35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
– 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
In today’s reading, Paul goes into a rather complicated discussion of what the spiritual resurrected bodies of believers will be like. He explains that they won’t be made of flesh and blood like our current bodies are, but will instead be composed of something uncorruptible and eternal. Indeed “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” Our bodies and lives on this earth are but “bare seeds” that must die so that something much greater might come into being.
Paul’s words here are not merely a comforting word about the future, but also a call to live in a way that acknowledges the fleeting nature of our current reality. So much of our time and effort is spent on selfish things that mean little to nothing in the grand scheme of eternity. Following Jesus means growing in our ability to die to the things of this world that we might live for the kingdom of God. May we follow Paul’s lead in making our life a seed that, though it inevitably will die, will be raised in glory and power!
Nick