Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Paul is confronting a real contradiction inside the early Christian community in Corinth, a major Greek city in the first century. Some people in the church accepted that Jesus had risen from the dead but denied that ordinary people could be resurrected as well. This was likely shaped by Greek philosophy, which often viewed the physical body as temporary and inferior — something the soul eventually escapes. Paul's argument is a pointed logical challenge: if resurrection is impossible, then Jesus wasn't raised either. And if Jesus wasn't raised, the entire foundation of Christian faith collapses. This verse opens one of the most important theological arguments in the New Testament.
Lord, I confess I sometimes shrink your promises down to something I can manage. Give me the courage to believe the full weight of what you've said — that death is not the end, that bodies matter, that resurrection is real. Teach me to live today in light of that. Amen.
What if the belief you held most confidently was quietly contradicting itself? That's what Paul is putting his finger on here — not with anger, but with precision. The Corinthians believed Jesus rose from the dead. They also believed that resurrection, as a general reality, didn't happen. Paul simply asks: how can both of those be true at the same time? It's the kind of question that doesn't let you stay comfortable. Many of us do something similar. We believe the spiritual parts of faith but quietly soften the physical, concrete, bodily promises — resurrection becomes a metaphor for personal renewal, eternal life becomes a vague feeling of peace. But Paul's claim is stubbornly literal: death doesn't get the last word, not for Jesus, and not for you. What part of your faith have you quietly translated into something more manageable than what the Bible actually says? That's worth sitting with honestly.
What do you think Paul means by connecting belief in Christ's resurrection directly to the possibility of all resurrection — why does one require the other logically?
Have you ever found yourself holding two beliefs that were quietly in tension with each other? How did you work through that, or are you still working through it?
Why do you think the idea of bodily resurrection was so hard for the Greek-influenced Corinthians to accept, and are there ways modern culture pushes back against the same idea today?
How does your belief — or uncertainty — about resurrection affect the way you treat your body, your relationships, and the ordinary details of your physical life right now?
If resurrection is a real, concrete future reality and not just a metaphor, what is one thing about how you live that should actually change this week?
And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
Acts 24:15
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:2
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Colossians 1:28
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
John 2:19
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1 Thessalonians 4:14
The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Matthew 22:23
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 5:19
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 14:9
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
AMP
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
ESV
Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
NASB
The Resurrection of the Dead But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
NIV
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
NKJV
But tell me this — since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?
NLT
Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection?
MSG