1 Corinthians 15:34

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God; I speak this to your shame.

Having been carried forward by his argument of the consequences of Christ's resurrection to a triumphant burst of victory, the apostle now returns to his general proposition, his object being to show here the futility of all Christian devotion in case death is the final end. Referring to a rite which was then in use in some Christian communities, either that people were baptized on behalf of, instead of, dead persons, in the foolish belief that the benefits of the Sacrament would be credited to the dead, or that some Christians chose to be baptized over the graves of the sainted dead, as a confession of their belief that the blessings of Christ's resurrection are transmitted in Baptism, and that the baptized believers will rise to eternal life with Christ, Paul states that this custom would be without sense and reason if there is no resurrection of the body. For that was the slogan of the unbelievers: The idea of a bodily resurrection is absolutely false! Referring to his own case, Paul asks And why do we run hazards every hour? What object would there be in his braving death from day to day if there were no hope of reward for the apostles, for the pains of their self-denial, in the state of resurrection? Take away a Christian's hope of a future life with Christ, and you render the misery and tribulation of this present life unbearable. Paul emphasizes this point with the greatest vehemence: Daily I am dying; on account of the many dangers besetting me I am always on the brink of death. There was not a day, not an hour of the day, in which he might not expect to be seized and led forth to his execution. And to arouse the Corinthians to a realization of the meaning he wishes to convey, he adds the solemn oath: By your glorying, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The Corinthian believers themselves were the glory of Paul which, as their apostle, he had in Christ Jesus, chap. 9:1-2, which he had laid up as a precious possession in the hands of his Savior.

Paul cites a specific instance in which his hope of the future life sustained him: If after the manner of men I have fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, of what use is it to me? If the dead do not rise (there is only one thing to do): Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! Some scholars, including Luther, believe that the apostle had actually been condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts in the stadium at Ephesus and that he was saved by a miracle. " But it is probable that Paul is speaking figuratively, and that he is referring to the mob at Ephesus which was stirred up by the shrine-makers, Acts 19:23. or to the Jews that were always lying in ambush to kill him, Acts 20:19. If he had endured all the hardships involved in that struggle, as men generally do, for the sake of the applause, money, glory, etc., it would have been without benefit to him under the circumstances, if the arguments of the ignorant Corinthians were sound. For if there is no resurrection of the body, a person may just as well join in the slogan of the frivolous mockers of the world: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, Isaiah 22:13. If death is the end, if physical death is equivalent to annihilation, then the Christians may as well throw their Christianity overboard and live according to the adage: A short life and a merry one!

But Paul holds up a finger of warning: Be not seduced! Do not let anyone mislead you! Evil conversations, evil companionships, corrupt good manners. If a person courts temptation in the company of loose people, his moral nature is bound to suffer. His character will be undermined by evil talk; his honesty will be overcome by roguery. The apostle quotes this as a sort of proverb, a word which was probably in the mouth of everybody, though it is also embodied in classical Greek poetry, originally in Euripides, but also in Menander. With an exclamation full of apostolic majesty Paul turns to the entire Corinthian congregation: Sober up properly and cease to sin! He wants them all to return to and cultivate a mind full of soberness, saneness, common sense, and to that end also to recognize the sinfulness of this doctrinal position, as held in their midst, since false doctrine is a sin against the first table of the Law. For some of their members were deliberately holding to a position of ignorance, as Paul feels obliged to say, to the shame of them all. With all their boast of wisdom they are deliberately adhering to false views, which subvert the entire structure of Christian doctrine. This evil could be corrected only by a thorough reaction based upon the open acknowledgment of the wrong views existing in their midst, and by the speedy acceptance of the revealed truth.