1 Corinthians 15:19

15:12-19 Having shown that Christ was risen, the apostle answers those who said there would be no resurrection. There had been no justification, or salvation, if Christ had not risen. And must not faith in Christ be vain, and of no use, if he is still among the dead? The proof of the resurrection of the body is the resurrection of our Lord. Even those who died in the faith, had perished in their sins, if Christ had not risen. All who believe in Christ, have hope in him, as a Redeemer; hope for redemption and salvation by him; but if there is no resurrection, or future recompence, their hope in him can only be as to this life. And they must be in a worse condition than the rest of mankind, especially at the time, and under the circumstances, in which the apostles wrote; for then Christians were hated and persecuted by all men. But it is not so; they, of all men, enjoy solid comforts amidst all their difficulties and trials, even in the times of the sharpest persecution.

1 Corinthians 15:19 . If in this life only we have hope in Christ — We, who are exposed to such a variety of dangers and sufferings, for his sake; we are of all men most miserable — Ελεεινοτεροι , most to be pitied; that is, if we look for nothing beyond the grave. But if we have a divine evidence of things not seen; if we have a hope full of immortality; if we now taste the powers of the world to come, and see the crown that fadeth not away; then, notwithstanding all our present trials, we are more happy than all men. Some have argued from this verse, that if there were no future state, piety and virtue would make men more miserable in this world than they otherwise would be. But, as Dr. Doddridge observes, it is evident the apostle is not speaking here of the case of good men in general, if their hopes of future happiness should be disappointed; but of the case of the first Christians, and especially of the apostles and other preachers of Christianity, amid the hardships and persecutions to which they were continually exposed. If they had not known that there was a state of immortal felicity and glory before them, and if they had not been supported amid their various sufferings with a well-grounded and lively hope of it, they must have been peculiarly miserable.

For besides all the external calamities to which they were exposed, they must have been perpetually subjected to the upbraidings of their own minds, for sacrificing every view of happiness in this world or another, to advance what they knew to be a pernicious falsehood. It must be observed, the apostle does not say, that if there should be no resurrection of the body, the Christian could only hope in Christ in this life; for if the soul be immortal, and may be happy after its separation from the body, that would not follow. But he argues thus: If Christ is not risen for our justification, we are yet under the guilt of sin, 1 Corinthians 15:17 ; and if so, both soul and body must perish after death, 1 Corinthians 15:18 ; and then the hope of Christians must terminate with this life, which being more especially to many of them a life of misery, by reason of the sufferings to which their faith here often exposes them, they would of all men be most miserable.

{9} If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (9) The third argument which is also taken from an absurdity: for unless there is another life, in which those who trust and believe in Christ will be blessed, they are the most miserable of all creatures, because in this life they would be the most miserable.

1 Corinthians 15:19 . Εἰ , if ) The statement of those topics which are discussed at 1 Corinthians 15:20 , etc., precedes this verse and 1 Corinthians 15:18 : and in this verse, there is a statement of those topics, which are treated of at 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 .— ἐν , in ) ἐν , as far as concerns, i.e. if our hope in Christ revolves so as to be fixed wholly within the bounds of this present life, only , μόνον .— ζωῇ , life ) Scripture does not readily call this life, life; oftener, it call it αἰῶνα , the age: here it is spoken of after the manner of men, as Luke 16:25 .— ἠλπικότες ἐσμὲν , we have hoped ) we have believed with joyful anticipation of the future.— ἑλεεινότεροι , more miserable ) the comparative degree is here in its strict sense: for if it had the force of the superlative, the article would have been put before it: We are more miserable than all men: the rest, viz. all other men , are not buoyed up with false hope, and freely enjoy the present life; we, if the dead rise not, are foolishly buoyed up with false hope, and through denying ourselves and renouncing the world, we lose the certain enjoyment of the present life, and are doubly miserable. Even now Christians are happy , but not in the things, by which the happiness of other men is maintained; and, if we take away the hope of another life, our present spiritual joy is diminished. Believers have immediate joy in God and therefore they are happy; but if there be no resurrection that joy is greatly weakened

19. If our hopes in Christ were limited to this life only, we should be, of all men, most to be pitied; namely, because, while others live unmolested, we are exposed to every trial and persecution, and, after all, are doomed to bitter disappointment in our most cherished hope; for all our hope of salvation, even of the soul (not merely of the body), hangs on the resurrection of Christ, without which His death would be of no avail to us (Eph 1:19, 20; 1Pe 1:3). The heathen are "without hope" (Eph 2:12; 1Th 4:13). We should be even worse, for we should be also without present enjoyment (1Co 4:9).

Verse 19. - If in this life only we have hope in Christ. The word to which "in Christ" should be joined is uncertain; the order st the original is, "If in this life in Christ we have hoped only." The "only" seems therefore to qualify the whole sentence: "If we have merely hoped in Christ, and that only in this life." We are of all men most miserable; literally, we are more pitiable than all men. The remark only has an absolute bearing when Christians really are suffering from persecutions, as they did in St. Paul's day ( 2 Corinthians 1:5 ; 2 Timothy 3:12 ). But to some extent all Christians have to bear their cross, and if all that they give up and suffer is sacrificed to a delusion, they deserve most pity in one sense, because they have been most conspicuously befooled. In another sense they are still the happiest of men; for their delusion, judged by its fruits, is more blessed than the dreary blank which is the only alternative. 1 Corinthians 15:19

The apostle here argueth the resurrection of believers from a new head. It is not reasonable for any to imagine, that those who believe in Jesus Christ should of all others be the most miserable; but this they must be, if there be no resurrection from the dead. He enlargeth upon this head or argument further, 1 Corinthians 15:30,31 . The reason of it is, because it must then follow, that they could have no hope in Christ beyond this life; and the condition of the apostles, and the generality of Christians, at least in those first and furious times, was a most afflicted state and condition. The apostle was in jeopardy every hour, 1 Corinthians 15:30 , he died daily, 1 Corinthians 15:31 . If any say: How doth this follow? For their souls might be in glory, though their bodies, once dead, were not raised? It is answered: 1. That it still must hold as to their bodily, fleshy part. 2. That those who denied the resurrection of the body, denied also the immortality of the soul. 3. That Paul speaketh upon the supposition of the Divine ordination; God having so ordered it, that the death of Christ, without his resurrection, should be of no avail to us to save either soul or body; and that our souls and bodies should not be separately, but jointly, glorified upon their re-union in the end of the world: 1 Peter 1:3 , we are said to be begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.