Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:2
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
2. by which also ye are saved ] i.e. are in a state of safety, the verb being in the present tense. The idea includes safety from sin as well as its punishment. See St Mat 1:21.
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you ] Literally, if ye hold fast the discourse with which I proclaimed good tidings to you.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
By which also ye are saved – On which your salvation depends; the belief of which is indispensable to your salvation; see the note on Mar 16:16. The apostle thus shows the importance of the doctrine. In every respect it demanded their attention. It was that which was first preached among them; that which they had solemnly professed; that by which they had been built up; and that which was connected with their salvation. It does not mean simply that by this they were brought into a salvable state (Clarke, Macknight, Whitby, Bloomfield, etc.), but it means that their hopes of eternal life rested on this; and by this they were then in fact saved from the condemnation of sin, and were in the possession of the hope of eternal life.
If ye keep in memory – Margin, as in the Greek, if ye hold fast. The idea is, that they were saved by this, or would be, if they faithfully retained or held the doctrine as he delivered it; if they observed it, and still believed it, notwithstanding all the efforts of their enemies, and all the arts of false teaching to wrest it from them. There is a doubt delicately suggested here, whether they did in fact still adhere to his doctrine, or whether they had not abandoned it in part for the opposite.
Unless ye have believed in vain – You will be saved by it, if you adhere to it, unless it shall turn out that it was vain to believe, and that the doctrine was false. That it was not false, he proceeds to demonstrate. Unless all your trials, discouragements, and hopes were to no purpose, and all have been the result of imposture; and unless all your profession is false and hollow, you will be saved by this great doctrine which I first preached to you.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 15:2
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you.
Hindrances and helps to memory in spiritual things
In these words we have a discovery–
1. Of mens utmost happiness–salvation.
2. Of the only means for the attaining of it–the gospel.
3. Of the special grace necessary in respect of this gospel–believing.
4. Of the particular faculty that is requisite for this end–the memory.
5. The relation, or influence, which this last hath upon all the rest.
And this expressed–
(1) By way of condition, Ye are saved, if ye keep in memory.
(2) By way of exception, Unless ye have believed in vain. Note–
I. What the memory is. It is that faculty of the soul wherein are reserved the things we know. Its office, however, is–
1. To receive such things as are presented to it. Wherin it is fitly enough compared to soft wax, which is prepared to receive any impression made upon it.
2. To retain and preserve what is laid up therein. There is a little kingdom in the soul of man. The king, or rather viceroy, is the will, the privy council is the understanding, the judge is the conscience, and the great treasurer is the memory.
3. To recall or recover what was out of mind.
II. The excellence of this faculty. The soul of man is a subject of wonder, and nothing more wonderful in it than the memory. It hath power to make things that are in themselves absent and past to be present. We may see the worth of this faculty by those that are deprived of the use of it, that can remember nobody, nor the last question that they did ask. All a mans past life would be lost if his memory were lost; so are the comforts of the soul lost so far as they are forgotten.
III. The corruption or depravation of this faculty. This stands–
1. In remembering those things which we should forget. As–
(1) Things unprofitable; like as if one should crowd waste-paper, rags, and broken pitchers into a cabinet, which should be stored with things of value.
(2) Things hurtful. To wit, injuries; these usually stick in the memory when better things slip out.
(3) Things sinful. We can remember a filthy story seven years when we do forget a saving sermon in seven hours. The depraved memory is herein fitly compared to a sieve that lets the good corn fall through and reserves only the chaff. Themistocles said to Simonides, when he offered to teach him the art of memory, Rather, says he, teach me the art of forgetfulness, for the things which I would not I remember, and cannot forget the things I would.
2. In forgetting those things which we should remember.
(1) Our Creator, and what He hath done especially for us (Ecc 12:1; Jer 2:32). This is most inexcusable (Act 17:27-28). And then the great things which He hath done, to wit, in the works of creation and providence, especially for His Church, these we easily forget, but should remember (Psa 77:11); and particularly what He hath done for us (Deu 8:2).
(2) Our Redeemer and what He hath suffered for us. Else He had never instituted the Lords Supper on purpose to keep up the remembrance thereof.
(3) The truths of religion, especially the most weighty (2Pe 1:12-15).
(4) The duties of religion (Exo 20:8; Heb 13:2-3; Heb 13:16). All which, as they show our duty, so do they imply our defectiveness herein.
(5) Our sins (Eze 36:31; Deu 9:7).
(6) Our vows and obligations to God.
(7) The Church of God (Psa 137:5-6).
(8) Our latter end (Isa 47:7; Lam 1:9).
IV. The sanctification of the memory. Which is the restoring of this faculty to its former integrity and to its proper objects. This is done–
1. By purging the faculty. And so conversion is said to begin here (Psa 22:27; Rev 2:5).
2. By strengthening it. For as sin weakens, so grace strengthens, the faculty (Joh 14:26).
3. By reconciling it to good things, and setting it against evil (Psa 119:16).
4. By filling it with good things (Mat 12:35).
5. By fitting things laid up in memory for use and practice (Num 15:39-40; Psa 103:17-18).
V. The ordinary impediments of a good memory, or the causes of a bad one.
1. A weak or dark understanding.
2. A carnal, careless heart. Such a heart can retain abundance of a play or a song, but of a chapter or sermon next to nothing, for everything keeps what is connatural to itself. Nay, a good mans memory in a remiss, negligent frame, quite differs from what it was in a religious frame.
3. A darling sin. Any bosom sin, as it fills and employs every faculty, so it debauches, monopolises, and disorders them all. Grace, though it rule every faculty, yet ruffles none; it composes the mind, and employs the memory in a rational manner.
4. Excess of worldly cares. The memory is but finite, though capacious, and a superabundance of worldly thoughts within must needs shoulder out better things that should be there.
5. Surfeiting and drunkenness. These disorder the brain and disable it from its functions (Pro 31:4-5).
6. Violent passions.
7. A multitude of indigested notions. If a man have a stock of methodical and digested knowledge, it is admirable how much the memory will contain; but many read or hear too much for their capacities, they have not stowage for it (2Ti 3:7). He who rides post can never draw maps of the country.
VI. The proper helps to it.
1. Natural.
(1) A sober diet. For if excesses in meat and drink do disturb the brain, temperate diet, together with a good air, is a certain help to the memory (Luk 21:34).
(2) A quiet mind. For if all passions that are violent weaken, then a sedate and quiet mind greatly strengthens, the memory.
2. Artificial or outward.
(1) The repetition of those things which we would remember (Deu 11:18-19).
(2) Writing what we would remember (Deu 11:20).
(3) Custom, or using your memories. We say, Use legs, and have legs; and so, Use the memory, and thou wilt have a memory.
3. Spiritual.
(1) Repentance for forgetfulness.
(2) Bewail your forgetfulness.
(3) Prayer. For every good gift and every perfect gift, whereof this is one, is from above.
(4) Diligent attention. If the mind wander in hearing the memory will be weak in remembering.
(5) Due estimation. The more we love and admire anything the better we remember it (Psa 119:16).
(6) Serious meditation. When people read or hear, and presently plunge themselves in foreign business, then generally all is lost (Jam 1:24-25; Psa 119:11).
VII. And so I come to application.
1. Magnify God for your memories.
2. Let ministers consult peoples memories, and to that end observe some proper method in their books and sermons.
3. Labour to improve your memories.
4. Store your memories in the time of youth (Ecc 12:1). A new ship is free from leaks, but time and travel will batter it. (R. Steele, A.M.)
Memory
Aristotle calls it the scribe of the soul; and Bernard the stomach of the soul, because it hath a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into blood and spirits. (T. Watson.)
Memory, Christian
It was the remark of John Newton, when his memory had almost completely gone, that he could never forget two things.
1. That he was a great sinner.
2. That Jesus Christ was a great and mighty Saviour.
Memory, cultivation of
If you have learned to look under your feet every day while young, and to cull the treasures of truth which belong to geology, natural history, and chemistry; if every fly has furnished you a study; if the incrustation of the frost is a matter, of interest; if the trees that come in spring, and the birds that populate them, the flowers of the meadow, the grass of the field, the fishes that disport themselves in the water–if all these are to you so many souvenirs of the working hand of your God, you will find, when you come into old age, that you have great stores of enjoyment therein. Let me therefore recommend you to commit much to memory. When a man is blind his memory is not blind. I have seen many a man who in youth had committed much to memory from the Scriptures and hymns and poems, who was able, in old age, to recall and recite what he had learned, and to fall back upon those treasures, his own head having thus become to him a library. Oh, how much a man may store up against old age! What a price is put into the hands of the young wherewith to get wisdom! What provisions for old age do they squander and throw away! It is not merely that you may be keen and strong now; it is not for the poor ambition of being esteemed learned that I urge you now to lay such treasures up; but because it is just and right and noble that you should be intelligent, and because your whole life is interested in it, and your old age pre-eminently so. (H. W. Beecher.)
Unless ye have believed ill vain.—
Believing in vain
1. A terrible peradventure to have believed in vain. To have spent a week, to have risked money, to have loved or chosen a profession in vain, is dreadful, and has driven many to despair, crime, and suicide. What shall we say, then, of having believed in vain; of having staked eternity on a delusion and a lie?
2. There are four phrases in the Greek thus rendered in A.V.
(1) In vain do they worship Me,–i.e., idly, foolishly, falsely–because their heart is far from Me.
(2) Then Christ is dead in vain, i.e., gratuitously, wantonly, without return.
(3) That ye receive not the grace of God in vain–unto emptiness.
(4) Have ye suffered so many things in vain–are all your endurances for Christ to be forfeited or stultified by departure from the truth? Lest I should have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
3. The word may have had in it, originally, the idea of seeming, as opposed to reality. But in its use it carries the sense of a thing done by chance, at haphazard, not deliberately. Here are two possibilities in one.
I. A defect in the thing believed.
1. To believe in vain may be to believe a lie. There are those who say that sincerity is everything. If a man be but sincere he must be in the right. His opinion may be false, his hope a dream, his faith a fable, yet if he is sincere he cannot have believed in vain. St. Paul was of another mind. Truth as well as sincerity went with his religion. With him the text meant primarily, Unless the object of your faith be a nullity. I transmitted to you, he says, a definite body of doctrine based on a series of fact–is it true? Some parts no one doubts–the death and burial. The miraculous part is the resurrection, which can only be proved by evidence–the evidence of eye-witnesses. Those who knew Christ saw Him alive after certain proof of His death.
2. Those who reject this evidence tell us to be of good cheer, for there is nothing lost. The resurrection is spiritual, and Christ risen means Christ immortal, successful, progressive, influencing the world by His pure ethics or bright example. But Paul is not satisfied with these airy nothings, and says that if the resurrection of Christ be not true those who believe in Him have believed in vain. Their faith is a random faith–they have not waited to see that its foundation is strong (verses 12-15).
II. A defect in the believer. The faith may be true and yet the belief of it unsound.
1. You may have taken for granted the faith of your family or your country, like the Samaritans, who believed because of the saying of another. If you had been born amongst Hindoos for the same reason you would have been such still. There is nothing of conviction, will, soul in your belief. It is no tribute to the truth. There needs in you just that step which was expressed in the Samaritans who said, Now we believe for we have heard Him ourselves.
2. You may have believed in vain because you have walked carelessly and never sought to, reproduce the mind of Christ in your lives. Why call ye Me Lord, and do not the things which I say? How foolish that invention of our times which would apply the microscope to the feeling and the telescope to the life! which would hang all the hope on the warmth with which we can say, Jesus is all, and divert every anxiety from consistency of conduct! There is a random believing which has made haste after safety, and has forgotten to fight. Take seriously your besetting sin, and count nothing done till in the name of the risen Jesus you are victorious over that. (Dean Vaughan.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. By which also ye are saved] That is, ye are now in a salvable state; and are saved from your Gentilism, and from your former sins.
If ye keep in memory] Your future salvation, or being brought finally to glory, will now depend on your faithfulness to the grace that ye have received.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By which also ye are saved; by the believing, receiving, of which doctrine, you are already in the way to salvation (as it is said, Joh 3:18; He that believeth on him is not condemned; and Joh 3:36; He hath everlasting life, and shall be eternally saved): but not unless ye persevere (for that is meant by keeping in memory the doctrine which I have preached unto you); and this you must do, or your believing will signify nothing, but be in vain to your souls.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. ye are savedrather, “yeare being saved.”
if ye keep in memory what Ipreached unto youAble critics, BENGELand others, prefer connecting the words thus, “I declare untoyou the Gospel (1Co 15:1) inwhat words I preached it unto you.” Paul reminds them, or rathermakes known to them, as if anew, not only the fact of the Gospel, butalso with what words, and by what arguments, hepreached it to them. Translate in that case, “if ye hold itfast.” I prefer arranging as English Version, “Bywhich ye are saved, if ye hold fast (in memory and personalappropriation) with what speech I preached it unto you.”
unlesswhich isimpossible, your faith is vain, in resting on Christ’s resurrectionas an objective reality.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
By which also ye are saved,…. It was the means of their salvation, and had been made the power of God unto salvation to them. Salvation is inseparably connected with true faith in Christ as a Saviour, and with a hearty belief of his resurrection from the dead, which is the earnest and pledge of the resurrection of the saints; and because of the certainty of it in the promise of God, through the obedience and death of Christ, and in the faith and hope of believers, which are sure and certain things, they are said to be saved already. To which the apostle puts in the following provisos and exceptions; the one is,
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you; or rather, “if ye hold fast, or retain”; that is, by faith, the doctrine preached to you, and received by you, particularly the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; for the salvation that is connected with it does not depend upon the strength of the memory, but upon the truth and steadfastness of faith: it is the man that perseveres in the faith and doctrine of Christ that shall be saved; and everyone that has truly believed in Christ, and cordially embraced his Gospel, shall hold on, and out to the end; though the faith of nominal believers may be overthrown by such men, as Hymenaeus and Philetus, who asserted, that the resurrection was past already; but so shall not the faith of real believers, because the foundation on which they are built stands sure, and the Lord has perfect knowledge of them, and will keep and save them. The other exception is,
unless ye have believed in vain: not that true faith can be in vain; for that is the faith of God’s elect, the gift of his grace, the operation of his Spirit; Christ is the author and finisher of it, and will never suffer it to fail; it will certainly issue in everlasting salvation: but then as the word may be heard in vain, as it is by such who are compared to the wayside, and to the thorny and rocky ground; and as the Gospel of the grace of God may be received in vain; so a mere historical faith may be in vain; this a man may have, and not the grace of God, and so be nothing; with this he may believe for a while, and then drop it: and since each of these might possibly be the case of some in this church, the apostle puts in these exceptions, in order to awaken the attention of them all to this important doctrine he was reminding them of.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In what words I preached it unto you ( ). Almost certainly ( , locative or instrumental, in or with) here is used like the relative as is common in papyri (Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 93f.; Robertson, Grammar, p. 737f.). Even so it is not clear whether the clause depends on like the other relatives, but most likely so.
If we hold it fast ( ). Condition of first class. Paul assumes that they are holding it fast.
Except ye believed in vain ( ). For see on 14:5. Condition of first class, unless in fact ye did believe to no purpose (, old adverb, only in Paul in N.T.). Paul holds this peril over them in their temptation to deny the resurrection.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
If ye keep in memory what, etc. I see no good reason for departing from the arrangement of the A. V., which states that the salvation of the readers depends on their holding fast the word preached. 125 Rev. reads : through which ye are saved; I make known, I say, in what words I preached it unto you, if ye hold it fast, etc. This is certainly very awkward, making Paul say that their holding it fast was the condition on which he preached it. American Rev. as A. V.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “By which also ye are saved,” (di ou kai sozesthe-)- “Through which also ye are saved or delivered,” – The Gospel, (death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for man’s sins, according to the scriptures) is the means, instrument, agency of man’s deliverance from sin, Rom 1:16.
2) “if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you,” (tini logo evengelisamen humin ei katechete) “If ye hold fast to what word (message) I preached to you,” – as the glad tidings of salvation; His having stated “ye” or “you all” are saved was conditioned on their believing in Christ, according to the scriptures, including the resurrection.
3) “Unless ye have believed in vain.” (ektos ei me eike episteusate) “Except or unless ye believed in vain.” To believe Christ died and was buried, according to the Scriptures, was not enough – none was saved by this belief only – they must have also believed that He rose from the dead.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2. If you keep in memory — unless in vain (9) These two expressions are very cutting. In the first, he reproves their carelessness or fickleness, because such a sudden fall was an evidence that they had never understood what had been delivered to them, or that their knowledge of it had been loose and floating, inasmuch as it had so quickly vanished. By the second, he warns them that they had needlessly and uselessly professed allegiance to Christ, if they did not hold fast this main doctrine. (10)
(9) “Our version does not express intelligibly the sense of ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ εἰκὢ ἐπιστεύσατε by rendering it so literally — unless ye have believed in vain. To believe in vain, according to the use of ancient languages, is to believe without just reason and authority, giving credit to idle reports as true and authentic. Thus Plutarch, speaking of some story which passed current, says, τοῦτο ἡμεῖς ἐ᾿ἴπομεν ἐν τί τῶν εἰκὢ πεπιστεύμενων — “this I said was one of those tales which are believed without any good authority.” (Sympos. lib. 1, quaest. 6.) The Latins used credere frustra — to believe in vain, or temere — (rashly.) Kypke takes notice that ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ, for except or unless, which has long been a suspected phrase, is used more than ten times by Lucian. It is also used by Plutarch in the Life of Demosthenes, volume 4.” — Alexander’s Paraphrase on 1Co 15:0. (London, 1766,) — Ed.
(10) “ Ce principal poinct de la foy ; ” — “This main article of faith.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you.Better, if ye hold fast with what word I preached the gospel to you, unless you believed in vain. The idea here is not, as implied in the English version, that they were converted, and yet that heretofore no results have followed from their belief; it is the same thought which comes out more fully in 1Co. 15:17. They are saved by their faith in the gospel as preached by St. Paul, unless (which is impossible) the whole gospel be false, and so their faith in it be vain and useless.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Saved It is by holy truth, received and kept in memory, that we are saved.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 15:2. By whichye are saved. “By which you are brought into a state of salvation; into the way of being completely and eternally saved.” The next clause should be rendered, If you retain those joyful tidings which I delivered unto you. The words rendered unless, , are remarkable, and may suggest the thought expressed 1Co 15:17. So the first two verses may be a transition; as if he had said, “I preach the same gospel still, and I hope you will retain it: yet I have reason to fear that some of you entertain notions which tend quite to enervate it.” Some would render with a comma, making it an exception to the former clause,but if not,if you do not retain what I have preached,you have believed in vain. See 1Ti 5:19.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
Ver. 2. By which also ye are saved ] Eternal life is potentially in the word, as the harvest is potentially in the seed, or as the tree is in the kernel or scion,Jas 1:21Jas 1:21 .
If ye keep in memory ] He limiteth the promise of salvation to the condition of keeping in memory what they had heard. Tantum didicimus, quantum meminimus, said Socrates; many have memories like nets, that let go the fair water, retain the filth only; or like sieves, that keep the chaff, let go the corn. If God come to search them with a candle, what shall he find but old songs, old wrongs, &c.? not a promise of any word of God hidden there: for things of that nature they are like Sabinus in Seneca, that never in all his life could remember those three names of Homer, Ulysses, and Achilles. But the soul should be as a holy ark, the memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
By = Through. App-104. 1Co 15:1.
also, &c. = ye are saved also.
if. App-118.
keep in memory = hold fast. Greek. katecho. See 1Co 7:30.
what = with what word. Greek. logos. App-121. He refers to the substance of his preaching, based as it was on the facts of the Lord’s death and resurrection, which last was challenged by some false teachers (1Co 15:12).
unless. See 1Co 14:5 (except).
have. Omit.
believed. App-150.
in vain = to no purpose. Greek. eike. See Rom 13:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Co 15:2. , ye are saved) The future in sense, 1Co 15:18-19.- , if ye keep) If here implies a hope, as is evident from what follows, unless, etc.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:2
1Co 15:2
by which also ye are saved,–By it they were brought into a saved state.
if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you,-If they held fast or were steadfast to the end.
except ye believed in vain.-To believe in vain is to believe and not act on the faith. Faith is intended to lead to obedience to God; and when it fails to do this, it is vain faith. Every one who claims to believe God, and does not continue faithful to the end, makes faith vain. When a man adds the inventions of men to the appointments of God, he makes faith vain.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
saved
(See Scofield “Rom 1:16”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
ye are: 1Co 1:18, 1Co 1:21, Act 2:47,*Gr: Rom 1:16, 2Co 2:15, Eph 2:8, 2Ti 1:9
keep in memory: or, hold fast, 1Co 15:11, 1Co 15:12, Pro 3:1, Pro 4:13, Pro 6:20-23, Pro 23:23, Col 1:23, 2Th 2:15, Heb 2:1, Heb 3:6, Heb 3:14, Heb 4:14, Heb 10:23
what I preached: Gr. by what speech I preached
unless: 1Co 15:14, Psa 106:12, Psa 106:13, Luk 8:13, Joh 8:31, Joh 8:32, Act 8:13, 2Co 6:1, Gal 3:4, Jam 2:14, Jam 2:17, Jam 2:26
Reciprocal: Mat 15:9 – in Rom 11:22 – if thou 1Co 11:2 – that 1Co 15:10 – his grace 1Co 15:17 – your 1Co 16:13 – stand Gal 2:21 – Christ 1Th 2:1 – in vain Jam 1:21 – which Jam 1:26 – this
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 15:2. The mere believing of the Gospel will not save a person, but he must also keep in memory the truths concerning it. The phrase is from KATECHO, which Thayer defines, “to hold fast, keep secure, keep firm possession of.” But all of these considerations would be in vain, according to the teaching of some persons at Corinth. (See verses 13, 14.) It is the purpose of the apostle to show them the logical conclusion that must follow if such a proposition is established, namely, that there is no resurrection of the dead (verse 12). By this they meant there would be no future resurrection of the body. They tried to teach some vague kind of theory that would make the word “resurrection” mean only a spiritual event, and that all of the facts concerning a raising of the body had already occurred–that it was “past already” (2Ti 2:18). In that passage Paul declares that such a doctrine was overthrowing the faith of some, which is equivalent to the phrase in our present verse, namely, believed in vain. Having advanced the serious conclusion necessarily following their false teaching, Paul repeats the facts of the Gospel to which he referred in verse 1.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. [or without cause. In these two verses Paul reminds them of many important facts, as follows: that they had already heard the gospel, weighed, tested and received it, and that they now stood as a church organized under it, and that their hopes of salvation depended upon their holding fast to it, unless they had believed inconsiderately, under the impulse of a mere fitful admiration. His correlative appeal to them to think more deeply and steadfastly will be found in the last verse of the chapter.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, {b} unless ye have believed in vain.
(b) Which is very absurd, and cannot be, for they that believe must reap the fruit of faith.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul did not entertain the possibility that his readers could lose their salvation by abandoning the gospel he had preached to them. The NIV translation captures his thought well. If they held fast to the gospel that they had received, they would continue to experience God’s deliverance as they lived day by day. Their denial of the Resurrection might indicate that some of them had not really believed the gospel.