1 Corinthians 15:50Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

From the resurrection he immediately passes to the Kingdom and adds: "and corruption does not inherit incorruption." That is, evil does not inherit glory and incorrupt blessings.

He often calls evil by this name. For example: "He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption" (Gal 6:8).

If he were speaking of the body and not of corrupt activity, he would not have called it corruption. Nowhere does he call the body corruption. It is not corruption, but corruptible.

Therefore, when he speaks about it further, he does not call it corruption, but corruptible: "This corruptible must put on incorruption."

After finishing the exhortation concerning life, he then returns again, according to his usual custom, from one subject joined to another, to the doctrine of the resurrection of bodies. He says: "I tell you a mystery" (1 Cor 15:51).

The present body stands between corruption and incorruption. Now it is corruptible, but afterward it will be incorruptible.

It is now in this state of corruption because destruction is not proper to incorruption. "Corruption," he says, "does not inherit incorruption" (1 Cor 15:50). Otherwise how would there be incorruption?

On the contrary, corruption is swallowed up by life. Corruption is conquered by incorruption, but the latter is never conquered by the former.

As fire melts wax, but wax does not melt fire, so incorruption destroys and swallows up corruption. Yet corruption can in no way gain victory over incorruption.

For there is no food and drink there, by which the present body is nourished. And corruption, that is, the corruptible body, does not inherit the incorruptible.

Therefore our body must become spiritual and incorrupt. Yet know that Chrysostom understood these words of the Apostle as an exhortation to a better life.

The Apostle, among other things, says this: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 15:50). All heretics bring forward these words in support of their madness. They try by them to stop us and show that God’s creation has no salvation.

They fail to consider that the perfect man, as I have shown, consists of three things: flesh, soul, and spirit. One of them, the spirit, saves and forms. Another, the flesh, is joined and formed. The soul is between these two.

Sometimes, when it follows the spirit, the soul is raised by it. Sometimes, when it pleases the flesh, it falls into earthly desires.

Therefore all who do not have that which saves and forms unto life will naturally be and will be called flesh and blood. They do not have the Spirit of God in themselves.

For this reason such people are also called dead by the Lord. “Let,” He says, “the dead bury their own dead” (Lk 9:60), because they do not have the Spirit who gives life to man.

On the other hand, all who fear God, believe in the coming of His Son, and through faith plant the Spirit of God in their hearts are rightly called pure, spiritual, and living for God. They have the Spirit of the Father, who cleanses man and raises him into the life of God.

For as “the flesh is weak,” so the spirit is willing, according to the Lord’s testimony (Mt 26:41). For He is strong to accomplish all that He wills.

Therefore, if someone joins the readiness of the spirit, as a stimulus, to the weakness of the flesh, the strong must necessarily overcome the weak. Thus the weakness of the flesh is swallowed up by the strength of the spirit.

Such a man is no longer fleshly but spiritual, through participation in the Spirit. Thus the martyrs give their witness and despise death, not by the weakness of the flesh, but by the willingness of the spirit.

When the weakness of the flesh is swallowed up, it reveals the spirit as powerful. On the other hand, the spirit that swallows up the weakness of the flesh receives the flesh as an inheritance into its own possession.

From both there comes a living man: living by participation in the Spirit, and man by the substance of the flesh.

Therefore flesh without the Spirit of God is dead, since it does not have life. It cannot receive the kingdom of God. Blood is irrational, like water poured upon the earth.

Therefore the Apostle says, “As is the man of dust, so also are those who are of dust.” But where the Spirit of the Father is, there is a living man. There is rational blood, preserved by God for vengeance against those who shed it.

There is flesh taken into possession by the Spirit. It has forgotten itself, but receives the quality of the Spirit and becomes conformed to the Word of God.

Therefore he says, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Cor 15:48-49). What is earthly? The created flesh. What is heavenly? The Spirit.

Therefore, he says, as without the heavenly Spirit we once lived in the oldness of the flesh, not submitting to God, so now, receiving the Spirit, let us walk in newness of life, obeying God.

Since without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the Apostle exhorts us to preserve the Spirit of God through faith and a pure life. Otherwise, deprived of the divine Spirit, we lose the kingdom of heaven.

He therefore cries out that flesh by itself, and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

If one speaks according to the truth, the flesh does not inherit, but is inherited. Thus the Lord also says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5:5). It is as though, in the kingdom, the earth from which the substance of our flesh comes will be received as an inherited possession.

Therefore the Apostle wants the temple to be pure, so that the Spirit of God may delight in it as a bridegroom in a bride.

As a bride cannot take the bridegroom, but can be taken by the bridegroom when he comes and takes her, so this flesh by itself cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It can be taken into it by the Spirit as an inheritance.

The living receives as inheritance the possession of the dead. To inherit is one thing, and to be received as an inheritance is another.

The one who inherits rules and orders what he possesses by inheritance as he wills. The other is under authority, subject to the order and lordship of its possessor.

What lives? The Spirit of God. What is the possession of the dead? The members of man, which also decay in the earth. These are inherited by the Spirit, being transferred into the kingdom of heaven.

For this reason Christ died. The covenant of the Gospel, revealed and proclaimed to the whole world, first freed His servants, and then made them heirs of His property. For, as I have shown, the spirit inherits.

The living inherits, and the flesh is inherited. Lest we lose the Spirit who possesses us, and so lose life, the Apostle exhorts us to communion with the Spirit.

He spoke the words quoted above reasonably, that flesh and blood cannot receive the kingdom of heaven. It is as though he were saying: Do not be deceived. If the Word of God does not dwell in you, and the Spirit of the Father is not in you, and you live vainly and carelessly, as though you were only flesh and blood, you cannot receive the kingdom of God.

Although it was the creation and possession of incorruption, it too became subject to corruption. But after it fell under corruption and was handed over to death for punishment, God did not leave it to corruption as corruption’s inheritance after victory.

Rather, having conquered death again through the resurrection, He restored the flesh to incorruption. Thus corruption would not possess incorruption, but incorruption would possess what is corruptible.

Therefore the Apostle adds: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53).

What else can the corruptible and mortal, which is clothed in incorruption and immortality, be except that which is sown in corruption and rises in incorruption? The soul is not corruptible and mortal. This body is subject to death and corruption.

Thus, as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we may also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Cor 15:49). The image of the man of dust that we bore is contained in the words: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).

The image of the heavenly Man is resurrection from the dead and incorruption. Thus, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4).

If someone chooses to call the flesh itself the earthly image, and another spiritual body apart from the flesh the heavenly image, let him first consider this. Christ, the heavenly Man, appeared bearing members of the same form, the same image, and the same flesh as ours.

According to this flesh He became man, though He had not been man, so that as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all may be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

If He took flesh not for the liberation and resurrection of the flesh, why did He bear flesh in vain, which He did not intend either to save or to raise? But the Son of God does nothing in vain.

Therefore He did not take the form of a servant without purpose, but for resurrection and salvation. For He truly became man and truly died, not in appearance, so that He might truly appear as the firstborn from the dead (Rev 1:5).

He changed the earthly into the heavenly, and the mortal into the immortal.

Justin of Neapolis, a man not far removed from the Apostles in either time or virtue, says that the mortal is inherited, while life inherits. The flesh dies, while the kingdom of heaven lives.

Thus, when Paul says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 15:50), he declares this, Justin says, not to reject the regeneration of the flesh, but to teach that the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, is not inherited by the body. Rather, the body is inherited by life.

If the kingdom of God, which is life, were inherited by the body, life would be shown to be swallowed up by corruption. But life inherits what is mortal, so that death may be swallowed up victoriously by life.

Then the corruptible will appear as the possession of incorruption. It will be freed from death and sin, and become the servant and subject of immortality. Thus the body is the possession of incorruption, and incorruption is not the possession of the body.

Having acquired spiritual sensation, the ascetic suddenly sees with complete clarity the action of the blood upon the soul. He sees how the passions and spirits act through the blood upon the soul in a most subtle way, and keep the soul enslaved to themselves.

Then he will understand and be convinced that every action of the blood upon the soul is abominable before God. This is true not only of the coarse action, but also of the subtle one.

It is a sacrifice defiled by sin. It is unworthy of being placed in the spiritual realm. It is unworthy of being numbered among spiritual actions and sensations.

Before the actions of the Spirit appear in the heart, the subtle action of the blood remains either wholly incomprehensible or only little understood. It may even be taken for an action of grace, if proper caution is not observed.

This caution consists in not recognizing any feeling of the heart as correct before the time of purification and renewal by the Spirit. The only exception is the feeling of repentance, the saving sorrow for sins mingled with hope of mercy.

From fallen nature God accepts only one sacrifice of the heart, one feeling of the heart, and one state of it: “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and humbled heart God will not despise” (Ps 50:19).

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Therefore for salvation it is necessary to be freed not only from the influence of the flesh, or coarse passions, but also from the influence of blood. Through blood the passions act subtly upon the soul.

Sobriety necessarily requires the physical calm of the blood, first provided by prudent abstinence. The blood is set in very varied motion by the passions. These passions are themselves so varied that they often oppose one another, and one movement of the blood cancels another.

Yet all these varied movements of the blood are necessarily joined with distraction, fantasy, and a plentiful invasion of thoughts and images that flatter self-love.

A plentiful invasion of thoughts and fantasy is always accompanied by the blood being brought into an intensified and unnatural motion. This motion is sinful. It is the fruit and manifestation of the fall.

Of this motion of the blood it is said that it is incapable of inheriting the kingdom of heaven. That is, a man who allows his blood to be brought into such motion, and takes pleasure in it, is incapable of receiving divine grace.

Prostrations, as was said above, warm the body naturally. This disposes and enlivens a man for soul-saving activity. What distracts from this activity is the unnatural heating of the blood that has occurred under the influence of some passion.

“Therefore I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom 7:14-25). By the word “flesh” here one must again understand the fleshly state.

By this state all attempts of the human mind to fulfill God’s will are overthrown, as long as man remains in the state of the fall and is not renewed by the Spirit.

When the Spirit dwells in man, He frees him from sinful slavery (Rom 8:14), destroying the body of sin (Rom 6:6), that is, the fleshly state in man.

In this way one must also understand the Apostle’s words: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 15:50). Here, under the name of flesh and blood, are meant the thoughts and feelings born in fallen nature.

They keep man in a fleshly state according to his mind, heart, and body. This state is also called the “old man” (Eph 4:22). The Apostle commands the Christian to put it off and to put on “the new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:23-24).

This is the same as what he said to the Romans: “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14), and to the Corinthians: “Let us bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Cor 15:49).

It is known that the Apostle had been renewed by the Spirit and clothed in Christ. Enlightened by the Spirit and moved by love for his neighbors, he uttered a confession in the person of fallen man.

This man strives to break the chains of sin. The confession reveals the state produced by the fall, in which man, compelled by the evil dwelling in him, cannot help doing evil, even though he desires to do good.

Such vision of the human fall is a gift of the grace of God. Venerable Abba Dorotheus speaks of this in his first teaching.

Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus, when numbering the grace-filled spiritual visions presented to the mind of Christ’s ascetic during his gradual purification, includes among them the vision of the fall to which mankind has been subjected. See also Lk 17:21.

If it is destined to share in that kingdom, it cannot inherit it except by being transformed. What is corruptible must be given over to corruption. The heirs of the incorrupt kingdom must put on incorruption, for corruption does not inherit incorruption.

He does not mean that all who rise in an incorrupt body will necessarily inherit the kingdom. He means that without resurrection and the putting on of incorruption, even if someone is holy, he will not see the kingdom as it is arranged.

He views man as whole, in his full constitution. The soul alone is not man. The body, as it now is, is coarse and unfit for the kingdom. It is appointed to decay. In its place an incorrupt body will be given.

For this there was a new Adam, who rose and laid the foundation for the resurrection of all. By His resurrection He made it possible for men to become heirs of His incorrupt kingdom.

Participation in the inheritance is subject to other conditions. Yet if there were no resurrection in incorruption, fulfilling those conditions would not bring one into the inheritance. One must be clothed in an incorrupt body, and then enter the kingdom, if one is worthy.

So it is arranged that it cannot be otherwise. Yet this arrangement also accords with human nature.

From the course of the Apostle’s speech, the thought may arise that whoever has not been joined to the new, heavenly Adam will have no share in incorruption. One must keep in mind that the Apostle takes mankind in its whole constitution and in its destiny.

All mankind is destined for regeneration in the Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason the power of Christ’s resurrection is such that all mankind has already been raised in Him. This already belongs to all, whether one rises to glory or not to glory.

The power of Christ’s resurrection cannot be otherwise, for the One who rose is God. The divine cannot be limited by any boundary of time or place. Christ’s resurrection has universal significance. It introduced an order of being extending to all.

In this whole section, verses 45-50, Saint Paul reasons dogmatically, as blessed Photius says. Yet outside the context, all these places may be taken as moral lessons, especially the last texts: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” and “Let us bear the image of the heavenly,” and “As is the heavenly Man, so also are the heavenly.” They have always been so taken, and still are.

Saint Chrysostom interprets them in this sense. Photius and Methodius in Oecumenius set forth both dogmatic thoughts and moral lessons in parallel.

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 15:50).

Therefore, to receive the kingdom one must become as though without flesh and blood. That is, one must be established in such a character of life that blood and flesh seem no longer present. This is attained by complete renunciation of the works of blood and flesh.

“The works of the flesh are manifest. They are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, divisions, scandals, heresies, hatred, murders, drunkenness, disorder, and the like.”

After listing all this, the Apostle adds, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-21). He who has ears to hear, let him hear.