Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians 16

Verses 1-7

40 There is no direct statement here that our bodies will be changed to celestial bodies, in accord with the later revelation of Ephesians, but such an inference would be in point. Even among the celestials there will be degrees of glory. Our Lord Himself has a body which excelled the noonday in its effulgence. Ours will be transfigured to conform to His ( Php_3:21 ).

42 In death the body disintegrates and returns to the soil whence it came. This loathsome process is reversed in resurrection. Disease and weakness accompany its dissolution, but power and glory will be the portion of all who are Christ's when He comes.

44 Our present bodies respond to the soul, or senses. They seek for physical comfort and satisfaction and pleasure. They do not respond to spiritual things. The soul is not a distinct entity. It is the effect of the combination of body and spirit. Adam was made of the soil. When the breath of life was breathed into him he became a living soul. He could feel, see, hear, smell. He became conscious. Such is the body which we have now. We are dominated by our senses. In the resurrection our bodies will respond to our spirit. Physical sensations will give place to spiritual perception.

47 The soil is the upper, oxidized crust of the earth from which Adam was formed and from which mankind derives its sustenance. It is the soil which sustains the plants and animals which provide us with food. Below the soil is the sphere of sulfation, which destroys life. As men are constituted now, they cannot exist apart from the soil of the earth. If we should be raised with bodies such as we now possess, we could not partake of a celestial allotment, for we would die from the lack of such food as our bodies can assimilate.

50 The soul (not the life ) of the flesh is in the blood ( Lev_17:11 ). The Lord has no blood in His resurrection body ( Luk_24:39 ) .

51 This is a secret . It had not been told before. It lies in the one word change . It leads us one step nearer the celestial destiny revealed in the epistle to the Ephesians. Soilish as our bodies are, they need to be radically changed before they can endure a life celestial. This change will come in an instant when the Lord descends from heaven with the trumpet of God ( 1Th_4:16 ). As the last note sounds we who are alive, who are mortal, as well as those who repose, who have gone to corruption, shall be changed. What a glorious prospect! Our bodies shall be like His-not as it was in His weakness before He was roused, not even as it was before His ascension, marvelous as that was, but as it was when Saul met Him and was blinded by the brightness of His presence. He will transfigure the body of our humiliation, to conform it to His body glorious ( Php_3:21 ) .

55 What a victory that will be! Now death is operating in our bodies at all times, and eventually succeeds in dragging us down to the grave. Then we shall not only be restored to life, but enjoy incorruption and deathlessness, and a body so changed and glorified that it corresponds to the one which befits the Head of the universe. Yet the enjoyment and appreciation of the glory will depend on our previous humiliation.

55 The Septuagint reads "0 Unseen, where is your sting?" ( Hos_13:14 ), and some manuscripts follow this reading. As the tendency is to conform a quotation to its original, it is probable that Death was changed to Unseen by a copyist who knew the Septuagint reading but did not see that the apostle had enlarged the scope of the quotation to include the consummation, when there is no unseen ( Rev_20:14 ) and only the second death remains. A quotation is often varied from its original reading to fit it for its new context.

1 When Paul received the recognition of James, Cephas, and John, they asked him to remember the poor among the Circumcision ( Gal_2:10 ). At this time the nations were partaking of Israel's spiritual things ( Rom_15:27 ). It was not till later that they became joint partakers ( Eph_3:6 ). So they made such return as they could by collecting a contribution. Paul was delivering this money to the saints in Jerusalem when he was imprisoned ( Act_21:18-40 ; Act_22:1-21 ). Now we partake of our own spiritual things, for we have all spiritual blessings among the celestials, where Israel has none.

Verses 8-24

8 Paul's delay in going to Corinth is fully explained in the second epistle. He wished to give them time for repentance. Besides, he was meeting with much success, for even his enemies acknowledged that "not only in Ephesus, but in almost the entire [province of] Asia this Paul influences a considerable throng. . .".

10 Timothy had been sent to Macedonia ( Act_19:22 ). He was young for such a mission ( 1Ti_4:12 ) and could not command the respect which age inspires.

12 It is evident that Paul was not jealous of ApoIlos, though some in Corinth had made him the head of their faction. Neither was ApoIlos inclined to take advantage of their schism. He was a scholarly man (rather than eloquent) who had been taught by Paul's friends, PriscilIa and Aquila, and had gone to Corinth after Paul had left, being especiaIly successful in confuting the Jews, publicly exhibiting, through the Scriptures, that Jesus is the Christ ( Act_18:24 ).

23 Maran atha is usuaIly interpreted as "the ( or our) Lord cometh" in accord with the Syriac version. But it seems far fetched to find a foreign expression here, whether it be Chaldee or Syriac, when the Hebrew furnishes a simpler and more agreeable solution. The Hebrew as in Mal_3:9 , "Cursed are you! " was probably the common phrase in which the anathema or doom was pronounced. The change of m into n is of frequent occurrence when Hebrew is turned into Greek. The Syriac version may simply insert the Hebrew without translating, in which case it should not receive a Syriac signification. The Hebrew ghahram and the Greek anathema are used for one another in the Septuagint and Hebrew Scriptures. Both mean to devote to destruction, to doom ( Lev_27:21-29 . Jos_7:1-15 ; 1Sa_15:1-20 ). In these passages it is rendered destroy, devote, accursed, etc. The same form of expression, a repetition in a familiar tongue, is found in the phrase "Abba, Father". ( Mar_14:36 ; Rom_8:15 ; Gal_4:6 ). Moreover, the coming of the Lord is never set before us as an act of judgment, but as the culmination of grace. That blessed expectation could never be used as an imprecation. It brings grace, not judgment.

23 Notwithstanding all their failures and their many shortcomings, Paul invokes the grace of Christ and assures them of his own love, which he poured out on them in lavish measure, as we find in the next epistle. He was a living example of the love which does not lapse.