INTRIGUING CONVERSATION - This lesson is a three-way conversation between Paul, the pneumatokoi, and his beloved Corinthians. Commentaries are filled with attempts to figure out all of the nuances and inflections this conversation. What is clear is that we are privy to the apostle’s midrash and logic. Paul passionately argues about something that he feels deeply about: Christ’s resurrection. Here’s a summarization of the conversation.

No resurrection of any of the dead must mean that Christ has not been raised (so teaches the pneumatokoi) - v. 13

But if that is so, my proclamation is falsified, says Paul, and the acceptance of my preaching by the Corinthians is purposeless (v. 14).

Worse still, I have misrepresented God, he continues, by putting it out that God has done what in fact God has not done (vv. 15-16)

Faith is utterly falsified and my former condition remains unchanged-I thus, should be miserable (v. 17)

I would be, then, Paul concludes, a deceiver.

Paul insists however that Christ has been raised from death, foreshadowing the future resurrection of those who have died and those who remain. They have not perished in the sense of being irretrievably dead (v. 19). Believers in Christ do not place their hopes in the possibilities of this life only.

Watchman Nee once tried to teach some very poor villagers in the mountains of a Chinese province the idea of Christian identification. He sought to demonstrate how being "in Christ" (Paul’s favorite phrase and one that is critical to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15) affected their life.

Holding up a Bible, Nee placed a piece of paper in it. "Where is the paper?" he asked the villagers. "In the book!" they exclaimed. "Yes, that’s right. And if I mail this book to America, where is the paper then?"

"Still in the book." "Yes, and if I drop it into the mud puddle, if I burn it, if I put it in my bookshelf, then where is the piece of paper?"

"Why it’s still in the book." "Yes, that’s right. Because the history of one is now the history of the other. What happens to the one, happens to the other. They share the same history and share the same story together."

If you want to stay parallel with the psalm for the day and the first lesson, you might consider looking at this passage from the "two-ways" point of view. Here, Paul compares two views of Christ’s resurrection. You could do some rummaging around in the commentaries to discover the basic teaching of Paul’s opponents (the pneumatokoi) and suggest the barrenness of a life without hope.

You could then follow the side of the argument that states that Christ’s resurrection impacts our own "resurrections," or our own way of viewing life and death.

At this point you could reconnect with Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 (even with Luke 6) and to the importance of following the path that leads toward stability of faith, durability, freshness and productivity.

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