Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
19. we are of all men most miserable ] Literally, more to be pitied than all men. Because of the sufferings and labours and persecutions they endured for a creed which was false after all. See notes on ch. 1Co 4:9-13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If in this life only we have hope in Christ – If our hope in Christ shall not be followed by the resurrection of the dead and future glory, and if all our hopes shall be disappointed.
We are … – Doddridge, Macknight, Grotius, and some others, suppose that this refers to the apostles only, and that the sense is, that if there was no resurrection, they, of all people would be most to be pitied, since they had exposed themselves to such a variety of dangers and trials, in which nothing could sustain them but the hope of immortality. If they failed in that they failed in everything. They were regarded as the most vile of the human family; they suffered more from persecution, poverty, and perils than other people; and if, after all, they were to be deprived of all their hopes, and disappointed in their expectation of the resurrection, their condition would be more deplorable than that of any other people. But there is no good reason for supposing that the word we, here, is to be limited to the apostles. For:
- Paul had not mentioned the apostles particularly in the previous verses; and,
- The argument demands that it should be understood of all Christians, and the declaration is as true, substantially, of all Christians as it was of the apostles.
Of all men most miserable – More to be pitied or commiserated than any other class of people. The word used here ( eleinoteroi) means, properly, more deserving of pity, more pitiable. It may mean sometimes, more wretched or unhappy; but this is not necessarily its meaning, nor is it its meaning here. It refers rather to their condition and hopes than to their personal feeling; and does not mean that Christians are unhappy, or that their religion does not produce comfort, but that their condition would be most deplorable; they would be more deserving of pity than any other class of people. This would be:
(1) Because no other people had so elevated hopes, and, of course, no others could experience so great disappointment.
(2) They were subjected to more trials than any other class of people. They were persecuted and reviled, and subjected to toil, and privation, and want, on account of their religion; and if, after all, they were to be disappointed, their condition was truly deplorable.
(3) They do not indulge in the pleasures of this life; they do not give themselves, as ethers do, to the enjoyments of this world. They voluntarily subject themselves to trial and self-denial; and if they are not admitted to eternal life, they are not only disappointed in this but they are cut off from the sources of happiness which their fellow-men enjoy in this world – Calvin.
(4) On the whole, therefore, there would be disappointed hopes, and trials, and poverty, and want, and all for nothing; and no condition could be conceived to be more deplorable than where a man was looking for eternal life, and for it subjecting himself to a life of want, and poverty, persecution, and tears, and should be finally disappointed. This passage, therefore, does not mean that virtue and piety are not attended with happiness; it does not mean that, even if there were no future state, a man would not be more happy if he walked in the paths of virtue than if he lived a life of sin; it does not mean that the Christian has no happiness in religion itself – in the love of God, and in prayer, and praise, and in purity of life. In all this he has enjoyment and even if there were no heaven, a life of virtue and piety would be more happy than a life of sin. But it means that the condition of the Christian would be more deplorable than that of other people; he would be more to be pitied. All his high hopes would be disappointed. Other people have no such hopes to be dashed to the ground; and, of course, no other people would be such objects of pity and compassion. The argument in this verse is derived from the high hopes of the Christian. Could they believe that all their hopes were to be frustrated? Could they subject themselves to all these trials and privations, without believing that they would rise from the dead? Were they prepared, by the denial of the doctrine of the resurrection, to put themselves in the condition of the most miserable and wretched of the human family – to admit that they were in a condition most to be deplored?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Observe
I. What is implied.
1. That all men are miserable.
2. In different degrees, but are comforted by hope.
II. What is assumed.
1. That our hope in Christ is false.
2. That it only extends to this life.
III. What is hypothetically asserted. That in such a case we are subject to greater–
1. Delusion.
2. Sacrifice.
3. Disappointment.
4. Sense of destitution.
IV. What is the fact.
1. We are not most miserable.
2. Our hope is sure. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
One life only an argument against God
If human life, redeemed by Christ, be limited to this world, God has committed a cruel mistake in creating man. The greatness of man becomes a terrible charge against God. He has created appetites which He cannot satisfy, excited hopes which must perish, built a great ship and must destroy it because He cannot create a sea in which it can float. What would be thought of a man who built a splendid chariot and could not get it out of the workshop? A man believes in Christ, and so becomes identified with all that is known of purity, joy, and hope. He rejects the promises of the world; he gets all that the world can give and finds that it is a stone, not bread; his whole life becomes a hunger after something higher. Having thus developed he is told that his grave is dug, and that into it must be thrown every dream, hope, desire. This world is enough for creatures destitute of aspiration–for the lion and the eagle. They cannot hope, pray, aspire. One life only is an argument against–
I. Gods goodness. Take men like the psalmists. They often sang as if they had laid hold of eternal life. They declared Jehovah to be all their salvation and all their desire. To all this Gods answer is extinction. Can a more revolting blasphemy be conceived?
II. His wisdom. Could not man have been made so as to be satisfied with the present world? We know how our generosity may become a pain and temptation to those upon whom we have bestowed it. Our gifts may be large enough to create dissatisfaction with our daily lot, yet too small to secure contentment with another. If it is not Gods purpose to continue the consciousness with which He has endowed us, He has, so to speak, overbuilt Himself in creation. He should either have gone farther, or not so far.
III. His power. But herein is God unlike His creatures. Impair one of Gods attributes and you overturn the whole Godhead. Man may have special excellences and redeeming points of character; but in the case of God every point must be of equal strength and glory. Suppose His goodness to be infinite, and His power limited; then He is Jehovah no more. When He created man, did He not know that His power was incomplete? Has He been taught the insufficiency of His strength by results which He failed to foresee? Conclusion:
1. We have before us, then, a strong presumptive argument in favour of another and higher life. That life suggests itself as the required complement of our present existence, and urges itself upon us in vindication of all that is Divine in God. Whatever speculative difficulties may arise in connection with immortality, the practical difficulties of the negative theory are insurmountable.
2. The theory of our life only bears more vividly up m the mediation of Christ. How bitter the irony of His appeals, how wasteful the sacrifice of His life, if a few pulsations be the measure of our existence. He spoke much of the life eternal: did it all mean that His most loving followers must be blotted out of existence? If so, His attempts at redemption aggravated the original injustice of our creation.
3. Granted that you never doubted the existence of the future life, this discussion is of the first importance. We may be called upon to give to others a reason for the hope that is in us, and we may feel more keenly the obligations which another life imposes on us to live nobly in this present world. If there is another life–
(1) In what relation does our present existence stand to it? Is it disciplinary?
(2) What will be its effect in regard to, the moral confusion and restlessness of our present existence. Here virtue is often undervalued and vice successful. Is the glory of the Divine righteousness to shine through all the obscurities of the Divine government? Christian hope answers, Yes!
(3) Can they be wise who exhaust themselves within the limits of the present world? What a fool is the mere money-gatherer! How deluded is he who mistakes the part for the whole.
(4) Is not he the wise man who regulates the present by all that is solemn and sublime in the future? (J. Parker, D.D.)
Hope in this world only
I. What the text implies.
1. That there is misery amongst men on this earth. This is obvious. Man is born to trouble. But great as it is–
(1) It is not as great as man deserves. All suffering springs from sin. Misery does not grow out of the constitution of things.
(2) It is not as great as mans happiness. For days and weeks of affliction he has months and years of happiness.
(3) It is not as great as the good it will ultimately work out.
2. That misery amongst men exists in different degrees. Paul speaks of the most miserable. There is a great inequality of suffering here. There must come a day for eternal justice to balance these accounts.
3. That the degree of misery is sometimes regulated by hope. Paul speaks of hope as having to do with making men most miserable. Man is ever living in the future; he seldom turns willingly to the past; his past sins terrify him, and even his past pleasures depress him. The present satisfies him not. His home is in the future. It is obvious that a principle so powerful must exert a wonderful influence, either for weal or woe. If the hope is directed to right objects, and rightly founded, it will be as a firm anchor, holding his ship securely amidst the tumultuous billows of his stormy life. But should his hope be not rightly directed and grounded, it is clear that though it may afford him for a time some amount of enjoyment, it will ultimately end in his confusion and distress.
4. That the hope of a Christian, if false, will make him of all men most miserable.
II. What the text means.
1. Not–
(1) That apart from the resurrection of Christ, man has no evidence of a future state. All the Jews except the Sadducees believed in the existence of a future retribution; and Paul as a philosopher knew that human nature and human history prophesied a future state.
(2) That on the supposition that there is no future life, the practice of virtue here would place man in a worse condition than that of vice. This would not be true; the life of virtue as embodied in Christianity would give a man considerable advantage even in this world.
(3) That apart from a future state a godly life is not binding on man. Were there no heaven, no hell, mans obligation to love his Maker with all his heart, soul, strength, would still remain.
2. Two things must be distinctly kept in mind in order fully to apprehend the idea of the apostle.
(1) That he is speaking of himself and his evangelical contemporaries. The sufferings which they brought upon themselves in consequence of their faith in Christianity, and their efforts to extend it through the world, were unique in their enormity. In this age our faith in Christianity, and our endeavours to propagate it, entail little or no inconvenience.
(2) That he supposes the disappointed to survive the discovery of the delusion. The very first flash of the terrible truth, that there was no future blessedness, would scathe their spirits into everlasting annihilation, and there would of course be no misery at all in the case. We must suppose the apostle therefore having the idea that there was a future state, in which he should live in vivid memories of the past. Up to the time of discovery, however great their suffering, Christians could not be most miserable. An enthusiast, whatever his physical affections, is happy; he revels amidst the hallucinations of his own brain, and requires none of your pity if he survive not the discovery of his delusion.
III. These suppositions enables us to see that the misery of which the apostle speaks is the misery of a tremendous disappointment. Note–
1. The power which the blighted hope had obtained over the whole soul. There are some hopes that take but a slight hold upon the heart: But there are hopes like the tree that strikes its roots deep into the very fibre of our nature. When such hopes are torn away, it is as the giving up of the ghost. Imagine the case of a man who had thrown his whole being into Christianity, being met at the moment when his hopes were at their zenith, and when his death was at hand, with the conviction that all was a delusion; and you have a man of all men most miserable. Imagine that man still further fixed in a future state of deep despair, and regarding himself as the hopeless victim of a life of folly. Would he not say, Fool that I have been in spending a whole life in aiming at objects that were purely visionary. Had I been wise I should have adopted the maxim, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
2. The deception which the blighted hope prompted its subjects to practise. The apostle declares that on the assumption that Christ rose from the dead, they were false witnesses of God. Most assuredly if there be no future state of blessedness, the whole life of the Christian is a living lie. His deception is–
(1) Earnest. He counts not his life dear unto him, if he can only make men participate in his creed.
(2) Systematic. It is not an occasional or spasmodic effort; it is the organised purpose of his being. He rears temples, forms societies, circulates books, preaches discourses, in order to win men over to his views.
(3) Influential. He succeeds in his proselytism. Such is the deception Christians practise on the hypothesis that there is no future life in Him. How much would the memory of their deception heighten the misery of their disappointment on the discovery of their own terrible mistake! The feeling that they themselves had been deluded would be well-nigh intolerable; but the feeling that they had deluded others would be crushing.
3. The destitution in which the departure of the hope would involve the soul. Christianity works a most radical change in a man. It effects a regeneration. Under its influence man becomes a new creation; old things pass away, all things become new; what he once loved he loathes, what he once sought he shuns, what he once valued he despises, what things were gain to him he counts loss. On the discovery therefore of the delusion, he would be left in possession of tastes and desires for which there was no provision. A thousand times worse is the state of such a soul than that of a parched traveller, who, beneath the agonising fires of thirst, falls prostrate on the Oriental sands, many leagues away from the refreshing streams. Conclusion: Thank God this is only hypothetic. The apostle does not speak as if he had any doubt, but in order to bring out the glorious fact on which it rests with greater fire and force. But now is Christ risen from the dead, etc.
We have hope in a blessed future, and therefore–
1. When bereavement snatches from our embrace the dearest objects of our heart, let us not sorrow as do others.
2. Let us not envy the wicked in their prosperity, but bear up with fortitude, knowing that our light afflictions which are but for a moment, etc.
3. Let us labour earnestly to indoctrinate all within our reach with the soul-saving principles of the everlasting word. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Life most miserable without hope in Christ
These words have been a cause of much distress. Christians have felt that their hope in Christ made this life joyful to them. No doubt the very name hope implies a looking forward. But they do not find that the mere thought of a change in their position constitutes their blessedness. Lo, I am with you always; My peace I give unto you; there, they say, is the secret of it. Certainly they have a right to claim St. Paul in general as the witness and highest authority for their persuasion. All things are yours, etc., he said to these very Corinthians. He speaks of himself as rejoicing in tribulation. He wished that Aguippa, Festus, and Bernice, and all who heard him, were both almost and altogether such as he was, except those bonds. Was, then, that so terrible an exception, that he regarded the worshippers of false gods less miserable, as far as this life went, than he was? Does any one who knows anything of St. Pauls life and words believe this? Those very bonds became a cause of exultation to him, because through them Christs name was made known in Rome. He counted, not some future promised felicity, but his office as an apostle of the Gentiles, which caused him to be the offscouring of all things, the highest privilege ever bestowed upon a mortal. Is this a man who was likely to say, I am utterly miserable here; but I can endure my lot, for I shall he well paid hereafter? But if that is not the meaning of the words, what is it?
1. The Corinthians had heard him say, We are risen with Christ. A party of them had built on this the conclusion that their spiritual resurrection was all that Christ had procured for them. St. Paul shows them that they were turning this half-truth, not to the destruction of the other half merely, but of itself. If they were not to rise in their bodies, Christ their Lord had not risen in His body. The very ground of the spiritual resurrection, of which they boasted, was their union with Him. God had justified them in Him. The new doctrine, in effect, disclaimed, his relation between them and Him. It left them a set of poor, separated, unredeemed creatures; yet in their sins. It was very miserable to believe such a contradiction as this would be.
2. Christ had broken through the barriers of death, had brought the visible and the invisible world into one. Those who said The Resurrection only concerns us here, established this separation again, and treated Death as to all intents and purposes the ultimate ruler, Life as shut up within threescore years and ten of conflict. This was to confound the dim hope of all nations. When the sense of present misery was very acute, there was a prophecy, arising in some minds almost to a conviction, that the other side of death might offer a compensation. Had not St. Paul a right to say then If we possess all that Christ came to give us, He has taken from us something which He has not taken from any others. That which has never been altogether a blank to them, in which there have been some bright Elysian spots, has become entirely a blank to us. But it may be said, The apostle speaks of a hope in Christ. What could such a hope have to do with dreams of Greeks or Goths respecting an Elysium or a Walhalla? Being heathens, they certainly could not hope in Him. But the principle which underlies all the apostles teaching is that when Christ took flesh and dwelt among men, He declared Himself to be that King, whose manifestation in His own true and proper nature all had been desiring. If this be so, I cannot imagine how he could describe any hope which had ever been entertained by any human being, except as a hope in Christ. The gods whom Greeks or Goths worshipped could have kindled no hopes in them, only a vague, inconceivable dread. Whatever hope they had came from a secret source, a hidden root. The apostle, then, might truly say, that if the Corinthians who professed to believe that Jesus was the Christ, made His work upon earth an excuse for not looking beyond the earth, they had parted with some of the hope in Christ which their heathen brethren possessed.
3. But there is an ampler justification of the apostles words. He had a much deeper impression of the misery of the world around him than any person who did not believe in the gospel could have had. The devil-worship and the sin which prevailed was revolting to him who worshipped a God of love, and who believed that the Spirit of Christ had come among men to make them after His image. Feeling as he did their misery, it would absolutely have crushed him if in this life only he had had hope in Christ, if he could have measured the future of mankind merely by anything that he saw or had yet experienced. The thought which we should often bring before ourselves as we walk our streets, and as we read of what is doing in other parts of the world, is–Are our hopes in Christ, for those whom we see perishing in filth, in ignorance, in moral debasement, only hopes for this life? Is the wisdom of rulers, the godliness of teachers, the benevolence of societies, all which seems to us to intervene between them and utter, absolute ruin? Oh, then, surely we must be of all men most miserable! To think of all the wickedness which is crowded into the most fortunate corner of this earth, and not to feel something very like despair, is very difficult. It would be impossible, if we were not encouraged and commanded to place our hopes, not in what we are doing, but in what Christ has done by His death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Holy Spirit. If we think that nothing is given yet; that we are merely to look for something to come, we are most miserable. If we think that all has been given–that we have nothing to long for–we are most miserable. But if we accept the signs and pledges of a perfect sacrifice made once for all, the vision of Him who died once and reigneth for evermore will become brighter and clearer. (F. D. Maurice, M.A.)
Alas for us, if thou wert all, and nought beyond, O earth
The apostle does not say that all men are now miserable if there be no hope of the world to come. There are very many who never think of another life, who are quite happy in their way. But he speaks of Christian people, who are known by this, that they have hope in Christ–hope in His blood for pardon, in His righteousness for justification, in His power for support, in His resurrection for eternal glory.
I. We are not of all men most miserable. He who shall affirm that Christianity makes men miserable is an utter stranger to it. For see–
1. To what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God. Shall His foes have mirth, and His own home-born be wretched? We are married unto Christ, and shall our great Bridegroom permit His spouse to linger in grief? The Christian is a king, and shall the king be the most melancholy of men?
2. What God has done for us! The Christian knows that his sins are forgiven. And shall the pardoned offender be less happy than the man upon whom the wrath of God abideth? Moreover, we are made temples of the Holy Ghost, and are these dark, dolorous places? Our God is a God of love, and it is His very nature to make His creatures happy.
3. Their actual joy and peace. Our joy may not be like that of the sinner, noisy and boisterous. As the crackling of thorns under a pot–a great deal of blaze and much noise, and then a handful of ashes, and it is all over. The Chiristians joy does not depend upon circumstances. We have seen the happiest men in the most sorrowful conditions. Every Christian will bear wines that he has found his sad times to be his glad times, his losses to be his gains, his sickness means to promote his souls health. We can rejoice even in death.
II. Without the hope of another life we should be of all men most miserable. This is true, not merely of persecuted, and despised, and poverty-stricken Christians, but of all believers. Note that the Christian–
1. Has renounced those common and ordinary sources of joy from which other men drink. We must have some pleasure. Well, then, there is a vessel filled with muddy, filthy water which the camels feet have stirred: shall I drink it? I see yonder a cool, clear stream, and I say, I will not drink this; I will drink of that. But if it be but the deceitful mirage, then I am worse off than those who were content with the muddy water. So the Christian passes by the pleasures of sin, because he says, I do not care for them, my happiness flows from the river which springs from the throne of God and flows to me through Christ–I will drink of that, but if that were proved to be a deception, then were we more wretched than the profligate.
2. Has learned the vanity of all earthly joys. We have chosen eternal things which are satisfying to the soul. Bat it is the most unhappy to know that this world is vain, if there be not another world abundantly to compensate for all our ills. There is a poor lunatic in Bedlam plaiting straw into a crown which he puts upon his head, and calls himself a king. Do you think that I would undeceive him? Nay, verily. If the delusion makes the man happy, by all means let him indulge in it; but you and I have been undeceived; our dream of perfect bliss beneath the skies is gone for ever; what then if there be no world to come?
3. Has had high, noble, and great expectations, and this is a very sad thing for us if our expectations be not fulfilled. I have known poor men expecting a legacy, and the relative has died and left them nothing; their poverty has ever afterwards seemed to be a heavier drag than before. Poverty is infinitely better endured by persons who were always poor, than by those who have been rich. The Christian has learned to think of eternity, of God, of Christ, and if indeed it be all false, the best thing he could do would be to sit down and weep for ever.
4. Has learned to look upon everything here as fleeting. Well, this is a very unhappy thing, if there be no world to come.
III. Our chief joy in the hope of the world to come. There is–
1. Rest.
2. Victory.
3. Happiness.
4. Perfection.
IV. Thus the future operates upon the present. Here is a man who has a machine for his factory. He wants steam power to work this machine. An engineer puts up a steam engine in a shed at some distance. Well, said the other, I asked you to bring steam power here, to operate upon my machine. That is precisely, says he, what I have done. I put the engine there, you have but to connect it by a band and your machine works as fast as you like; it is not necessary that I should put it just under your nose. So God has been pleased to make our hopes of the future a great engine wherewith the Christian may work the ordinary machine of every-day life, for the band of faith connects the two, and makes all the wheels of ordinary life revolve with rapidity and regularity. To speak against preaching the future as though it would make people neglect the present is as though somebody would say, There, take away the moon, and blot out the sun. What is the use of them–they are not in this world! Precisely so, but take away the moon and you have removed the tides, and the sea becomes a stagnant, putrid pool. Then take away the sun, and light, and heat, and life; everything is gone. Do you believe that apostles and martyrs would ever have sacrificed their lives for truths sake if they had not looked for a hereafter? In the heat of excitement, the soldier may die for honour, but to die in tortures and mockeries in cold blood needs a hope beyond the grave. Would yon poor man go on toiling year after year, refusing to sacrifice his conscience for gain; would yon poor needle-girl refuse to become the slave of lust if she did not see something brighter than earth can picture to her as the reward of sin? The most practical thing in all the world is the hope of the world to come; for it is just this which keeps us from being miserable; and to keep a man from being miserable it is to do a great thing for him, for a miserable Christian–what is the use of him? But the man who has a hope of the next world goes about his work strong, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
V. This will let us see clearly what our future is to be. There are some persons here to whom my text has nothing whatever to say. Suppose there were no hereafter, would they be more miserable? Why, no; they would be more happy. Do you see, then, this proves that you are not a Christian; for if you were, the taking away of a hereafter would make you miserable. Well, then, what have I to say to you? Why just this–that in the world to come you will be of all men most miserable. What will become of you? said an infidel once to a Christian man, supposing there should be no heaven? Well, said he, I like to have two strings to my bow. If there be no hereafter I am as well off as you are; if there be I am infinitely better off. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The importance of the Resurrection
St. Paul, in this great passage, makes Christianity answer with its life for the truth of our Lords resurrection from the dead (1Co 15:14). If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we have made a capital mistake, and are of all men most miserable.
I. What, then, is the hope respecting a future which we owe to our risen Lord? Is it the hope that we shall exist for ever? Is our continuous existence hereafter altogether dependent upon faith in and communion with the risen Christ? No, our immortality is not a gift of the Redeemer; it is the gift of the Creator. Belief in a future state does not begin with Christianity. It is as deeply rooted in the human soul as belief in God. In some sense it is wellnigh universal. The honour so widely paid to the graves of ancestors is a natural expression of belief in their survival after death. It was this belief which made an ancient Egyptian deem the embalming of his mummy the most important thing that could happen to him: it was this belief which built, the pyramids, which rendered the Greek mysteries of Eleusis so welcome to those upon whom the old popular religion had lost its power, and which made great thinkers, such as Plato, at least in their higher moods, capable of thoughts and aspirations which Christians, in all ages, have welcomed as almost anticipating their own.
II. But to what sort of immortality does this anticipation point? It is not the immortality–
1. Of the race. How is this shadowy survival entitled to the name of immortality? A race of beings does not live apart from the individuals which compose it.
2. Of fame. How many of us will have a place in the public memory and live in history? For most of us life is made up of duties of so humble a kind that they hardly have a place in our own memories from day to day, much less in those of others. But if there is no life after death, what is to become of them, that is, what is to become of this kind of immortality in the case of the greater part of the human race? Is not this immortality only a perpetuation of inequalities which disfigure our earthly life, and of which a future of absolute truth and justice would know nothing?
3. Of our good deeds. To say that a man lives in his good actions may be Christian language (Rev 14:13). To this day the saints of the Bible history live in the works which are recorded of them. But, there are actions in all true and saintly lives which are known only to God, and which, so far as we can see, have no certain consequences here. But if the soul perishes at death, in what sense are they immortal? And are our good deeds our only deeds? Have not our evil deeds–some of them–consequences; and do these consequences punish the agent, if he really perishes at death? Others than he are punished. No; the immortality of our actions is not an immortality which satisfies the yearnings of the heart of man, since this yearning is based always and especially on its sense of justice.
II. What, then, is the hope in Christ which redeems Christian life from the failure and misery alluded to in the text. It is the hope, that through His precious death and His glorious resurrection, our inevitable immortality will be an immortality of bliss. Of course it is not denied that He has brought life and immortality to light. For multitudes before He came it was a vague and dreary anticipation: He has made it a blessed and welcome certainty. He has familiarised us with the idea that all live unto God (Luk 20:37-38); and He has further taught the future resurrection of the body, as completing the life beyond the grave (Joh 6:40). He thus has altogether removed the question from the region of speculation into that of certainty, founded upon experience; since when He rose from death He was Himself but the first-fruits from the dead. But the hope in Christ is the hope of a blessed immortality. This He has won for us by His one perfect and sufficient sacrifice on the Cross, whereby our sins are blotted out, and the grace of His Spirit and His new nature is secured to us, so as to fit us, by sanctification, for His eternal presence. Apart from this conviction, Christianity is a worthless dream; the efforts and sacrifices of the Christian life are wasted; we are the victims of a great delusion; we are of all men most miserable. Conclusion:
1. There are signs in our day that faith in a future after death is less taken for granted than was the case a generation ago. One of these signs is the increased number of suicides all over Europe. There are not merely the pathetic suicides of the very wretched, there are the suicides of votaries of pleasure, who having exhausted all the facilities of enjoyment, throw it away like a toy which has ceased to please. Suicides like these mean that the opportunities for enjoyment have in certain classes outrun the power to enjoy. Suicides are only possible when through continuous enervation of the moral nature the awful realities of immortality have been lost sight of: and their increase is a serious symptom of what must be passing in large classes of minds.
2. Much seems to show that in the modern world two entirely different beliefs about man are confounded with each other. According to one of these man is really only the highest of the beasts that perish. Opposed to this idea is the Christian belief that man differs from the lower creatures altogether, except in the fact that he owns a body, which is governed by the same laws as theirs. For man, his body, instead of being the substantive and central part of his being, is an appendage. The soul of man no more dies when it leaves the body than the musical genius which makes that organ do so much to aid the devotion of Gods people forfeits its knowledge and its skill when it ceases to touch the key-board. In man the central or substantive feature is the soul; and of the life of the soul, this earthly life in the body is but a very small portion indeed. It is related to what follows, as is a brief preface to a very voluminous book: it throws light on what is to come; it is relatively insignificant. The things which are seen are temporal: the things which are not seen are eternal. (Canon Liddon.)
The penalty of piety and its promise
These words
I. Demand explanation of us.
1. Only the heavenly hope could compensate for the severity of their earthly experiences (2Co 6:11.). Speaking for himself, and having in view all of every kind that he was enduring for the sake of the gospel, he felt that all the peace and comfort which solaced other mens lives were absent from his own, and he concluded that without that grand compensation which was in store, he and they were the most to be pitied of all men.
2. In that case they were the victims of a miserable delusion. They were basing their whole life on a faith which was a falsehood; they were building everything on a rotten foundation; they were spending all their energies and surrendering all their opportunities to teach men that which their disciples were bound to disbelieve (1Co 15:14). They might well be pitied as the dupes of a dream.
II. Provide suggestions for us.
1. That there are consequences attending unswerving faithfulness we must all be prepared to meet. Not now the lash or the dungeon. It may be the biting sarcasm or the polite irony, etc. But it must be that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2Ti 3:12).
2. That delusion is always pitiable. Men may be buoyed up by false hopes, and it may seem at a superficial glance that the cherishing of the error is positively gainful. But it is always better to walk in the light than to wander in the darkness. They who give way to plausible but unsound doctrine are to be pitied, however fair in the face these doctrines may be, however excellent be the spirit and intention of those that hold them.
3. That genuine piety has within it sources of pure and lasting joy (1Ti 4:8; 1Ti 6:6); and if the Manor Sorrows could speak of His joy so may we. (W. Clarkson, B.A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. If in this life only we have hope] It would be better to translate and point this verse as follows:-
And, if in this life we have hoped in Christ only, we are more to be pitied than all men. If, in this life, we have no other hope and confidence but in Christ, (and if he be still dead, and not yet risen,) we are more to be pitied than any other men; we are sadly deceived; we have denied ourselves, and been denied by others; have mortified ourselves, and been persecuted by our fellow creatures on account of our belief and hope in One who is not existing, and therefore can neither succour us here, nor reward us hereafter. Bishop Pearce.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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, 1Co 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, 1Co 15:30, he died daily, 1Co 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: 1Pe 1:3, we are said to be begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. If our hopes in Christ werelimited to this life only, we should be, of all men, most to bepitied; namely, because, while others live unmolested, we are exposedto every trial and persecution, and, after all, are doomed to bitterdisappointment in our most cherished hope; for all our hope ofsalvation, even of the soul (not merely of the body), hangs on theresurrection of Christ, without which His death would be of no availto us (Eph 1:19; Eph 1:20;1Pe 1:3). The heathen are”without hope” (Eph 2:12;1Th 4:13). We should be evenworse, for we should be also without present enjoyment (1Co4:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If in this life only we have hope in Christ,…. The object of a believer’s hope is not any creature, man, or angel; nor any creature enjoyment, as gold and silver; nor any creature righteousness, moral, legal, and civil; nor any external privilege, or profession of religion; but Christ alone as a surety, Saviour, and Redeemer; his person, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and fulness: and what they hope for in him are, all grace, and the supplies of it; the forgiveness of their sins, the justification of their persons, eternal life and salvation; grace here, and glory hereafter; for all which they have great reason and encouragement to hope in him; but if their hope in him was only in this life, or whilst this life lasts; if they had not hope in death, that they should live again, and after death for the resurrection of their bodies; or if they hoped in Christ only for the things of this life, or as the Arabic version renders it, “if we from Christ, and by him, expect happiness in this world only”; if our hope in him is bounded with this life, and confined to the things of it, and does not reach to the things of another life, the things of eternity, the invisible glories of another world, to be enjoyed in soul and body;
we are of all men the most miserable; which may have respect not only to the apostles, though eminently true of them, who had little of the comforts of this life, being continually exposed to hardships and persecution for the sake of Christ; were set forth as a spectacle to angels and men; were accounted the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things; and suffered many indignities, and great reproach and affliction, and that for asserting the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; but is also true of all others that hope in Christ, and believe in him; for these not only deny themselves the pleasures, honours, and profits of this world, but are exposed continually to the hatred, reproach, and persecution of it; they are chastised by God as other men are, that they may not be condemned with the world, and yet they must be condemned, if Christ is not risen; they are harassed and distressed by Satan, who follows them with his temptations and suggestions, which are so many fiery darts, which give them great pain and uneasiness, when others are unmolested by him; they groan under a body of sin they carry about with them, and desire and long to be unclothed, that they might be clothed upon with glory and immortality; and yet these very desires and earnest longings after a blessed eternity do but add to their misery, if there is no foundation for them, and they will at last be frustrated: these are the sad conclusions, and wretched absurdities that must follow, upon the denial of the resurrection of the dead, and of Christ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We have hoped ( ). Periphrastic perfect active indicative. Hope limited to this life even if “in Christ.”
Only () qualifies the whole clause.
Most pitiable (). Comparative form, not superlative, of old adjective , to be pitied, pitiable. If our hope is limited to this life, we have denied ourselves what people call pleasures and have no happiness beyond. The Epicureans have the argument on us. Paul makes morality turn on the hope of immortality. Is he not right? Witness the breaking of moral ties today when people take a merely animal view of life.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Only. To be taken with the whole clause, at the end of which it stands emphatically. If in this life we are hopers in Christ, and if that is all. If we are not such as shall have hope in Christ after we shall have fallen asleep.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “If in this life only we have hope in Christ (ei en te zoe taute en christo elpikotes esmen monon) “If we exist in this life, having hoped only in Christ,” then He be found to be a fraud, an impostor; if there is no hereafter, as some claimed, we are fools, Heb 10:32-39.
2) “We are of all men most miserable.” (eleeinoteroi panton anthropon esmen) “We are more pitiful than all men.” We are more than all people of earth to be pitied, if our hope in Christ ends with death. How futile to forfeit, give up all material things in this life and to find that death ends all! Not so!! 1Co 15:55-57.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. But if in this life Here is another absurdity — that we do not merely by believing lose our time and pains, inasmuch as the fruit of it perishes at our death, but it were better for us not to believe; for the condition of unbelievers were preferable, and more to be desired. To believe in this life means here to limit the fruit of our faith to this life, so that our faith looks no farther, and does not extend beyond the confines of the present life. This statement shows more clearly that the Corinthians had been imposed upon by some mistaken fancy of a figurative resurrection, such as Hymeneus and Philetus, as though the last fruit of our faith were set before us in this life. (2Ti 2:17.) For as the resurrection is the completion of our salvation, and as to all blessings is, as it were, the farthest goal, (43) the man who says that our resurrection is already past, leaves us nothing better to hope for after death. However this may be, this passage gives at all events no countenance to the frenzy of those who imagine that the soul sleeps as well as the body, until the day of the resurrection. (44) They bring forward, it is true, this objection — that if the soul continued to live when separated from the body, Paul would not have said that, if the resurrection were taken away, we would have hope only in this life, inasmuch as there would still be some felicity remaining for the soul. To this, however, I reply, that Paul did not dream of Elysian fields, (45) and foolish fables of that sort, but takes it for granted, that the entire hope of Christians looks forward to the final day of judgment — that pious souls do even at this day rest in the same expectation, and that, consequently, we are bereft of everything, if a confidence of this nature deceives us.
But why does he say that we would be the most miserable of all men, as if the lot of the Christian were worse than that of the wicked? For all things, says Solomon, happen alike to the good and to the bad. (Ecc 9:2.) I answer, that all men, it is true, whether good or bad, are liable to distresses in common, and they feel in common the same inconveniences, and the same miseries; but there are two reasons why Christians have in all ages fared worse, in addition to which, there was one that was peculiar to the times of Paul. The first is, that while the Lord frequently chastises the wicked, too, with his lashes, and begins to inflict his judgments upon them, he at the same time peculiarly afflicts his own in various ways; — in the first place, because he chastises those whom he loves, (Heb 12:6😉 and secondly, in order that he may train them to patience, that he may try their obedience, and that he may gradually prepare them by the cross for a true renovation. However it may be as to this, that statement always holds good in the case of believers It is time, that judgment should begin at the house of God. (Jer 25:29; 1Pe 4:17 (46)) Again,
we are reckoned as sheep appointed for slaughter. (Psa 44:22.)
Again,
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col 3:3.)
Meanwhile, the condition of the wicked is for the most part the more desirable, because the Lord feeds them up, as hogs for the day of slaughter.
The second reason is, that believers, even though they should abound in riches and in blessings of every kind, they nevertheless do not go to excess, and do not gormandize at their ease; in fine, they do not enjoy the world, as unbelievers do, but go forward with anxiety, constantly groaning, (2Co 5:2,) partly from a consciousness of their weakness, and partly from an eager longing for the future life. Unbelievers, on the other hand, are wholly intent on intoxicating themselves with present delights. (47)
The third reason, which was peculiar, as I have said, to the age of the Apostle, is — that at that time the name of Christians was so odious and abominable, that no one could then take upon himself the name of Christ without exposing his life to imminent peril. It is, therefore, not without good reason that he says that Christians would be the most miserable of all men, if their confidence were confined to this world.
(43) This statement as to the resurrection is strikingly in contrast with the celebrated sentiment of Horace. (Epist. 1:16, 79.) “ Mors est ultima linea rerum;” — “Death is the ultimate limit of things.” Heathen philosophers denied the possibility of a resurrection. Thus Pliny, Hist. Nat. L. 2, c. 7, says — “ Revocare defunctos ne Deus qidem potest;” — “To call back the dead is what God himself cannot do.”
(44) Pareus, in commenting on this passage, adverts in the following terms to the tenet above referred to — “ Nequaquam vero hinc sequitur, quod Psychopannychitae finxerunt: animas post mortem dormire, aut in nihilum cum corporibus redigi. Perire enim dicuntur infideles quoad animas, non physice, quod corruptae intercant; sed theologice, quod viventes felicitatern coelestem non consequantur; sed in tartara ad paenas solae vel cum corporibus tandem detrudantur;” — “By no means, however, does it follow from this, according to the contrivance of the soul-sleepers, that souls sleep after death, or are reduced to nothing along with the body. For unbelievers are said to perish as to their souls, not physically, as though they corrupted, and died, but theologically, because, while living they do not attain heavenly felicity, but are at length thrust down to hell for punishment, alone, or along with the body.” — Ed.
(45) Described at great length by Virgil. (AEn. 6, 637-703.) — Ed.
(46) Calvin, in commenting on 1Pe 4:17, when speaking of judgment beginning at the house of God, says: “ Ideo dicit Paulus, (1Co 15:19,) Christianos sublata fide resurrectionis, omnium hominum miserrimos fore: et merito, quia dum alii absque metu sibi indulgent, assidue ingemiscunt fideles: dum aliorum peccata dissimulat Deus, et altos torpore sinit, suos sub cruets disciplina multo rigidins exercet;” — “Hence Paul says, and justly, (1Co 15:19,) that Christians, if the hope of a resurrection were taken away, would be of all men the most miserable, because, while others indulge themselves without fear, believers incessantly groan: while God seems to let the sins of others pass unnoticed, and allows others to be in a torpid state, he exercises his own people more strictly under the discipline of the cross.” — Ed.
(47) “ Es voluptez et delices de ce monde;” — “With the pleasures and delights of this world.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
19. In this life The Sadducees, Stoics, and Epicureans held to rewards of virtue in this life. Paul could concede that; but when they proceeded to add in this life only, he objected.
Most miserable Rather, most pitiable. They were more pitiable than either of the above three sects, because they underwent persecution, privation, and martyrdom; but still more because, on the supposition stated, they did all this inflated with false visions of eternal glory hereafter. And so pagan authors held the Christian readiness for suffering and death an infatuation. Said the philosopher Epictetus, “Is it possible that a man may arrive at this temper and become indifferent to those things, from madness or from habit, like the Galileans?” And the Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Let this preparedness of mind (for death) arise from its own judgment, and not from obstinacy, like the Christians.”
‘If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.’
For the fact is that in spite of all that He brought men, without the gift of eternal life which He promised, and which was the great hope he offered men, all else that He brought will be seen as a chimera, a dream, a pretence. What good is hope without fulfilment? We will have been filled with hope in vain and only misery will result from becoming aware if it. We will be the most miserable of men.
1Co 15:19. We are of all men most miserable. Most pitiable. Doddridge. It is quite foreign to the purpose to argue from this text, as some have done, that if there were no future state, holiness and virtue would make men more miserable than they would otherwise be. It is evident that St. Paul here speaks not of the case of good men in general, if we could possibly suppose that their hopes of future happiness should, after all, be disappointed; but of the case of the Apostles, and other first preachers and professorsofChristianity,if,amidstalltheir hardships and persecutions, they were not supported by this hope. To be a Christian, in those days, was to be an example of well-tried holiness and virtue, of true wisdom, and of consummate fortitude; to be exposed to scorn, to infamy, and to death; to be pointed at as a fool, a madman, an enthusiast; to be reviled as an atheist, and an enemy to all religion; to be punished as a robber and murderer; to lose fame, and friends, and comfort; and to be exposed to every thing at which human nature shudders, and which a person of the greatest courage, unassisted by divine grace, would certainly endeavour to evade. Destitute therefore of the hope of the resurrection amid these sufferings, they must have been perpetuallysubjected to the upbraidings of their own minds, for sacrificing every view of happiness in this world, to advance what they knew to be a pernicious falsehood. Perhaps there never was a set of men on earth so wretched as they must have been on this supposition.
1Co 15:19 . Sad lot of the Christians (not simply of the apostles, as Grotius and Rosenmller would have it), if this . turn out to be true! “If we are nothing more than such, as in this life have their hope in Christ, not at the same time such, as even when will hope in Christ, [41] then are we more wretched,” etc. In other words: “If the hope of the future glory (this object of the Christian hope is obvious of itself, 1Co 13:13 ; Rom 5:2 ), which the Christian during his temporal life places in Christ, comes to nought with this life, inasmuch as death transports him into a condition through which the Christian hope proves itself to be a delusion, namely, into the condition of , then are we Christians more wretched,” etc.
The correct reading is . . . . . See the critical remarks. In . the main emphasis falls upon , as the opposite of (comp. Rom 8:38 ; 1Co 3:22 ; Phi 1:20 ; Luk 16:25 ), not upon (so commonly); and belongs to the whole . . . . , so that the adverb is put last for emphasis (Khner, ad Xen. Anab. ii. 5. 14, ii. 6. 1), not simply to . . , as it is usually explained: “If we are such as only for this life (‘dum hic vivimus,’ Piscator) have placed their hope in Christ,” Billroth. This trajection of would be in the highest degree violent and irrational. The perfect indicates the continued subsistence during this life of the hope cherished; 2Co 1:10 ; 1Ti 4:10 , al. See Bernhardy, p. 378; Ast, ad Plat. Legg. p. 408. Comp. the so frequent in Homer; Duncan, Lex. , ed. Rost, p. 368. That the hope has an end with the present life, is not implied in the perfect (Hofmann), but in the whole statement from on to . The participle again with does not stand for the tempus finitum , but the predicate is brought into peculiar relief (Khner, II. p. 40), so that it is not said what we do , but what we are (Hoffer). Comp. as early as Erasmus, Annot. As regards , comp. Eph 1:12 ; 1Ti 6:17 ; the hope is in Christo reposita , rests in Christ. Comp. ; see on Gal 3:26 . Rckert is wrong in connecting . with (equivalent to . ): “If we in the course of this life have placed our whole confidence on Christ alone , have (at the end of our life) disdained every other ground of hope and despised every other source of happiness, and yet Christ is not risen is able to perform nothing of what was promised; then are we the most unhappy,” etc. Against this may be decisively urged both the position of and the wholly arbitrary way in which the conditioning main idea is supplied (“and if yet Christ is not risen”). According to Baur, what is meant to be said is: “if the whole contents of our life were the mere hoping,” which, namely, never passes into fulfilment. But in that way a pregnancy of meaning is made to underlie the , which must have been at least indicated by the arrangement: . . .
. ] more worthy of compassion than all men , namely, who are in existence besides us Christians. Comp. the passages in Wetstein. Regarding the form , which is current with Plato also (in opposition to Ast) and others, instead of , see Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 87; Bornemann, ad Xen. Anab. iv. 4. 11, Lips. In how far the Christians supposing them to be nothing more than persons who build their hope upon Christ so long as they live , who therefore after their death will see the hope of their life concerning the future vanish away are the most wretched of all men, is clear of itself from their distinctive position, inasmuch, namely, as for the sake of what is hoped for they take upon themselves privation, self-denial, suffering, and distresses (Rom 8:18 ; 2Co 4:17 f.; Col 3:3 ), and then in death notwithstanding fall a prey to the . In this connection of the condition until death with the disappointment after death would lie the , the tragic nothingness of the Christian moral eudaemonism, which sees in Christ its historical basis and divine warrant. The unbelieving, on the contrary, live on carelessly and in the enjoyment of the moment. Comp. 1Co 15:32 , and see Calvin’s exposition.
[41] The conception of the does not so coincide here with that of the , as Lipsius assumes, Rechtfertigungsl . p. 209.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Ver. 19. Most miserable ] Because none out of hell ever suffered more than the saints have done.
19 .] Assuming this of the dead in Christ, the state of Christians is indeed miserable. It has perhaps not been enough seen that there are here two emphases , and that belongs to the aggregate of both. According to the ordinary interpretation, ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ ,’ it would be implied that in reality we shall have hope in Christ in another state also, which would not agree with the perfect . The right arrangement of the Greek gives the key to the sentence: ( ) , ‘if all we have done is merely having hoped in Christ in this life ,’ ‘if it is there to end, and that hope have no result ’
The perf. . implies the endurance of the hope through our lives.
. .] We are most to he pitied (most miserable) of all men ; viz. because they, all other men, live at ease, we on the contrary are ever exposed to danger and death: because our hope is more intense than that of all others, and leads us to forego more: and to be disappointed in it , would be the height of misery.
1Co 15:19 expresses the infinite bitterness of such a deception. In the right order of words (see txtl. note), is attached to ( cf. Luk 24:21 ): “If in this life we have only had hope in Christ” no present deliverance from sin, no future inheritance in heaven “we are more than all men to be pitied”. for a hope without legitimate basis or ultimate fruition, Christians have sacrificed all material good! ( cf. 1Co 15:30 ff., 1Co 4:11 ff.; Heb 10:32-39 , Luk 18:22 , etc.). = (1Ti 4:10 ), with stress laid on the actual condition of those who have formed this futile hope. points to Christ as the ground of Christian hope ( cf. Phi 2:19 ). brings to mind all that the Christian forfeits here and now losing “this life” for the vain promise of another, letting earth go in grasping at a fancied heaven; no wonder the world pities us! Ed [2333] ad loc [2334] answers well the censure passed on the Ap., as though he made the worth of goodness depend on its future reward: (1) P. does not say “we are more worthless ” a good man may be very “pitiable,” and all the more because of his worth; (2) on Paul’s hypothesis (1Co 15:17 ), moral character is undermined, while future happiness is destroyed, by denial of the Resurrection.
[2333] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2
[2334] ad locum , on this passage.
life. Greek. zoe. App-170.
have hope = are having our hope.
of all men, &c. = more to be pitied than all men.
men. Greek. anthropos. App-123. be
put down is death [Satan].
19.] Assuming this of the dead in Christ, the state of Christians is indeed miserable. It has perhaps not been enough seen that there are here two emphases, and that belongs to the aggregate of both. According to the ordinary interpretation, If in this life only we have hope in Christ , it would be implied that in reality we shall have hope in Christ in another state also, which would not agree with the perfect . The right arrangement of the Greek gives the key to the sentence: ( ) ,-if all we have done is merely having hoped in Christ in this life, if it is there to end, and that hope have no result
The perf. . implies the endurance of the hope through our lives.
. .] We are most to he pitied (most miserable) of all men; viz. because they, all other men, live at ease,-we on the contrary are ever exposed to danger and death: because our hope is more intense than that of all others, and leads us to forego more: and to be disappointed in it, would be the height of misery.
1Co 15:19. , if) The statement of those topics which are discussed at 1Co 15:20, etc., precedes this verse and 1Co 15:18 : and in this verse, there is a statement of those topics, which are treated of at 1Co 15:29-34.-, in) , 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, .-, life) Scripture does not readily call this life, life; oftener, it call it , the age: here it is spoken of after the manner of men, as Luk 16:25.- , we have hoped) we have believed with joyful anticipation of the future.-, 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. This is the second weighty consideration; the first is, that the happiness of Christians is not placed in worldly things. By both of these weighty considerations, happiness from the hope of the resurrection is confirmed.
1Co 15:19
1Co 15:19
If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.–If all we have done is merely having hoped in Christ in this life, if it is there to end, we are of all men most pitiable. We may gain an idea of what Paul suffered for Christ from his own account: Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. (2Co 11:23-28).
[It is not the fulfillment of the moral law which is here in question; no natural duty imposed on Paul a life of labors, privations, and sufferings of all kinds such as he accepted, and which should be accepted by all Christians in the service of Christ. The free choice of such a life can only be justified by the hope of the most excellent blessings and these blessings consist by no means of certain external pleasures granted by way of reward, but in the satisfaction of the noblest and most elevated wants of human nature, of the aspiration after holiness and life eternal. To see these blessings escape, where all inferior ones have been sacrificed to gain them-to have renounced earth for heaven, and instead of heaven to find perdition, like sinners-would not this still be a sadder condition than that of worldly men who at least allow themselves on earth a comfortable life and the lawful pleasures which were in their reach? To the sufferings accumulated during this life there would come to be added the most cruel disappointment after this life-no eternal life.]
this: Psa 17:14, Ecc 6:11, Ecc 9:9, Luk 8:14, Luk 21:34, 1Co 6:3, 1Co 6:4, 2Ti 2:4
hope: Eph 1:12, Eph 1:13, 1Th 1:3, 2Ti 1:12, 1Pe 1:21
of all: 1Co 4:9-13, Mat 10:21-25, Mat 24:9, Joh 16:2, Joh 16:33, Act 14:22, 2Ti 3:12, Rev 14:13
Reciprocal: Ecc 2:20 – General Rom 15:12 – in him Col 1:5 – the hope 1Th 4:13 – which have
THE ARGUMENT OF COMMON SENSE
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:19
Let me seek to show to any one who has any heart-love for the Lord Who died for him, how, when we begin to doubt as to the reality of the Lords Resurrection, we are verily approaching the state of those of whom the text speaks; and, if doubt passes into disbelief, must be of all men most miserable and most pitiable.
I. Is not this certainly true, that if we cannot feel sure that we have been redeemed from the powers of sin and death, our lot in this world must be the saddest conceivable? To feel sin within us and around us and blighting every effort for good, chilling every hope, thwarting every endeavour, and not also to feel that there is some countervailing influence, is to dwell within the very gates of despair.
II. If the Redeemer had not risen the power of sin must be deemed to have prevailed even over Him Who came to save us from it. Else why was its penalty, after having been endured for our sakes, not plainly shown to have had no enduring power on the Saviour of the world? If our dear Lord had not risen as He rose, with His own veritable body, with the wounds on His blessed hands and feet and side, I see not how the edge of such an argument could be turned, nor how any doubting soul could be brought to feel any real confidence whatever in its own Redemption! Redemption! and no token or trace of victory in the divinely appointed procedure by which Redemption was to be secured. Our dear Lord might doubtless have taken again His body even as He took it, but if no eye of man had beheld it, nor hand of man had touched it, where could have been the assurance to mankind either that Redemption had been won for us, and that death had been swallowed up in victory?
III. What is our highest and holiest hopethe most blessed hope of which our nature is susceptible? The answer may be easily given, and given, in part, in the words of an Apostle. The holiest hope that the heart of redeemed man can entertain is to behold the glorified face and form of Him Who rose this day, and having beheld it, to be for ever with Him. But how can we presume to entertain such a hope if we have any doubts as to that Lords bodily Resurrection? Is not this Resurrection of the body that which forms, so to speak, the link, the eternal link, between us and Him? If He had left His body where believing men had laid it, and that dear body had never been vivified and glorified, what really rational hope could we entertain of that union and communion in which Holy Scripture permits us, and even encourages us, to look for in our Redeemers kingdom? How could we sit down with Him at the marriage feast of the Lamb? How could we drink with Him the new fruit of the vine in the mystic union to which He Himself vouchsafed, while on earth, to allude, unless there was something, some element of glorified corporeity, in common, to such an extent as the finite can have aught in common with the infinite, between us and Him? His body must have risen; His body must have been borne through all the heavens to where it now is, at the right hand of God, for such thoughts as Scripture permits us to entertain to be thinkable and intelligible. There is the deepest ground for thinking that the reality of the union of the Redeemer with His own through the ages of eternity depends more, perhaps far more, on the whole circumstances of the Lords Resurrection as it is revealed to us in the Gospels, than has yet been distinctly set forth even in the best meditative theology.
Bishop Ellicott.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE DESTRUCTION OF HOPE
The Apostle calls his people to consider what life would be, and still more what death would be, if this hope of a Resurrection through Jesus were taken away.
I. What would it be for us to know that all was over for us when the last gasping breath left our dying lips, and our eyes closed for ever in an eternal death? Could we bear the idea of losing our separate being for ever? We know that the particles which make up our fleshly bodies will go back to earth and air, whence they were taken, will grow, it may be, once more in the blades of grass, and wave in the leaves of trees, and go on in the endless round in which this lower creation moves; but could we bear to think that would be all, and that there would be nothing left of this living, thinking I, which had loved and suffered, learned and striven? Could it be that we had learned so many lessons from the Holy Spirit of Godhad begun by degrees to submit our lower and animal nature to the higher and spiritual, and so drawn near to the Cause and Maker of alland that then all our hopes and longings, all our aspirations for what is noble and what is goodall our progress upwards towards the Throne of God, should be crushed into nothingness in an instant, as the grasp of our hand can crush a butterfly! That is what would be our lot without the good hope of Resurrection through the Gospel.
II. Or what would it be to bid an eternal farewell to all we had loved and cared for, and to know that we should see them no more, nor they us; and that each of us was to sink into a blank nothingness, apart and away from the other! Yet that would be the lot of every loving and trustful soul without the hope of a Future Life, brought to us by the Gospel of Jesus. This hope and prospect of another life is therefore the first consequence of the Incarnation of God the Son, the great light which has lightened the darkness of human lifethe very corner-stone of the Christian Faith. It is the special truth which we are taught by Eastertide, and therefore Easter is the Queen of Festivals, the great joy and crown of the Christian Year. It is the most precious of giftsis the gift of immortality.
III. Immortal life with Jesus and in the image of Jesus is the crown of blessings.Then only are we fit to enjoy everlasting life: then only are we strong enough to bear the burden of unnumbered ages of existence. We must lean on the idea of the Eternal Years of God, and so we shall be braced up to endure the life that lies before usand more, to enter into it and dwell in its glory with happiness and joy.
Illustration
There is a heathen story which tells that once a man asked for this giftnot to die; and it was granted to him by the Fates. He was to live on for ever. But he had forgotten to ask that his youth and health and strength might last for ever also: and so he lived on till age and its infirmities and weakness were weighing him down, and his life grew to be a weariness and a burden to him. Existence (for it could hardly be called life) was one long torment to him; and then he wished to die. He wished to die, and could not. He had asked for a thing which lie was totally unfit to enjoy, but he had to take the consequences of it when it was once given. It was a curse to him, not a blessing.
1Co 15:19. Another conclusion following this false theory advocated by some people at Corinth, is that all benefits to be had from being in Christ must be had in this life–nothing to be received after death. In that case Christians are the most miserable of all men, because they must be denied the pleasures of the world and also undergo many persecutions in behalf of their faith, with no prospect of any joys beyond the grave. While this was true especially of the apostles because of their direct contact with the enemy, it was and is still true of all faithful disciples of Christ. It is true that Christians should be the happiest people on earth, but that is because of their hope of endless bliss in the life to come.
1Co 15:19. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiablebuilding our hope of a future resurrection on a mere delusion, to die at length as a fool dieth.
1Co 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 , 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, 1Co 15:17; and if so, both soul and body must perish after death, 1Co 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. Macknight considers the apostle as answering an objection, which he supposes the reader to have made in his own mind, namely, this: The apostles know that Christ hath not risen, and that there will be no resurrection of the dead, but they preach these things for the sake of some present advantage. To this Paul replies, If in this life only we have hope, &c., we are of all men the most miserable Because, by preaching Christs resurrection, we expose ourselves to every possible present evil, and if there is to be no resurrection of the dead, there is no future state in which we can enjoy anything. This argument is levelled against the Sadducees, who, believing the soul to be material, affirmed that it perishes with the body; and will have no existence after death, the body being never to be raised. The apostles argument is equally conclusive on supposition that the soul is immaterial, and that it will exist and enjoy [happiness] after death, although the body is not raised. For if the apostles were false witnesses and impostors, they could look for no happiness from God after death.
Vv. 19. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Rckert makes the adverb only apply to the regimen in Christ: If we have rested all our hopes here below on Christ only… But in order that this conditional proposition might form a ground for the following inference, Paul would have required to add the idea: and this one hope ended in deceiving us. The position of , only, in the Greek clause, shows, besides, that this adverb bears on the clause as a whole, verb and subordinate clauses included: If we are men who have only our hope in Christ during the course of this life… The opposite, they are men whose hope in Christ is eternally realized above. We must not translate , in, in the sense of , for, which would lead to a slightly different idea.
The word is used here in the sense of , as in Luk 1:75; Luk 16:25, etc.
The position of the words , in Christ, after , is certainly the true one.
The apostle has been charged, on the ground of the last words of the verse, with taking up a very inferior moral standpoint, because he seems to say that the practice of virtue has no value in itself, but acquires it only by the reward which crowns it. Stoicism, with its maxim: Virtue is its own best reward, is, it is alleged, far superior to the apostle’s standpoint. But it is forgotten that it is not the fulfilment of the simple moral law which is here in question; no natural duty imposes on man a life of labours, privations, and sufferings of all kinds, such as that which the apostle accepted, and which should be accepted by Christians in general in the service of Christ. The free choice of such a life can only be justified by the hope of the most excellent blessings, and these blessings consist by no means of certain external pleasures granted by way of reward, but in the satisfaction of the noblest and most elevated wants of human nature, of the aspiration after holiness and life eternal. To see these blessings escape you, when all inferior ones have been sacrificed to gain them,to have renounced earth for heaven, and instead of heaven to find hell, like other sinners,for it is salvation that is in question here,would not this be a still sadder condition than that of worldly men who at least allowed themselves on the earth a comfortable life and the lawful pleasures which were within their reach? To the sufferings accumulated during this life there would come to be added the most cruel deception after this life. Is there not here enough to justify the apostle’s exclamation in the view of sound sense?
Thus, the resurrection of the dead falling, everything falls: (1) the resurrection of Christ Himself, 1Co 15:12-13; (2) the veracity of the apostolic testimony and the reality of the great object of Christian faith, 1Co 15:14-15; (3) salvation itself, with its eternal blessings, 1Co 15:16-19.
And now let us replace the foundation, which by supposition we had for a moment removed: the whole majestic edifice of the Christian salvation rises again before us even to its sublime consummation! Such are the contents of the following description, 1Co 15:20-28. The resurrection of the dead, closely bound up with the resurrection of Christ, appears as the fundamental fact on which rests the Christian hope to its furthest limit.
If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. [2Co 1:5-9; 1Co 11:23-32; 2Ti 3:12 . If, as the rationalists affirmed, there was no such thing as a resurrection, then Christ was not raised from the dead, and if he was not raised, the apostles and others who witnessed as to his resurrection had borne false testimony as to God, accusing him of doing what he had never done. They were also false witnesses as to the Corinthians, having given them a vain faith as to forgiveness and eternal life, when in reality they were yet in their sins, and doomed to receive the wages of sin which is death. They were also false witnesses as to the dead, for, instead of falling asleep in Jesus, the dead had perished. Moreover, they and other witnesses who had done all this, were wholly without excuse; for they had made others miserable without any profit whatever to themselves. If there was no resurrection and future reward for these witnesses, they must have testified falsely, hoping for some gain in this present life; but instead of such gain, these witnesses had drawn upon themselves from every quarter such storms of persecution as made their lives most pitiable–miserable enough to induce them to abandon so profitless a falsehood. The absolute self-sacrifice of such a life as Paul’s can be explained only by admitting that he believed his own testimony, and truly hoped for a resurrection and blessings in the future state. At this point he ceases to be the persuasive logician, and speaks as the authoritative, inspired prophet. Against the vain and erroneous reasonings of men he places the infallible and unfailing revelations of the Spirit]
19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. This follows as a legitimate sequence from the terrible persecutions which at that time everywhere set against them, and in which, not many years after this writing, Paul lost his head at Neros block. Since their leader had been cruelly murdered by the authorities of Church and State, they had no right to expect anything else but a similar fate. Hence, living amid the contempt and maltreatment of a wicked world, in a fallen church, in daily anticipation of martyrdom, they were certainly the most miserable people of the world if their hope was lost.
Verse 19
Most miserable; being exposed to the severest trials and persecutions in this life, and, if hope in Christ is to be abandoned, without any prospect of happiness in another.
15:19 {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.
If the Christian’s hope in Christ is just what he or she can expect this side of the grave, that one deserves pity. Of course there are some benefits to trusting Christ as we live here and now (cf. 1Ti 4:8). However, we have to place these things in the balance with what we lose in this life for taking a stand for Him (cf. Php 3:8; 1Co 4:4-5; 1Co 9:25). If we have nothing to hope for the other side of the grave, the Christian life would not be worth living.
To summarize his argument, Paul claimed that if believers have no future, specifically resurrected bodies like Christ’s, we have no past or present as well. That is, we have no forgiveness of our sins in the past, and we have no advantage over unbelievers in the present.
"It is a point of very great importance to remember that the Corinthians were not denying the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; what they were denying is the resurrection of the body; and what Paul is insistent upon is that if a man denies the possibility of the resurrection of the body he has thereby denied the possibility of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and has therefore emptied the Christian message of its truth and the Christian life of its reality." [Note: Barclay, The Letter . . ., p. 153.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)