1 Corinthians 15:29-49

 1 Corinthians 15:29-49

There had apparently been teachers at Corinth that taught that there was no resurrection. They had reduced Christianity to the level of one of the Greek philosophies. Sometimes we hear things that seem wise, profound, and insightful, and we drift toward these things. But when confronted with a counter perspective, we find those arguments are a little more than dust in the wind. 

Paul calls us to the belief in the resurrection with three arguments. First, there is in all humanity a haunting of the afterlife. The only alternative to believing in the resurrection is radical and extreme atheism and an absolute denial that we are anything more than evolved beasts. Belief in some sort of afterlife is nearly universal in man. In verse 29 Paul refers to a splinter group that baptized for the dead. While not an Orthodox group, Paul acknowledges that even these confused people believe in the afterlife. Paul’s life was so driven by the idea of the resurrection that it shaped everything about him. The hardship of the work, the glory of leading people to Christ, and the planting of churches were all about and driven by the resurrection. If there is no resurrection, then the reasonable thing to do is to live a life of ultimate selfish fulfillment. Hard on the heels of saying this, Paul quotes the Greek playwright, “Bad company corrupts good character.” We typically use this to warn children or friends about their bad friends. This is true, but what Paul is saying here is if you keep allowing these false teachers to influence you, it will ruin the church and all of its parts.

No doubt these false teachers had cynically said something like, “So you will have a resurrected body and will have bellies but no eating; you’ll have sex organs and no marriage. Oh, you are in for a grand time.” Paul responds to their unstated question with, “Boy, you clowns are dumb. The difference between a seed and a plant, an acorn and a great oak tree, the difference between a fish and a man, between the sun, moon, and stars, is nothing compared to the difference between our physical bodies and our resurrected self”. The false teacher’s failure didn’t come from the questions of the resurrection being too big or too hard. It came because their understanding of God was too small. That condition had even crept into the church. And in verse 34 Paul rebukes it harshly. Paul’s solution to the problem and question with the resurrection was to stop being stupid and send them to look to the power of God and the marvel of the incarnation. The false teachers thought that God was too small. The problem is entirely theirs.

“Lord, give me the wisdom to trust You. AMEN”