XV. (1) MOREOVER, BRETHREN. — This chapter is throughout occupied with the DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. The occasion which caused the Apostle to dwell at such length and with such emphasis on this subject was the denial of the resurrection by some members of the Corinthian Church. It ha... [ Continue Reading ]
IF YE KEEP IN MEMORY WHAT I PREACHED UNTO YOU. — Better, _if ye hold fast with what word I preached the gospel to you, unless you believed in vain._ The idea here is not, as implied in the English version, that they were converted, and yet that heretofore no results have followed from their belief;... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I DELIVERED... — Here follows the explanation and illustration of what he meant, in 1 Corinthians 15:2, by “with what word I preached the gospel.” We see here what the subject of apostolic teaching was — not indeed all the gospel that the Apostle taught, but what he considered of the first impor... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT HE ROSE AGAIN. — Better, _and that He has been raised again._ The burial of our Lord is dwelt upon and emphasised as the proof of the reality of His death. Similarly in the case of Lazarus, his entombment is brought out strongly as showing that it was from no trance, but from death that he... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT HE WAS SEEN OF CEPHAS. — From the indications of sequence here given we may conclude that the appearances here grouped together are arranged in chronological order. We have these appearances: — (1) To Cephas (see Luke 24:34). (2) To the Twelve — the phrase “the Twelve” being used to indicate, n... [ Continue Reading ]
FALLEN ASLEEP. — The same word is used of Stephen’s death (see Acts 7:60), so also in 1 Corinthians 15:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS SEEN OF ME ALSO, AS OF ONE BORN OUT OF DUE TIME. — Better, _Last of all, as to an untimely born one he appeared also to me._ The Apostle here distinctly states that he saw the Lord at the time of his conversion as really as St. Peter and others had seen him, though with touching pathos and stron... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I AM THE LEAST OF THE APOSTLES. — _Paulus Minimus._ Here the mention of his conversion — the thought of what he had been before, what he had become since — leads the Apostle into a digression, occupying this and the next two verses. The two thoughts of his own inherent nothingness and of his gre... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM. — This whole verse is full of that maintenance of official dignity as an Apostle and a labourer, and of personal humility, which were characteristic of St. Paul.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE WHETHER... — Better, _Whether, therefore, it were I or they._ Such (see 1 Corinthians 15:3) was and is our teaching, such was your belief. It matters not from whom it came, whether from the greatest or least of the Apostles, the gospel was preached, and was accepted by you. These words thu... [ Continue Reading ]
IF CHRIST BE PREACHED THAT HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. — Better, _is being preached._ It has been proved as a matter of historical fact that a man has risen from the dead; it is therefore illogical to say that there is no resurrection of the dead.... [ Continue Reading ]
IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN. — Better, _but if Christ be not raised;_ and so all through this passage. THEN IS OUR PREACHING VAIN, AND YOUR FAITH IS ALSO VAIN. — The Apostles had preached a risen Christ, their converts had believed in a risen Christ, but now the proposition is, There is no resurrection;... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, AND WE ARE FOUND FALSE WITNESSES. — Not mistaken witnesses, but witnesses testifying to what they know to be false. This is another result involved in a denial of the doctrine of the resurrection, that the Apostles must be regarded as false witnesses — not deceived, but deceivers. The suppresse... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF THE DEAD RISE NOT. — Better, _if the dead be not raised._ The Apostle has in the previous verse completed the argument as to the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection, which proves that the denial of the doctrine of the resurrection cannot be maintained unless it can be shown that the Apos... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOW... — From the hopeless and ghastly conclusion in which the hypothetical propositions of the previous verse would logically land us, the Apostle turns, with the consciousness of truth, to the hopeful faith to which a belief in the resurrection leads. It cannot be so. Now _is_ Christ risen fro... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SINCE BY MAN... — The image of the firstfruits is followed up by an explanation of the unity of Christ and Humanity. The firstfruit must be a sample of the same kind as that which it represents. That condition is fulfilled in the case of the firstfruits of the resurrection.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IN ADAM... — Better, _as in the Adam all die, so in the Christ shall all be made alive._ The first Adam and the second Adam here stand as the heads of Humanity. All that is fleshly in our nature is inherited from the Adam; in every true son of God it is dying daily, and will ultimately die altoge... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER. — Or, literally, _in his own troop._ There is to be a sequence in the resurrection of the dead, and St. Paul explains this by the three groups: — (1) Christ Himself, the firstfruits; (2) the faithful in Christ at His coming; (3) all the rest of mankind at the end, whe... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL RULE AND ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER. — _Not_ only hostile rule and authority and power, but all intermediate rule of any sort, good and bad. The direct government by God of all creatures is to be at last attained. All the interventions of authority and power which the fall of man rendered necessary... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-28) WHEN HE SHALL HAVE DELIVERED UP THE KINGDOM TO GOD, EVEN THE FATHER. — The Apostle carries on the thought of a triumph which the use of the word “troop” in the previous verse had commenced or suggested. There rises before the prophetic vision of St. Paul the final triumph of Christ over all... [ Continue Reading ]
HE MUST REIGN. — It is a moral consequence. God must triumph, and so the Son must reign and conquer till that triumph be complete. Some suggest that the force of these words is that He must reign, &c., because it has been prophesied (Ps. ex.); but the more obvious truth is that it was prophesied bec... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE HATH PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET. — 1 Corinthians 15:26 is a parenthesis, and the “for” with which this verse commences goes back to 1 Corinthians 15:25. The connection is, Christ must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. Christ must triumph, _for_ according to the statement i... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. — In these words are expressed the complete redemption both of the race and of the individual. It is the great and sublime conclusion to which the moral enthusiasm and the earnest logic of the previous argument has necessarily brought us.... [ Continue Reading ]
ELSE. — We can well imagine the Apostle pausing, as it were, to take breath after the splendid outburst of mingled rhetoric and logic which we find in 1 Corinthians 15:23; or perhaps even postponing until some other day the further dictation of his Epistle, when he could calmly resume his purely log... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHY STAND WE IN JEOPARDY EVERY HOUR? — This is the same kind of argument now applied to the Apostles themselves. Their conduct also would be illogical if they did not believe in a resurrection. Notice the strong contrast between “them,” in the previous verse, and “we” in this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
I PROTEST BY YOUR REJOICING WHICH I HAVE IN CHRIST JESUS. — Better, _I protest by your boast which I have in Christ Jesus._ His converts are his boasting (2 Corinthians 9:3), and by the fact that they are his in the Lord, he utters the solemn assertion, “I die daily.” Such a life as St. Paul’s, both... [ Continue Reading ]
IF AFTER THE MANNER OF MEN... — These words imply here, as elsewhere (1 Corinthians 3:3), “merely from a human point of view.” What is the advantage or necessity of my incurring daily risks, if I am merely a human being, with a life limited by what we see, and no immortality and resurrection awaitin... [ Continue Reading ]
BE NOT DECEIVED. — The previous words are spoken with sarcasm. _That_ is what you must come to if this life be all. The solemn thought then occurs to the Apostle that perhaps these words do only too truly describe the actual state of some of the Corinthians. They had become tainted by the bad moral... [ Continue Reading ]
AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SIN NOT. — Literally, _Awake to soberness in a righteous manner,_ With this earnest call to arouse from the sleep of indulgence and of death, the Apostle completes this section of the chapter, and the direct proofs of the doctrine of the resurrection. The exhortation is n... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SOME MAN WILL SAY, HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED UP? — The proof of the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection is concluded in the last verse. The truth of it is, in the early part of this chapter, maintained — (1) by the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection; (2) by a _reductio ad absurdum,_ sh... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU FOOL. — Better, _Fool,_ or more literally, _Senseless one._ The word in the Greek has not the sense of opprobrium conveyed in the word translated “fool” in Matthew 5:22; Matthew 23:17; Matthew 23:19. You who with your own hand sow seed, ask such a question as that! The Apostle now proceeds to s... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD GIVETH IT A BODY. — Here it is implied that, though the seed grows up, as we say, “in the ordinary course of Nature,” it is God who not only has originally established but continually sustains that order. Each seed rises with its own “body;” a corn seed grows up into corn, an acorn into an oak.... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL FLESH IS NOT THE SAME FLESH. — Better, _There is no flesh the same flesh._ All organisms have the same basis; there is a “structural unit” in all animal life; but God gives this a vast variety of form in man, in beast, in fish. The same divine prescience which gives to all flesh here the form su... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE ARE ALSO CELESTIAL BODIES, AND BODIES TERRESTRIAL. — It is held by many that this is a distinct illustration from that which occurs in the next verse, and that the “celestial bodies” here spoken of are the bodies of angels, whose appearances on earth are accompanied (see Matthew 28:3; Acts 12:... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ONE STAR... — Better, _for star differeth from star in glory._ It is not only that the heavenly bodies differ from earthly, but they differ from each other — sun from moon, moon from stars. And there is a further variety still — even amid the stars themselves there is variety. The word “glory” i... [ Continue Reading ]
SO ALSO IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. — Here follows the application of these analogies to the subject in hand. As there is in the vegetable growth, in the varieties of animal life, and in the diversities of form assumed by inorganic matter, an identity preserved amid ever-varying form or variety... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS SOWN A NATURAL BODY. — Here is a further and different application of the three analogies. It is not only that there is a variety of body in these illustrations, but there is also an adaptability. The “body” which a plant has when it is in the form of seed is suited to the condition in which s... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SO IT IS WRITTEN. — Better, _And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul: the last Adam became a quickening spirit._ The quotation which follows here is from Genesis 2:7, and it is the latter part of that verse which is quoted. The Rabbinical explanation of that passage was — t... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWBEIT THAT WAS NOT FIRST WHICH IS SPIRITUAL. — Here a further thought is introduced. There is not only a variety of bodies — and that variety regulated by adaptability to their state of existence — but there is an ordered sequence in that variety. As the Adam was first from whom we derive the natu... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SECOND MAN IS THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. — Better, _the second man is from heaven._ The words “the Lord,” which occur in the English version, are not in the best Greek MSS. The word which is twice rendered “of” in this verse has the force of “from,” “originating from,” in the Greek. The first represe... [ Continue Reading ]
WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY. — Better, _let us bear also the image of the heavenly._ Such is the reading of the best MSS. The words transport the thoughts of the reader to the future glory, and, at the same moment, show a light on present duty. The resurrection life is to be begun i... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THIS I SAY. — This is the phrase with which the Apostle is wont to introduce some statement of profound significance. (See 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 7:29.) The statement so introduced here is that flesh and blood, being corruption, cannot enter into the heavenly state, which is incorrupt... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I SHEW YOU A MYSTERY. — It is better to take these words as referring to what follows rather than (as some have done) to the preceding statement. A mystery means something which up to this time has been kept concealed, but is now made manifest (Romans 11:25; Ephesians 3:3). WE SHALL NOT ALL... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAST TRUMP. — The trumpet was used to summon an assembly (Exodus 20:18; Psalms 81:3; Isaiah 18:3; Isaiah 27:13) or to sound a warning. The last trumpet is the one which concludes a series which have already been sounding at intervals in notes of warning to the nations (Psalms 47:5; Isaiah 27:13;... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE MUST... — Here again is repeated the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:50, which shows the absolute necessity for a change in the nature _of the_ resurrection body. There is, however, an additional thought introduced here. Not only must the resurrection body be suited to the condition b... [ Continue Reading ]
SO WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE PUT ON INCORRUPTION. — The Apostle now transports himself in thought to the time when there shall be the actual accomplishment of that for which there then is this absolute and moral necessity. These words bring before us with vivid power the intensity of the Apos... [ Continue Reading ]
O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING? — In the prophet Hosea, where these words originally occur, the passage reads thus — “Where is thy victory, O death? Where is thy sting, O hell?” — the word “hell” referring, not to the place of torment, but to the Hades of departed spirits. This difference between St. P... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN. — Death is pictured as a monster, and it is armed with a sting. Its sting is sin. If there were no sin, death would not be capable of inflicting pain, and the strength of sin springs from the fact that it is the violation of God’s law. (See this thought fully brought out,... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THANKS BE TO GOD. — The future is so certain that the Apostle speaks of it as a subject for present thanksgiving; the victory is one which God gives now through Jesus Christ. His resurrection is the pledge of our resurrection. His death is the power by which we are enabled to conquer that lower... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE. — Because all this is so — because there is a life hereafter — let this life here be worthy of it. You might grow weak and faint-hearted if you could think that all your work for God and truth here might be wasted; but it is not so. It cannot be “in vain if it be “in the Lord.” It is very... [ Continue Reading ]