1 Corinthians

     After Paul leaves Athens at the end of Acts 17, he goes to Corinth.  Here he meets Aquila and Priscilla, a husband and wife who, like Paul, are tentmakers.  Paul works with them until Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia.  Then he is able to devote himself completely to preaching and teaching.  Paul remains in Corinth for a year and six months, which is a relatively long time for him to stay in one place.
     Corinth is located on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece with the Peloponnesian peninsula.  In ancient times ships arriving at one side of the isthmus were lifted out of the water and transported the short distance to the other side.  This avoided the long and dangerous trip farther south.  Being a port city, Corinth earned a reputation for immorality.  In fact, being a double port city it earned a double reputation for immorality.  At one time the word "corinthianize" meant to commit sexual immorality.  It is in this setting that Paul labors to spread the Gospel message.
     The word of God is able to work on the hearts of people even in a city such as Corinth, and a congregation is established.  It is to this church that Paul writes the epistles of First and Second Corinthians.
     By reading these two letters we are able to learn some important things about the congregation in Corinth.  We notice that they seem to be interested more than others in miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit.  And we soon discover that this church is very immature spiritually.
     Actually, it is no great surprise to find these two conditions in the same congregation.
     "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You," some of the scribes and Pharisees demand in Matthew 12:38.
     "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;" Jesus replies, "and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet."
     Jesus goes on to explain that the sign of Jonah is His own burial and resurrection.  His point is that we should be motivated by spiritual, and not physical, events.
     In his first letter Paul tries to impress on the church in Corinth that it is the gospel, the message of Christ's death, burial and resurrection that motivates us to salvation.  This is what John teaches in chapter 20, verse 31 of his Gospel account.
     "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness," Paul instructs in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
     "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God," Paul adds in verses 21-25, "God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
     "For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks seek for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
     "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
     We should take a moment to remember that miraculous powers served to confirm what was written.  Once the New Testament was completed there was no longer any need for miracles.  Read John 20:30-31.  In addition, we read in Acts 8:18 that the power to do miracles was transmitted by the apostles.  When the apostles died, so did the authority to transfer this power.
     There are those today who claim that seeking miraculous powers from the Holy Spirit is a sign of spiritual strength.  Jesus and Paul say it is a sign of weakness.  And the experience of the congregation in Corinth backs this up.
     The church in Corinth is plagued by factions.
     "For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you," Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:11-13.
     "Now I mean this," he explains, "that each one of you is saying, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas,' and 'I of Christ.'
     "Has Christ been divided?  Paul was not crucified for you, was he?  Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
     "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it," Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 3:2-4.  "Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly.  For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?
     "For when one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not mere men?"
     This factious attitude even makes its way into the worship, where divisions among the various groups are all too evident.
     "But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse," Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 11:17-19.
     "For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it.  For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you."

     The spiritual immaturity of the Corinthian congregation is evident in their factious attitude.  It also takes the form of sexual immorality.
     In chapter five Paul speaks out against a member of the church who is living with his father's wife.  Not only does Paul condemn the lifestyle of this man, but he also reprimands the congregation for tolerating and even boasting about the relationship.
     "Your boasting is not good," Paul states bluntly in verse six.  "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
     "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened."
     How many religious groups today boast about their "tolerance" toward sinful lifestyles?
     In the next chapter Paul points to the immorality of others in the congregation.
     "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" he asks in 1 Corinthians 6:15-16.  "Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?  May it never be!
     "Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her?  For He says, 'The two will become one flesh.'"
     "Flee immorality," Paul exhorts in verses 18-20.  "Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
     "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."
     Paul goes on in chapter seven with his discussion of immorality.
     Still another manifestation of the spiritual immaturity of this group is their eagerness to go to court against one another.
     "Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" Paul questions in 1 Corinthians 6:1.
     "I say this to your shame," Paul adds after discussing the matter.  "Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
     "Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be defrauded?  On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren."
     In confronting these Christians about this situation, Paul gives some instruction that we would do well to heed in the 21st Century.
     "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" he explains in verses 9-10.  "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
     The church in Corinth is long on seeking miracles.  They are also long on factions, immorality and lawsuits.  They are short on spiritual maturity.  They are short on Christian love.
     This is why the book of 1 Corinthians contains what is one of the most beloved chapters in the entire Bible.
     "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels," this chapter 13 begins, "but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
     "And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."
     A beautiful list of love's attributes follows in verses 4-7.
     "Love never fails;" Paul adds beginning in verse eight, "but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
     "For we know in part, and we prophecy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
     "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
     "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.
     "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
     In all fairness to the congregation in Corinth, we must point out that they listen to what Paul has to say.  He acknowledges this in the second letter that we will examine, Lord willing, next week.
     They change their actions to be in agreement with what God commands.  What about us?  Are we willing to make our lives conform to the truth which will set us free?

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.lockman.org)