Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to remember the Good News I told you about. You received that Good News message, and you continue to base your life on it.
It is that Good News that saves you, but you must continue believing the message just as I told it to you. If you don't, then you believed for nothing.
After that, Christ showed himself to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time. Most of them are still living today, but some have died.
All the other apostles are greater than I am. I say this because I persecuted the church of God. That is why I am not even good enough to be called an apostle.
But, because of God's grace, that is what I am. And his grace that he gave me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But I was not really the one working. It was God's grace that was with me.)
So then it is not important if I told you God's message or if it was the other apostles who told you—we all tell people the same message, and this is what you believed.
And we will also be guilty of lying about God, because we have told people about him, saying that he raised Christ from death. And if no one is raised from death, then God never raised Christ from death.
But everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. Then, when Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life.
As the Scriptures say, "God put everything under his control." When it says that "everything" is put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself. God is the one putting everything under Christ's control.
After everything has been put under Christ, then the Son himself will be put under God. God is the one who put everything under Christ. And Christ will be put under God so that God will be the complete ruler over everything.
If no one will ever be raised from death, then what will the people do who are baptized for those who have died? If the dead are never raised, then why are people baptized for them?
I fought wild animals in Ephesus. If I did that only for human reasons, then I have gained nothing. If we are not raised from death, "Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we die."
And when you plant something, what you plant does not have the same "body" that it will have later. What you plant is only a seed, maybe wheat or something else.
It will be the same when those who have died are raised to life. The body that is "planted" in the grave will ruin and decay, but it will be raised to a life that cannot be destroyed.
When the body is "planted," it is without honor. But when it is raised, it will be great and glorious. When the body is "planted," it is weak. But when it is raised, it will be full of power.
The body that is "planted" is a physical body. When it is raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is a physical body. So there is also a spiritual body.
I tell you this, brothers and sisters: Our bodies of flesh and blood cannot have a part in God's kingdom. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins.
It will only take the time of a second. We will be changed as quickly as an eye blinks. This will happen when the last trumpet blows. The trumpet will blow and those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we will all be changed.
This body that ruins must clothe itself with something that will never ruin. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that will never die.
So this body that ruins will clothe itself with that which never ruins. And this body that dies will clothe itself with that which never dies. When this happens, the Scriptures will be made true: "Death is swallowed in victory."
So, my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Don't let anything change you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. You know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.