The church at Corinth surely must have given the Apostle Paul migraines. In his first letter to them, Paul answers questions they’d previously sent him regarding such issues as marriage and meat that had been offered to idols. Though the Apostle answers addresses those questions, he finishes the letter admonishing the Corinthians to remember their first love – to hold fast to the whole reason they were worshipping together in the first place – the resurrected Christ.
In Chapter 15, Paul goes back over the most basic tenets of the Christian faith – that Jesus did in fact die, that he was in fact buried, and that he did indeed rise again. He even takes the time to list many of those who personally witnessed the risen Jesus.
Beginning in Verse 20, Paul begins to transition from the facts of Jesus’ Resurrection to the application of it for believers. That transition reaches the peak of the application in verse 36 and continues for several more afterward.
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.”
Paul uses an illustration which is familiar to believers living in the largely agrarian society of the day. A farmer who walks around with a seed in his hand forever will never see a crop. If that farmer wants to produce a crop, he must first give up (plant) the seed in order that it might come forth in a different form. The inherent qualities that made up that seed are still there – a seed of wheat brings forth wheat, for example – but what comes up is far better than that which went away.
This is how the Christian walk should be for us – in order to truly live, we must put ourselves away. This is what Paul meant back in Verse 31 where he stated “I die daily”.
Though it is Paul conveying the revelation of the Holy Spirit here, he is actually echoing – or perhaps expounding upon is a better term – what Jesus himself said as recorded in Chapter 9 of Luke’s Gospel:
(23-25) “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?”
It is a hard truth, but one which any serious believer must confront: In order to truly live, we must die to ourselves. It’s so difficult because it flies in the face of common sense. But if we fail to follow through in this area, we will live out our lives like that farmer, walking around for years protecting that one little seed in the palm of his hand and never realizing the incredible bounty that can only come when that seed is put away.
©2023 A Reasoning Faith
