1 Corinthians 15:37 (DBY)

Passage

And what thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain: it may be of wheat, or some one of the rest:

Nearby Context

1 Corinthians 15:35 But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come?

1 Corinthians 15:36 Fool; what *thou* sowest is not quickened unless it die.

1 Corinthians 15:37 And what thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain: it may be of wheat, or some one of the rest:

1 Corinthians 15:38 and God gives to it a body as he has pleased, and to each of the seeds its own body.

1 Corinthians 15:39 Every flesh [is] not the same flesh, but one [is] of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another [flesh] of birds, and another of fishes.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "sowest", "body", "shall", "bare", and "grain". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "sowest", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 36's "Fool what thou sowest is not quickened..." into verse 38's "and God gives to it a body...", so "thou" and "sowest" belong inside that flow. In 1 Corinthians context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thou" and "sowest" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.