Worship Must Be Orderly
My friends, when you meet to worship, you must do everything for the good of everyone there. That's how it should be when someone sings or teaches or tells what God has said or speaks an unknown language or explains what the language means. No more than two or three of you should speak unknown languages during the meeting. You must take turns, and someone should always be there to explain what you mean. If no one can explain, you must keep silent in church and speak only to yourself and to God.
Two or three persons may prophesy, and everyone else must listen carefully. If someone sitting there receives a message from God, the speaker must stop and let the other person speak. Let only one person speak at a time, then all of you will learn something and be encouraged. A prophet should be willing to stop and let someone else speak. God wants everything to be done peacefully and in order.
When God's people meet in church, the women must not be allowed to speak. They must keep quiet and listen, as the Law of Moses teaches. If there is something they want to know, they can ask their husbands when they get home. It is disgraceful for women to speak in church. God's message did not start with you people, and you are not the only ones it has reached.
If you think of yourself as a prophet or a spiritual person, you will know that I am writing only what the Lord has commanded. So don't pay attention to anyone who ignores what I am writing. My friends, be eager to prophesy and don't stop anyone from speaking languages that others don't know. But do everything properly and in order.
My friends, I want you to remember the message that I preached and that you believed and trusted. You will be saved by this message, if you hold firmly to it. But if you don't, your faith was all for nothing.
I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to me. That part is: Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say.
He was buried, and three days later he was raised to life, as the Scriptures say.
Christ appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After this, he appeared to more than five hundred other followers. Most of them are still alive, but some have died. He also appeared to James, and then to all of the apostles.
Finally, he appeared to me, even though I am like someone who was born at the wrong time. I am the least important of all the apostles. In fact, I caused so much trouble for God's church that I don't even deserve to be called an apostle. But God was kind! He made me what I am, and his wonderful kindness wasn't wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God's kindness at work and not me. But it doesn't matter if I preached or if they preached. All of you believed the message just the same.