Genesis 20:1-18

(1)  From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

(2)  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

(3)  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife."

(4)  Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, "Lord, will you kill an innocent people?

(5)  Did he not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this."

(6)  Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

(7)  Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you, and all who are yours."

(8)  So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.

(9)  Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done."

(10)  And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you did this thing?"

(11)  Abraham said, "I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

(12)  Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

(13)  And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.'"

(14)  Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.

(15)  And Abimelech said, "Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you."

(16)  To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated."

(17)  Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.

(18)  For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

1 Corinthians 15:1-58

(1)  Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,

(2)  and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--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 Cephas, then to the twelve.

(6)  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers 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, unworthy 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 that is with me.

(11)  Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

(12)  Now if Christ is proclaimed 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 not even Christ has been raised.

(14)  And 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 about 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, not even Christ has been raised.

(17)  And 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 in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

(20)  But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits 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 firstfruits, 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 has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

(28)  When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

(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 danger every hour?

(31)  I protest, brothers, 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)  Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

(35)  But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"

(36)  You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

(37)  And what you sow is not the body that 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 the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

(40)  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.

(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 natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

(45)  Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

(46)  But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, 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 also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

(49)  Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

(50)  I tell you this, brothers: 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 body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body 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 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

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