1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (WEL) Moreover, brothers, I am going to make the Good News known to you, which I preached to you, you received, and in which you continue.
2 Also, by this Gospel you are being saved, if you firmly hold on to what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
Chapter summary: This is a summary of Jesus’s Gospel. It includes the Jesus’s death, the purpose and motive for His physical death, and His physical Resurrection seen by many hundreds of people culminating in Paul seeing Him (verses 1-11). Then Paul proceeds to write about our resurrection when, who, how, the sequence, and the dangers of rejecting/disbelieving it (verses 12-34). Paul begins next to teach about the new body that God creates at our resurrection (verses 35-49). The change, when, and how it happens (verses 50-54). Finally, praising God for the coming blessing (verses 55-58).
From Constable’s summary of chapter 15: “. . apparently soon after Paul’s departure from Corinth [after his 18 months of ministry there] things took a turn for the worse in this church. A false theology began to gain ground, rooted in a radical pneumatism that denied the value/significance of the body and expressed in a somewhat ’overrealized,’ or ’spiritualized,’ eschatology. Along with this there arose a decided movement against Paul. These two matters climax in this letter in their pneumatic behavior (chaps. 12-14) and their denial of a resurrection of the dead (chap. 15), which included their questioning of his status as pneumatikos ([spiritual] 1Co 14:36-38) and perhaps their calling him an ’abortion’ or a ’freak’ (1Co 15:8). Thus, as elsewhere, Paul sets out not only to correct some bad theology but at the same time to remind them of his right to do so.” [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 716.]” (link to Constable’s commentary: https://soniclight.com/tcon/notes/pdf/1corinthians.pdf)
V1 Moreover, brothers, I am going to make the Good News known to you, which I preached to you, you received, and in which you continue.
This is a doctrinal summary of Jesus’s Gospel. Paul preached it, the Corinthians believed it, and they are continuing in it. It appears that some false teachers were causing doubts as to what the Gospel is, so Paul wishes to teach what he already taught when he visited Corinthians for the first time.
V2 Also, by this Gospel you are being saved, if you firmly hold on to what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
How am I saved? By believing the Good News about Jesus Christ as preached by the Apostles. Salvation (justification, adoption, forgiveness of sins, etc.) is instantaneous, but it is progressive by deliverance from our fleshly desires, emotions, and thinking. It is complete when we die and enter the presence of God in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8). We need to hold firmly to it, for if we permanently leave, we have lost it all. Fake believers will be the first, but rarely, very rarely, a true believer will lose it all, too.
We learn:
• The importance of this chapter.
• The importance of knowing the Gospel.
Questions:
• Have you studied 1 Corinthians 15?
• Do you have the correct Gospel?