Moreover, {1} brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye {a} stand;

(1) The sixth treatise of this epistle, concerning the resurrection: and he uses a transition, or passing over from one matter to another, showing first that he brings no new thing, to the end that the Corinthians might understand that they had begun to swerve from the right course. And next that he does not go about to entreat of a trifling matter, but of another chief point of the Gospel, which if it is taken away, their faith will necessarily come to nothing. And so at the length he begins this treatise at Christ's resurrection, which is the ground and foundation of ours, and confirms it first by the testimony of the scriptures and by the witness of the apostles, and of more than five hundred brethren, and last of all by his own.

(a) In the profession of which you still continue.

People's New Testament

15:1 The Resurrection from the Dead

SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 15:

The Essential Facts of the Gospel. The Resurrection of Christ a Central Fact. The Witnesses of the Resurrection. Those at Corinth Who Denied the Resurrection. The Apostles Then False Witnesses. Our Faith Vain. Death in Adam, but Life in Christ. The Resurrection Body. The Victory Over Death.

Moreover. This chapter is devoted to the resurrection from the dead. Among the various false doctrines which had crept into the church at Corinth, composed of those who had so recently been heathen, and who had so much to unlearn, was one that the resurrection of the soul from sin to a new life; that this resurrection was already past in the case of those converted (2Ti 2:18), and that a resurrection after death was impossible. The doctrine of the resurrection was absurd, according to the Grecian ideas (Ac 17:32), and some were infusing this kind of skepticism into the church at Corinth. It is likely that the letter of the church (1Co 7:1) asked some questions which called out this remarkable chapter. The epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, written about the beginning of the second century, refers to these freethinkers.

I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you. He states the fundamentals of that gospel as the basis of the argument he is about to make. That gospel was common ground, for they received it and still professed it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 15

1Co 15:1-58. The Resurrection Proved against the Deniers of It at Corinth.

Christ's resurrection rests on the evidence of many eye-witnesses, including Paul himself, and is the great fact preached as the groundwork of the Gospel: they who deny the resurrection in general, must deny that of Christ, and the consequence of the latter will be, that Christian preaching and faith are vain.

1. Moreover-"Now" [Alford and Ellicott].

I declare-literally, "I make known": it implies some degree of reproach that it should be now necessary to make it known to them afresh, owing to some of them "not having the knowledge of God" (1Co 15:34). Compare Ga 1:11.

wherein ye stand-wherein ye now take your stand. This is your present actual privilege, if ye suffer not yourselves to fall from your high standing.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-11 The word resurrection, usually points out our existence beyond the grave. Of the apostle's doctrine not a trace can be found in all the teaching of philosophers. The doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection, is the foundation of Christianity. Remove this, and all our hopes for eternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firm, that Christians stand in the day of trial, and are kept faithful to God. We believe in vain, unless we keep in the faith of the gospel. This truth is confirmed by Old Testament prophecies; and many saw Christ after he was risen. This apostle was highly favoured, but he always had a low opinion of himself, and expressed it. When sinners are, by Divine grace, turned into saints, God causes the remembrance of former sins to make them humble, diligent, and faithful. He ascribes to Divine grace all that was valuable in him. True believers, though not ignorant of what the Lord has done for, in, and by them, yet when they look at their whole conduct and their obligations, they are led to feel that none are so worthless as they are. All true Christians believe that Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and then risen from the dead, is the sun and substance of Christianity. All the apostles agreed in this testimony; by this faith they lived, and in this faith they died.