Paul’s Reply

1Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, to the brothers who are in Corinth: greetings.

2Although I am surrounded by many tribulations, I am not surprised that the teachings of the evil one are spreading abroad so quickly. For my Lord Jesus Christ will hasten his coming and will bring to nothing those who falsify his words.

3For at the beginning I delivered to you the things I received from the holy apostles who came before me and who were at all times with Jesus Christ: namely, that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of Mary, who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, when the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father in heaven to her by the angel Gabriel, so that Jesus might come down into this world, redeem all flesh by his flesh, and raise us from the dead in the flesh, just as he has shown us in himself as an example. And because man was formed by his Father, he was therefore sought when he was lost, so that he might be brought to life through adoption.

4For this purpose God Almighty, who made heaven and earth, first sent the prophets to the Jews so that they might be drawn away from their sins. Because he intended to save the house of Israel, he gave a portion of the spirit of Christ to the prophets and sent them to the Jews first, and for a long time they proclaimed the true worship of God. But the prince of iniquity, desiring to be God, laid hands on them and killed them, and bound all flesh through evil desires, and the end of the world by judgment drew near.

5But God Almighty, who is righteous, would not cast away his own creation, but had compassion on them from heaven, and sent his spirit into Mary in Galilee, who believed with all her heart and received the Holy Spirit in her womb, so that Jesus might come into the world. This was so that, by the same flesh through which that wicked one had brought death in, he would be shown to have been overcome. For by his own body Jesus Christ saved all flesh and restored it to life, so that he might display the temple of righteousness in his body. In him we are saved.

6They, therefore, are not children of righteousness but children of wrath, for they reject the wisdom of God, saying that heaven and earth and everything in them are not God’s work. They therefore are children of wrath, for they are cursed and follow the teaching of the serpent. Drive them out from among you and flee from their doctrine. For you are not children of disobedience, but of the well-beloved church. Therefore the time of the resurrection is proclaimed to all.

7As for their claim that there is no resurrection of the flesh, they indeed will have no resurrection to life, but to judgment, because they do not believe in him who has risen from the dead, not believing or understanding. For they do not know, Corinthians, how seeds of wheat or other seeds are sown bare in the earth, decay, and rise again by God’s will with bodies and clothed. And not only does that which is sown rise again, but many times more, blessing itself.

8And if we must take an example not from seeds only, but from more noble bodies, you know how Jonas the son of Amathi, when he refused to preach to the people of Nineve but fled, was swallowed by the sea-monster. After three days and three nights, God heard Jonas’s prayer from the lowest hell, and no part of him was consumed—not even a hair or an eyelash. How much more, you of little faith, will he raise you who have believed in Christ Jesus, just as he himself arose?

9Likewise, a dead man was cast upon the bones of the prophet Helisaetis by the children of Israel, and he arose—body and soul and bones and spirit. How much more will you, who have been cast upon the body and bones and spirit of the Lord, rise again on that day with your flesh intact, even as he arose? Likewise also concerning the prophet Helias: he raised the widow’s son from death. How much more will the Lord Jesus raise you from death at the sound of the trumpet, in the twinkling of an eye? For he has shown us an example in his own body.

10If, then, you receive any other doctrine, God will be a witness against you, and let no one trouble me, for I bear these bonds so that I may win Christ, and I therefore bear his marks in my body so that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Whoever abides by the rule he has received through the blessed prophets and the holy gospel will receive a reward from the Lord, and when he rises from the dead will obtain eternal life. But whoever transgresses these things, with him is the fire, and with those who walk in the same way. They are a generation of vipers. Reject them in the power of the Lord, and peace, grace, and love will be with you.