the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
1 Corinthians 15:20-34
The risen Christ has simply gone before believers who have "fallen asleep". They will be raised at His coming. As for the rest of the dead, they will only be "made alive" later in order to appear before the judgment throne (Revelation 20:12). Only then will everything be finally subject to Christ. After this our thoughts are lost in the depths of the eternal state of bliss in which God will finally be all in all (v. 28).
Having closed this glorious parenthesis (vv. 20-28), the apostle shows how the fact of believing or not believing in the future life moulds the behaviour of all men . . . beginning with his own (vv. 30-32). How many wretched people there are whose whole religion is summed up in these words: "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die"! (v. 32). They convince themselves that nothing exists beyond the grave so as to excuse their enjoying their brief existence without any restraint, "as natural brute beasts" (2 Peter 2:12). As for the Christian, his faith ought to keep him on the alert (v. 34), to preserve him from being found in the company of those who would harm his soul and to prevent him from eating and drinking with the drunkards of this world (v. 33; Matthew 24:49). May the company of the Lord and His people be sufficient for us until His return!
