1 Corinthians 15:35-49 A fish is not a bird
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 6, 2020 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
But someone will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow the body that is going to be, but a bare grain (perhaps of wheat or of some of the rest). And God gives it a body as it has pleased Him, and to each of the seeds its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but one kind of flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of fish, and another of birds. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is truly different, and that of the earthly different; one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul,” the last Adam was a life-giving Spirit. But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual. The first man was out of earth, earthy; the second Man was the Lord from Heaven. Such the earthy man, such also the earthy ones. And such the heavenly Man, such also the heavenly ones. And according as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
(Understanding the Text) Paul is answering the objection that comes from seeing a rotting body. How is God going to take the bits and pieces that have disintegrated and put them back together to become alive again. Paul’s answer is that our bodies will be different. He gives lots of comparisons to how fur is different from feathers which is in turn different from scales. His point is that we can’t know what kind of bodies we will have, except to know that when God became flesh, that flesh changed. When we became descendants of Jesus rather than Adam, there was a physical change, as well as a mental/spiritual change. Paul’s logic is that the only thing we can do to know what will be in the future is to look around us. What we see is that there are different kinds of living creatures. We will be living creatures of some kind, and whatever kind that is, it will be patterned after Jesus. In addition, just as we do not choose the kind of plant that results when we sow a seed, we cannot modify the bodies that will result from our death and resurrection. They will be what they are destined to be, so stop worrying about it because the kind that they will be is patterned after Jesus Himself.
Paul says that death can lead to new life that looks different in form than the beginning form. A seed does not look like a sprouting plant. A seed has to die in order to be reborn. Paul is saying that it doesn’t matter if our physical bodies die. They will be reborn in a new form later.
(Revelation of God) Paul has first argued that the logic of saying that there is no resurrection is flawed if one believes in a risen Savior. Now, Paul argues that putting physical limitations on what God can do by pointing out to the physical processes we are familiar with is also illogical because those same physical processes show a variety of kinds of physical bodies and that life of a different kind can come from the death of a seed.
(Application / Revelation of God) My application for myself is that there is more to this world and to what God can do than I understand or can know. The impossible is possible with God, not as magic, but as natural processes that I am familiar with in my every day life. God does not work outside of the natural processes because God is in the natural processes. My mistake is in thinking that I understand the natural processes completely. There are possibilities within these processes that I with my limitations can never access presently, yet angels can, and someday I will be able to do much more because I will have a body patterned after Jesus’ body. His genetics will be mine so my new body will be different. Thus, I should not worry about the breaking down of this body that I am in because some day I will sprout into the new and improved version patterned after Jesus.
(Prayer) Teach me to see the wonder and beauty of the possibilities that You have placed in my life. Help me to appreciate and have faith in Your ability to create and balance the functions of the universe and of my own body. I pray to that the time when death will be no more will be soon. Give me patience, strength, faith, and hope to stand steadfastly with You until that time.