staccato exhortations in e.g. 2 Cor.13:11; 1 Thess.5:15-22. For 16:21, see Gal.6:11. Verses 13-14 introduce the final run, and contain five exhortations. For convenience, we can reduce them to three.
deals with the gospel motives of Paul and the question of guidance.
Paul has been writing of the resurrection body – 15:44; and of the final resurrection victory – 15:52, 57. One might then have expected something like Revelation 4:1.
When G. K. Chesterton’s sister, Beatrice, died at the age of eight, her grief-stricken father turned her picture to the wall, got rid of all her possessions, and forbade the mention of her name. The Christian faith does not guarantee us tomorrow, but it does guarantee us eternity in …
Paul imagines someone arguing with him – 15:35-36a. Acts 26:8.
15:12-19 centres on belief; 15:29-34 on ethics. With the resurrection of Christ, there is endless hope; without Him there is a hopeless end.
Paul Barnett calls this ‘a short history of Death’.
Jaroslav Pelikan: ‘If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen – nothing else matters.’
15:12. The Stoic philosopher Seneca in the first century said that at death ‘I will leave my body, and myself I will give back to the gods.’ Francis Schaeffer was adept at ‘lifting the lid’ off arguments.
