To Become Other Than We Are...

This is the Bible study page for the Thursday Night Group meeting November 6 to study 1 Corinthians 15:35-58.  This is the part we didn't get to last week.  So, I included the questions from last weeks study page for these verses, but also added a bit to them.

Read through the whole chapter at least once, then focus your attention on the final verses of the chapter.  Read them a few times, try to imagine what this means for our bodies, what will we look like?  Jot down observations and questions.  We had a good one last week, and I wrote a blog entry on it.  These questions are really very helpful for our discussion and understanding.

After reading through the passage and doing your own search for things, read back through with the questions below:

• In verse 35 is thought to be another break, but I suspect that actually it goes with verse 33 and 34.  So, I would break at 33 not 35.  What do you think?  How would it read if we started this paragraph at 33?
• From 35 through much of the rest of the chapter, Paul argues for the reality of the resurrection in more concrete terms.  Paul draws on imagery from plants and animals, but what do you think his main is point in verses 36 through 41?
• What do you think of his contrasting argument after verse 41?  Does this clarify or obscure your understanding?
• Why do you think it is necessary that if there is a physical 'body' there must then be a spiritual 'body' as he says in verse 44?
• Look up the term 'natural' used twice in 44, and then again in 46 in a Strong's Concordance (or click the link on the word).  It's related very closely to the Greek word normally translated as 'soul', and where we get the word 'psychology' from; 'psyche'.  If we translated the word as 'soul-ish', or 'pertaining to the soul', how would that change your understanding of what the 'soul' refers to in Scripture?   
• Paul uses contrast for his description of a resurrected body in verses 42 through 49, but then in 50 and to the end, he completely changes how he presents resurrection.  It's almost worship or prayer of praise, or something.  How does Paul's description in 50 through 58 give you hope personally?
•  Verses 50 through 57 are the depiction of the contrasts in verses 42 through 49 which will happen to us when Jesus returns.  What do you feel as you read this depiction?
• Rather than discuss 'when' all this will happen in relation to things in other letters and books, consider what will happen.  What do you think this will look like?
• The implication of verse 58 is that the Corinthians have not been steadfast so far.  What do you think happened to cause them to waver?  How do you think this has or does happen to us?

This will probably take up our whole time.  There's a lot in this passage, but I would like to avoid 'end-times' discussions as far as when-what-happens-to-whom sorts of stuff.  Let's try and confine our discussion to what it will look like.  But, as I said at the beginning, if it's about Scripture, it's a valid topic to discuss, so that has to include 'end-times' topics as well.