Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 15:34
Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, interrupts his resurrection argument to rebuke those who deny it. He places this between a proverb on corrupting company (v.33) and a question about the resurrection body (v.35), making the rebuke a pivot, not a footnote.
The words — ἐκνήψατε (eknēpsate) is a rare verb meaning "wipe your eyes" or "open your eyes," a physical image of snapping to sobriety; it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. δικαὶως (dikaiōs) qualifies the command: not just sober up, but sober up as is right.
The thread — Romans 13:11 uses the same wake-up imagery ("wake up from your slumber"), and 1 Corinthians 6:5 repeats the exact formula "I say this to your shame." Hebrews 5:11 echoes the charge of dullness, though without the moral accusation.
Why it lands — Paul does not treat their denial of the resurrection as a mere intellectual error; he calls it active sin and names their ignorance of God as the cause. The reader is asked to accept that a wrong belief about God can be a moral failure, not just a wrong answer.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 6:5 I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?
- Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
- Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing.
- Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
- Ephesians 5:14 So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:7 But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
- Jonah 1:6 The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
- John 5:14 Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
- John 8:11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”
- Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.