1 Corinthians 6:14

And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Will also raise up us.—This phrase is remarkable as one of the few which show that the Apostle, while he in common with the early Church expected the early advent of Christ, did not think that it would necessarily occur in his own lifetime. Here, as ever, the resurrection of the dead, when we shall receive our spiritual body instead of the natural body, is joined with the fact of the resurrection of Christ the firstfruits.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:12-20 Some among the Corinthians seem to have been ready to say, All things are lawful for me. This dangerous conceit St. Paul opposes. There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrument of sin. It is an honour to the body, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; and it will be an honour to our bodies, that they will be raised. The hope of a resurrection to glory, should keep Christians from dishonouring their bodies by fleshly lusts. And if the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his spiritual body. Other vices may be conquered in fight; that here cautioned against, only by flight. And vast multitudes are cut off by this vice in its various forms and consequences. Its effects fall not only directly upon the body, but often upon the mind. Our bodies have been redeemed from deserved condemnation and hopeless slavery by the atoning sacrifice of Christ. We are to be clean, as vessels fitted for our Master's use. Being united to Christ as one spirit, and bought with a price of unspeakable value, the believer should consider himself as wholly the Lord's, by the strongest ties. May we make it our business, to the latest day and hour of our lives, to glorify God with our bodies, and with our spirits which are his.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And God hath both raised up ... - This is the "second" argument against indulgences in this sin. It is this. "We are united to Christ. God has raised him from the dead, and made his body glorified. Our bodies will be like his (compare Philippians 3:21); and since our body is to be raised up by the power of God; since it is to be perfectly pure and holy, and since this is to be done by his agency, it is wrong that it should be devoted to purposes of pollution and lust." It is unworthy:

(1) Of our connection with that pure Saviour who has been raised from the dead - the image of our resurrection from the death and defilements of sin (compare the notes at Romans 6:1-12); and,

(2) Unworthy of the hope that our bodies shall be raised up to perfect and immortal purity in the heavens. No argument could be stronger. A deep sense of our union with a pure and risen Saviour, and a lively hope of immortal purity, would do more than all other things to restrain from licentious indulgences.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. (Ro 8:11).

raised up—rather, "raised," to distinguish it from "will raise up us"; the Greek of the latter being a compound, the former a simple verb. Believers shall be raised up out of the rest of the dead (see on [2286]Php 3:11); the first resurrection (Re 20:5).

us—Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive (1Th 4:17). In either event, the Lord's coming rather than death is the great object of the Christian's expectation (Ro 8:19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And God hath both raised up the Lord; the Lord Jesus Christ, as the first-fruits of those that sleep, from whose resurrection the apostle largely proveth our resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58.

And will also raise up us by his own power: God will raise up his saints by his own Almighty power.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And God hath both raised up the Lord,.... God the Father has raised up from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, though not exclusive of the Son, who was equally concerned in the resurrection of himself, whereby he demonstrated himself to be the Son of God, truly and properly God.

And will also raise up us by his own power; for the resurrection of the dead, whether of Christ, or of his people, is an act of power, of God's own power, even of his almighty power, and is what the power of a mere creature could never effect. Now as Christ, the head, is raised, so shall all his members by the same power; their bodies will be raised powerful, glorious, incorruptible; and spiritual; an argument that they were never made for fornication, nor to be defiled with such uncleanness.

Geneva Study Bible

And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 6:14. This is parallel in contents and form to the sentence, ὁ δὲ Θεὸς … καταργήσει, in 1 Corinthians 6:13 : Now God has not only raised up the Lord, but will raise up us also by His power. The body, consequently, has a destiny which stretches on into the future eternal αἰών; how wholly different therefore from the κοιλία, that organ of temporal nourishment, which will cease to be!

καὶ τὸν Κύρ. ἤγειρε] necessary assurance of what follows. See Romans 8:11. Comp 1 Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Corinthians 4:14.

καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐξεγερεῖ[978]] The bodily change in the case of those still alive at the time of the Parousia (1 Corinthians 15:51; 2 Corinthians 5:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:15 ff.) did not need to be specially mentioned, since Paul was not here to enter into detail upon the doctrine of the resurrection. Comp on Romans 8:11. He therefore, in accordance with the τὸν Κύρ. ἤγειρε, designates here the consummation of all things only a potiori, namely, as a raising up, speaking at the same time in the person of Christians generally (ἡμᾶς), and leaving out of view in this general expression his own personal hope that he might survive to the Parousia.

The interchange of ἤγ. and ἐξεγ. (out of the grave, comp ἐξανάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν, Php 3:11) is accidental, without any special design—in opposition to Bengel and Osiander’s arbitrary opinion that the former word denoted the first-fruits, and the latter the “massa dormientium.”[981]

αὐτοῦ]—not αὑτοῦ, because uttered from the standpoint of the writer—applies to God, not to Jesus (Theodoret); and διὰ τῆς δυνάμ. αὐτ. should be referred not to both the clauses in the sentence (Billroth), but, as its position demands, to ἐξεγερεῖ; for to the ground of faith which the latter has in καὶ τὸν Κύριον ἤγειρε, Paul now adds its undoubted possibility (Matthew 22:29), perhaps glancing purposely at the deniers of the resurrection, τῇ ἀξιοπιστίᾳ τῆς τοῦ ποιοῦντος ἰσχύος τοὺς ἀντιλέγοντας ἐπιστομίζων, Chrysostom.

[978] If ἐξεγείρει were the true reading (but see the critical remarks), the tense employed would in that case bring before us as present what was certain in the future. If ἐξήγειρε were correct, we should have to interpret this according to the idea of the resurrection of believers being implied in that of Christ, comp. Colossians 2:12.

[981] Against this view may be urged the consideration, in itself decisive, that in the whole of chap. 15. ἐγείρω is the term constantly used both of Christ’s resurrection and that of believers; whereas ἐξεγείρω occurs in all the N. T. only here and Romans 9:17 (in the latter passage, however, not of the rising of the dead).

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 6:14 is parl[971] to 1 Corinthians 6:13 b (“God” the agent in both), as 1 Corinthians 6:13 c to 1 Corinthians 6:13 a: the previous δὲ contrasted the several natures of βρώματα and σῶμα; this the opp[972] issues, καταργήσει and ἐξεγερεῖ. ὁ Κύριος is the determining factor of both contrasts. “God will abolish both the belly and its foods … but God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us also through His power.” P. substitutes “us,” in the antithesis, for “our bodies,” since the man, including his body (see 1 Corinthians 15:35; 1 Corinthians 15:49) is the subject of resurrection. The saying ἀπαρχὴ Χριστός, of 1 Corinthians 15:23, supplies the nexus between τ. Κύριον ἤγειρεν and ἡμ. ἐξεγερεῖ; cf. also 2 Corinthians 4:14, Romans 8:11; Romans 14:9, Colossians 3:1, Php 3:21; John 5:20-30; John 14:2 ff., etc. The prefix in ἐξ-εγερεῖ is local—out of (sc. the grave; cf. ἐξ-ανάστασις, Php 3:11); not de massa dormientium (Bg[973]). The raising of Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:19 ff.), then of Christians, from the dead is the supreme exhibition of God’s supernatural “power” (see Romans 4:17-24, Matthew 22:29, Acts 26:8, etc.). Christ is raised as “Lord,” and will rule our life yon side of death more completely than on this (Acts 2:36, Colossians 1:18, Php 3:20 f.).

[971] parallel.

[972] opposite, opposition.

[973] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. and will also raise up us] Unlike the belly, whose functions shall cease, the body, through its Lord, is destined to an enduring life. We are taught in Romans 8:11, in ch. 15, and by that much neglected article in the Creed, “The Resurrection of the Body,” that Christ came to save, sanctify, and raise again, not our souls only, but our bodies.

by his own power] Our version has rendered definite here what in the original is indefinite. It is impossible to say for certain whether the word “His” refers to the Father or to Christ; but the analogy of St John 5:21; John 5:25; John 5:28; John 11:25, and especially 2 Corinthians 4:14, would lead us to the conclusion that Christ is here meant. But see Ephesians 1:19-20. There seems to be a distinction implied in the Greek of this verse between the raising of Christ, who saw no corruption, and the raising us from our state of corruption and almost annihilation, through the power of Christ.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 6:14. Ἤγειρε—ἐξεγερεῖ, hath raised—and will raise) [Paul introduces here in the way of prelude those topics, which he was to discuss more fully and distinctly in ch. 15—V. g.] The simple verb is appropriately applied to [Christ] the first fruits, the compound, of rare occurrence, to the general mass of them that sleep. Εξ in composition often signifies consummation. The practical application from the resurrection of our flesh is, sin once committed in the flesh will never be undone.—διὰ, by) Paul would rather connect this with the mentioning of the resurrection, than with that of destruction.—δυνάμεως, power) who then can doubt? God is omnipotent.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - God hath both raised up the Lord. St. Paul always grounds man's resurrection] and immortality on the resurrection and ascension of Christ (see ch. 15; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 6:5, 8; Romans 8:11). 1 Corinthians 6:14

Vincent's Word Studies

Will raise up us

The body being destined to share with the body of Christ in resurrection, and to be raised up incorruptible, is the subject of a higher adaptation, with which fornication is incompatible.