Part 764 (1/2)

15:31. I die daily, I protest by your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

15:32. If (according to man) I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me, if the dead rise not again? Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die.

Let us eat and drink, etc... That is, if we did not believe that we were to rise again from the dead, we might live like the impious and wicked, who have no belief in the resurrection.

15:33. Be not seduced: Evil communications corrupt good manners.

15:34. Awake, ye just, and sin not. For some have not the knowledge of G.o.d. I speak it to your shame.

15:35. But some man will say: How do the dead rise again? Or with what manner of body shall they come?

15:36. Senseless man, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die first.

15:37. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be: but bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest.

15:38. But G.o.d giveth it a body as he will: and to every seed its proper body.

15:39. All flesh is not the same flesh: but one is the flesh of men, another of beasts, other of birds, another of fishes.

15:40. And there are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial: but, one is the glory of the celestial, and another of the terrestrial.

15:41. One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars. For star differeth from star in glory.

15:42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption: it shall rise in incorruption.

15:43. It is sown in dishonour: it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness: it shall rise in power.

15:44. It is sown a natural body: it shall rise a spiritual body. If there be a natural body, there is also a spiritual body, as it is written:

15:45. The first man Adam was made into a living soul; the last Adam into a quickening spirit.

15:46. Yet that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: afterwards that which is spiritual.

15:47. The first man was of the earth, earthly: the second man, from heaven, heavenly.

15:48. Such as is the earthly, such also are the earthly: and such as is the heavenly, such also are they that are heavenly.

15:49. Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.

15:50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of G.o.d: neither shall corruption possess incorruption.

15:51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed.

15:52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise again incorruptible. And we shall be changed.

15:53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption: and this mortal must put on immortality.

15:54. And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pa.s.s the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.

15:55. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?