There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. (I Corinthians 15:40 ESV)
Mysteries
The church of Corinth was arguing. Not in a pleasant, resolution-seeking way; but in an angry, arrogant, competitive way. Most of the letter of I Corinthians is Paul’s effort to bring them back into a state of unity.
One of the things they argued about was apparently heaven.
For good reason. Scripture presents many hints and metaphors about heaven, but does not give as clear and dogmatic a description as we might like. Paul presents this verse as a way to persuade the Corinthians to be gracious and tolerant of each other, within certain boundaries.
“Heavenly bodies” here are not describing angels and mansions. Rather, Paul is comparing those objects on earth that we can see, touch, sense, and understand (the earthly bodies) with those objects that we can see, accept as reality, but not understand. Things, for them, like stars, the sun, the moon, clouds, wind, and maybe even birds.
Paul is showing that just like there are things in our experience that our beyond our ability to grasp, there are things about heaven that we cannot grasp. So, he is saying, stop pretending you can.
There are mysteries in Scripture. Mysteries that we are not able to grasp. And those things cause more fights amongst Christians than anything else.
Because we want to feel like WE have the better understanding.
I am not saying we should not form opinions or attempt to understand the mysteries.
But they are not a reason to fight.
If for no other reason, we do not need to understand those things fully, yet. We will! And meanwhile God does!