1 Corinthians 15:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What are you saying, Paul? How can it be, "if in this life only we have hope," if the body does not rise, when the soul remains and abides immortal?

Even if the soul remains, and even if it is immortal a thousand times over, as indeed it is, without the body it will not receive the ineffable good things. Nor will it receive punishments.

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive according to what he has done while living in the body, whether good or evil" (2 Cor 5:10).

For this reason he says: "And if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable." If the body does not rise, then the soul also remains uncrowned, outside the blessedness of heaven.

If, he says, everything of ours is limited to this present life, and we who hope in Christ exist only in it, while there is no other life there, then we are more miserable than all. For we have not enjoyed the good things here, as was said above, nor shall we receive those to come, because we shall not rise, as some say. Perhaps someone will say: the soul alone will enjoy them. But why should this be so? The soul did not labor alone, but the body also labored. Where is justice, if the body, which endured the greater part of the hardships, is reduced to nothing and receives no good thing, while the soul alone is crowned?

But if in this life only, which is subject to persecutions, we hope in Christ, then our life is more miserable than that of all people who have ever been in the world. And if here we are tormented by fasts and persecutions, yet there receive no recompense, then, if this is so, “let us eat and drink,” as he says below. Let us at least make use of the present, if, according to you, we are to receive nothing beyond what is here.

Paul speaks this way not because it is misery to hope in Christ, but because Christ has prepared another life for those who hope in Him. For this life is subject to sin, while the other is prepared as a reward.

It is clear that both in this life and in the life to come we hope in Christ. For Christ does not abandon His servants, but grants them His mercy. In the age to come, they will be in eternal glory.

For we pass through life amid dangers of every kind, tormented by hunger, enduring continual injuries, going from prison to prison throughout the world, having no shelter, wandering, and struggling with unceasing storms. But this is not truly our condition, because good hope sustains us. In the Resurrection of our Savior we have the pledge of our resurrection. This also the Apostle added.

One must not hope in Christ only in this life. In this life bad people can do more than good people. In this life the wicked are happier, and those who commit crimes are more successful.

"We are of all men most pitiable." All philosophical teachings and all religions, including Judaism, the closest to Christianity in spirit and historical destiny, set earthly pleasures and happiness before their followers.

They regarded these as the goal of the highest aspirations and as the reward for strict fulfillment of rules, rites, and other institutions. Christianity promised nothing of this kind in this life.

On the contrary, it often portrayed for its followers scenes of calamity and suffering on earth. It even demanded renunciation of temporal goods and the pleasures of life. It unfolded only the picture of blessedness beyond the grave.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Indeed, people who do not know Christ and do not hold the Christian faith at least allow themselves various pleasures in earthly life and experience enjoyment. Christians do not even have that. Their lot is unceasing struggle against their sinful desires and continual privations.

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 two thoughts are possible. The first is this: if we confine all the hopes we cherish by cleaving to Christ in faith only to this life, and expect to receive anything from Him only in this life, then, as you see, we are more miserable than all men.

Such a hope could not even take shape. For all men oppress us, persecute us, and deprive us of everything. We ourselves subject ourselves to every kind of deprivation for the sake of moral progress.

How could anyone come to the thought of expecting anything from Christ in this life? And if someone began to nourish such a thought, no one more senseless and pitiable could be imagined.