24. Then the end will come. Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers. And he will give the kingdom to God the Father.
25. Christ must rule until God puts all enemies under Christ’s control.
26. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.
27. The Scripture says, “God put all things under his control.” When it says that “all things” are put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself. God is the one putting everything under Christ’s control.
28. After everything has been put under Christ, then the Son himself will be put under God. God is the One who put all things under Christ. And Christ will be put under God, so that God will be the complete ruler over everything.
29. If the dead are never raised, then what will people do who are baptized for those who have died? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
30. And what about us? Why do we put ourselves in danger every hour?
31. I die every day. That is true, brothers, just as it is true that I brag about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
32. If I fought wild animals in Ephesus only for human reasons, I have gained nothing. If the dead are not raised, then, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we will die.”
33. Do not be fooled: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.”
34. Come back to your right way of thinking and stop sinning. I say this to shame you—some of you do not know God.
35. But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?”
36. Those are stupid questions. When you plant something, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow.
37. And when you plant it, 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.
38. But God gives it a body that he has planned for it. And God gives each kind of seed its own body.