1 Corinthians 15:34 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Awake’ – again, the Greek is literally ‘sober up’. You are behaving like people who are half drunk, unconscious of where you are or what is going on around you. Sober up. We have got a refinement in our translation – ‘Awake to righteousness’, to right conduct; and stop sinning. You were good people. I have commended you as a church, he says. You are a church that is not behind any other churches in all good things; and yet in tolerating a minority of people who spread terror, you need to wake up, because this is a sin. It is a sin to be spineless with Christian things. It is a sin to be weak and flabby, and to tolerate and say, ‘O I don’t want a battle; I would rather get on with everybody, whatever they say, whatever they do.’ Your association in the same congregation with those people who say evil things about Christ, is a sin. ‘For some have not the knowledge of God’; they are not even saved, if they think that. ‘And I speak this to your shame.’ Those people who denied the resurrection weren’t saved. And that is what the apostle Paul means. ‘Some have not the knowledge of God.’ They don’t know him; he doesn’t own them; they are not saved people. That is why they don’t believe these most fundamental things. But you haven’t dealt with that. You have let them in, and when they started indicating that they were not really of you, that they didn’t believe in Christ properly and fully, you didn't stand them down. You Corinthians who are saved, how did you receive these people into membership? Did you hear a credible testimony? Did you interview them? Did you not know they were cynics with large areas in unbelief? Were you not sympathetic to their souls? Did you not think it a priority to bring them to salvation before you bought them into the church? You should be ashamed of yourselves, says the apostle to the Corinthians, for having this unbelieving minority scoffing against the resurrection. ‘I speak this to your shame.’ What are you doing there? You must defend the truth; you must protect the gospel. You have an urgent duty. Your gratitude and loyalty to Christ for your eternal salvation means that you must defend the truth. And if it applies to us, then we have to straighten up.