Teks -- 1 Corinthians 15:2 (NET)

15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you– unless you believed in vain.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: 1Co 15:2 - In what words I preached it unto you

In what words I preached it unto you ( tini logoi euēggelisamēn humin ).

Almost certainly tis (tini logoi , locative or instrumental, in or with) here is used like the relative hos as is common in papyri (Moulton, Prolegomena , p. 93f.; Robertson, Grammar , p. 737f.). Even so it is not clear whether the clause depends on gnōrizō like the other relatives, but most likely so.

Robertson: 1Co 15:2 - If we hold it fast

If we hold it fast ( ei katechete ).

Condition of first class. Paul assumes that they are holding it fast.

Robertson: 1Co 15:2 - Except ye believed in vain

Except ye believed in vain ( ektos ei mē eikēi episteusate ).

For ektos ei mē see note on 1Co 14:5. Condition of first class, unless in fact ye did believe to no purpose (eikēi , old adverb, only in Paul in N.T.). Paul holds this peril over them in their temptation to deny the resurrection.

Vincent: 1Co 15:2 - If ye keep in memory what, etc

If ye keep in memory what, etc.

I see no good reason for departing from the arrangement of the A.V., which states that the salvation of the readers depends on their holding fast the word preached. Rev. reads: through which ye are saved ; I make known , I say , in what words I preached it unto you , if ye hold it fast , etc. This is certainly very awkward, making Paul say that their holding it fast was the condition on which he preached it. American Rev. as A.V.

Wesley: 1Co 15:2 - Ye are saved, if ye hold fast

Your salvation is begun, and will be perfected, if ye continue in the faith.

Wesley: 1Co 15:2 - Unless ye have believed in vain

Unless indeed your faith was only a delusion.

JFB: 1Co 15:2 - ye are saved

Rather, "ye are being saved."

JFB: 1Co 15:2 - if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you

Able critics, BENGEL and others, prefer connecting the words thus, "I declare unto you the Gospel (1Co 15:1) in what words I preached it unto you." Paul reminds them, or rather makes known to them, as if anew, not only the fact of the Gospel, but also with what words, and by what arguments, he preached it to them. Translate in that case, "if ye hold it fast." I prefer arranging as English Version, "By which ye are saved, if ye hold fast (in memory and personal appropriation) with what speech I preached it unto you."

JFB: 1Co 15:2 - unless

Which is impossible, your faith is vain, in resting on Christ's resurrection as an objective reality.

Clarke: 1Co 15:2 - By which also ye are saved

By which also ye are saved - That is, ye are now in a salvable state; and are saved from your Gentilism, and from your former sins

Clarke: 1Co 15:2 - If ye keep in memory

If ye keep in memory - Your future salvation, or being brought finally to glory, will now depend on your faithfulness to the grace that ye have received.

Calvin: 1Co 15:2 - If you keep in memory

2.If you keep in memory — unless in vain ⁹ These two expressions are very cutting. In the first, he reproves their carelessness or fickleness, because such a sudden fall was an evidence that they had never understood what had been delivered to them, or that their knowledge of it had been loose and floating, inasmuch as it had so quickly vanished. By the second, he warns them that they had needlessly and uselessly professed allegiance to Christ, if they did not hold fast this main doctrine. ¹⁰

TSK: 1Co 15:2 - ye are // keep in memory // what I preached // unless

ye are : 1Co 1:18, 1Co 1:21; Act 2:47 *Gr: Rom 1:16; 2Co 2:15; Eph 2:8; 2Ti 1:9

keep in memory : or, hold fast, 1Co 15:11, 1Co 15:12; Pro 3:1, Pro 4:13, Pro 6:20-23, Pro 23:23; Col 1:23; 2Th 2:15; Heb 2:1; Heb 3:6, Heb 3:14, Heb 4:14, Heb 10:23

what I preached : Gr. by what speech I preached

unless : 1Co 15:14; Psa 106:12, Psa 106:13; Luk 8:13; Joh 8:31, Joh 8:32; Act 8:13; 2Co 6:1; Gal 3:4; Jam 2:14, Jam 2:17, Jam 2:26

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Co 15:2 - By which also ye are saved

By which also ye are saved by the believing, receiving, of which doctrine, you are already in the way to salvation (as it is said, Joh 3:18 : He that believeth on him is not condemned; and Joh 3:36 : He hath everlasting life, and shall be eternally saved): but not unless ye persevere (for that is meant by keeping in memory the doctrine which I have preached unto you ); and this you must do, or your believing will signify nothing, but be in vain to your souls.

Gill: 1Co 15:2 - By which also ye are saved // if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you // unless ye have believed in vain

By which also ye are saved,.... It was the means of their salvation, and had been made the power of God unto salvation to them. Salvation is inseparably connected with true faith in Christ as a Saviour, and with a hearty belief of his resurrection from the dead, which is the earnest and pledge of the resurrection of the saints; and because of the certainty of it in the promise of God, through the obedience and death of Christ, and in the faith and hope of believers, which are sure and certain things, they are said to be saved already. To which the apostle puts in the following provisos and exceptions; the one is,

if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you; or rather, "if ye hold fast, or retain"; that is, by faith, the doctrine preached to you, and received by you, particularly the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead; for the salvation that is connected with it does not depend upon the strength of the memory, but upon the truth and steadfastness of faith: it is the man that perseveres in the faith and doctrine of Christ that shall be saved; and everyone that has truly believed in Christ, and cordially embraced his Gospel, shall hold on, and out to the end; though the faith of nominal believers may be overthrown by such men, as Hymenaeus and Philetus, who asserted, that the resurrection was past already; but so shall not the faith of real believers, because the foundation on which they are built stands sure, and the Lord has perfect knowledge of them, and will keep and save them. The other exception is,

unless ye have believed in vain: not that true faith can be in vain; for that is the faith of God's elect, the gift of his grace, the operation of his Spirit; Christ is the author and finisher of it, and will never suffer it to fail; it will certainly issue in everlasting salvation: but then as the word may be heard in vain, as it is by such who are compared to the wayside, and to the thorny and rocky ground; and as the Gospel of the grace of God may be received in vain; so a mere historical faith may be in vain; this a man may have, and not the grace of God, and so be nothing; with this he may believe for a while, and then drop it: and since each of these might possibly be the case of some in this church, the apostle puts in these exceptions, in order to awaken the attention of them all to this important doctrine he was reminding them of.