1:22

Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom.

These are the natural tendencies of these two people groups in Paul's day (I'm not saying for all time). Many Jewish people in Jesus' and Paul's day wanted to see miracles. In John 6, a great chapter to read by the way, the people wanted Jesus to perform another miracle despite the fact that he'd just fed 5000 + people! This shows that miracles by themselves do not make people believe.

Of course, God does do miracles, and even today He often causes miracles to accompany the preaching of the gospel. (Here is a great grocery store miracle story). But miracles in themselves do not guarantee belief in Jesus. Paul knew this and that's why, despite the many miracles God performed through him, he relied on the preaching of the gospel to convert others. The preaching of "Christ crucified" and resurrected, is God's way of spreading the truth about Jesus.

The Greeks that Paul encountered, as we have already seen in this study, were looking for wisdom. This sounds good, but what they were doing was looking for human wisdom, expecting the gospel to fit into their philosophical categories. They were saying, "If this message fits into our philosophical boxes, then we'll believe it." The problem was that it didn't, and it never will. (Read Acts 17 where Paul preaches to the Athenians, the masters of philosophy. When he talks about the resurrection of the dead, some Athenians sneered at him.)

What we encounter in 1:22 is the idea that the gospel of Jesus Christ does not appeal to the natural man. It only appeals to those whom God calls, to those whom He is working on by His Spirit. Remember that Jesus said "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44).

Should we speak the gospel in language that people can understand? Of course. We should remove as many barriers to understanding it as we can, without compromising any of it. But even more than that, we must pray, pray, pray for the Father to draw people to Himself. Then they will be ready to hear the message. Otherwise, neither miracles nor a perfect philosophical presentation of the gospel will cause people to believe.

1:19-21

Here Paul continues the discussion that he introduced by the second half of v. 17: not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. He intends to show clearly how the ways of self-reliant humanity are totally opposed to the ways of God. Human wisdom and God's wisdom are two different things. In the Corinthians' love for human wisdom, they are in danger of failing to understand God's wisdom.

In v. 19 Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14. If you get a chance, read Isaiah 29; it is a beautiful and profound chapter. First God says that He will fight against and humble Jerusalem. Then He turns to the enemies of Israel, stating that they will be destroyed when He comes with thunder and earthquake and great noise. Of course this is referring to the Second Coming of Christ, when Jesus returns to earth with a mighty arrival.

Then the chapter turns to address those who come near to God with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him. These are people who practice the outward things of faith/religion but who really depend on this world and on themselves for life. Their worship is made up of rules taught by men. They are proud, self-reliant and stubborn people. Therefore, they are not enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and they cannot understand the gospel nor the wisdom of God.

These are the types of people that Jesus often rebuked, and He used quotes from Isaiah 29, such as in Matthew 15:7-9.

Paul uses Isaiah 29:14 to describe the proud, worldly-wise, intelligent people who cannot understand the gospel. It is not through this world's wisdom that people will understand God's truth about Jesus, but only through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Since "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble," (James 4:6) it is the humble people who receive and are able to accept the gospel, because God gives them grace to understand it.

Does this mean that intelligent people can't grasp the message of Christ? No. Paul was very intelligent. But it takes God's Spirit to open our eyes to understand. Paul needed the Damascus road experience to grasp the gospel - his human intellect wasn't enough. Our intelligence and wisdom alone is not enough to give us understanding. We must have a humble, teachable heart that WANTS to find God.

It is God's plan to reveal Himself to the humble, the needy, those who want Him. It is also His plan to hide Himself from the proud and arrogant. That is what Paul means in verse 21 when he says "the world through its wisdom did not know" God. The proud people in the world ("wise man, scholar, philosopher of this age") depend on this world's wisdom for guidance and to know God. But this world's wisdom cannot get us to God. That is why the gospel, the true Way to God, has "made foolish the wisdom of the world."

The tower of Babel in Genesis 11 represents proud humanity's attempt to reach up to God by its own power, wisdom, strength and hard work. The tower was man's building upwards in pride and self-reliance. This world says "If you DO enough, try hard enough, you will get to God." Christianity says, God came down to us, and we need to do things His way, not by our own strength. Salvation comes through the "foolishness" (according to the world) of preaching the gospel of Jesus.

When we humble ourselves and ask God for His help, He answers us. If we are committed to doing things the way that everyone else does them, and figuring everything out according to the wisdom of this world, then God resists us.

Wow

Where did the time go? The last several weeks have been among the busiest ever. Maybe I should stop making promises about how often I'm going to get to this, and just say "God willing, I will post as often as I can." (James 4:15).

1:18

Paul divides humanity into two camps: those who are being saved and those who are perishing. The message of the cross, that is, that God reconciled us to Him by the actual, physical crucifixion of Jesus, is a welcome truth to those whom God has called. When God works on someone's heart by His Spirit, convincing them, calling them to Himself, the gospel of Jesus rings true to them. It is revealed to that person that the cross of Christ was necessary and the way to salvation.

But to those who are perishing in their sins, on their way to being sealed in that death forever, the cross of Christ is foolishness. It doesn't make sense to them. How could the brutal execution of someone 2,000 years ago be relevant for today, they argue. If Jesus was a prophet and, more than that, God's Son, then why would God allow His Son to be killed? Millions of Muslims can't believe that Jesus is God's Son for this very reason. (The religion of Islam teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross, but Judas or someone else was substituted for him).

There must be a work of God in someone's heart before that person can believe in the central message of Christianity: that Jesus the Messiah died on the cross as a sin offering for you and me, and He rose again from the dead to conquer death and prove His Messiahship. That's why prayer for others is so important. It takes God to reveal the truth about the cross to others. Logical arguments won't do it. Good reasoning won't do it. (Although both of these can be aids to faith). God must do it.

We must never forget that the cross of Christ, to the believer, is power. Power to be forgiven of our sins. Power to set us free from those sins ("Anyone who has died [with Christ] has been set free from sin - Romans 6:7). The power of being reconciled and having a real relationship with God. The power of having turned aside God's wrath toward us for our sins.

The cross shows power by revealing that we must "die" to our old, selfish, sinful nature on a daily basis and do what God wants us to do instead. That is the means by which we become more like Christ.

The cross is power by enabling us to release our sins and our messed-up feelings to God. It is a place we can go, in prayer, to let those things go up to Christ and out of us. Leanne Payne's works taught me about this, and I would say that most Christians don't know anything about it. But it is a way that our horrible pains and feelings can be lifted up to God and not destructively turned inward or taken out on others.

Never forget that the cross is a source of power from God.

1:17

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel"

Is baptism important? Of course it is (Romans 6 talks about baptism), and Paul certainly did baptize people. But it seems that the Corinthians were making a big deal about the person who baptized them, whether it was Paul or someone else. The real point is that they were baptized into Christ, not who baptized them. Their focus was getting off of Jesus. They were giving too much importance to their human teachers. (We who are teachers in the church are not special Christians, but we're servants given a responsibility to build up the church.)

Paul was an apostle (meaning "one who is sent") and here he reminds the Corinthians that he was sent by Christ. This should tell them that God has given him authority and responsibility, and they should listen to him as a leader who's been appointed by Jesus.

Paul was a very wise man. He knew exactly what God had appointed him to do, and what he was not appointed to do. Even though baptism is important, Paul's primary mission was to preach the gospel. He did not get carried away with this good project and that good project, and therefore lose his focus. He was totally focused on his goal of preaching.

It's hard, in this world of options, many of them good, to be focused on what God has called us to do, letting the rest fall into second (or third or fourth) place.

The second part of this verse ("not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power") also starts a new section of Paul's letter. He is going to discuss how the gospel of Jesus, focused on the cross, goes against human wisdom and what the world thinks is good. He is also going to reiterate that he was not dependent on perfect public speaking or techniques, but on the Holy Spirit. This is a very important part of 1 Corinthians, and we'll be spending some time talking about it.

1:13-16

Paul, who definitely knows sarcasm, asks "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

Then he is thankful that he didn't baptize many people, so no one could claim that they were "baptized into Paul".

So Paul, in order to address this issue of prideful differences in opinion, brings the Corinthians' focus back to Christ. We are not to be proud about denominations or churches or our leaders, but to remember that we are one body in Christ.

Today we might be proud of where we go to church. Or we might be proud of being part of a certain denomination.

But the great truth is that we are a part of Jesus' Body, that we all belong to Him. The more we know Him, the more we see that that truth is all that matters. Denominations are a temporary thing, individual churches are temporary groups. But the Body of Christ is forever.

Let's not be proud of our particular doctrine or denomination or the leader we like to listen to on the radio, as if those things make us "extra special Christians." No, being a Christian - someone who belongs to Christ - is definitely good enough.

1:10-12

What? Christians fight?

Sadly, yes.

Paul appealed to the Corinthians in verse 10 to agree with one another, literally to "say the same thing" as one another, so that there would be no divisions in the church. That word, divisions, is the Greek word "skisma" from which we obviously get the word schism, although Gordon Fee says that this does not mean schism "in the sense of a 'party' or a 'faction'" (p. 54). The word speaks of a rupture or a tear (not a "tear" from your eye but a "tear" as in a rip of fabric).

What kind of divisions were there in the church at Corinth?

Fee argues that there were not totally different parties or groups in the church. But, he says, it seems that there were major differences in opinion among the Corinthians. He says "Thus Paul does not refer to distinctly formed groups or "parties" here, but to divided opinions over their various leaders, which...have developed into jealousy and quarrels" (p. 54).

Why were the Corinthians divided over opinions about their leaders? Probably it was pride. The Corinthians were taking pride in their wisdom and knowledge. Remember that the Greek culture, where Corinth was, was all about having wisdom and knowledge. Greeks were very proud of their intelligence, their wisdom, their philosophy (which, after all, means "love of wisdom").

In verse 11 we find out that it was people from "Chloe's household" (we don't know who she was) who informed Paul that the Corinthian church was having these quarrels.

In verse 12 we learn the nature of these quarrels: the Christians were arguing over which teacher to follow. There was definitely pride involved in this. Some were saying "I follow Paul," others were saying "I follow Apollos," still others "followed Cephas" (Cephas is Peter). The Corinthians were trying to distinguish themselves by associating with a famous teacher. "Well, I am wise because I follow Peter, who understands Christ the best," one Corinthian might say. Another might retort, "No, actually I'm smarter than you because I follow Apollos, the greatest speaker and preacher." See how ugly this is?

Next time we'll talk about the relevance of this passage for today. Now that the holidays are over, I hope to make sure to post 2-3 new ones per week.

1:9 - Fellowship with God

Paul says that God is faithful. He has called us into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

This word, translated fellowship, is "koinonia". It's a great word that means "association, communion, fellowship, close relationship" and, as the Bauer Lexicon points out, it is often used as an expression for the closest human relationship, marriage.

We are called into this type of relationship with God through Jesus. What a privilege! It is almost unthinkable that God loves us so much that He wants a relationship with us, and not just some relationship like "Hi, how you doing" on Sunday mornings. He wants a close, intimate relationship.

Do we think of God as someone who's promised to meet our needs but is aloof, distant? Many fathers, overly caught up in their work, provide handsomely for their families but are emotionally distant from those families. That's what many, many kids have grown up seeing - that their dad loves them by providing for them with material things, but takes little interest in them as persons. So, those kids think of God in the same way - as Someone who will provide for us, but who is too busy running the universe to be involved with us intimately, with our feelings and desires.

Thus, this verse, seemingly ordinary and very easy to skip over (especially if you speak Christianese), reveals quite a bit of God's heart. He wants to be very closely involved in all aspects of our lives.

(Matthew 15:1-20). When the religous Pharisees criticized Jesus' disciples for not performing the ceremonial washing before eating, Jesus got defensive. Defensive in a good way, meaning that he defended the disciples. He called the Pharisees hypocrites and then said "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." He then went on to explain that it is the heart, not clean hands, that really matters in life. The heart is the source of our good, and the source of our evil.

Thus, it is critical that our hearts be engaged with God, that we talk to Him about what really matters to us. That we admit to Him when we see the junk in our hearts. That we confess to Him when we find we're honoring Him with our lips, but satisfying our hearts with everything but Him.

The fellowship which God has called us into demands that we be totally honest with Him, about the bad and the good. About what we really desire as well as our sins. That fellowship is what Christianity is all about.

Next: We'll talk about the rest of the chapter and its relationship to denominations of today.

1:8

The word translated as "keep you strong" in the New International Version can mean "make firm, establish, confirm, make sure." So this verse says that Jesus establishes us, and makes us strong in our faith so that we will be blameless in the day of Christ (ie, His return). It seems to me that this is the same idea expressed in Philippians 1:6 - "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Note that Paul uses the same phrase "day of Christ Jesus" to refer to His return.

The idea is that Christ watches over us and is actively working on us by His Spirit. His work is so that we might persevere in our faith in Him, and that we might be mature, having nothing in us that is deserving of blame or shame. It is His goal to make us perfect.

"...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5:25b-27).

It is Jesus who makes us this way. Making us holy and blameless is not a work that you and I can do. It is His work. That is really good news! It is not your or my responsibility to figure out everything that's wrong with us and try to make it all better.

What is our role, then? Our role is to recognize that this process is going on, that Jesus is using this life to purify us. We are to submit to this process. OK, you might say, what does that mean?

It means that Jesus is going to use all kinds of things in this life to carry out this work. Hardships, difficulties, blessings, joy, worship, pain, prayer, fellowship, suffering. Often the process is hard. It's not always hard; sometimes there are wonderful realizations of who God is and how much He loves us. But a lot of it is hard.

What I've noticed is that much of this process involves me becoming aware of my own sins. Let me tell you, that is not a fun thing. All of us have some sins that we're not particularly attracted to, but other sins that we are prone to. For example, I don't have a problem with gambling too much, or drinking too much. But I can be defensive easily and prideful easily. (I'm not going to list others right now, OK?) It is these sins that Jesus wants to work on, and make us aware of.

When we become aware of our sin, usually through a painful episode of confrontation with someone else, or maybe the quiet conviction of God, our job is to admit our sin. The tendency is to cover it up or deny it. But if we do that, we are short-circuiting this process of growth that Jesus is doing in our lives. Jesus points out my sin to me, hoping that I will confess it to him and admit that I really need His help in this area of my life. If I keep covering it up, or using my own resources to try and deal with it, I am not allowing this growth process to continue, but I've stopped it temporarily.

When we continually deny our sins, or cover them up, God will keep bringing them to our attention in different ways. Often, painful episodes or times in our lives are times when we need to stop our frantically trying to "fix" the situation. Instead, we need to ask "OK, God, are you trying to show me something here?" (This doesn't mean that all tough times are because of our sins or that God is trying to teach us a lesson. Sometimes tough times just happen because of our sinful world and other people's choices.) But Jesus will use everything to keep this process going in our lives.

If you look at the disciples' lives with Jesus during His 3 year ministry, you'll see that Jesus uses situations as teachable moments. That is His character as the Master Teacher. See, for example, Matthew 14:13-21, where thousands of people were hungry and Jesus was trying to teach his disciples how God can miraculously provide for needs. Or Matthew 17:14-21, where Jesus used the demonized boy to teach about faith and spiritual disciplines.

In the same way, Jesus uses our life events as teachable moments. But the problem is, we often don't listen to Him. We're not asking or listening for His teaching about our lives. Instead, we substitute our own "wisdom" or our culture's "expert" opinions on things. As a result, we're not hearing God's (the TRUE) perspective on our lives, but we're hearing our perspective, or the culture's perspective. As part of this growth process, we need to keep asking God "What are you saying to me?" until we get an answer. "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened."

This growth process, where Jesus is doing His work in us so that we will be blameless, is something we must submit to and cooperate with Him in doing. Let's do it.

It's Been a While

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I just got back into the office today and I am going to try and post a new study tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who are reading and commenting - the encouragement that people are actually reading this thing is very helpful. God bless you!

1:7 part 2

I wanted a separate post to talk about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are not just talents that we possess. God gives everyone some sort of natural talent, that is, a talent that the person can use whether they are Christian or not, whether they want to obey God or not. A filmmaker has artistic talent; he or she can use it to make movies that glorify God, or he/she can make porn. That is not a spiritual gift; obviously, Jesus' Holy Spirit does not empower us to do evil. That artistic ability is a natural talent.

Spiritual gifts are Holy Spirit-given gifts of God to us, for the strengthening of other people. They are not identical to our natural talents. We must offer to God our natural talents on the one hand, and on the other hand ask and expect Him to show Himself through supernatural, spiritual gifts.

I am concerned that through carelessness of language, much of the Christian church today is confused about this issue. "Using your gift for the church" (meaning, taking your natural talent and putting it to work for your local church) is NOT the same thing as spiritual gifts. It's great to use our natural talents for the church. They, too are gifts from God, and should be put into His service. But we also need to ask God to give us every spiritual gift that we need to accomplish His will here.

Spiritual gifts are the result of Jesus' Presence with us (Immanuel, right?). When we are believers, He lives inside of us by His Spirit. When we gather together as believers, He is there in a special way ("when 2 or 3 are gathered in My Name..." Matt. 18:20). As part of His very real Presence with us, His Spirit exhibits gifts and fruit through us. Individually and especially when meeting together, we are given grace to minister to each other. The fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. (Galat. 5) and the gifts - knowledge, wisdom, prophecy, miracles, healing, and even tongues, etc. - are available. This is part of what I think Paul means by "you do not lack any spiritual gift". These gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit - Jesus' Presence with us - are how we minister in the power of God to each other. They distinguish the church from civic or social organizations (which use their members' natural gifts to benefit the organization). They can accomplish more, because it is God working, than natural gifts can. They are supernatural but not necessarily spectacular; often they are very subtle. But they are not identical to natural gifts.

The potentially confusing part is that the spiritual gift can build on or use the natural gift. (The spiritual gift does not have to be in conflict with the natural gift.) The example I use is that of teaching. I have a natural ability to teach, and sometimes God gives me the spiritual gift of teaching. I could teach others before I became a Christian; it's a natural gift. Yet sometimes I can tell that God's Spirit is working through me to teach others - there's a power there that I do not have on my own. An idea will come to me, or an example, that is not just from me. Another example would be serving. Someone with the natural talent of service can put others first and care for them (I think about many talented non-Christian nurses). Yet someone with the spiritual gift of service is empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve with greater humility, or greater love, or greater perception than they had on their own.

Another example is artistic ability. This is a natural gift. But God can also gift people in this area spiritually and work through them for His purposes (see Exodus 31:1-11). That's pretty cool. The spiritual gift builds on the natural.

There are some gifts, such as healing, or miracles, that don't really seem to build much on the natural gift. I don't have much of an interest in anatomy or giving people medicine (even if I could!). But I have prayed and seen God heal people. Some of our prayer partners during our healing services, though they don't have much natural ability in healing others (which, I guess, would be a doctor-like concern for health and medicines), have seen people healed. The Holy Spirit just healed people.

Having said that, there is often a human component to spiritual gifts, in the sense that human beings are active participants. Even in the gift of tongues, it is the person who has to use his own tongue to speak the words. The prophets had to actually say the words that God impressed on their hearts. Yet it was the Holy Spirit of God who was the source of these prophecies. There is that supernatural, Holy Spirit part which cannot be manufactured by human beings.

So, it can be kind of confusing if we try and break it down into what exactly is a natural gift and what is a spiritual gift. Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes it's not. We must not denigrate the less flashy gifts, like administration, mercy, service, encouraging, giving, in order to exalt the spectacular ones like healing, prophecy, tongues. This wrongful exaltation was what the Corinthians were doing, in an arrogant way. What I'm trying to teach in this post is that even though natural talents are gifts from God to be used for Him, we should not say that spiritual gifts are really just natural talents. God wants to be known through spiritual gifts of all kinds, manifestations of His Presence with us.

That is enough for now. Maybe I will comment more on spiritual gifts again. I am sure I will when we get to chapters 12-14. Thanks for your positive comments - you know who you are!!

1:7 part 1

Because the Corinthians believed in Christ, they (as a Body) did not lack any spiritual gift. This statement reminds the Corinthians that Jesus is the Source of all the spiritual gifts. The church should not be proud about having spiritual gifts, because all are from Christ. It is not absolutely certain that Paul is talking about spiritual gifts in the way we think of "spiritual gifts" -- perhaps he speaks of the best gift of redemption -- but in Fee's mind, and in mine (for what that's worth), I think that he is. The Corinthians were very interested in spiritual gifts (see chapters 12-14) and Paul's just mentioned how they were enriched in all speaking and knowledge.

All of this reminds us, though, that Jesus is the Gift, as I mentioned in a previous post. If we have Jesus, then we have all that we need (as John reminds us, "He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:12). If we don't have Jesus, then all we are and have will turn to dust. Except for the spiritual part of us, which will live forever separated from God in eternal death (hell). Ouch. Why would I say something like that? Because it is true. Certainly not because it's something anybody wants to hear or talk about.

Jesus is Immanuel, God With Us. He is really with His people. His presence brings all the gifts that we need. This is another way that the rock in the desert symbolized Christ - it provided the gift of water that the Israelites needed to survive. Note that the water was a physical gift. Suppose God had said, "Well, you have peace and joy in My Presence - can't you just forget about the physical needs?" But that's not how God is - He provides for what we need (see Matthew 6:25-34).

1:6

Here Paul mentions that the Corinthians believed Paul's message about Jesus. His testimony or witness was confirmed, or established, in them.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was like a plant. The word of God is like a seed, and the listeners are like soil. Those listeners who "hear the word and understand it" are like good soil, which receives the seed and helps it to grow. When a seed gets down into good soil, it sprouts and roots. As it grows, it gets taller above the soil, and gets stronger in its roots below the soil. We all know how strong trees can get, and how hard it is to uproot them when they are large.

In the same way, Paul's message (the seed) took root and grew in the Corinthians' hearts. They accepted his words about Jesus and believed.

That's why hearing God's Word through the Bible and through godly preaching is so essential - it helps us to grow and become more rooted in Him. If you don't have a regular time of reading and studying the Bible, I encourage you to make that time. You won't be sorry.

1:4-5

Paul thanks God for the Corinthians. He loves them despite their problems and the headaches that they've no doubt caused him. He's happy they are there and that they are following Christ. They are a source of encouragement to him, a sign that God is working and that the gospel continues to display its power. Paul sees God at work, and that is something to be thankful for.

Paul writes that God's grace given to the church is in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Gift. All that God gives, He gives through Christ. God created the world through Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16). Even in the Old Testament, the blessings of God came through Jesus Christ. For example, later on in this letter (10:4), he mentions the rock from which the Israelites drank water, "and that rock was Christ." Was the rock literally the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus? No, but the rock is a symbol of God's provision for His people, God's Presence with His people.

Jesus is always God's gift to Humankind. Jesus is, among other things, God's expression of Himself, the Immanuel ("God with us"). God was with the Israelites in the desert. God is with His church.

Paul states that the church has been enriched in Christ in every way, in speaking and in knowledge, because they accepted Paul's message and believed it (the "testimony was confirmed in them," as Paul puts it). Jesus has enriched the church immeasurably, and it's all because of Him, the ultimate Gift, that the Corinthians enjoy these blessings.

1:3 part 2

Paul wishes the Corinthians to have peace through Christ as well as grace. This peace is "well-being, wholeness, welfare" as Fee says. God's desire is to do good to His children. He always does what is good. His normal desire is to bless His children and work for their welfare. It was only when the nation of Israel turned against God and served evil for hundreds of years that God had to turn against them. But even then, God promised to restore His people and do good to them.

Jesus said that his peace was not the peace of this world, but a peace from him (John 14:27). This is the kind of peace Paul wishes for the Corinthian church.

1:3 part 1

Paul wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Wait - isn't there only one God? Yes, but 3 persons. The mystery of the Trinity. I don't think I'm going to launch into a Trinity discussion right now. Maybe another time.

The word for grace is charis. Charis means "favor, goodwill, gracious care or help" (Bauer). It carries the notion of freedom - that someone (God) is gracious freely, not because he has to be. It also has the meaning of "gift," or as the Lexicon puts it, a "practical application of goodwill, a (sign of) favor, [a] gracious deed or gift."

God's grace is His good will, His favor towards people. It is freely given, under no obligation. It is a gift, not an earned wage (or a loan, for that matter). It is not just a feeling that God has toward us, like some kind of pleasant, positive mood. It is an attitude and a practical, real gift.

If you have a flat tire on the side of the road, and I drive by, I might have good will towards you as I pass by, saying to myself "I hope he has a cell phone and that it all works out for him." But God's grace goes beyond that. God's grace would be exemplified by someone seeing you stranded, pulling over, and giving you a new tire for free. It is an attitude and an action of practical results.

Grace is not earned. In our tire example, if you had a flat tire and called AAA, then when the AAA guy shows up and fixes your tire, that's not grace. You paid for that service.

In Christ God saw that we were helpless to do anything with our sin, He had compassion and good will toward us (freely - we didn't deserve that compassion), and He provided the practical solution - His Son as an offering for sin. That is grace.

The world knows next to nothing about grace. Everything in our fallen world, apart from God, is based on earning and deserving. We assume that if we earn enough money, we can compel others to do what we want. The global economy is totally based on that assumption.

Let me stand on the soapbox here for a minute. (If you don't want to hear it, head on over to Horizon's web page or something.) When companies act as if "the customer is always right," they are in effect saying "You can treat our employees however you want, just as long as we don't lose your business." What does that tell us customers? Basically that we can demand service, we have the right to this and to that, we deserve something, just because we spend money at the store.

Recently I heard an employee from a major coffee chain tell me that they aren't allowed to defend themselves to the customers, and a customer had been verbally difficult (possibly abusive) because the drink had been made wrong. I had one of those prideful "If only I was in charge" moments, because I thought "That manager should have stuck up for his employee. His employee is much more important than losing whatever money the customer would have spent there."

The reason so many people serve and worship money is that it earns them the power to follow their own desires. This is the entire system in which we live. It is opposed to the way of the Kingdom of God - the way of grace.

The attitude of deserving and earning, the attitude of entitlement, is a pernicious and evil thing. God's way of freely giving favor and the right Gift is a glorious thing, but hard, so hard for us to grasp.

1:1 - 1:2

In our letters, we sign our names at the end. In the Biblical letters, the author states his name first. Paul states his name here in 1:1, along with the fact that he's been called by God's will to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.

The idea of being "called" is an important one here in the first 2 verses of 1 Corinthians. In Greek, the word kalew ("called, summoned, invited") is used a lot in these verses. Paul is called as an apostle of Christ (an "apostle" is one who has been sent/commissioned directly by Christ to spread the gospel). The church is called to be sanctified, or holy - set apart for God.
People call on the name of the Lord.

In fact, the word for church is ekklesia which means assembly or fellowship, a body of people that is called together regularly. You can see that ekklesia also has the prefix "ek" which means "out of", and the "kle" which is related to kalew. So it seems that the church is a body of people that has been called out of something - the world. The word ekklesia is also used in Greek to mean "a regularly summoned political body," according to Bauer's Lexicon. The church is also expected to meet together regularly (Heb. 10:25).

For some reason, Paul is using the word for call over and over here in these first 2 verses. Why? My best guess is that he is drawing attention to God. He's reminding the Corinthians that they are the church because they have been called by God, not because they have innately superior wisdom or strength. Paul receives his apostleship from God, the church is a fellowship called by God, and called to be set apart to God. This whole Christian thing is not some superior philosophy that wise Greeks discovered all of a sudden. It is a work of God Himself. Therefore, the Corinthians should not be proud of themselves, or feel superior to others, but they should be grateful and give glory to God for saving them.

We must not be proud of ourselves for being Christians. It is a work of God that brought us to repentance. We must not look down on non-Christians, as if we somehow achieved superiority over them because we know God. We are Christians because of a work of God in our hearts. We must not think of Christianity as just a set of doctrines, like any other religion or philosophy in the world. It is a total transformation, a transformation that God does.

Paul realizes all this and wants the Corinthians to remember that it is all about God, not them.

A Little More Background

1 Corinthians seems to be the second letter that Paul actually wrote to this church (see 5:9). We don't have the first letter. It's fascinating to me to think that God intended 1 Corinthians to be preserved, but did not intend the previous letter to be preserved for all the churches. No doubt it was a good, godly letter, but I guess it wasn't meant to be inspired Scripture for all time.

Fee writes (p. 7) that 1 Corinthians was a response to a letter from the Corinthians to Paul, brought by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (see 16:15-17). Apparently, in this letter from the Corinthians, they were refuting or disobeying Paul's previous instructions in his (lost) first letter. It's clear that Paul also receives a report from "those in Chloe's household" (1:11) about the situation in the church in Corinth. This report, and presumably the letter from the church, are what prompted Paul to respond back, and in a tone of authoritative rebuke.

Some facts about the city and church of Corinth

Once again, I'm using Gordon Fee's commentary on 1 Corinthians, and many background facts are coming from him. You can read the Wikipedia article about Corinth here.

Corinth is located in Greece, at a strategic point for commerce. It existed thousands of years ago and was a very, very wealthy city with a high standard of living. It also had a big temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, along with over 1000 prostitutes to help you to "worship" Aphrodite. There was a saying, to "act like a Corinthian." This basically meant that you slept around. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C., and in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar re-formed it. It became wealthy again and, because of its commercially valuable location, it was well-connected to the rest of the world. Many different types of people lived there, people who brought their religious and philosophical traditions with them. Many different gods were worshiped there, and there were also other strange religious practices.

In Paul's day, Wikipedia notes, "it was noted for its wealth, and for the luxurious, immoral and vicious habits of the people." Fee says "All of this evidence together suggests that Paul's Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world" (p. 3).

The Corinthian church was probably a church made up mostly of ex-pagans, not ex-Jews, from Corinth. Fee argues that most of the church was probably of Gentile, not Jewish background, and I think he's right. So there were a number of people who had lived the promiscuous, immoral Greek lifestyle, who had experienced conversion to Christ, but had a lot of baggage left from their backgrounds. Despite the wealth of the city, there were a number of poor people and probably a number of middle class people there, and the church was mostly made up of these.

Fee sums up the church's situation by saying "Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them, emerging in a number of attitudes and behaviors that required radical surgery without killing the patient. That is what 1 Corinthians attempts to do." (Fee p. 4)

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians has always been one of the most interesting books of the Bible for me. The Corinthians are "notorious" in Bible studies because, as most people know, there were a lot of problems in the Corinthian church. I mean, a LOT of problems. Some people were doubting the resurrection of the dead (a VERY important doctrine). There were different groups of people bickering over which teacher or apostle was the best ("I follow Paul; I follow Apollos; I follow Peter; I follow Christ."). It must have been pretty unnerving for Paul to see these people, including himself, put on the same level as Jesus. Many of the Corinthians must have been proud people, looking for acceptance and glory from the world, not understanding how God works with humble people. There were issues with the Lord's Supper, issues of rejection of each other. Some were boasting of the sexual "freedom" which approved of one man to be sleeping with his father's wife.

This is a serious mess. And some people think their church has problems!

The really amazing thing about the Corinthian church is that Paul stuck with them, and, more importantly, so did God. They had power in spiritual gifts in this church. God's presence was still among them. Paul does not excommunicate the whole church. The last two lines of the book are "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus." Paul's love to all of them? Yes, Paul loved them. And so did God.

Still, Paul wrote a firm letter of exhortation, stating that they needed to really work on these sinful issues. The church is meant to be holy and loving, representing the One who died for it, and we can't back down on that.

I think the Corinthian church and the American church have a lot in common. By God's grace, we'll learn a lot by going through this wonderful book of the Bible.

One other note: when it comes to commentary, I'm going to be using Gordon Fee's The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Fee is a reputable evangelical scholar who believes that the spiritual gifts are still in operation today (as does Horizon).

Thanks for joining me!

Welcome to Horizon Community Church Bible Study

Hi!
It's my desire to do several studies a week, going through a book of the Bible. This keeps me sharp and it might be helpful to some of you here at Horizon.

Feel free to post comments if you've read the passage.

Let me know what you think.

Pastor Rob