1 Corinthians 15:40

40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another.

1 Corinthians 15:40 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 15:40

There are also celestial bodies
Or bodies in the heavens, as the sun, moon, and stars:

and bodies terrestrial;
or bodies on earth, animate and inanimate, men, beasts, trees, minerals

But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another:
though both sorts are bodies, yet their qualities differ, and there is a greater glory in the one than in the other. This is another similitude, serving to help our ideas of this doctrine of the resurrection of the body; that though it is the same in substance, yet different in qualities; and does not design any difference between the bodies of good men and bad men, elect and reprobate; as if the one were intended by the celestial bodies, and the other by the terrestrial; and much less degrees of glory in the saints themselves, who, imagine them in as low a form as can be, can never be compared to terrestrial ones; but it shows the difference there will be between the raised bodies and the present ones; which will be as great as that which now is between celestial and terrestrial bodies.

1 Corinthians 15:40 In-Context

38 But God gives it a body as He has designed, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.

39 Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another.

40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another.

41 The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable.