Genesis 45:3-11, 15

See http://www.milepost100.com/AY_Proper15.html

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

I like to at least try to find the OT references when the NT says "it is written". I couldn't find this one. The OT doesn't talk a lot about Adam and Eve. This seems more like an invention of Paul, this connection of salvation and original sin. Since he said it, people who are paid to explain the Bible have to try to incorporate it, and they have, in great detail. With this passage, it is also now foolish to talk about what it will be like in heaven. Will we get missing limbs back? Will we be younger if we die old? Which spouse will we meet if we have had more than one and will we appear to each other as the same age? These are more commonly discussed in the pews, not the pulpit, but there are whole books on people who have seen heaven and they are rather popular. This may be nothing more than Paul trying to deal with those popular questions.

Matt Dillahunty has a great response to people that believe they will go to heaven and be able to see their non-believing friends and family in hell from there. Even if that were to happen, say, to his mother who is devout, it doesn't bother him. Because he knows his mother would never be able to be happy if she saw her son down there burning, even if she was in heaven. For that to happen, his mother would have to become a different person with a completely altered personality. Maybe that's what Paul thought happened.

Luke 6:27-38

Obviously some good advice here. Obvious because every tradition has some version of it, going back well before Christianity and on the other side of the world from Judaism. We are a social animal. If we didn't have some sense of caring for all creatures who are like us we would not have survived and succeeded as well as we have. There's some bad advice here too. Turning the other cheek does not always work. There is some contextual history that says this is a tradition indicating status, so it requires knowledge of that culture to make sense.

The trouble with historical context is if you want to make it something that is relevant to you today. Are you in fact a peasant who is regularly beaten? Then maybe you should have a strategy for declaring yourself an equal and exposing the power structure. If not, and someone strikes you, you have many options available to you that are available to people of a wide range of social classes and economic background. We have improved on the world in 2,000 years. You don't have to take abuse. I don't think Jesus would expect you to.

So love, be merciful, don't judge or condemn, give. However this is not a magic formula and you may not get back what you put out into the universe. Do it anyway.