"Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame."
Without the resurrection, what is the point? If the dead will not live again, then why bother giving attention to what comes after death. Without the resurrection, Christian sacrifice is ridiculous. If this life is all there is then, unmediated hedonism is the best there is to live for.
Although fulfilling selfish pleasures is the best that many people have, the passionate pursuit of satisfaction in earthly pleasures always leaves the pursuer empty. What's more it has a degenerative effect. Seeking joy and not finding it, the hedonist goes ever further away from God, thinking that there will be true pleasure in his next gratification, but all the time he is going ever further from the only source of true satisfaction.
How then should I live? I should provide avoid sin, providing an example of a joy-filled life without sinful self-gratification. I should live in the knowledge that Christ has been raised from the dead and the knowledge that I will follow Him in this. Knowing my end, I should display it for others to see.
