34. Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God : I speak (this) to your shame.
Surrounded by evil teachers, the Corinthians had need not only of being on their guard against deception, but also of vigilance. Aioake. The word properly means, to hecome soher^ to arouse from a state of drunkenness or torpor. The call is to prompt exertion to shake off the delusion under which they were lying as to their security. To righteousness^ Hter- ally, righteously^ i. e. in a proper manner. ' Awake rightly,' or, as Luther renders it. Wake right up. And sin not^ i. e. do not allow yourselves to be carried away into sin. This was the end to be answered by their vigilance. There was need of this exhortation, /or some have not the knowledge of God ; literaUy, have ignorance of God. They are ignorant of God ; and therefore they deny the resurrection. Comp. Matt. 22, 29, where our Lord says to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection, " Ye do err, not knoAving the Scriptures, nor the power of God." I speah this to your shame. It should make you ashamed that there are men among you capable of calling in question one of the great essential facts of the gospel — ^the resurrection of the dead.
Nature of the resurrection hody^ vs. 35-58.
Having proved the fact of the resurrection, the apostle comes to illustrate its nature, or to teach with what kind of bodies the dead are to rise. It seems that the great objection against the doctrine in the minds of his readers rested on the assumption that our future bodies are to be of the same nature with those which we now have ; that is, natural bodies con- sisting of flesh and blood, and sustained by air, food and sleep. Paul says this is a foolish assumption. Our future bodies may be material and identical with our present bodies, and yet or- ganized in a very different way. You plant a seed ; it does not come up a seed, but a flower. Why then may not the future be to the present body what the flower is to the seed ? vs. 35-37. Matter admits of indefinite varieties in organiza- tion. There is not only immense diversity in the vegetable productions of the earth, but even flesh is variously modified in the different orders of animals, vs. 38. 39. This is true not only as to the earth, for there are heavenly as well as earthly