1 Corinthians 15:29-41

New Testament for Everyone

Resurrection gives meaning to present Christian living

²⁹ Otherwise, what are people doing when they get baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead simply aren’t raised, why should people get baptized on their behalf?

³⁰ And why should we face danger every hour? ³¹ I die every day—yes, that’s something for you to boast about, my dear family, and that’s the boast I have in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord! ³² If, in human terms, I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what use is that to me? If the dead are not raised, “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”!

³³ Don’t be deceived: “bad company kills off good habits”! ³⁴ Sober up; straighten up; stop sinning. Yes, some of you simply don’t know God! I’m saying this to bring shame on you.

The transformed resurrection body

³⁵ But someone is now going to say: “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they come back with?” ³⁶ Stupid! What you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ The thing you sow isn’t the body that is going to come later; it’s just a naked seed of, let’s say, wheat, or some other plant. ³⁸ God then gives it a body of the sort he wants, with each of the seeds having its own particular body.

³⁹ Not all physical objects have the same kind of physicality. There is one kind of physicality for humans, another kind for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ Some bodies belong in the heavens, and some on the earth; and the kind of glory appropriate for the ones in the heavens is different from the kind of glory appropriate for the ones on the earth. ⁴¹ There is one kind of glory for the sun, another for the moon, and another for the stars, since the stars themselves vary, with different degrees of glory.