1 Corinthians 15:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, he says, do I point to you, when in that case all those also would have perished who have already completed everything and are no longer subject to the uncertainty of the future?

The expression "those who have fallen asleep in Christ" means either those who died in the faith, or those who endured many dangers and great sufferings for Him, walking the narrow way.

Where now are the impious mouths of the Manichaeans, who say that by "resurrection" the Apostle here means liberation from sin? These many continuous and distorted inferences prove not at all what they say, but what we say.

That is, those who died for Christ and bore witness to Him have perished, if there is no resurrection. And in general, all who died in the faith of Christ and in a narrow and sorrowful life have perished. They were deprived of worldly pleasures, and after this they will receive no good thing, if there is no resurrection.

And therefore, according to your word, or teaching, those who fell asleep in Christ by a martyr’s end have perished, since there is no resurrection for them.

Paul adds this to strike fear into the Corinthians, since they do not wish a ruinous end for themselves. Those who departed this world in hope, or were not afraid to go to death at others’ hands, were unafraid because they believed in the resurrection according to the pattern of Christ. If it is not true, then they have perished forever. The Apostle Paul says this to the Corinthians because they do not listen to love regarding their departed. He also says it so that they may reject what, in their error, they wanted to hear from the false apostles.

It would seem that the virtuous martyrs were put to death in vain for the confession of Christ. Though they eagerly undertook their contests, they did not receive crowns. For if there is no resurrection, there is no proclamation of victory.

“Therefore also those who have died in Christ,” that is, those who believed in Him and suffered for Him, “have perished.” They have perished both in soul and body, and they have not escaped Hades. This is precisely because, as they were in sins while living, so they died in sins. This is a new incongruity, flowing directly from the previous one. Thus, according to the Apostle, one empty thought about the dead not rising disrupts the whole chain of consoling Christian truths and hopes, as Bishop Theophan says. Therefore he goes on to speak with grief and to alarm the Corinthians.

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

Every conclusion contrary to this must undermine this most important of Christian truths. Together with it, such conclusions 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 likewise the unbelieving Greeks (Acts 17:12), say that there is no resurrection of the dead, then they do not believe in the risen Christ.

Here is yet another fearful consequence of your thought, which leads to the conclusion that Christ has not risen. If Christ has not risen, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

Why have they perished? Because they died in sins. If you, the living, are still in sins without Christ's resurrection, then they too, when they were alive, remained in sins. If they were such while living, then they departed from here in that state.

If they departed in that state, that is, being in sins, what consolation is there for them there? They have perished. They have gone to perdition, to Hades, to eternal torments.