the resurrection to the crowds of Corinth.

    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.”

    1 Corinthians 15:32 ESV

    Paul has emphasized order in worship and now, the Apostle even presents an order in the resurrection of the dead, rather than random godless chaos without form.


    1 Corinthians 15:

    King James Version 

    For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

    1 Cor 15:3-4 KJV

    But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

    v. 20

    AND what were the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Twelve sent to some with the Gospel?


    The Fruit of Faith (an illustration from a parable of Jesus)

    And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

    But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

    from Gospel of Luke 12:19-20 KJV

    And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear:

    Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

    Gospel of Luke 12:4-5 KJV – Jesus on death and judgment

    Some foreboding in our Lord's call to stand up to death — is there not?

    Saul of Tarsus & the fearless witness of Paul

    When Paul had met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, Christ’s new apostle to the gentiles came to understand the reality of WHY those Saul had previously persecuted and killed had not changed their testimony — even as these saints of Ephesus or Corinth faced mortal death.

    (And remember Stephen as he was stoned to death in Jerusalem?)

    Just three or four years after he writes to the Corinthians, Paul also will witness the resurrection to King Herod Agrippa II, hearing his case brought by the Jews until Paul appeals to Caesar.

    Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come— that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

    Acts of the Apostles 26:22-23 NKJV


    Christ the firstfruits of Resurrection

    For as in Adam all die, even so 

    in Christ shall all be made alive.

    But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

    1 Corinthians 15:22-23 KJV


    WHAT AN ILLUSTRATON! — āḏām [man – אָדָם] — made in the image of God — now mortal and re-destined to dust — in Christ (and Christ alone) redeemed and revived from DEATH — death, common to every creature made alive for a time by God.

    Let me explain the REIGN of Christ, Paul reasons:

    Once again, in the more AUTHORITIVE-sounding King James Version, let's examine Paul's text in words provoking push-back from Christians unaccustomed to such absolute authority of a most-powerful King. 

    Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;

    when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

    For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

    1 Corinthians 15:24-25 KJV


    IS this the JESUS we know?

    Afterward —The Whole Harvest

    At the same time the wicked shall rise also. But they are not taken here into the account.

    v. 23

    Then — After the resurrection and the general judgment. Cometh the end — Of the world..

    When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, and he (the Father) shall have abolished all adverse rule, authority and power — Not that the Father will then begin to reign without the Son, nor will the Son then cease to reign…

    But this is spoken of the Son’s mediatorial kingdom.. which will then commence.

    John Wesley; Parallel Commentary on the NEW TESTAMENT, p.580

    John Wesley provides explanation and delineation of the roles of the Father and of the Son — in the time between the resurrection of ALL the dead and prior to the Judgment — and until the end.


    The King James Bible Commentary provides additional insight into Paul's explanation to the Corinthians of the end time.

    ” The logic is inescapable.

    KJB Commentary on 1 COR 15:14 , p.1496

    If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.

    The proclamation of the Gospel (vs.1-11) is hollow. Not only that, but your faith is .. ‘groundless.’

    Faith in a dead saviour is both preposterous and pathetic.

    ibid.

    Much in the way Wesley's explanation of 'Who does what?' helps us, the KJB commentary also guides our understanding of the order of THE END [vs.23-26]. 

    The end refers to he end of the kingdom of God. At that time he will have put down all rule.

    27-28 .. However two facts must be accounted for here:

    • First, when Paul say s that the Son is subject to the Father he is not speaking of the Son in terms of his essence, but in terms of his function, or ministry, as the incarnate Son.
    • Second.. At this present time the administration of the messianic kingdom is given to the Son.
      • However, at the conclusion of the messianic kingdom this function will be returned to the triune God that God may be all in all.

    ibid.


    WE don’t trust God, because of many who have claimed God — or Christ Jesus — in ways worthy of our suspicion.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    The Apostle Paul is trying to show the Corinthians (and us) something about the order of God we do not understand, as well as the Authority all flesh tends to resist.


    ὑποτάσσω – ‘Put under’ (in order)

    Believe only Scripture and an order of the resurrection makes sense in the redemptive providential plan of God.

    Misapply portions of the Gospel or add an oversimplified imagined LIFE after death without consequence for opposing God and your gospel claims will prove false — Promethean in the sense that you know that it can NOT be true (but you continue to hope that it is).

    Take a look at the Biblical use of the word — hypotassō — primarily a military term that Paul uses NINE TIMES here IN TWO VERSES:

    1 Corinthians 15:25-28 For He must reign…

    v.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

    For he hath put G5293 all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under G5293 him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put G5293 all things under G5293 him.

    And when all things shall be subdued G5293 unto him, then shall G5293 the Son also himself be subject G5293 unto him that put G5293 all things under G5293 him, that God may be all in all.

    1 Corinthians 15:27-28 KJV — Lexicon :: Strong’s G5293 – hypotassō


    How does New Testament Scripture use this term [ὑποτάσσω]?

    • to arrange under, to subordinate
    • to subject, put in subjection
    • to subject one’s self, obey
    • to submit to one’s control
    • to yield to one’s admonition or advice
    • to obey, be subject
    Personally, most of us (including Christians) do not like any part of this kind of order. 

    Let every soul be subject G5293 unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

    Romans 13:1 KJV

    How are YOU, dear saint of Christ, doing with that?

    YES, the Apostle Paul — put under Christ — obediently presents the resurrection of the body in order.

    NEXT, he will talk about the resurrection body. And shortly Paul will urge the saints of Corinth to submit to those who have labored with the Apostle bringing forth the firstfruits of Achaia [16:15-16].


    What do you think?

    (logically and Biblically, of course) about the order of DEATH and the Resurrection?

    Are you prepared to die daily (along with Paul) for the Lord Christ Jesus?

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

  • Members in Christ’s body the Church

    Members in Christ’s body the Church

    And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

    1 Corinthians 12:11 KJV – Paul quoting the Lord Jesus

    Paul now draws a picture of the human body in order that members of the body of believers might see our own part in the larger Church in Corinth and all places where the saints gather in Christ’s Name.

    Previously, when we departed from here in the Apostle’s instructions to the Corinthians, Paul instructs:


    And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

    1 Corinthians 12:5 KJV

    One Body, many Members, different spiritual Gifts

    Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common profiting.

    1 Corinthians 12:7 BLB

    The first implication of this: EACH member of the body of your church and mine will show (manifest) some fruit of the Spirit.

    But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

    1 Corinthians 12:11 LSB

    Who belongs as members?

    IF someone in your church does not yet manifest any fruit of the Spirit, is it possible that the Lord has not given them the Spirit OR made these a part of His Body - a member of His Church? 

    Are even the best spiritualities of faithful jews and religious adherents of Islam connected to the body of our Lord Christ Jesus?

    Do the best of Hindus Buddhists and other pagan worshipers not oppose Christ?

    Yet some are drawn by the Spirit.

    The Body of Christ

    For just as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

    1 Corinthians 12:12 Berean Standard Bible

    Jews and Gentiles

    map of the Aegean ~200 BC Corinth in the Achean League between Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
    What is the overriding context of this epistle Paul writes to a church on the Achaian peninsula of Greece ? 

    The Apostle to the Gentiles (Hellenists or Greek or Roman) -- seeks to heal long-standing differences in this large Roman city of Corinth situated in the philosophic and cultural center of ancient Europe.
    • To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom – v.8 (quite Hellenist)
    • to another faith.. to another gifts of healing v.9 (the One God of the Jews and ignored signs of the Messiah)

    For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

    1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJV

    Invisible fruit pictured in the body

    brain and connection to the body

    For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:14 BSB

    If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body?

    And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

    • If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
      • (Now think of the body of Christ, the church.)
    • If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
    Laughable! Hyperbole, yet logical.

    But now hath God set the members

    (And the Spirit of God has distributed your spiritual gifts.)

    But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

    How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

    1 Corinthians 12:18 KJV and 12:19 NLT

    Do you get both the seriousness and Paul's practical ridicule of members di-vi-ded by spiritualities God granted to others? 
    The Apostle to the gentiles continues his illustration: 
    • The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.”
    • Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.”

    Here is Paul’s appeal to draw near to your members divided by opinions concerning spiritual gifts and an order of regulating the body (so to speak).


    On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, whereas our presentable parts have no such need.

    But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another.

    If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

    1 Corinthians 12:22-26 BSB


    Appointment of the Greater Gifts

    The Apostle sent out to the Corinthians, Achaeans, Greeks, Romans and displaced Jews suggests an order of importance in the A.D. first century church. Yet Paul has just instructed the saints that it is the Spirit which places us in our place in the Church -- and that spiritual GIFTS are not ours to choose. 

    27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. And in the church God has appointed

    1. first of all apostles,
    2. second prophets,
    3. third teachers,
    4. then workers of miracles,
    5. and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues.

    A local (Corinthian) understanding of roles and spiritual gifts

    Acts Apostolos - Acts 1 of the Apostles begins a 28 chapter account of the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church
    Acts of the Apostles 1-28

    1. ἀπόστολος – apostolos
    2. προφήτης – prophētēs
    3. διδάσκαλος – didaskalos
    4. δύναμις – dynamis
    5. χάρισμαcharisma 

    Apostles, Prophets and Teachers

    ἀπόστολοι (apostoloi)
    Noun – Nominative Masculine Plural
    Strong’s 652: From apostello; a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ.

    Am I not an apostle? G652 am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle G652 unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.


    1 Corinthians 12:1-2


    1 Corinthians 12:28 – And God has set…

    You’ve just studied the list.

    So what does the Apostle Paul (#1 on the authoritative list) ask as he further questions the Corinthian saints of differing opinions about their own roles in the local church?


    1 Corinthians 12:29-30

    • Are all apostles? (#1)
    • Are all prophets? (#2)
    • Are all teachers? (#3)
    • Do all work miracles? (#4)
    • Do all have gifts of healing?
    • Do all speak in tongues?
    • Do all interpret?
      • (these 3 grouped in #5)

    SO WHERE DO I FIT IN?

    and Who is in charge of who, here in our local gathering of saints in Corinth?

    Perhaps in the hearing of Paul’s first letter being read to the Corinthian Church these saints might have wondered what the APOSTLE would prescribe next as a solution to OUR divisions.

    12:31 ζηλοῦτε δὲ τὰ χαρίσματα τὰ κρείττονα Καὶ ἔτι καθ᾽ ὑπερβολὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῖν δείκνυμι

    But covet earnestly the best gifts: – 31a KJV

    Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. – 31a NIV

    But earnestly desire the higher gifts.- 31a RSV


    But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

    1 Corinthians 12:31 b – NLT


    NEXT – Paul’s connection of GIFTS

    Beloved fellow saint, you may know where the Apostle proceeds in his much-quoted list from 1 Corinthians 14.

    Perhaps with love in mind you may have a COMMENT here on what the Apostle Paul has instructed us so far.

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel