1 Corinthians 15:40 Commentary and Bible Study

It is obvious from the structure of Paul’s argument that he is still talking about things that belong to the present order, which man is capable of seeing and considering now. He is calling on us to see the great diversity that God has made in our present world. If the differences in this present order are so great, then why do we find it hard to believe that God will create bodies for his saints in the world to come. He points to the diversity of this present order in this verse and he continues to do so in the next. It is a unlikely therefore that by celestial bodies he means the bodies that the saints will inherit at the resurrection. He does not suddenly at this point begin to compare the resurrection body with the current mortal body. The superiority of the former to the latter is where his argument is leading, but he does not jump to this conclusion before he has finished building his case. It is not until verse 42 that he reaches that point in his argument. This consideration also rules out the possibility that Paul is referring to bodies supposedly possessed by angels, for very few people in the history of the world have seen angels. Besides, Scripture teaches that they are spirits without bodies, regardless of how they were on rare occasions made visible. Again, Paul is reasoning from what is commonly known in this realm, to what we may deduce about the world to come, and the possession of bodies by angels is certainly not common knowledge, and indeed is almost certainly incorrect.So what does he mean by celestial or heavenly bodies, and terrestrial or earthly bodies? In the last verse he has used the word flesh. Now he uses the word body, and he uses it in the broadest possible sense. He is no longer comparing different forms of life as he was in verse 39. He is no longer comparing living bodies only, but entities which God has made, whether dead or alive. It is an argument based on the vast diversity of all that God has made with which we are familiar. The objects we see in the sky are also called bodies, heavenly bodies. Those bodies are compared with bodies on earth, living or otherwise. What we see in the sky has a greater glory. It is up above us and the way the heavens keep their position and roll across the vast skies in such regimented order is majestic. But he does not finish the argument there.