1 Corinthians Chapter 15

vs 37

So you don't plant what you're going to get - if you want mustard, you don't plant a jar of mustard, or even bury a mustard tree in the ground. You plant a seed, which looks nothing like the tree (or like mustard, unless it is seeded mustard).

vs 38

God is in control of what comes out of a seed - there's nothing much we can do about that. Genetic engineering changes this a little, but my understanding is that it's still pretty quick and dirty, so you still have a gamble at what you will get.

vs 39

Although people supposedly taste like bacon, we are different in "flesh", that is, in body. But flesh can mean more than just crude matter, it takes in the whole nature, and we have a very different nature to birds and other animals.

vs 40

And so now Paul draws the distinction between people and angels, or perhaps between our earthly and heavenly bodies. The difference is so stark that we won't be able to tell one from just looking at the other.

vs 41

Paul even seems to be a bit of an astronomer. Good for him. So all created things are different and have a different splendor. Anyone can look at the sun and tell it's different from the moon.

vs 42

We all know how perishable our current bodies are. They get sick, they get old, they die. They fall to bits, they take lots of care, and even then don't always work well. But our new resurrection bodies will be imperishable. I can't wait to find out what they're like. In some ways they will be similar - we know Christ had an imperishable body when he was raised, and he still looked like a person. But in other ways it will be different, like a mustard seed from its tree.

vs 43

Glory and power will be with us when we are raised. Power isn't one we think about so much, but we will be powerful when we are raised. Interesting thought.

vs 44

Don't think of this as a dichotomy of physical as against spiritual. I think it's far more like imperfect as opposed to perfect. Paul is talking about a bodily resurrection - not just some sort of spiritual floatiness.

vs 45

Spirit still has life. I guess natural is part of natural process involving life and death (even in Eden, there was death in potentia). Spiritual does not involve life and death, only life.

vs 46

The order they come in is like the order of the seed and the crop - seeds come first. You can argue the whole chicken and egg thing if you like, but Paul isn't talking about a creative order specifically, more simply a farming order - you plant before you reap. It's not a scientific description, it's a colloquial description - just like when we talk about the sun rising and setting (of course it does neither).

vs 47

Not only is spiritual different from natural, it is better. Heaven is better than earth, so better to come from heaven than from earth.

vs 48

The amazing thing is that we, who are from earth in that we have our genesis in the earthly creation can become "from heaven" because of Christ. It's almost like we are a new creation or something ;)