The Most Important But in the English Language!

The apostle Paul is writing to a church in all kinds of difficulties. There were many good people in the church but there were some wrong beliefs and some bad behaviour in circulation. One of the key doctrinal mistakes that was taking place was a denial of the bodily resurrection of the Lord (v12). Paul takes them through the implications of what the denial of the resurrection will lead to. He shows them that to lose the resurrection is to lose the hope of the gospel. So, having gone through the negative implications, were the resurrection not to be in fact true, he then asserts that the resurrection is true (v20). That verse begins in our English translation with the word 'but'. There can surely be no more important 'but' that has ever occurred in the English language than this one.

The Main Headings:

1: A hard thing to believe
2: But it is true!
3: Learning to live with life