The Resurrection
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33 · Berean Standard Bible
Don't let people fool you—the people you spend time with and the ideas you're around shape who you become, for better or worse.
Paul is shifting tone here because he needs to address something deeper. The Corinthians have been exposed to false teachers denying resurrection, and that false teaching is spreading like infection through the community.
Paul
This is practical wisdom that applies across Scripture. Who you listen to matters. Your community shapes your beliefs and character.
Don't be fooled—bad companions corrupt good character; the company you keep shapes your moral development.
Paul quotes what appears to be a fragment from Menander's comedy Thais (preserved also in other Stoic sources), showing his awareness of pagan moral philosophy. But he weaponizes it: the Corinthians have been keeping company with those who deny resurrection, and this false teaching is corrupting their moral reasoning. The verb phtheirō (to corrupt) means to spoil, to make morally useless. Bad doctrine leads to bad living.
Paul, using conventional Greek moral wisdom to make an unconventional point about doctrinal accountability
The narrative shows that resurrection theology isn't mere intellectual proposition — it's the foundation of moral life. Denying it corrupts the community ethically.
31I face death every day, brothers, as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.
32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
34Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.
35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”
Read all of 1 Corinthians 15 — If Christ has not been raised, Paul says, everything falls apart. But He has — and that changes everything.
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