1 Corinthians 15:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is vain” (1 Cor 15:14). He ought to have said: if you allow that Christ has not risen, you will contradict manifest truth, so many prophets, and the events themselves. But he speaks far more strikingly: “then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain.” He wishes to shake their souls. We have lost everything, he says, and everything has perished, if Christ has not risen. Do you see the mystery of the divine economy? If Christ died and could not rise, then sin has not been destroyed, death has not been conquered, and the curse has not been dissolved. We have not only preached in vain, but you also have believed in vain.

For if He died and could not rise, then sin has not been destroyed, nor has death been abolished. In the end, we preached in vain, and you believed in vain.

If Christ truly has not risen, then we preach in vain amid many dangers to ourselves, and you also believe in vain what has been preached.

“Our faith is vain.” The purpose of our union with Jesus Christ and of our faith in Him is our justification before God from sins and our salvation. But this purpose would not have been attained, and this faith would be useless, if it did not presuppose Christ’s Resurrection: “you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Cor 15:17-18).

Then the Apostle proceeds by proof from the contrary. Let us suppose that Christ's resurrection did not occur. What would follow from this? Absurdities, each more comfortless than the other.

"And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain." It is implied that this can in no way be admitted. For the Corinthians' belief was not based on words alone. It was confirmed by signs and wonders, from which they understood that before them stood messengers of God proclaiming God's will to them.

Their faith was not empty, but was accompanied by evident assurances that they had entered the true path, the path of God. The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit proved this most tangibly (Bishop Theophan).

Having established the truth of Christ's resurrection as undoubted, the Apostle Paul boldly proceeds to every kind of conclusion from it. He shows with complete clarity that this truth leads to the indisputable recognition of another truth, namely, the universal resurrection.

All conclusions opposed to this must undermine this most important of Christian truths, and together with it overthrow all Christianity. Therefore whoever is a Christian must necessarily be free from every doubt concerning the future resurrection of the dead.

Thus, if some, such as Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim), and also the unbelieving Greeks (Acts 17:12), say that there is no resurrection of the dead, then they do not believe in the risen Christ.

But if Christ is not risen, then fearful conclusions follow from this. The first is that our preaching is empty, containing nothing true or substantial, and your faith is empty, giving you nothing substantial. We tell you dreams, and you have accepted dreams. Everything among us is one dream.

The Apostle stops at this alone. It would have been necessary to add: it is impossible to think this either of our preaching or of your faith. But he supposed this so obvious that he found it unnecessary even to speak of it.