Since you do so well in everything else—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in eagerness, and in the love we taught you—make sure that you also do well in the grace of giving to others.
Because of what God has done, you belong to Christ Jesus. He has become God’s wisdom for us. He makes us right with God, he makes us holy, and he sets us free.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him, and if I have enough faith to move mountains, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing at all.
Brothers and sisters, if I came to you and spoke in an unknown language, what good would that do? If I really wanted to help you, I’d come with a revelation or insight or prophecy or teaching.
Brothers and sisters, what should we say then? When you come together, each of you should bring something—a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a message in another language, or an explanation of what was said in another language. Everything must be done to build up the church.
With God’s help, we’ve acted toward everyone, and especially toward you, honorably and honestly. We can say that with pride and a clear conscience. We’ve depended on God’s grace and not on the world’s wisdom.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as if we were prisoners in Christ’s victory parade. He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like perfume.
God said, “Let light shine out of darkness.” And he made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light we needed to know God’s glory, which is shown in the face of Christ.