1 Corinthians 15:50-58

“Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

— ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭50‬-‭58‬‬

Most of 1 Corinthians is responding to their blatant immaturity and ethical issues. This is one of the few passages where Paul discusses doctrine. However, it is important to notice that Paul only uses Jesus’ resurrection to support the bodily resurrection of believers in the end. The false teaching at Corinth (whoever was doing it) was not attacking or denying the resurrection of Jesus. They were denying the bodily resurrection of the believers.

Paul says, That’s ridiculous. If He was raised, and we are in Him, then we will be raised, too.

This last paragraph of the chapter finalizes the implications of that, discussing the new body. There’s so much speculation what that will look like. What age will we be, what will we look like? I have no idea. People are uncomfortable with certain aspects of their physical bodies now, so let’s just go with there will be perfect contentment with the glorified body. 

Flesh and blood does not inherit the kingdom of God, meaning we will receive a new body. This does not mean it isn’t physical. Spiritual or glorified doesn’t mean it isn’t tangible or able to be touched or “real.” We won’t be ghosts or just in a spirit form. Jesus had a real body post-resurrection. He ate fish. He had scars. (He also walked through walls and teleported, which I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that, but it’d be pretty cool.)

This is the only other passage that discusses how currently living believers enter the after life without going through death (1 Thess 4:16-17). Both have trumpets. Both have the dead rising. These passages should be understood as parallels. Except there’s no flying through the air here. There’s different ways to reconcile these things, I suppose, but that’s for 1 Thessalonians, sorry.

Here it simply says, we change into our imperishable bodies. We become instantly glorified. This is similar to 2 Corinthians 5, when Paul says we live in tents, but then our mortality will be swallowed up by life. 

I would even say the point of this isn’t our “changing” so much as the dead being raised and the new bodies. Because those bodies won’t die. 

Death is defeated. And sin, which results in death, has been conquered. This is one of the most powerful verses, and it’s written as a poem, so perhaps an early creed or anthem. 

So endure. Stand firm. Always be abounding in the work of the Lord. It is not in vain. We are working for the kingdom. He will reign in perfect peace. And victory over our greatest enemies has been secured. So we can live in peace now. We could take time to flesh out what that work is. But throughout the book, Paul has mentioned a lot about unity, selflessness, love, spiritual gifts. May be a good starting point.

1 Timothy 6:11-16

 “But you, as a person dedicated to God, keep away from all that. Instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession for in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Christ Jesus who made his good confession before Pontius Pilate, to obey this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ – whose appearing the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, will reveal at the right time. He alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen.”

— ‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬-‭16‬‬

Previous paragraph and following paragraph discuss those with riches. Paul rebukes the wealthy and then gives them commands on what to do instead of pursuing money. Then here in the middle are commands for Timothy, his young protege/ambassador left at Ephesus to oversee the churches there. (Not the pastor)

First, he should keep away from pursuing/dreaming about money. As many have said, having money is fine but building one’s life around it is so dangerous and actually pointless. We’d have to look at previous passage for why. “All kinds of evil.”

Paul (assuming he wrote these books for now) lists several other attributes worth pursuing. Lay hold of eternal life may sound strange to someone with background of strong “assurance of salvation.” But over and over in NT we see emphasis on endurance, need to pursue eternal life while following Jesus. Yes, God preserves/keeps His own, but faithfulness on our part is important. Not really worth debating, since passages emphasize both sides.

Paul says to seize it, and not make it questionable basically. Timothy made confession either at his baptism or ordination of some sort. Lots of witnesses just as Jesus had at His trial.

Without failure?? Wow, high standard, but wavering (at least for Timothy) has consequences. A faithful life is necessary. Not pursuing riches but righteousness and and gentleness and love. 

Just read a book that focused on this term of Jesus’ appearing not coming, as if He will just become visible, not necessarily descend in clouds. Basis of thought depends on where heaven actually is (he thought another dimension basically, and heaven will become one new earth. Heaven and earth overlap now). There are other reasons for Jesus not to descend, per se, since a descent on one side of earth is an ascent from the other hemisphere. But God can do things however He wants. There are verses that say all will see Him. I’ll focus on that.

He alone has immortality. So we don’t have immortal souls? We won’t live forever? Same author reached this conclusion. God gives immortality/eternal life to those who believe. What about unbelievers? This position is annihilationism, and has some merit, but I’m not there yet. Does God give immortality to all people to give eternal life or judgment forever? Hmm.

Paul doesn’t focus on these implications. He jumps straight to praise for all that God is. He alone is worthy. 

Then he gets back to yelling at the haughty rich people.