1 Corinthians

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The Book of First Corinthians
1 Corinthians 1:1
The city of Corinth was located on a narrow strip of land connecting the northern and southern portions of Greece. Ships not wanting to sail clear around the large southern peninsula could be dragged overland from Corinth and relaunched on the western side in the Adriatic Sea. All of this made Corinth a busy commercial seaport and a city through which all north to south land traffic had to flow. It was a wealthy commercial center and a stop-over known for taverns and prostitution. Paul brought the gospel to Corinth about 50 A.D. on his second missionary journey, and though he met some harsh resistance at first, which is described in Acts 18:117, he remained there for 18 months, working to support himself by sewing tents. He writes this letter from the city of Ephesus (1Co. 16:8) about 55 A.D. in order to respond to situations that have been reported to him and to answer questions they have addressed to him. Verse 1: Paul introduces himself as an apostle which means that he is someone who has been sent out to proclaim the gospel and organize congregations among their converts. The word apostle literally means one sent forth and Paul says that the one who sent him forth was God Himself. The account of his call is recorded in Acts 9:122 and Acts 13:14. Being an apostle wasnt Pauls idea, it was the will of God.
1 Corinthians 1:1
Verse 1 (continued): Paul includes the name of a traveling companion in his greeting to the church in Corinth. He names Sosthenes our brother, and this is someone the people in Corinth will know well. If you read Lukes account (Luke wrote the Book of Acts) of Pauls ministry in Corinth (Ac. 18:117) youll see that the Jews who rejected Pauls teaching formed a mob which seized Paul and took him before the Roman provincial governor charging him with preaching an illegal religion (Judaism was a legal religion in the Roman empire). Instead of arresting Paul, the governor expressed his frustration which gave permission for the Greeks gathered there to vent their anti-Semitic feelings. They grabbed the leader of the Jewish synagogue, who happened to be Sosthenes, and beat him right there in front of the governor, who did nothing to stop it. The account in Acts says nothing of Sosthenes being converted, but as we open this letter to the Corinthians we are amazed to find that Sosthenes is ministering with Paul in Ephesus and is specifically described as our brother. Apparently, the synagogue in Corinth lost two successive leaders, both Crispus (Ac. 18:8) and Sosthenes (18:17), to faith in Jesus as Messiah.
1 Corinthians 1:2
Verse 2: Paul addresses this letter to the church of God in Corinth. The word translated church literally means the ones called out, and was used to describe people who were gathered together to accomplish a particular purpose. Whenever and wherever believers gather to worship or to be taught or minister, the church is present. He goes on to describe these same people as the ones having been made holy (sanctified) in Christ Jesus. This reminds us that we are clothed with the goodness of Jesus when we believe in Him. God sees us as holy already. We are the ones who have been made holy in Christ Jesus. The word next translated saints is from the same root word as sanctified or made holy which we just discussed. When Paul calls us saints he is literally calling us holy ones: those who are pleasing
1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell
to God. And he reminds these Corinthian saints that they are part of something much larger. Their standing with God is shared by a growing number of believers all over the world who also call on the name of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:35
Verse 3: As we saw in last weeks study in Ephesians 6:24, grace is the kindness of God which offers His rich gifts to those who dont deserve them. The greatest of these gifts is salvation to those who will repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Yet grace is the quality in Gods heart which makes possible the abundance we receive because we cant claim to deserve anything. So Pauls first prayer for the Corinthian church is that they receive from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Both the Father and the Son are the source of this. Paul also includes peace in his prayer. The Hebrew concept of Shalom, which must underlie his understanding of the word, refers not only to harmonious relationships between people & God and people with each other, but it also carries with it the ideas of joy, abundance and security which are the natural fruit of such harmonious relationships. When the apostle has prayed for us to receive grace and peace hes blessed every aspect of our humanity. Verses 4, 5: Paul says that whenever he prays for the church in Corinth, he always finds himself thanking God for the powerful working of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which that church possessed. They were rich in the verbal manifestations of the Holy Spirit (all speech) and in prophetic revelation (all knowledge).
1 Corinthians 1:6, 7
Verse 6: These manifestations of the Holy Spirit began in Corinth when God baptized in the Holy Spirit those who believed the gospel as Paul preached it. Paul understood this supernatural working of the Holy Spirit upon his converts as Gods confirmation of the gospel he brought to them. By this God was showing people that this was not just one more doctrine invented by humans. He miraculously ratified the message preached. Read Mark 16:1520, and especially note verses 17 and 20. Youll notice that the Lord had promised to miraculously confirm the message as His followers went into all the world to preach the gospel. Paul equated the Pentecostal manifestations among his converts at Corinth as a fulfillment of that promise. Verse 7: Paul says that the Corinthian church had been so empowered that they did not fail to have operating any of the supernatural gifts (charsimata) of the Holy Spirit (1Co. 12:711), and he also points to that fact that the level of hope is strong in the church for they are eagerly awaiting the revelation (reveal: to take the veil off) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 8: They had been strengthened (confirmed) by the Holy Spirits working among them so that their faith in Christ did not waiver (v. 6), and Paul assures them that Jesus Christ will continue to keep their faith in Him solid until He returns. He does this by undergirding their faith and transforming their inner natures by the power of the Holy Spirit. When they stand before the judgment seat of God, if they continue to walk with Jesus Christ, they can be confident that they will be found innocent of any negative charges. Verse 9: The word faithful means that God can be trusted to keep His promises. He does what He says Hell do. By stating that God is faithful Paul is reminding the church that their confidence that they will be confirmed to the end and found blameless at the judgment (v. 8) is that God will never fail to do all He said He would do. God the Father is the One who originated the idea of their salvation and called them through the gospel to be spiritually united with His Son Jesus forever.
1 Corinthians 1:1012
Paul turns to address the church in Corinth on a matter of concern that had been reported to him by a member of one of the Corinthian households. Chloe is a womans name, and most likely she was the head of a distinguished family or a business. She had been alarmed by what was taking place in the church and had sent someone to report the situation to Paul who was ministering about 250 miles away, across the Aegean Sea, in Ephesus. What had been told Paul was that the church was breaking into warring camps. They were no longer agreed as to how the Christian faith should be lived out and these disagreements were producing arguments. At least three apostles had visited the Corinthian church and to support their arguments people were claiming that their view had been taught by one of these apostles: Paul had founded the church; Apollos was a Jew who had been born in Egypt and who travelled about preaching Christ (Ac. 18:2419:1); Cephas is the Aramaic name meaning rock that Jesus had bestowed on Peter (Petros is the Greek word meaning rock) (Jn. 1:42), and at some point in time Peter and his wife had also come through Corinth and had ministered there (1Co. 9:5). Some in the church even claimed that they had received their revelation directly from Christ Himself (I of Christ). Verse 10: Paul puts on his full apostolic authority by calling them to obedience by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He asks them on behalf of Jesus to do three things: 1) to say the same thing; 2) to not allow the church to be torn into competing camps; 3) to be fully rejoined in what they thought and taught others about Christianity. Most likely the issues they were arguing over are those Paul will address as his letter continues. If this is the case then the church was taking sides on subjects such as: proper ways to handle immoral behavior; sexual relationships between husbands and wives; divorce; eating meat which had been used in pagan rituals; financial support for ministers; head-covering for women; drunkenness at the Lords Supper; the gifts of the Spirit; people talking during church services; whether the resurrection is a literal physical resurrection or only spiritual life after death.
1 Corinthians 1:13
Verse 13: The people were legitimizing their stance on an issue by claiming that their position had been taught by one of the apostles who had ministered in Corinth (Paul, Apollos or Peter). Some even claimed to have received their revelation directly from Christ Himself. In actuality, Paul, Apollos and Peter were not divided on essentials. They loved and supported each other. True Paul and Peter had clashed in the past, but the two had deeply reconciled (Gal. 2:714; Ac. 15:111; 2Pe. 3:1416). To this divisive spirit Paul asks Has Christ been divided? He will spend the next 67 verses to show that the real causes of divisions in the Body of Christ come from the old Adamic nature still present in believers, and he will powerfully affirm the essential unity of all who are in Christ (Eph. 4:36): All have one Savior who was crucified for them and all are baptized as His followers.
Verse 14: Having just illustrated the silliness of divisions in the church by stating that no one had ever been baptized in his name, Paul begins to reinforce his point by reflecting on the fact that during the 18 months he ministered in Corinth, he had personally only baptized the converted synagogue leader Crispus (Ac. 18:8), and Gaius, a man who opened his home to the church in Corinth (Ro. 16:23). His point is that if who baptized you was so important, he would have personally done much more of it. Apparently, others who helped him got down in the water and did the actual immersing of new believers, while Paul may
have watched from the waters edge or may not have always been present. Baptism was an important step of obedience to Jesus Christ (Mt. 28:1820), but it was not an essential act for salvation, nor did a person gain some sort of spiritual status or identity based on who did the baptizing. Verse 15: Baptism was a symbolic act which expressed outwardly the faith within a persons heart. When a person was baptized they were joining themselves with Christ in His death and resurrection (Ro. 6:311; 1Pe. 3:21), so the suggestion that they were somehow bonded to the person who baptized them was blasphemous.
Verse 16: You can hear Paul thinking out loud in this verse, as he corrects the statement made in verse 14. He had said he only personally baptized Crispus and Gaius in Corinth, but as he dictates this letter to someone who is writing it down for him, he remembers another family that he had baptized: the household of Stephanas, who had been among his very first converts in Corinth (1Co. 16:15) and who had since become a trusted leader in the church. Realizing he may have forgotten others, he adds a disclaimer saying he cant remember baptizing anyone else. Of course, remembering a few more baptisms in no way undermines his basic point that he had clearly not placed a high priority on personally participating in the baptism of his converts. Verse 17: Jesus had commissioned Paul to plainly state the truth about His death and resurrection, knowing that those who were truly looking for God would respond with faith. Paul felt it was pointless to try to persuade people through speeches that entertained them or tugged at their emotions, but didnt confront them with the facts of Christ which demanded of everyone repentance and obedience. And human speculations about God, no matter how logical they appeared, only kept people from coming to grip with the issues that must be responded to for salvation to actually take place. In this verse, Paul is not being indifferent to whether people were baptized or not. He valued water baptism and saw that every one of his converts was baptized. However, Paul is saying that water baptism is something that happens to a person after they are born-again. It is not the central issuefaith in Christ is.
1 Corinthians 1:18
The ancient Greek world was renowned for its philosophers. It was a culture that loved reasoning about the nature of things, so it was perfectly natural for these Corinthian Christians to re-examine Christianity logically. The more they thought about it, the more the gospel Paul had brought them seemed foolish. That God would will for His Messiah to be crucified or that He physically brought Jesus back to life after three days in a grave, became a message that was embarrassing to tell others, and in some cases they even reinterpreted certain elements until they made more sense. Beginning in this verse Paul discusses the issue of the foolishness of God. Verse 18: Paul says that when the truth of the gospel is clearly stated it produces two opposing responses. To people who are spiritually rebellious toward God, it sounds to their ears as something invented by a mentally incompetent person. To people who are seeking for God in the integrity of their hearts, it is a message that reveals how powerful God is. The message has a power of its own to expose a persons deepest attitudes toward God. Jesus made the same point in John 3:1921. Referring to Himself as the Light of the world, He explains that peoples reaction to Him reveals the orientation of their heart. When people see Jesus, they also see, by contrast and conviction of the Holy Spirit, their own moral condition and are faced with their need to repent. Also, when the resurrection of Christ is preached, peoples fundamental belief or unbelief in God and His power to do miracles is exposed (Ac. 26:8, 2226).
Verse 19: To support his point about spiritual blindness, Paul quotes from a passage in Isaiah in which the prophet states that when God does a mighty act of salvation for them, they will not understand. Their lack of integrity in dealing with God had left them like someone who is drunk or sleepy when it comes to spiritual insight. Their wise men had invented their own wisdom, it did not come as something they learned from God (Isa. 29:514). Pauls point is that there is a parallel between what happened in Isaiahs time and was taking place in Corinth. Those who prefer human reasonings over Gods revealed truth show that their hearts are not truly seeking God. Human reasoning actually dulls the senses so that people cant even see the miracles God does on their own behalf. Verse 20: Paul asks the question What philosopher, or learned scholar, or eloquent debater had, through their own reasonings, discerned beforehand the way in which God would offer salvation to the world? He then answered his own question that no form of human reasoning had anticipated Gods plan. Gods method was so unexpected it revealed how inadequate human minds are in understanding the ways of God.
1 Corinthians 1:21
When humans reason about the existence of God, unaided by the Holy Spirit, the results are usually religions on which invented gods act like big human beings. Such human speculation is just a proud projection of our own natures into spiritual dimensions. Its really a form of self-worship. In others cases, uninspired human speculation produces a form of atheism in which humans are encouraged to determine their own destinies as best they can and in which personal fulfillment is the primary goal. In whatever way they have approached it, humans have proven that their own minds were not able to lead them into a relationship with the true God. Verse 21: Paul says that God in His wisdom has set up a system in which human wisdom cannot find Him. This is not because God is cruelly playing with humans. Its because Gods nature is so deeply different from the nature in the children of Adam and Eve. It takes humility; it takes child-like faith; it takes a hunger and thirst for righteousness; it takes an honest appraisal of ones own failures and selfish motives; it takes courage to follow, in integrity, the truth about God as He reveals it to us. Its when we honestly face the motives of the heart that we realize that Gods foolish method of salvation isnt foolish at all but is actually a reflection of His character. The reason Gods ways seem foolish to humans is because our character is so different from His. Paul says God isnt apologizing at all for the salvation He has provided, but He is very pleased to use the preaching of a crucified and resurrected Messiah to save those who hear the message and respond with faith. Salvation comes on Gods terms, not ours, and if we ever become offended at His foolishness and reinterpret His message to make it more palatable, we will produce a false message with no power to save.
1 Corinthians 1:22
Verse 22: Paul preached the gospel to both Jews and Greeks and had observed that the two groups tended to respond differently to the foolishness of the message. The Jews who rejected Jesus did so for religious reasons. They had strongly formulated expectations of what the Messiah would do when He came. They expected He would rise up like Moses and perform miracles like those of the Exodus, this time delivering them from Rome. They looked to the Messiah for political deliverance and prosperity, which explains why, in the face of the many remarkable miracles Jesus did, they turned and asked Him to validate Himself with a sign (Mt. 12:3842). Healing of blind beggars and cleansing of the leprous were
not the type of signs they were waiting for. Another problem with this desire for signs was that such signs had proven to have a very short-lived effect on the peoples obedience to God (Nu. 14:11, 2224). The Jewish rejection of the gospel centered around the fact that Jesus had not yet produced the miraculous national deliverance prophesied of Him. Verse 22 (continued): The Greeks who heard the gospel tended to respond another way. Obviously they did not argue over Old Testament prophecies. Their struggle came with the fact that they were used to hearing human theories about the best way to live life, and when they heard Christ preached they were being confronted with absolute truth and a God who is Lord of all. And to make matters worse, this gospel involved such illogical elements as the Resurrection. They often laughed at what they heard considering it impossible (Ac. 17:18, 32).
1 Corinthians 1:23
Verse 23: A crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms for Jews. The Son of David was to be blessed and treated by God as His own son (1Ch. 17:1115). Though some rabbinical teachers had understood that such passages as Daniel 9:26 and Isaiah 50:47 & 52:1353:12 spoke of a suffering Messiah as well as a triumphant one, it was not part of the popular thinking. One who did understand was Simeon (Lk. 2:2535). When Paul says that a crucified Messiah was a stumbling block hes drawing on an image Isaiah used (8:14), and Jesus applied to Himself (Mt. 21:4244). The image warned that many would not recognize Gods salvation when it came, but would oppose it, ensuring their own spiritual calamity. They did not recognize that the Messiah would come to the earth twice to fulfill all the prophecies, or that His first coming had to atone for sin or God could not fulfill any of the other promises of blessing. Verse 23 (continued): The Gentiles were filled with mythological stories about gods, but when they heard that the God of the Jews had sent His Son to be crucified as a criminal and had then resurrected Him in a human body forever, they considered it madness. It violated all their prejudices.
1 Corinthians 1:24
Verse 24: Those who are called are those who have responded with repentance and faith when they heard the gospel preached. In the preaching of the cross, God invited people to repent of their selforiented lives and to trust in His mercy. As they listened to this message the Holy Spirit would miraculously enable them to accept Gods offer. If they were honestly seeking to know God they could choose to say yes; if they decided that the price for following God was too high to pay, they could say no. God is calling the whole world to believe, but only those who say yes are those who are called. Verse 24 (continued): Youll notice that in order to be considered called, the Jews must also repent and believe. There are not two ways for salvation, one for the Greeks and another for the Jews. Paul made this point clear in Romans 3:926. To men and women of faith, the gospel is far from foolish. Instead it is a historical account of Gods power and wisdom at work in freeing people from the grip of sin, death and hell.
1 Corinthians 1:25
Verse 25: Though the cross might look like foolishness to the ignorant, it actually represented a brilliant solution to a terrible dilemma. In order to fulfill the demands of justice, it appeared that God would be forced to condemn the whole human race to hell. Since every adult had knowingly violated their conscience or their knowledge of Scripture the situation looked hopeless. At the Judgement God would have to find all guilty. So, for God to have found a way to satisfy the just demands of His Law and yet to save all who were willing to come to Him, was a stroke of genius only God could have come up with. Far from
being foolish, it was a miraculous gift of mercy. The cross had to have the power to forgive every sin committed by every human for all of history. Though Christ appeared weak and defeated as He died on the cross, an enormous release of Gods saving power was taking place. And the power to raise Him from the dead after three days in the grave was a degree of power unmatched in all of human experience.
Verse 26: Having pointed to the fact that Gods method of salvation may appear to the ignorant human mind to be foolish, Paul moves on to yet another aspect of Gods plan that appears foolish. He asks the church in Corinth to look around them and see what kind of people had become Christians. Was the church made up largely of wealthy, upper class people? Did they have a large number of converts who were highly educated or who were consulted for their wisdom by the people of the city? Or, how many were there who held positions of rank or influence in the society? As they did this, they would be forced to recognize that their church was made up largely of people who were poor and oppressed. Only a few of the people who belonged to the citys power structure had become Christians. Verse 27: Using the social make-up of their own church as proof of his point, Paul now explains a deep truth about the God of the Bible. Throughout history He has shown absolutely no regard for human social standing or even natural abilities. It appears that He prefers to use people who are weak by natural standards in order that when the miracle takes place, no one will mistake that God did the work. For example, the nation of Israel was a weak nation and yet God delivered it from the control of Egypt. Throughout Israels history He would select people with no inherited standing to be its greatest leaders (Moses, Ex. 2:15; David, 1Sa. 16:11 13; Jesus, Mt. 13:5458). However, this selection involved much more than simply a preference for people who are weak and poor over people who are wealthy and powerful. The Lord explained His process of selection to the prophet Samuel while searching for the next king of Israel: for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1Sa. 16:7). So then, its the heart of a person that is of concern to God regardless of their social standing. But there is something about money, power and wealth that promotes pride within the human heart, and since God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1Pe. 5:5) it turns out that those who have success in the world often disqualify themselves from Gods service (Lk. 14:1624).
Verse 28: In looking deeply into the heart of people, God has selected persons on the basis of humility, character and faith. These qualities do not often tend to be found in people of wealth, power and human learning. The result is that He has frequently used people of humble birth or people who are not considered by the society as important. Yet, when God empowers a person regardless of their natural abilities, they are able to accomplish miraculous achievements. In working this way God has shown that His power is far superior to even the best human capacities, and if human society will be honest in its assessment, they must admit that Gods ways are vastly superior. Verse 29: When all is said and done, God has provided a way to save people who deserved to be punished at the judgment. When these people are judged it will be clear to all that they were not, of themselves, able to provide a life acceptable to God. Their salvation is a result of Gods wisdom, love and mercy. No one will be able to take credit for the eternal life they receive. God did all the work, they only received it by faith. And for most of them, not even their human achievements would give an honest observer any reason to suppose that God would have wanted them. Again, only Gods love can be credited with reaching out to such people.
Verse 30: Every true Christian recognizes that God alone deserves credit for their salvation. Each one has a different story to tell about how God reached out to them and drew them to faith in Jesus Christ. Once a person is empowered by the Holy Spirit to see who Jesus Christ really is they recognize that He is the expression of Gods wisdom in finding a way to save us. His cross and resurrection give each believer complete acceptance before God by faith alone (righteousness), and His gift of the Holy Spirit, if yielded to, empowers a deep transformation of morals and personality (sanctification). Believers realize that Christ has set them free from slavery to our rebellious nature, Satans power, the lusts of our bodies, death and even hell (redemption) (Eph. 2:13). Verse 31: Paul concludes this thought by quoting from Jeremiah 9:23. In order to get the full sense of how appropriate this quote is to Pauls argument, turn and read Jeremiah 9:23, 24.
1 Corinthians 2:13
Verses 1, 2: The Corinthian people were used to hearing wisdom come in the form of eloquent speeches which involved careful reasoning and logic. Greek teachers would develop schools of thought based on philosophical presuppositions about life. Most of these intended to show people the most successful way to live. When Paul arrived in Corinth he came as a messenger announcing that God had miraculously broken into human history by sending His Son who had been crucified and resurrected for the salvation of all who would believe in Him. Paul didnt develop a philosophy, he simply came and told them what God had done, and called them to repent and believe. This was a radical approach to these philosophical minds, but God had done miracles through Paul to confirm that his message was true. Verse 3: In fact, Paul says that he himself was in a weak condition when he arrived in Corinth, and there was nothing impressive in the way he delivered Gods message. He reminds them that he was fearful to the point of physically trembling on some occasions when he ministered there. The reason Paul brings this out is because he is continuing to show how Gods ways of working seem foolish to us. He has already shown that the gospel itself seems foolish (1:1825), and then he helped the Corinthians realize that the makeup of their own church was very unimpressive by most social standards. His final point here is to show that he himself is an expression of this foolishness of God. God sent the gospel to them through a man who was weak and unimpressive in his delivery, and yet a great church had been formed in that city. So, once again God had accomplished great things in spite of human weakness, and when the final assessment was in, no one could say it was Pauls eloquence which had brought them to faith.
Verse 4: If Paul hadnt been eloquent or impressive when the Corinthian church had first heard him, then what was it that had convinced so many to believe in Jesus? It had been the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit which had come over them as he preached to them and had suddenly let them know that God was there among them. It was the healing power of God at work as Paul laid hands on the sick, and delivered the demonized. And, undoubtedly, it was the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, as Paul laid his hands on those who believed. They themselves had felt the power come over them and had spoken in tongues and prophesied. Then over the months as they gathered for worship with Paul they observed numerous other manifestations of the Holy Spirit take place among them (1Co. 12:711). Again, who
could take any credit for all this power, except God Himself? Verse 5: Paul concludes that when the people recognize the weakness of the human messenger, and yet they believe in Jesus because of the evident power of the Holy Spirit, the focus of their faith is on God rather than the human messenger. The Corinthians cant claim that Paul talked them into following Jesus. Theyre Christians because God confirmed the preaching of the gospel with powerful signs (Mk. 16:20). Their faith is rightly focused on the existence of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6
Verse 6: Having previously referred to Gods plan of salvation, sarcastically, as foolishness, Paul begins, here, to explain why humans have so much difficulty understanding the ways of God. He says its not because the things he is teaching are actually foolish in any way. The problem lies in the capacity of the hearers to comprehend deep spiritual truth. What he is teaching is a matter of great wisdom, and those who are spiritually mature perceive it to be so. But minds who have not been enlightened by the power of God and who think along the normal lines of human reasoning, do not recognize it no matter how intelligent they may be. The wisdom of God is not the sort of thing humans come up with even if they are philosophers or powerful leaders.
1 Corinthians 2:7
Verse 7: The wisdom Paul proclaimed to them was a mystery. In modern speech a mystery is something that no one can explain, but when Paul speaks of a mystery he is referring to a truth which no one had understood until God chose to reveal it. In his letters Paul identifies several truths as mysteries (Ro. 11:25; 16:25; Eph. 3:36; etc.), but in this case he is undoubtedly speaking of the essential elements of the gospel which would center on the fact that God had sent His Son to become a man, to die a death which substituted for all humans, and that He was raised from the dead after three days. God had planned these wonders before He created the universe, and His plan included sharing the glories of His kingdom with people like those in Corinth which the world considered fools.
1 Corinthians 2:8
Verse 8: Both Jews (Caiaphas, Annas, Sanhedrin) and Gentiles (Pilate, Roman soldiers) were part of the rulers of this age who arranged the crucifixion of Jesus. Its hard, looking back from our perspective, to imagine how it could have been possible for them to have not understood what they were doing. Yet Paul says here that they were blind to the true identity and mission of the Lord of glory, and his understanding is strongly supported by the words of Jesus Himself (Lk. 23:33, 34) and Peter (Ac. 3:17) during his Pentecost sermon. In Acts 13:27, while evangelizing in Pisidian Antioch, Paul states that these rulers did not recognize who Jesus was and were blind to the prophetic passages concerning Him. This does not mean that these men were guiltless, because such ignorance comes from a hardness of heart towards Gods true nature (Jn. 15:1825; Ac. 7:5153) and a desire to control His people (Mt. 21:38). What we see from this is that spiritual wisdom is related to the deepest attitudes of the heart. Those who love the true nature of God will grow in their understanding of Him (Jn. 3:21), but those who rebel against those values that are part of Gods character (love, faithfulness, forgiveness, purity etc.) grow increasingly blind to spiritual truth (Jn. 3:19, 20). So, the spiritual leaders were ignorant of the mission of Jesus, but they werent innocent because their ignorance was the fruit of their own stubbornness (Ro. 1:21, 22).
Verse 9: Paul either roughly paraphrases Isaiah 64:4 or quotes from a source outside the Old Testament here, because there is no exact parallel to this passage in the Old Testament. In either case, his point is clear. Humans, by their own powers, had never comprehended the remarkably generous blessings God had planned for those who would place their faith in Christ. Verse 10: For any humans to understand salvation God had to send His Holy Spirit to pull back the curtain so we could see and understand (Jn. 6:44, 45). God must miraculously work on a person before they can comprehend the gospel. The Person of the Holy Spirit is the only One who can explain to us this salvation, or for that matter, any of the nature or purposes of God. When it comes to God, humans are incapable of accurately understanding Him. He must come, by the Spirit, and explain Himself to us.
Verse 11: Even when we are dealing with other human beings we dont really know their inner thoughts and attitudes. When Paul speaks of the spirit of man he is speaking of the eternal personality which is the heart of every person. It is in this spirit that God breathed into us (Ge. 2:7; Zec. 12:1; Isa. 57:16; Heb. 12:9) that we can know God and have His Spirit live within us. It is in our spirit that our decisions are made and our true values reside. Pauls point is that just as no one knows what other people are thinking unless they tell us in words, so none of us knows what God is thinking except God Himself and this is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. Verse 12: It is the Holy Spirit who knows the thoughts of God and it is the Holy Spirit who has come to live in us. By His enlightenment each believer can understand that the things God has given us are gifts of love which save us. To those who have only the spirit of the world these gifts seem foolish.
Verse 13: The Holy Spirit not only gives understanding to a believer concerning the wonderful things God gives us in Christ, but He also enables us to communicate these truths to others. God empowers us with the gifts of speech (1Co. 12:8, 10; 1Pe. 4:11) to communicate spiritual truth with those who are being empowered by the Holy Spirit to understand spiritual truth. Verse 14: The mind of an unsaved person who is not honestly seeking God sees spiritual truth as foolishness. That person is unable to understand what is being said, because there is no faith present. When spiritual truth is combined with faith in the heart, true understanding takes place. Verse 15: The person who has faith in God becomes discerning and wise through listening to the Holy Spirit. This person develops great understanding of life. They recognize the work of God; the work of human nature; and the work of spiritual evil. Unbelievers may look down on such people, but in reality they are unqualified to pass judgments on their faith. Verse 16: Paul quotes Isaiah 40:13 which is drawn out of a passage in which the greatness of Gods power and wisdom in creating the universe is shown to be vastly superior to that of any human. Paul goes on to answer Isaiahs question of who can know the mind of the Lord. His answer is people who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them have access to the thoughts of God by listening to the Spirit. All Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He explains to us the spiritual truths of God if we will listen.
Verse 1: Paul comes back to his original concern of the divisive camps forming in the Corinthian church.
He says that those who are doing this are so influenced by their old, Adamic nature that they are no longer able to comprehend mature spiritual truth. They are not listening closely to the mind of Christ within them, so he has to go back and reintroduce them to the basic principles he would teach a new believer. Obviously, just because a person is a Christian and has the Holy Spirit living within them does not mean that they are obeying His guidance. It is possible for a Christian to function like an unbeliever. Verse 2: Paul planted the church in Corinth somewhere between 49 and 52 A.D. and he is writing this letter in 55 A.D. so the church has been in existence between 3 and 6 years. He has a right to expect that by now the core members of the church would be focusing on sharing the milk of the gospel with others. Instead many have turned to philosophical speculation and arguments. When a person is a brand-new believer in Christ they must be taught the most basic truths which are essential for them to believe in order to be saved. Then, as a person matures in their walk in Christ they come to understand many more truths about how to effectively live out the Christian life, but never do they learn truths more important than the essential basics they were taught at first. In fact, if while pursuing spiritual learning we lose our commitment to these basics, our entire salvation can be placed in jeopardy (Gal. 5:24). As Paul writes this letter he is frequently responding to reports he has received concerning the situation in Corinth. It appears to me that the charge that Paul had only given them milk, not solid food, is a critical attack made against Paul by those who oppose him in the church. By this disparaging terminology they are saying that Pauls teaching was of less importance than the deep truths they were now learning from another source. Paul responds by saying that if it was milk he gave them, it is because a young believer cannot digest more than milk. However, Paul would never have agreed that the basics of the gospel were of less importance. His point is to say that they have not matured to the place where other teaching is appropriate, because they have not yet accepted and digested the foundational truths they call milk (Heb. 5:116:3).
Verse 3: No matter how spiritual we may think we are if our relationships with other people are not being handled with Christ-like attitudes, our overall condition is unhealthy. It is impossible to have a healthy relationship with God and unhealthy relationships with people. Our interaction with humans shows the true condition of our hearts. This point is also made strongly by John (1Jn. 1:7; 2:911) and James (Jas. 3:1318). Verse 4: The fact that they are proudly grouping themselves around human leaders shows that they have lost their focus on the centrality of Christ and of the unified nature of the Body of Christ (His church). They are not listening to the Holy Spirit but are letting their old attitudes and demonic attacks control them, just like people who arent born-again (Eph. 2:13).
1 Corinthians 3:5
Verse 5: Now with the fresh insight he has given us concerning the weakness of all things human and the absolute dependance we have on the Holy Spirit to be our ultimate teacher, Paul comes back to the original situation he described in 1:12. What he has just explained to us ought to give us a fresh perspective on the humans who minister to us. They are only to be seen as faithful servants who carry out their assignments from God. But we must look past them and see that God is the One reaching out to each of us. Hes the One who sent His Son; Hes the One who sent the gospel; Hes the One who gave them the Holy Spirit to enable them to believe; Hes the One who sent humans to minister to them. In turning their loyalty to human leaders, the church in Corinth has made idols out of them and have thanklessly forgotten that God is the source of everything they have received.
Paul is trying to get the Corinthian church to accurately understand the relationship between God and those who minister on His behalf. Their focus has been on the human agent, not on God who is the source behind all they have received. To make his point more understandable, Paul develops a farming analogy. Verses 6, 7: There are four major ingredients in this analogy: Paul, Apollos, God and the believers in Corinth. Paul was the first person to preach the gospel in Corinth and organize believers into a church. Apollos later came and helped the new believers Scripturally defend their faith (Ac. 18:2428). However, behind all the numerical and spiritual growth was God. No salvation, revelation or transformation took place without Gods activity in every part. God has chosen to use human instruments in the building of His church, but no human can take credit for the wonderful things that happen, for without God nothing eternal would take place.
Verse 8: Paul points out that he and Apollos are one, in that they bring the same gospel; have the same source of spiritual strength; and answer to the same Lord (1Co. 12:47, 1113). He will not allow the Corinthians to set him against Apollos in any way. The divisive problem in Corinth is in their hearts, not in the attitudes of Paul or Apollos. They support each other and understand full well that they will individually account for their own faithfulness when their life is reviewed at the Judgment seat of Christ (1Co. 3:13 15; 4:5; 2Co. 5:10). The rewards given by God for faithful service are not clearly defined in Scripture, but they probably include: the joy of hearing Jesus approve (Mt. 25:21); increased opportunity for further service (Mt. 25:21); and seeing people in heaven who you influenced for God. In other words, Gods evaluation of Paul and Apollos is the only one that will really matter in eternity. Verse 9: Whether Paul means by the term fellow workers that he and Apollos are partners in the service of God or that as human ministers they both work cooperatively with the Holy Spirit, is uncertain. Either interpretation of the term Gods fellow workers is true. By calling the Corinthian believers Gods field and Gods building, Paul is reminding them and us that every believer ultimately belongs to God, not to other human leaders nor even to ourselves (1Co. 6:19, 20; 7:23).
1 Corinthians 3:10
Verse 10: Picking up on the theme of the church being Gods temple, Paul moves to the image of constructing a building. He starts out by saying that the source of his effectiveness in establishing a church in Corinth was a special grace that he had been given by God. As we have seen elsewhere (Eph. 4:7; Ro. 15:1519) Paul uses the term grace at times to refer to the specific call and empowerment each believer receives to minister on Gods behalf. Pauls personal grace is to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Ro. 15:16) which includes evangelizing and church planting. So, his success in Corinth is due to Gods plan and power in his life. Though he was faithful to obey God, he does not credit himself for the churchs existence. Verse 10 (continued): He started the church out by teaching them the foundational truths of Christianity. These are the basic beliefs that a Christian never leaves throughout his/her lifetime. Far from being considered as insignificant milk (3:2), these teachings are better pictured as the foundation stones of a building. All further teachings are to be in-line with these.
Verses 10, 11: Paul now implies a subtle warning to the self-appointed leaders in Corinth. First, if they replace the truths that Paul taught the church when he was there, the result will be that no true church will be left. There are no other foundations upon which a church that God recognizes as a church can be built. The truth about Jesus Christ, especially His crucifixion and resurrection, is the only basis of belief that will save people. Verses 1214: In these verses Paul issues a second warning by characterizing things people teach about Jesus as building materials for a temple. The first three materials listed (gold, silver and precious stones) do not burn when subjected to fire, but the second three (wood, hay and straw) do burn. The fire represents Gods judgment and destruction of this old age as He begins the new. Distorted truth about Jesus Christ will one day be examined by Jesus Himself and pronounced a lie. Rather than be rewarded for teaching false doctrine, those who do it will watch as their human wisdom is destroyed by God. On the other hand, truth, which has originated from God, will also be recognized and rewarded at the Judgment.
1 Corinthians 3:15
Verse 15: What Paul teaches in this verse is a truth that will affect every believer. Because our motives and understanding of God are imperfect and mixed with human reasonings and selfishness, when our lives are examined we will watch as Gods truth exposes the impurity in our thinking and actions. The person who has retained their essential faith in Jesus Christ, will themselves not perish with unbelievers, but will sadly discover areas that have no positive effect in eternity. Undoubtedly all of us will watch as some of our works; some of our motives; some of our beliefs go up in smoke. Verse 15 (continued): Its possible for this verse to be misunderstood to mean that a person who no longer believed the essentials about Christ will still be saved, though their works are burned. In reading this we must remember that Paul is warning believers who are drifting away from truths they learned from him. He still thinks of them as believers, though misguided. He also holds great confidence in Gods power to draw wayward Christians back to Himself (1Co. 1:8, 9; Php. 1:6). He is confident that sooner or later God would draw them back to their true foundation.
In the Old Testament, the temple was a place where God would meet with His people. His Spirit was powerfully present there and His people would gather there to worship Him. It was a place that was considered holy, set apart for God. In the New Testament, the concept of a place where people and God meet, is changed. Because Christians are continuously made righteous (pure, obedient to God) by faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is able to join Himself with their spirits and to not depart from them. They are literally indwelt by the same Shekinah glory that filled the Holy of holies of the tabernacle and temple (Ex. 40:3438; 2Ch. 5:13, 14). This was not true of believers in the Old Testament for their sins needed continual offering of sacrifice (Heb. 7:26, 27). Though the Spirit would come upon them for special ministries He could not be described as being permanently within them (Jn. 7:3739). Verses 16, 17: To accent the seriousness of his warning to be careful about what they taught other Christians, Paul reminds the leaders in Corinth that each believer carries within him or her the Holy Spirit (Ro. 8:911). In other words, each believer is set apart to God as holy, and anyone who unrepentantly believes distorted teachings on essential issues concerning Jesus and destroys the faith of such believers can anticipate being cast away with unbelievers at the Judgment (Mt. 24:4551). By the way, it is not only true that the individual believer is considered a temple of the Holy Spirit, Pauls language here is in the plural which
implies that the community of believers is also a temple (Eph. 2:1922; Mt. 18:20).
Verse 18: No one should flatter themselves into thinking that they are an exception to what Paul has said about the hopelessness of human reasonings in coming up with truth about God. The only way we can know God is for Him to reveal Himself to us, and the revelation of His truth will always offend the natural mind. If a person wants to become truly wise in spiritual matters he/she must first humble him/herself and disregard how he/she will appear in the eyes of those who dont know God because the truth about God, especially in sending His Son Jesus Christ, will always seem foolish to human reasoning. But in receiving this truth as a child, and in listening humbly to the Spirits teaching through His apostles and Scripture, a person is on the path to true wisdom about God. Verses 19, 20: Earlier (1:1825) Paul made the point that Gods wisdom appears foolish to the human mind unaided by the Spirit, now, in these verses, he reverses his point to say that human wisdom is foolishness to God. He supports his point by quoting from Job 5:13 which describes God as vastly superior to humans, and from Psalm 94:11 which describes God as the One who made humans and knows the shallowness of their thoughts.
Verse 21: Having strongly made his point that Gods understanding is vastly superior to that of humans Paul concludes that no human should ever dare to identify him/herself as the source of something truly good or wise. As humans we can only be thankful recipients of Gods revelation and mercy. Verses 21 23: Some in Corinth had begun to idolize men, thinking of themselves as belonging to various leaders. In this passage Paul stunningly refutes that thinking by showing it to be the exact opposite of the truth. Far from them belonging to human leaders as the Body of Christ, God has ordained that they are destined to govern with Christ. In Gods thinking, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are gifts He gives to the Church for their up-building. These ministries exist for the sake of the Church not vice versa (Eph. 4:1113). So accordingly, Paul, Apollos and Cephas are merely servants given as gifts to the Church. Furthermore, God has subordinated the entire created order to Christ, including the spiritual realm (both good and evil) (1Co. 15:2428). While remaining submitted to His Father, Christ is now the Lord of this present age, though many refuse to acknowledge it, and He will be the unquestioned Lord of the Age to Come (Php. 2:911; Rev. 19:1116). Since the Church shares in Christs inheritance through its eternal union with Him, it can be said that all these things belong to the Church. The Father has placed all things under Christ (1Co. 15:27), and Christ will incorporate us in His rule (1Co. 6:2; Da. 7:27) so it can be said that they belong to us as well.
1 Corinthians 4:14
Verse 1: Paul says that rather than idolizing the ministers God has sent them, that they ought to think of them as servants who work for Christ and who do what He directs them to do. He also says that ministers can be thought of as household servants to whom the master of the house has trusted great treasures. In this case the master of the house is God, and the treasures are the spiritual truths that He has revealed to them, especially the way of salvation. Verse 2: A household servant is not the source of anything they handle, they are merely obeying orders in the oversight of the Masters goods. A servants honor comes from having done what he or she was told to do. Verse 3: When it comes to determining how obedient a servant of God has been, there is really only one opinion that matters, and that is Gods. Recognizing that
some of the leaders in Corinth have been criticizing him behind his back and saying that he doesnt qualify to decide what the church in Corinth should believe and do, Paul says that he isnt particularly concerned with their evaluation of him. For that matter, Paul doesnt put much weight on his own assessment of himself. Verse 4: His own conscience finds no sin in the way he has served the church in Corinth, but as humans we can all deceive ourselves about our motives, or can confuse our own thoughts for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As a result, Paul is not certain his own evaluation of himself is correct. When all is said and done, the Lord Jesus is the only One who will have the right and the full knowledge to judge correctly Pauls faithfulness.
Verse 5: There is a hint of warning in this verse. Paul says that the leaders in Corinth who are criticizing him to the congregation should stop examining him and others as if in a court where they were the judges, because the Corinthians and Paul would all one day stand before Jesus who will form His own judgment. At His Return, Jesus will examine the faithfulness of each one of them, and He will have all the information necessary to make a proper decision. He will bring into the trial a perfect account of things a person thought no one knew about, and He will also know the true motive behind each action. Only then will we learn whether our service or ministry was truly praiseworthy. Verse 6: Paul says he has been using himself and Apollos as illustrations to make his point clear to the Corinthians. And his point is that Paul and Apollos see themselves as household servants who carry valuable treasures belonging to God, and because they see themselves this way, they would never dare to tamper with the contents of those truths. They carefully submit to what has been written in Scripture, and teach it just the way they have received it. The leaders in Corinth must emulate Paul and Apollos and must stop reinterpreting the essential teachings they have received. Their distorted doctrines are the wood, hay and straw that will be burned up at the Judgment (3:12, 13). The real root of these distortions is that they are being puffed up with pride as they argue with one another.
1 Corinthians 4:7
Verse 7: Paul asks the Corinthians that since they all feel so superior to one another, and even to Paul, who they would acknowledge had the right to judge between them. His purpose in asking the question is to show them that they really arent submitted to anyone. Then he puts into perspective the ridiculousness of their attitude of superiority. Everything they know about Christianity has been brought to them by traveling ministers (Paul, Apollos, Peter); their salvation itself is an undeserved gift and the various manifestations of the Holy Spirit among them is also an undeserved gift. So, in view of the fact that everything God has done among them has been a gift of His mercy, Paul challenges them to show him any justification for their pride. The one who receives a gift has personally accomplished nothing. They are acting as if they had deserved Gods gifts or had discovered God through their own wisdom.
1 Corinthians 4:8
Verse 8: Pauls frustration with them really begins to show here. He contrasts their attitudes and lifestyles with those of the apostles Jesus selected to represent Him. Paul sarcastically refers to them as kings meaning that their real success has been in achieving riches, power over people and the pleasures of the world. As the letter to the Corinthians goes on we will see how morally compromised this church has become. Paul will warn them against: craving the worlds goods; idolatry; immorality; doubting
Gods intentions and power; and grumbling against His appointed leaders (10:610). Undoubtedly they have lost their concern for evangelizing unbelievers and there is evidence that the poor are being neglected (11:20, 21). So, Pauls reference to kings who are filled with food and rich with money is to the divisive leaders who are financially exploiting the congregation and are leading the portions of the congregation they control into theological confusion and impure behavior. Verse 8 (continued): As he makes the accusation that these leaders have become people who have begun to reign like kings, Paul is immediately reminded of the truth that at the return of Christ believers will all reign with Christ. He says that he wishes that they really did reign like kings for that would mean that Christ had come and he and all the apostles would be resting from their labors as well.
1 Corinthians 4:9
Verse 9: The idea that Christ has already returned and set up the glorious kingdom in which His saints will share His rule is a hope still waiting to be realized in the future. Its not time yet to take our ease in eternal bliss, for the battle for the souls of humans is still raging. If the Corinthians questioned this all they needed to do was to look at Paul, Apollos, Peter and the others apostles serving Jesus. Far from being filled and rich, they were on the other end of the spectrum. They, who had the greatest authority, also suffered more persecution and hardship in carrying out their ministries than any other category of ministry. Paul uses the imagery here of a conquering Roman general who would parade the captured soldiers who were to be publicly executed. He says God has allowed the greatest suffering to come upon those with the greatest authority. If the Corinthian leaders really want to measure their progress toward maturity, they need to examine how much they have denied themselves and put their lives on the line to reach the lost for Christ and to strengthen His church. Real apostles have done such suffering as to make them a spectacle to be wondered at by humans and even angels.
Verse 10: Paul sarcastically views the situation from the perspective of the Corinthian leaders. They must think the apostles are fools for suffering for Christ the way they do. They must consider themselves to be very sensible for leading safe, prosperous ministries. They must despise the apostles as people who have less spiritual power than they do. After all, if the apostles really had power they would use it to protect and provide for themselves. The Corinthian leaders demanded that people show them respect and financially support them, while the apostles were often facing hostile crowds and spent nights sleeping on the side of a road while traveling. Verse 11: To carry the gospel to the lost, the apostles were constantly putting their own comfort and safety aside. They never demanded money or charged for ministry, so they often had just enough food or clothing. This hardship was not a sign that they didnt have enough faith, but rather it was proof that they were fully engaged in the battle for souls.
1 Corinthians 4:11
Verse 11: Paul drops his sarcastic tone and bluntly describes the suffering customarily endured by the apostles. What he describes sounds like the hardships soldiers might endure in the midst of a fierce battle. Though Jesus promised to provide for the needs of His followers (Mt. 6:3134), those engaged in carrying the gospel to the lost face tremendous spiritual warfare (2Co. 4:812; 6:4, 5, 810; 11:2329; 12:10). He warned that wholehearted service of Him would provoke hostile opposition (Mt. 10:1625, 34
42). Paul is not trying to elicit pity from the people in Corinth, but is painting a picture for them of the price faithful leaders pay for the authority they carry. Obedience to the call of Christ will lead people to selfsacrifice. By contrast, the people who are posturing themselves as leaders in Corinth are leading comfortable, safe lives. The problem isnt that the true apostles are foolish; the problem is that the Corinthian leaders do not love Christ more than their own lives. While suffering in itself is no automatic qualification for spiritual authority, it is certainly true that God would never give His authority to people unwilling to suffer for Him. The self-protective attitudes of the Corinthian leaders isnt wisdom, its immaturity.
Verse 11 (continued): As itinerant missionaries, the apostle often went hungry and thirsty, and their clothes wore out while they traveled. The term translated roughly treated literally means to be beaten or slapped in an insulting manner. They had all been attacked while preaching. All had left their homes to carry the gospel to as many people as possible. Verse 12: Paul, and probably others of the apostles, refused to take offerings for their own support, preferring to get a job in their off-hours so that the people they were trying to reach would know that they werent motivated by money (1Co. 9:12; 2Co. 6:3). Paul was not opposed to having an established church send missionary offerings to help him (1Co. 11:8; Php. 4:15 18), but he would not take a cent in cities where he was evangelizing. They must see that the gospel was free and that he came motivated only by Gods love. While this approach glorified God, it meant much hard labor for His apostles.
Verse 12 (continued): When people insulted the apostles and cursed them while they preached in public, they responded only by praying for their opponents. The Corinthian leaders might have viewed this reaction as weakness, preferring to humble their opponents in a debate, but the apostles followed the example and teaching of Christ (Lk. 6:2730; 2Pe. 2:2123). Their goal was to win every person possible to Christ, not to protect their public image. Whether it was verbal or physical abuse directed against them, they would not give up. Verse 13: When people said mean things about them to try to hurt them, they didnt respond by fighting back. Instead, they would seek to make peace and win the heart of the person (Ro. 12:1721). However, rather than being appreciated for their Christ-like behavior, the apostles had been considered to be fools by most unbelievers, and had been harshly criticized by some churches like Corinth. They were given no more respect by most of the leaders in the cities where they preached than garbage.
Verse 14: Having drawn a stark contrast between the Corinthian leaders and the true apostles, Paul now appeals to them, as their founding pastor, to repent. He says his point in saying the strong things he has said isnt to shame them, but to warn them of the danger they are in. He thinks of them as his own beloved children. So the passion in this letter is concern, not anger. Verse 15: Paul reminds them that he has a unique relationship with the church in Corinth that gives him an authority that goes beyond what he would have as just one more Christian teacher. He had paid the price to bring the gospel to Corinth (Ac. 18:11 18); and he had stayed in that city for eighteen months in order to see that the church was started properly. Though God deserved the credit for everything that had happened (3:6, 7), Paul was the man He had chosen as their founder, therefore Paul had the right to expect that the church should stay on the
same course on which he had started it. God has chosen him as their spiritual father and no one had the right to change the directions he had set. Furthermore, as their father his right to guide them did not stop when he traveled on.
Verse 16: A father teaches a child not only by instructing with words, but, even more importantly, by his example. Paul asks the Corinthian church to imitate the way he lives his Christian life. Considering the self-sacrifice he has just described (14:913) this must have been a very sobering invitation. He is saying that his life-style, and that of the other apostles, much more accurately expresses authentic Christianity than does the proud, self-centered behavior of the would-be leaders in Corinth. Verse 17: God was working too powerfully in Ephesus (16:8, 9) for Paul to leave immediately to straighten things out in Corinth. But the situation in Corinth had grown too bad for him to do nothing, so he would send his faithful assistant Timothy to help them get back to the principles originally taught them. Verse 18: The selfappointed leaders had been fearlessly challenging Pauls teaching and authority as if they expected they would never have to face him again. But, if they thought that a faithful father would abandon his children, allowing them to be led into deception, they could think again! Verse 19: Paul would follow Timothy personally, as soon as possible, and the church leaders would then deal with him face to face. He qualifies his commitment to come by admitting that he is not free to set his own agenda. God alone has the right to do that, yet he assumes he will be allowed to return to Corinth, and when he does hes going to let them see whose message, theirs or his, God ratifies by ministering through that person in miracles done by the Holy Spirit. The power he refers to would be the same sort of power that God provided to start the church in the first place (see: 2:4, 5). Such power could be seen moving upon unbelievers to release faith during the preaching of the gospel. It could be seen in miraculous healing and deliverance. It transformed people as they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, and it continued to operate through them in the various gifts of the Spirit (12:711). The confrontation in Corinth wouldnt be a contest of who was more convincing in a debate, rather Gods miraculous presence would show who He had chosen to represent Him. The power the rebellious in Corinth would see would most likely look like 1 Corinthians 5:35.
1 Corinthians 4:20
Verse 20: When Paul uses the phrase the kingdom of God he is referring to those people who are no longer dead in trespasses and sins, or living under the domination of the prince of the power of the air, nor living under the control of the lusts of our flesh and of the mind (Eph. 2:13). When people are saved they are spiritually transferred into another kingdom and the life-style they live shows the world the values of that kingdom (Col. 1:13; Ro. 14:17). Here, Paul is saying that the life God wants His people to live in this new kingdom is based on the power of the Holy Spirit, not on philosophical arguments. Verse 20 (continued): For the sake of clarity, we should note that later on in this letter (6:9, 10; 15:50) when Paul refers to inheriting the kingdom of God, he is referring to the eternal condition we will be in following the Return of Christ. We will be given imperishable bodies (1Co. 15:42; 2Co. 5:14) at the Resurrection and will live an existence so wonderful nothing on earth can compare to it (Php. 3:811). So, when Paul speaks of inheriting the kingdom or of going there in the future (2Ti. 4:18; 2Th. 1:5) he is speaking of our future heavenly condition. However, when he refers to the kingdom of God in a context of it being present now, he means the new life lived by people in Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:21
Verse 21: Paul has no intentions of allowing the distortions of foundational principles, nor the exploitation of the church in Corinth to continue. He will come, if the Lord wills (v. 19), and he hasnt the slightest doubt that when he does he will have spiritual power to discipline the self-appointed leaders and their followers. In fact, he demonstrates a sample of his disciplinary authority in the next five verses (5:15). If, however, they will repent of their pride, he will come and gently explain their errors and lovingly guide them back to the right path. The choice is theirs.
1 Corinthians 5:1
The Corinthian church, and especially its leaders, had been full of pride. This had resulted in jealousy and strife among the members; unhealthy doctrine; a judgmental attitude toward the apostles who founded the church; and, now as well see in the next two chapters, a deteriorating commitment to basic morality. Keep in mind that Paul has had alarmed members of the church bring reports to him in Ephesus, and furthermore, he has a letter from the leaders themselves which asks questions of him and appears to attempt to defend their positions (1Co. 1:11; 16:17; 7:1). One way you can spot his interaction with their letter is his use of the phrase now concerning to introduce new subjects (7:1, 25; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1). Verse 1: He is shocked to hear that the church is refusing to discipline one of its members who is living in flagrant immorality. Apparently, one of the men has moved in and is living sexually with a woman who had been, or still was, married to his father. Rather than grieve over what was a clear violation of Biblical standards (Lev. 18:7, 8; Dt. 22:30; 27:20), and for that matter, was even considered perverse by the pagan society around them, they had reinterpreted grace to mean that they could do anything they wanted with their bodies (though some things were wiser than others). The words Paul quotes in 6:12 and 10:23 are distorted doctrine that the Corinthians had invented. It seems they saw themselves as wise in tolerating this mans behavior. Since they believed that Christ had made all things lawful this man was just enjoying the freedom from the Law that Christ had made possible.
1 Corinthians 5:2
Verse 2: Paul says that their attitude is an arrogant misunderstanding of Gods mercy. Though the ritual observances required by the Law had passed away with the arrival of Christianity (observing certain days, kosher food laws, temple sacrifice, etc.), the moral standards remain unchanged. When Christians fail in moral behavior they are forgiven with the assumption that their hearts have repented of wanting to break Gods standards. While a Christian may stumble and still be forgiven, this merciful patience of God is never to be interpreted as God being indifferent to what we do. The Corinthian church is taking advantage of Gods kindness and is thinking of Him as an old fool who will do nothing to stop them. As we go on, Paul will let them know how wrong they are about Gods tolerance. Here, in this verse, he tells them that they should have felt sorrowful concern for this wayward man, and should have disciplined him by disfellowshipping him, if he refused to repent when confronted.
1 Corinthians 5:35
Verse 3: In this remarkable verse Paul reveals that he has sought the Lord in prayer and has received a word of knowledge (1Co. 12:8) concerning this matter. Though he is 250 miles away, the Holy Spirit has revealed to him the attitude of the mans heart, the validity of the charges against him and the proper
course of spiritual discipline. Verse 4: Again, as in 1:10, he specifically speaks in the name of our Lord Jesus. When he does this he is acting under the specific orders from Jesus, and he is letting the Corinthian church know that he has been given full authority to carry this out. Though the Aegean Sea stands between them, there is no distance in prayer, and so, as if he were standing in the midst of the assembled congregation with everybody listening (Mt. 18:17), he is acting in the power of the Holy Spirit as Christs representative. Verse 5: Oddly enough, even though this man is unrepentantly practicing sexual immorality, he continues to enjoy a spiritual protection from Satans activity. He is protected because he is still part of the community of people that has been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Eph. 1:13). There is a spiritual covering over every true church and this man was still enjoying its benefits though his attitude and behavior had or would eventually disqualify him from going to heaven. With full authority, as if he were there in Corinth, Paul removes the spiritual covering from the man and exposes him to the attacks of Satan as if he were an unbeliever. But Paul has put a hedge about the man much like that which God put around Job (Job 1:1012). Satan may touch his flesh, but Paul does not turn over the mans spirit. He allows Satan to harass the man through illness or hardship until the man, like the prodigal son (Lk. 15:1132), remembers how good it was being part of Gods family, and repents.
1 Corinthians 5:5
Verse 5 (continued): Pauls goal in taking this step is not to punish the man for his sins, but primarily to press him toward repentance so that he would not be judged a hypocrite at the Judgment Seat of Christ and cast into hell (Mt. 22:1113). By accommodating his misbehavior, the church was allowing the man to deceive himself into thinking that his place in heaven was secure even though he was practicing fornication. Paul will shortly make it clear that grace does not cover the willful practice of a number of behaviors (6:9, 10). His bold confrontation of this man allows the man to realize the eternal jeopardy he has placed himself in by his behavior. It gives the man a clear perspective on his condition so he can repent. Then, to pressure the man even further toward repentance, Paul removes the mans spiritual protection, exposing him to Satans hardships. All of this is done out of a loving desire to save the mans soul for eternity, and also, as we shall see in the next verses, to protect the rest of the congregation from being seduced by his example into thinking that they too can ignore basic morality.
1 Corinthians 5:6
Verse 6: Apparently from Pauls opening statement here, they have proudly held up this mans situation as something they could boast about. I suppose they saw their toleration of his behavior as an expression of Gods love for the man, and felt that they were showing the world how Gods grace had freed them from the Law. But Paul says it is wrong for them to boast about the way they have handled this matter. They ignored the reality that when sin goes undisciplined it has a contagious power to lure others into similar behavior. He uses the illustration of a small pinch of yeast being able to transform a large lump of bread dough. In Jewish homes, during the preparation for the Passover feast, all yeast and products containing yeast were cleaned out. In this context yeast symbolized moral decay (Ex. 12:15, 19, 20). His point is that they have foolishly boasted in their tolerance of this behavior and yet by doing so they have allowed the man to continue on self-deceived and they have weakened the whole congregations resolve against sexual immorality.
Verse 7: Continuing on with the illustration of yeast and bread dough, he orders them to get the willful practice of immoral behavior out of the church. He would probably include their attitudes as part of the sinful yeast just as much as the mans fornication. He then goes on to press the image of the Passover feast even further. Since the cleansing of yeast out of Jewish homes represented cleansing corrupt behavior and attitudes, Paul reminds them that because Jesus has made us unleavened (pure, acceptable to God) through His death as our Passover Lamb (cross), Christians ought to seek to conform their daily lives to their spiritual standing. Verse 8: Passover was a seven-day festival during which the people were to eat nothing containing leaven. Paul likens the Christian life to that special week. As Christians we celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb of God by keeping out of our hearts evil attitudes toward others, and out of our lives actions which do not meet Gods righteous standards. In place of these our lives are to be guided by pure motives and marked by behavior that will stand up under Gods scrutiny.
Verse 9: First Corinthians is not the first letter Paul has written to the church in Corinth. There has already been a letter sent earlier to them in which he had instructed them to disfellowship those who were persistently immoral, undoubtedly for the same reasons he has just explained (5:5). He specifically says he had written them telling them to stop allowing fornicators (people having sex with someone other than their spouse) to participate in their spiritual gatherings (2Th. 3:14, 15). Verse 10: Apparently the leaders had avoided obeying his instruction by pretending to misunderstand what he meant. They had claimed that Paul meant by this that he didnt want the church members to have any contact with unbelievers. This interpretation allowed them to duck disciplining sexually immoral members, and at the same time gave them a justification for pulling their followers into cult-like communities which prided themselves in withdrawal from society. Paul explains that he in no way is asking them to quit contacting sinful unbelievers. For one thing it would be logistically impossible to do so and still live on this planet, but, though he does not state it here, neither would Paul have ever suggested such a thing because it directly violated the Lords command to take the gospel to the world (Mk. 16:15). One need only look at the lives of Paul and other apostles to see that there could be no basis for a church to develop an escapist mentality. These leaders constantly sacrificed everything to reach out to the lost (1Co. 4:1113).
1 Corinthians 5:11
Verse 11: In this verse Paul leaves no room to misunderstand his former instruction to the church not to associate with immoral people (v. 9). He was specifically speaking of disfellowshipping immoral Christians. The church was to show its disapproval and encourage repentance by severing relationship with those who were unrepentant in their practice of the categories he lists. He identifies: people who continue to engage in sex outside of a marriage covenant; people who resort to dishonesty or taking advantage of others in order to get material wealth; people who participate in non-Christian forms of spirituality; people who verbally abuse others; people who become addicted to alcohol (or other such drugs) or who participate freely at drinking parties; and finally, people who steal or use fear to pressure people to give them something they want. In verse nine of chapter six Paul will add some more specific terms to the categories he has just mentioned. He also provides similar lists in Galatians 5:1921 and Ephesians 5:5, 6. His point is that both spiritual and social contacts are to be cut off until true repentance has taken place.
Verses 12, 13: To clarify the matter further Paul asks two questions in verse 12 and then answers himself with two statements in verse 13. He asks: What business do I have trying to discipline unbelievers by refusing to have contact with them? and then answers himself in the next verse by saying, in effect, Its not my job at all to try to discipline unbelievers, but God Himself handles the evaluating and discipline of unbelievers (a process which will culminate in the final Judgment for the unrepentant). His second question is directed at what takes place within the church community. He asks, You are supposed to discipline those who are within the community of believers, arent you? He definitely expects them to answer, Yes, of course, but, so there will be no doubt, he answers himself again in verse 13 by quoting a command repeated five times in the book of Deuteronomy (13:5; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21). Though the passages in Deuteronomy were all speaking of executing the offender, Paul is referring only to disfellowshipping, and uses the quote to show that God has always asked His people to cleanse their community of people who refuse to stop practicing certain behaviors.
1 Corinthians 5 (reviewed)
Because moral discipline is so little practiced in the churches of our society, it is very possible for a reader today to misunderstand the attitude and purpose behind what Paul has said in chapter five. Here are some observations which may help us with the how and why of his instructions. We need to realize that the concept of judging is used to describe at least 3 different actions in the New Testament: 1) When Jesus forbids us to judge in Matthew 7:15 He is exhorting us to not have a critical spirit toward our brother or sister. This is the same point that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 4:3, 4 and Romans 14:4. In most of the areas of our lives as believers, the Person that we need to please is God, not each other. 2) However, Paul and Jesus insist that the Christian community exercise discipline when the moral standards of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:317) are unrepentantly persisted in (Mt. 18:1517). 3) In 1 Corinthians 6:2 Paul uses the word judge to describe the administrative role we will perform in assisting Christ to govern in the Age to Come (Da. 7:27). We will exercise His authority even over angels (1Co. 6:3) and so will be using spiritual discernment and wisdom to make choices. This third meaning for the word judge is different from either the critical spirit or moral discipline of its first two meanings.
1 Corinthians 5 (reviewed)
Here are some further points to consider on the moral discipline Paul calls for in chapter 5: 1) The main motive behind this step is to induce repentance (5:5 and Gal. 6:1) and so the step is taken as an expression of love and is done in gentle humility. The discipline is never meant to punish the offender. 2) The categories deserving such treatment are very specific. This form of discipline is not appropriate for lesser forms of misbehavior. 3) Disfellowshipping is a last resort after other avenues of appeal have been rejected (Mt. 18:1517). 4) It is hopefully not a perpetual state, but fellowship is joyfully restored when repentance is demonstrated (2Co. 2:511). 5) The discipline is severe because the eternal ramifications for the person are severe (1Co. 6:9, 10). 6) Separating out persistent hypocritical behavior is also a form of protection for the rest of the church (1Co. 5:6). Ignoring those who persist weakens the moral resolve of others, introduces a tempting spirit and, in time, brings the Lords direct discipline (1Co. 11:31, 32).
1 Corinthians 6:1
Verse 1: His comments about judging outsiders seems to have brought another issue to Pauls mind which he inserts here. He has heard that believers have been suing each other in the Greek civil courts to resolve personal disputes. These civil judgment seats were open-air courts located in the public marketplace (Ac. 18:1217), so the strife exhibited there between Christians was an embarrassing defeat for the reputation of Christ. Not only were the Corinthian leaders refusing to judge (discipline) the immoral practices taking place within the church, but they were also refusing to judge (help resolve) personal disputes among church members by providing them with counsel and impartial judgment. The absence of this kind of leadership and pastoral care had resulted in offenses between believers being carried to the civil courts where men who had only human wisdom (1Co. 2:14) decided their cases, and where the angry charges made against each other could be heard by the whole community. Paul is shocked that these Christians so firmly refuse to exercise spiritual discernment. He asks, How dare you take one another to civil court? He is not implying that disputing Christians dont, at times, need help in determining the right course of action. But why wouldnt a Christian seek a decision from people who had the mind of Christ (2:16) rather than unbelievers? And why wouldnt a Christian who longed for others to know Jesus, choose to live with an offense rather than bring shame on the Lord by fighting in public? Unbelievers listening to these debates could only conclude that Christian hearts were no different from their own.
Verse 2: He puts their refusal to decide disputes between themselves in perspective by reminding them that Christians are destined to assist Christ in administrating His government in the Age to Come (Mt. 19:28; Dan. 7:18, 22, 27). If the Holy Spirit can enable us to find the will of God for the great issues we face in eternity, why cant we trust Him to give us discernment for such personal disputes in this age? The Corinthian leaders have refused to become involved in these everyday disputes between members probably on the pretense of who are we to decide such matters, but Paul shows this position to be a lack of faith rather than modesty. By the Holy Spirit, believers have the mind of Christ (2:16) now, and need not wait for eternity to pray for discernment and wisdom. Verse 3: Pauls point in this verse is that if resurrected Christians will someday exercise authority even over angels, why cant sincere believers trust their own discernment to find Gods will in settling personal offenses that arise among us. Clearly, the Corinthian leaders were abdicating a role they will be called on to fill at a much greater level in eternity. Exactly how Christians will judge angels someday is not certain. Paul probably means that we somehow participate in the evaluation of angels who have rebelled against God (2Pe. 2:4; Jude 1:6; Rev. 12:79), but how this would take place is not described.
Verse 4: Paul sarcastically asks the Corinthians if they are going to invite unbelievers to sit in their church gatherings to make decisions for them when they face questions concerning daily life. He makes such a ridiculous suggestion to show them that in his mind what they have done is just as absurd. Why would people who have the Holy Spirits counsel available to them turn for guidance to people who dont know God? Verse 5: Paul wants them to see the foolishness of their behavior in this matter and to repent. He asks them whether they have become so dependant upon unbelievers to make their decisions for them that there is no room left for one wise believer who could make a Spirit-led decision for them. He pictures their gatherings so crowded with non-Christian judges that there isnt room to squeeze in one godly, wise
man. Though this is a church that thinks of themselves as very wise, their actual possession of true spiritual wisdom is pathetic.
Verse 6: Paul basically restates the situation he referred to in verse 1 (6:1), that Christians are taking one another to court before pagan judges and as we mentioned earlier these courts were open-air gatherings in public marketplaces. Everything about it is wrong in Pauls opinion: that Christians are fighting with one another; that they seek the verdict of men without the Holy Spirit; and that all of this takes place where unbelievers are being given a distorted impression of Christianity and thus ruining the churchs witness in that city. Verse 7: He says that the very fact that believers are taking one another to court is a failure for them. He uses a term meaning a judicial defeat in court. In other words, when Christians go to court, the whole Christian community loses. He next drives right to the heart of the matter which is their attitude. How would Jesus have handled this? A statement He made in the Sermon on the Mount leaves no doubt (Mt. 5:3842): You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Paul captures the spirit of Christs teaching in his rhetorical questions addressed to the Corinthians: Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? As followers of Christ we are not to focus on self-protection or gaining the advantage over another person. Instead, we are to overcome evil with good (Ro. 12:1721) even when it requires personal sacrifice. Winning people is more important than winning most arguments.
1 Corinthians 6:8
Verse 8: Paul would not say that it is never acceptable for a Christian to defend him or herself in court, because when it was unavoidable he participated in the legal processes of Roman law (Ac. 16:3540; 18:1217; 22:2529; 25:1012; 28:1719). He also believed that God willed that humans organize governments and that these governments be respected and obeyed except where they hinder the salvation of the lost or the worship of God (Ro. 13:17; Ac. 4:1620; 5:2729). But the cases being taken to court in Corinth had none of the attitudes required by Christ, nor the unavoidable necessity that had forced even Paul to defend himself in court. These believers are unjustly attacking one another in court, and the real motive in their hearts, regardless of what they may say, is to legally steal from one another or to punish one another.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Verse 9: Paul has already implied that the man who was sexually active with his own stepmother would not make it into heaven unless he repented and stopped (5:15). Now he warns the whole church that they cannot continue to call themselves Christians while still practicing certain categories of ungodly behavior. He says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. For a fuller explanation of this phrase, please re-read the comments on 1 Corinthians 4:20. By stepping forward to 1 Corinthians 15:50, we can be certain that he is warning people that certain behaviors will prevent them from being included among those resurrected to eternal life with God. He is not invalidating salvation by faith in saying that Christians cannot continue to practice certain behaviors. But instead, he is warning that a person who
claims to be a Christian yet continues to behave in ways that are clearly offensive to God is hypocritical in his or her confession of Christ. He is very aware that Christians still struggle with the temptations of the flesh (Ro. 7:1524; Gal. 5:17) and he is compassionate when people stumble and fall (Gal. 6:1; 2Co. 2:6 11), but in each situation he would be looking at the attitude of the heart to see if the person genuinely wanted to please God or whether they were merely pretending to want to please Him while their actual behavior showed a love of the sin. Habits and attitudes may change slowly in Christians, but some types of behavior must change immediately and our commitment to this change should be part of the repentance we make to Christ when we become His followers.
Verse 9 (continued): Now he lists the kinds of behaviors that, if continued to be practiced by people who claim to be Christians, will disqualify them from heaven. His list here is similar to the list in 5:10, 11 except he adds some new items and explicitly describes several types of behaviors belonging to the category of sexual immorality. The same Greek word translated as immoral person in verse 5:11 is here translated as fornicator. The reference in both passages is to people who engage in sexual practices outside of marriage or unnatural forms of intercourse. Idolators were people who continued to participate in nonChristian forms of spirituality. Adultery refers to married persons betraying their covenants with their spouses by having sexual relations outside the marriage. Jesus informs us that this sin begins with disloyalty in the mind (Mt. 5:27, 28). The next two terms describe the passive and aggressive roles taken in a homosexual relationship. The word translated thief describes the person who subtly cheats someone or slips in and takes something when the owner is gone. By contrast, the word swindler describes a person who uses force or violence in stealing. Covetous was also mentioned in 5:11 and describes people whose greed drives them to dishonesty or exploitation of others to get material wealth. For drunkard and reviler see 5:11.
1 Corinthians 6:11
Verse 11: Paul is warning the Corinthian believers because they are getting dangerously close to deserving some of these labels he has just mentioned. But Paul is not saying they have crossed that line yet. He remembers the wild, immoral backgrounds they came from, but he also remembers watching many of them sincerely place their trust in Christ, be baptized in water and undergo behavioral and attitudinal transformation through the influence of the Holy Spirit. He knows these people because he was their pastor, so he is confident that at least those he knows personally have undergone the new birth. They really are Christians even though they are being misled and are sliding backwards. Though he doesnt say it here, I think hes comforting himself with the truth: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ (Php. 1:6). Since they started out right, he is trusting God will draw them back.
1 Corinthians 6:12
Verse 12: At first glance this is a verse which seems to contradict everything Paul has been saying from 5:1 on. How can Paul have said earlier that people who do certain things will not enter the kingdom of God, and then in this verse say that all things are lawful for me even if he does go on to admit that its not wise to do everything thats lawful? And to make matters worse, he says it twice and the second time says he wants to avoid becoming addicted to any certain behavior. If this doesnt sound like Paul, its
because the statements in verse 12 dont originate with Paul, but are quotes he is taking from the leaders in Corinth. Paul isnt recommending these statements as truth, instead he is preparing to attack expressions they used to justify their lawlessness. He will quote the same statements again in 10:23 in the middle of trying to explain to the Corinthians why they cant keep attending the pagan religious feasts. The leaders must have been telling their followers that Gods grace literally meant they could do anything they wanted regardless of how immoral it was. They were mistakenly teaching that faith in Christ justified a person regardless of how they lived afterwards. With these statements they had removed the fear of accountability to God from the church members. Sin wasnt always profitable and could become addictive, but at least there would be no judgment handed out by God for such behavior. They may have perverted Pauls own teaching and given his words a meaning he had never intended. Paul had undoubtedly told them that they were justified by faith and that by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified (Ro. 3:20, 28). They then took that to mean that a person who had faith could live anyway they wanted because they were now free from the Law. Paul corrects exactly this misunderstanding in Romans 6:1 23. The truth is that our freedom from the Law has released the Holy Spirit to live in us and He will continually transform us into people that fulfill the moral standards of the Law.
1 Corinthians 6:13
Verse 13: This verse opens with one more Corinthian slogan that encouraged immoral behavior. They were saying that our sexual desires are natural and need to be fulfilled just as our stomachs need food. After quoting, Food is for the stomach and stomach is for food, Paul stops quoting and starts correcting these misguided notions. He reminds them that they are all going to die and stand before the Lord. And when God does judge them Hes not going to agree with their confused thinking. Our bodies are meant to be governed by Gods moral standards, not our appetites, and furthermore, our bodies are supposed to be dedicated to the service of the Lord. Just as stomachs and food are created by God for each other, a Christians body is meant for the Lord. God created our bodies as a place for Him to dwell in by the Holy Spirit, and in the resurrection Jesus redeemed our bodies for eternity. The Lord, not our appetites, is to govern the use of our bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:14
Verse 14: In verse 13 Paul had reminded us that our bodies will die (God will do away with the stomach), but then he went on to say that the Lord is for the body. Now, in this verse, he explains what he means that the Lord is for the body. Just as Jesus was physically resurrected from the dead, those who are His will also be resurrected at the moment of His return. Though these Greeks had a hard time accepting that God cared what happened to their physical bodies, the reality is that our bodies are Gods idea and He has so worked through Christ that we will live in bodies forever. Pauls point is that we cannot assume that what we do with these bodies is irrelevant. God sees our bodies as His dwelling place and we are intended to serve Him through them forever.
1 Corinthians 6:15
Verse 15: The believers in Corinth must never forget the deep spiritual union they have with Christ. The concept of Christ being the head and the church being His body is more than a metaphor for Paul. In Ephesians (1:23; 4:12, 15, 16; 5:2332) Paul refers to this idea numerous times and challenges husbands to treat their wives with the same commitment and care that Christ does His body. Just as a
husband and wife become one flesh in Gods eyes, so too the tie between Christ and His people is a true spiritual event. This is not just poetic language. It is metaphorical language communicating to us a deep reality. We now belong to Christ forever as members of His body. Our bodies are no longer our own, they belong to Him and are intended for fellowship with Him and service. Verse 15 (continued): If the thought of Christ sleeping with a prostitute is an appalling blaspheme, then in a certain way that is what is tragically happening when a person who is part of His body is immoral sexually. That person is dragging Christ with him or her into the prostitution.
1 Corinthians 6:16
Verse 16: Prostitution was enormously common in Corinth. First, the city was connected to two seaports with all the waterfront businesses that go along with that, but secondly, a large pagan temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love, was located 1,800 feet above the city on a flat-topped rock. The temple was staffed by hundreds of prostitutes and sexual relations with them was a part of the religious ritual. One does not have to think hard to realize that there must have been Christians who were attending church and yet continued visiting prostitutes. Apparently they had tried to justify this behavior by saying God didnt care what they did with their bodies so long as they believed in Christ and went to church. In this verse Paul further reinforces why this line of thinking is flawed. Verse 16 (continued): To put it bluntly, Paul says that even when a person engages in casual sex with a prostitute the same kind of emotional/ psychological bond is formed as the bond God intended to be formed between husband and wife. Just as Jesus did when teaching on the intended permanence of marriage (Mt. 19:5, 6), Paul quotes Gods statement in Genesis 2:24 concerning Adam and Eve: The two shall become one flesh. Sexual contact is one way a soul-tie is formed. Paul is trying to awaken us to the ghastly moral implications of a believer forming such a tie with a prostitute, and also this verse warns us of the damage to our personalities which is unavoidable when we marry people other than our spouses.
Verse 17: Notice the change in wording. A husband and wife become one flesh, but when a person becomes a Christian he or she becomes one spirit with Christ. The flesh-union is an emotional/psychological bond. The spirit-union speaks of the Holy Spirits presence within each believer. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the resurrected Christ is present within each believer: communicating, comforting, empowering, etc. His followers (Gal. 2:20). This relationship is eternal and will increase in its intensity in the future. Pauls point is that Christians are eternally bonded to Christ; we must realize that we represent Him and carry Him with us into any situation we go, whether good or bad. Verses 18, 19: While sin is wrong, and while there are other categories of sin that can jeopardize our eternal destiny (6:9, 10), sexual sin above all others tends to put a person into a bondage that prohibits the spirit of God from working through him or her. Our bodies serve Christ as His body, and they are to be indwelt, empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. Because He lives within us, we are His temples. But sexual sin tends to block our service of Christ as it expands the compulsive power of our flesh to the point that little or no true presence of the Holy Spirit can be seen. Addictive behavior, soul-ties, shame, lying, broken family relationships arise naturally with the practice of this category of sin and even when outward religious behavior is continued, the influence of the Holy Spirit seems to disappear.
Verse 19 (continued): In sexual sin not only do we harm ourselves, but we steal from God servants who belong to Him. As Christians we now belong to God. Before coming to Christ we were slaves under the control of Satan, our body appetites and our rebellious natures (Eph. 2:13). In dying and rising for us, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so that God no longer must condemn us; He broke the devils right to control us; He filled us with the Holy Spirit which empowers us to obey God and disobey our body appetites and old natures. In redeeming us, Jesus has purchased us and we now belong to Him (Ac. 20:28; 1Co. 7:22, 23; 1Pe. 1:18, 19; 2Pe. 2:1; Rev. 5:9, 10). Though He does not physically force us to do so, we are morally obligated to live the rest of our lives for His service (2Co. 5:14, 15). While the bottom line is that He owns us because He is our Creator and our Redeemer, yet as we serve Him we discover that He does not treat us as slaves. Instead, He treats us with great dignity and love and reveals to us that He is preparing us to rule with Him in eternity as kings and priests (Rev. 5:9, 10). We discover that He has adopted us as His own children (1Jn. 3:1, 2). Verse 20: If we realize that we belong to God and the terrible price that was paid to save us, we will realize that our bodies must be continually dedicated to His service and must be treated as holy, just as He is holy. Our bodies, as well as our spirits, are intended to bring honor to God.
1 Corinthians 7:1
Using the words now concerning the things which you wrote Paul apparently begins to respond to questions that the Corinthian church had written to him in a letter. Often, as he takes up each new question, he will use the phrase now concerning, and over the next eight chapters he will address their concerns about marriage, celibacy and divorce (7:124); entering marriage (7:2540); eating meat that had previously been used in pagan sacrifices (8:19:23); spiritual gifts (12:114:40); and a collection of money for the poor in Jerusalem (16:14). As he progresses through this list he will also introduce other subjects he feels they need to hear, such as a warning against yielding to temptations (9:2410:13); a warning not to personally attend idol feasts (10:1422); the covering of womens heads in public services (11:216); correcting the way in which they were taking Communion (11:1734); the proper role of spiritual gifts in public services; and affirming the resurrection of the body (15:158).
1 Corinthians 7:1
Verse 1 (continued): Again, as we have seen him do before (6:12, 13), Paul quotes a saying being taught in Corinth: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Not to touch a woman is a phrase meaning sexual intercourse. Its ironic that he has just finished warning the church that they must not continue visiting prostitutes, and now a few verses later he is telling married couples to quit abstaining from normal sexual relations with their spouse. But if we think about it we may see a connection between the two patterns of behavior. Part of the reason that individuals were sneaking off to visit prostitutes may have been the absence of a normal sexual life with their own spouse. Paul believed that singleness was a very beneficial condition for a Christian because it allowed a person to devote greater amounts of time and energy to Christian service and he undoubtedly had taught this while in Corinth. What appears to have happened is that some Corinthians who were married had decided to live as though they were single in order to serve God in the manner Paul had recommended. What they didnt realize was that it took a special gift of God to live singly and still be sexually at peace. Paul himself had such a gift, but when these married couples tried to live the way he did they struggled with lust and fell into immoral sexual activity. In verses 19 Paul is exhorting married couples to care for one anothers sexual needs so their partner
doesnt burn with lust. Singleness can be a great advantage in Christian service, but not if the person lacks the gift of celibacy.
1 Corinthians 7:2
Verse 2: It appears that the situation in Corinth is this: one of the reasons that members of the church have been sneaking off to prostitutes is that married couples have stopped having sexual relations with each other. Paul had taught that it was a good thing to remain single so one could devote more of ones time to serving God (1Co. 7:2935), but when people who lacked the gift of celibacy tried to copy Paul, they burned with pent-up sexual desire and became vulnerable to immoral temptations. In these verses Paul is having to put the role of celibacy in its proper perspective. Celibacy is a good thing, not because sexual intercourse is bad, but because the single person can devote more time to ministry than the married person. Paul himself was sexually under control in his singleness, so he had no plans to marry. I dont believe Paul was excluded from feeling sexual pressure or that he never felt lonely for a wife, but he wanted to remain single to pursue his ministry and God gave him the self control to remain free from sin (1Co. 9:26, 27). However, it was clear to him that many people did not have the same self control and their practice of celibacy was only causing them to stumble into fornication. In these verses he is making it clear that neither marriage, nor ongoing sexual relations in marriage is wrong. In fact, it is Gods gift to those who are not empowered and called by God to remain single.
1 Corinthians 7:24
Verse 2 (continued): Because their attempts at celibacy have led to immoral sexual encounters, Paul commands that husbands and wives who have separated need to move back in with each other. Verse 3: Normal marriage assumes that husband and wife have made a covenant with each other that includes caring for their spouses sexual needs. Verse 4: Paul is not making an absolute law here that means a spouse has no right to refuse to have intercourse on occasion or must subject themselves to perverse sexual activity. His goal is to encourage married couples to continue a reasonable level of sexual release so that they are protected in that way from temptation to seek relief outside their marriage. He reminds them that in their marriage covenant the wife has given her husband the right to have sexual intercourse with her and the husband has also given his wife the same right.
Verse 5: There may be times when one or both of the married partners set aside a special season of prayer and fasting. Paul says that during such times of prayer a spouse should be allowed to focus on the Lord without being pressed to fulfill their partners sexual needs. But when that season of prayer is over the couple should restore their normal pattern of sexual relations so that neither one will become sexually frustrated to the point of being vulnerable to immoral temptations. Its also interesting to notice that Paul says that Satan is watching for the opportunity to tempt believers in this area of their lives. Verse 6: Paul says he is willing to concede that couples may abstain from sexual relations during seasons of prayer (probably with fasting), but he wants them to clearly understand that he is not commanding abstinence during seasons of prayer. The Corinthian church is in the habit of misunderstanding what he says, so he is guarding against their making some sort of spiritual law out of what he has just said. Yes, they could abstain during days of prayer, but that was up to them, he had not given them a rule.
1 Corinthians 7:7
Verse 7: Paul is not wishing that all Christians were unmarried (apparently Paul was unmarried during the years of his ministry), but that all Christians had the self control in sexual matters that he had. We often assume that Pauls celibacy was successful because God had simply lifted from him any physical need to be married. I doubt that this was the case. I think Paul was able to live unmarried because he wanted to serve God without having to care for a family and he had learned how to say no to the sexual appetites of his body (1Co. 9:27; Ro. 8:12, 13). He had learned to lay hold of the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sexual temptation. God had not stripped Paul of his sexuality, but had supplied the power Paul needed so he could devote himself to building Gods kingdom. Paul himself wanted to win souls to Christ more than he wanted the comfort of a wife or the joy of raising a family. Verse 7 (continued): Paul wishes that every believer would choose to lay aside his or her need to be married and serve God in an undistracted way as he had, but he has to admit that Gods will plays a part in this. He recognizes that God differently gifts people in this matter and it isnt merely an issue of some being more willing to sacrifice their rights to marriage than others. If a person had the gift to remain unmarried and to thus serve the Lord more intensely, then he ought to do so; but if he or she lacked this gift, he or she ought to marry to protect him or herself from sexual temptation.
Notice the way Paul words his counsel in verses 79. He lets us know he is giving us his personal opinion on this matter, but he is careful to distinguish his own opinions from clear commands and revelations from the Lord. Paul has great integrity in his writings. He never tries to pass-off his own opinions as a revelation from God. If its his own opinion, he says so. If God has spoken directly on the matter, he makes that clear as well. Verses 8, 9: Paul tells us that in his opinion a person who is unmarried or widowed would be wise to remain unmarried, unless, of course, he or she believed him or herself to be unable to resist falling into immoral behavior, in which case he or she should marry. Why does Paul prefer singleness to marriage? Is he a grumpy old rabbi, as some charge, who doesnt want people enjoying the pleasures of life? Not at all. This is a very unfair caricature of Paul. First of all we need to understand that the church in 55 A.D. was living in an increasingly dangerous political environment. Nero became the Caesar of Rome in 54 A.D. and he would go on to become as vicious a prototype of the Antichrist as Adolf Hitler ever hoped to be. The church was heading into years of violent persecution, so Paul is trying to prepare them for the suffering that is ahead (1Co. 7:26, 2931; Mt. 24:19). Second, apparently Paul believed that the political and spiritual signs of his day were in keeping with the signs of the end time, so he believed that the coming of the Lord was very near (1Co. 7:2931; Ro. 13:11, 12). In fact, he believed it was so near that Christians should put aside all non-essential distractions and fervently preach the gospel while they still had the freedom to do so (1Co. 7:3235; Jn. 9:4). Today we know that the physical return of Christ was, at least, 1,942 years away, but Paul didnt know that and he was living as if the end times were upon him. Actually every generation should live with the same urgency to spread the gospel before the Lords return as Paul had.
Verse 10: Here Paul is careful to distinguish that he is no longer sharing just his personal opinion, but is presenting a truth that is non-negotiable because it was specifically taught by Jesus. Paul reminds them
of Gods intention for marriage to be an unbroken covenant. Jesus taught that though God permitted divorce in some cases, it was not part of His original plan for husbands and wives. He said divorce was the result of hard human hearts (Mt. 5:31, 32; Mk. 10:212). So Paul tells the believers in Corinth that if at all possible they should remain married to their spouses. He says wives should not leave their husbands, nor should husbands leave their wives. His counsel to single people to remain single should not be taken as an encouragement for married people to divorce. Singleness may have its advantages, but marriage was a holy covenant which must not be set aside. Verse 11: In this verse Paul is speaking to Christians who are married to Christians. If one partner does insist on leaving the marriage, his or her only option is to remain unmarried or to return to his or her spouse. This is in keeping with Jesus teaching that abandoning a spouse and then marrying another constitutes adultery (Mk. 10:11, 12).
Verses 12, 13: Now he speaks to Christians who are married to non-Christians. In some cases the nonChristian partner wont tolerate the Christian faith of his or her spouse and divorces the believer. Paul will instruct on this in verse 15, but here he tells believers to remain married to unbelievers who still wish to be married to them. A Christian must not initiate or encourage the divorce. Verse 14: A believer married to an unbeliever must look beyond his or her own frustration to the redemptive role he or she plays in their spouses life and in that of his or her children. The believing partner is asked to willingly suffer through the spiritual disunity because his or her presence transforms the way God views and deals with the spouse and children. While no spouse is automatically saved because his or her husband or wife is a believer, he or she receives special benefits by being married to a Christian. God promises to draw a believers family members toward salvation (Ac. 16:31; 1Pe. 3:1, 2). I also believe that just as the blood of the lamb marked a house as belonging to the Lord on the night of the Passover (Ex. 12:2123), so a believers presence provides a level of spiritual and physical protection for the rest of the household.
1 Corinthians 7:14
Verse 14 (continued): Children who are raised in a believers household are treated by God as if they were Christians. Of course, each child must personally decide to follow Christ as he/she reaches the age when he/she is morally accountable to God as an adult. The believing parents presence during his/her young years, however, ensures that the child will grow up in an environment influenced by the Holy Spirit. Even when there is only one believing parent in a household the children are considered by God to be holy. When this word is used in contrast to unclean, it must mean that God treats the child as a Christian. The protection, guidance, spiritual revelation, drawing deeper levels of faith, comforting presence of the Holy Spirit, etc., are all at work in that childs life. Apparently if the unbelieving spouse and children are abandoned by the Christian partner, they fall back into the category of an unbelieving household. This does not mean God no longer longs for them to be saved, or that He will stop answering prayers for these people, but He is no longer able to influence them as directly as He once did.
1 Corinthians 7:15
Verse 15: Sometimes when a person becomes a Christian and his/her spouse does not, or when one partner becomes zealous in his/her faith and the other partner remains merely a nominal Christian, the unbelieving or hypocritical member refuses to stay in the marriage. Earlier in this chapter Paul was speaking to the issues of Christians who wanted to stop having sexual relations with their spouse (vs. 25) or to
divorce their Christian spouse in order to live celibately (vs. 10, 11). Here in this verse Paul gives his conclusion on what the believer is to do if an unbelieving spouse wants a divorce based on religious differences. He says the Christian partner does not have to become a slave to the unbeliever in order to preserve the marriage. This would especially mean that the Christian must not renounce his/her faith, or the regular practice of gathering with Christians to worship, in order to pacify a hostile spouse. If the unbeliever refused to be reconciled and stay in the marriage, the Christian should not feel condemned or bound to that marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:15
Verse 15 (continued): The question that arises from this verse is whether the Christian who has been divorced by an unbelieving spouse is free to such an extent that he/she may enter marriage with another person. Is this included in what Paul means by the brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases? The wording Paul uses is not so precise that it leaves no room for doubt. He may mean that a person is free to remarry, but he may only mean that he/she is free to become single. When we collect the various comments he makes on marriage in chapter 7 we could probably conclude that he would say: If you have been divorced by an unbeliever, dont seek to be remarried (7:27), your singleness will free you to give more undistracted service to the Lord (7:35). The person who remains single will certainly be happier than if they remarried (7:40). I believe he would allow the person who had been unwillingly divorced to be remarried under certain conditions (7:27, 28). The first condition would be that he/she did not have the self control to remain celibate while unmarried (7:9), and the second, though not explicitly stated, would be that the unbelieving partner had remarried, engaged in fornication or refused to reconcile over a significant period of years, so that the marriage relationship was clearly dead. I believe he would want the Christian to keep the opportunity for reconciliation open long enough to determine that restoring the marriage was hopeless. I imagine the period of time needed to do that would vary widely depending on the history between different couples.
Verse 15 (continued): In verse 12 Paul tells that these statements on remaining married to an unbeliever arise from his own prayerful assessment of the issues and not from a definitive proclamation by Jesus. Verse 10 shows that Christians married to Christians fall under the Lords censuring of divorce in the gospels (Mt. 5:32; 19:39; Mk. 10:212; Lk. 16:18), but obviously in Pauls mind, the situation where a believer is divorced by an unbeliever involves a different set of criteria. I would assume Paul is saying that the abandoned partner is not to be categorized as entering into adultery if remarried (Mt. 5:32; 19:9) Verse 16: Still encouraging a believer to remain married to an unbeliever (vs. 1214), Paul lifts up the hope that over time the unbelieving partner will also become a Christian (1Pe. 3:1, 2).
1 Corinthians 7:17
Verse 17: Having just instructed believers to remain married and singles to remain single if they have the self control, Paul expresses here a general principle which guides his thinking in many situations, including marriage and singleness. He believes that when a person becomes a Christian he/she should seek to live out his/her faith in the circumstances in which one was living when he/she met God. If a person was married before becoming a Christian, he/she should stay married to their spouse after becoming a Christian, and the same with singleness, though he clearly qualifies this knowing that not everyone can remain
morally successful as a single. Over the next 23 verses Paul will continue to apply this principle to different aspects of life such as Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, and unmarried children. He is careful to keep from pronouncing this principle that each man must remain in that condition in which he was called (v. 20) as an absolute law. He lets us know that it is his own pastoral opinion, but he believes it strongly and supports it by several theological truths (vs. 19, 26, 29, 31, 3235).
1 Corinthians 7:18
Verse 18: In the early church there was a lot of pressure on converted Gentiles to adopt Jewish lifestyles. It was very hard for Jewish converts to believe that God fully accepted Gentile Christians who did not practice the ritual portions of Old Testament Law. The circumcision of males was one very controversial issue in this debate. The Jewish believers could point to Genesis 17:1014 in which God told Abraham that circumcision was to be an everlasting covenant and that any man who was not circumcised was cut off from his people and has broken My covenant. Armed with this kind of strong Scriptural support, they warned Gentiles that unless they were circumcised they might not be saved. Paul adamantly opposed this view, and was supported by Peter, James and the other elders of the Jerusalem church after a formal hearing on the subject (Ac. 15:129; Gal. 2:121; Ro. 4:912). Here in verse 18, Paul applies his general principle of remaining in the condition in which you were called (v. 20) to this cultural and theological struggle. He simply tells Jews to remain Jewish (though they must rely solely on the righteousness given them by faith in Christ) and Gentiles to remain Gentiles (though they must let the Holy Spirit conform them to Gods moral standards).
1 Corinthians 7:19
Verse 19: In this verse Paul very succinctly states truths on which he elaborates elsewhere. In short, he is saying the religious ritual of the Old Testament, including the very central act of circumcision, do not have the power to make us righteous in Gods eyes. The ritual portions of the Law no longer effect a persons spiritual standing in the New Covenant. What is of importance to God is the transformation of the heart so that it seeks to obey God. Read Romans 2:2629 in which Paul is comparing Gentiles who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey the intent of the Law with Jews who have tried to earn Gods favor by keeping the Law. Paul believes it is impossible for anyone to successfully keep the requirements of the Law so as to establish his/her own righteousness.
1 Corinthians 7:20
Verse 20: As an evangelist and pastor, Paul was constantly helping new believers make choices about what needed to change and what needed to stay the same after becoming Christians. Here is one of the principles he would use in counseling people. He encouraged people not to make radical changes, unless, of course, they were involved in things that were immoral. It isnt that he didnt expect many things would change in a persons life after the new birth, but he believed these changes should result from the inner transformation of the individual who would then, in turn, transform his/her social environment. Just as evil has the power to spread like an infection through a marriage, family, business or community, the power of the Holy Spirit has an even greater capacity to transform people and situations. Paul wanted Christians to simply begin living out their walk with God wherever they found themselves. Bloom where you are planted is a modern saying that captures this idea. Married Christians (7:15) needed to trust that God would use them as couples in His service. Believers married to unbelievers (7:1216) needed to
trust God to win their spouse and to reach their children. Jews who became Christians (7:18, 19) should not renounce all their traditions though they now knew they were saved by faith. Gentile Christians (7:18, 19) shouldnt try to adopt Jewish religious ritual in hopes of improving their standing with God because it is impossible to improve on the standing Christ has given them (Eph. 2:1122).
Verses 21, 22: Carrying on with the principle we just discovered in verse 20, Paul tells those who are slaves not to focus on the unfair social and economic environment in which they find themselves, but instead to let God transform their thinking about themselves. Of course, if circumstances provided the opportunity to move out of slavery into the status of being free, a person ought to embrace the change. But regardless of ones station in life the process of worshipping and serving God could begin immediately. No one needed to wait for a social change before starting the Christian life. From Gods perspective the real forces that enslave a person are broken (Eph. 2:13) upon conversion and this change is the determining factor of whether a person is truly free or not. A king who has not been set free from demonic control, the lusts of the flesh & mind and the judgment of God has no true freedom at all. On the other hand, a slave who has been rescued from the domain of darkness, and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13), already possesses the greatest freedom of all.
Verse 22 (continued): Having stated that all Christians have been freed by Christ from the forces that enslave a persons spirit, Paul immediately turns to remind us that the freedom God gives is not an independence from Christs lordship. Even a person who may be on the other end of the social scale from a slave, has the responsibility to live out his/her life for the glory of God and to obey His directives. Verse 23: Our obligation to serve and obey God arises from the debt of thanks we eternally owe Him for sending His Son to the cross for us. Since faith has opened our eyes to see the love that sent Christ to suffer the punishment we deserved, we respond by willingly devoting all that we have and are to His service. In this way we are Christs slavejoyfully doing for Him more than a human slave-owner might expect from a person they controlled. Verse 23 (continued): Having reminded us of our responsibility to serve Christ, Paul says to people who came from both slave and free classes of society that we must never allow ourselves to return to the spiritual slavery that once held all of us. False leaders and false teaching were creeping into the church in Corinth and had the potential to reduce believers, once again, to spiritual slaves. As unbelievers they had been slaves to Satan and their appetites, but Paul warns them not to let anything take away the freedom God had given them.
Verse 24: Once again Paul restates his pastoral guideline that believers should seek to live out their Christianity in the social circumstances where they find themselves. Hes learned that the Corinthians tend to confuse things he teaches them, so he is repeating himself. Verse 25: Remember the words now concerning appear to signal that Paul is addressing another of the questions the Corinthians had written to him. In this case he has been asked whether unmarried children should be allowed to marry when they come of age or whether their parents should insist that they remain single. Obviously, the underlying concern is the same one that Paul spoke to earlier (7:15) when he discouraged husbands and wives from living celibately in their marriages. Since Paul had felt that singleness was preferable to
marriage by freeing a persons available time and responsibilities for ministry, some married believers in Corinth had decided to return to a single status. As weve seen, Paul insisted that they misunderstood him and were putting each other in danger of committing sexual immorality. Right along this same vein of thinking comes the question of whether or not to allow unmarried children to marry. Parents today have so little control over this aspect of their childrens lives that it is very difficult for us to relate to this concern in Corinth. At any rate, Paul says again that the opinions he is about to give are his own prayerful determinations and are not based on any specific command from Jesus. In fact, the tone of verses 2538 is less authoritative and more pastoral counsel than anyplace else in Pauls letters. He is not laying down a new law, he is simply giving advice on whats wise.
1 Corinthians 7:26
Verse 26: The value Paul places on singleness has nothing to do with a belief that sexual relations in marriage are wrong. Paul would consider sex to be a normal, healthy part of marriage and included in the commandment of God to be fruitful and multiply (Ge. 1:28). However, Paul was very aware of what Jesus had taught concerning the season of tribulation that would precede His Second Coming, and it appears that persecution of Christians was beginning to heat up in 55 A.D. As we noted earlier (read comments on 7:8, 9), Nero, one of the most debauched emperors of all history, had just risen to power the previous year (54 A.D.). He would go on to mercilessly slaughter Christians using horrible forms of torture. Tradition records that Peter and Paul died under his hand. Verse 26 (continued): It is significant to note that the Greek word Paul used, and is translated here as distress, is the identical word used by Jesus in Luke 21:23 in which the Lord warns married women of the hardship that will befall them when the antichrist openly persecutes believers. Having these words of Jesus in mind, I believe Paul is placing the church on red alert, convinced they face a season when they will be running for their lives. Peters first epistle was also written during Neros rule (63 A.D.) and he spends much of letter comforting Christians concerning the fiery ordeal (1Pe. 4:12) that had come upon them. He too believed that the end of all things (was) near (1Pe. 4:7). So, if a time of violent tribulation was in front of them, Paul believed church members were better off not making long-range plans such as starting new families. Instead, believers hearts should release concern for the matters of life that would soon be passing away. Their concern should be to reach the lost and prepare their own hearts to meet Him.
Verse 27: Married people shouldnt try to become single, and single people shouldnt invest the time and energy needed to get married because a season of suffering was upon them and the Lord may be coming soon. Verse 28: Yet even in this situation, if a person chose to marry there was nothing morally wrong with his/her marriage. If they were truly entering into the last days, Paul knew what was ahead: there would be terrible social breakdown (2Ti. 3:15); doctrinal corruption in the church (2Ti. 4:3, 4; 2Th. 2:1 3); and violent persecution of believers (2Th. 1:410; 2:3, 4). Verse 29: Paul perceived that Gods restraining hand was drawing back to allow the events which must precede the coming of the Lord to take place. Things would not continue on with business as usual. How much time was left for ministry no one knew, but God may be bringing human history to a close soon. Married people needed to put spiritual matters ahead of family matters. Pauls statement that those who have wives should be as though they had none meant nothing more than this. He is not reversing himself from all he has just taught (7:111) by encouraging celibacy or wanting a husband to ignore his wife (Eph. 5:2529).
1 Corinthians 7:30
Verse 30: At first glance this verse can be confusing because elsewhere Paul has instructed us to express our love for one another as we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Ro. 12:15). What could possibly be wrong with feeling compassion for those who are suffering or needy (Job 30:25)? Or why would even the soon coming of the Lord change our response to rejoice when good things happen to others? I think the key to Pauls statement is the context in which he says this. By weeping I think Paul means the elaborate ceremonies of mourning that were part of ancient culture. These could be lengthy seasons of grieving for the dead, and in this case, Paul may be thinking particularly of the death of a spouse (vs. 29, 39). Jesus made a similar comment on this subject (Mt. 8:21, 22). Likewise, the rejoicing Paul discourages would be the rejoicing that takes place at elaborate wedding celebrations which consume much time and money. Pictures of ancient weddings can be found in the gospels (Mt. 22:214; 25:113; Jn. 2:111). His point is that it is a mistake to invest such time and money in feasting when there is so little time left before the terrible realities of persecution arrives. Right along this line of thinking, buying homes for the new couple or purchasing household goods, as if these items would be enjoyed for years to come, would be sadly mistaken. Hardship, and probably the Lords return, would soon be upon them.
1 Corinthians 7:31
Verse 31: Seeing the signs of growing persecution of Christians, Paul appears to believe that the Lords return was drawing near. He is giving the Corinthian church pastoral counsel on the wisdom of being married or of arranging for their childrens marriages during such a season. He feels that it would be wiser to remain single if one is not already married, and that would go for unmarried children as well. Elaborate ceremonies ought not to distract the church from its spiritual mission of winning souls and discipling them because it looked like little time remained before the endtime events would be upon them. In this verse he continues to emphasize that Christians needed to focus on eternal spiritual issues rather than the everyday affairs of life. After all, if the Lords coming is near, everything we have invested in making life more comfortable on this planet will soon be destroyed as God remakes the earth into a place suitable for resurrected believers to dwell forever (1Jn. 2:1518; 2Pe. 3:1013).
Verses 32, 33: In view of the intensifying spiritual battle that was soon ahead of them, Paul wanted the believers in Corinth to be free from nonessential distractions. The more the demands of daily life could be reduced to a minimum, the better. A person who is single generally has fewer family needs to attend to. A single persons time is often more flexible than that of a married person because the married person has one or more people depending on him or her. The time, money and energy that would have had to go to caring for a family can in some measure be transferred toward ministry to the church, evangelism and prayer. Verse 34: In the society of that day, sons who grew to adulthood and chose to remain single would still be able to get work to support themselves. However, it was not as easy for a single woman to support herself. It was expected that she would marry and be supported by her husband. So, Pauls comments in these verses put a greater responsibility on the parents of daughters. If they allow their daughter to remain single or a widowed daughter to return home and focus on prayer and ministry, it will most likely mean that the parents will have to support her by allowing her to live at home. This would be a financial
burden to some of the poorer families in the church, particularly if they have numerous children. In this verse Paul speaks particularly to parents of daughters reminding them of the spiritual freedom singleness would be for their daughters. Of course, all Christians share the same responsibility to be concerned about the things of the Lord and how we may be holy both in body and spirit, but a single woman does not have to divert from these issues the time and energy it takes to please her husband. As well see in the next verses, Paul is not trying to force parents into keeping unwilling daughters single (1Co. 7:9), but he is reasoning with parents of daughters who desire to remain single, to accept the added financial burden this would mean. The kingdom of God is benefitted when single people are released to devote themselves to ministry.
Verse 35: Remembering how the Corinthians are given to making laws out of mere pastoral suggestions, Paul strongly emphasizes that he is not trying to lay a law upon them which would produce guilt or fear if they disobeyed it. There are other issues upon which he will give ultimatums, but this is not one of them. This is pastoral advice coming out of Pauls desire to see as much ministry as possible released in the church. Verse 36: If a womans parents think their unmarried daughter is reaching an age where shell be too old to find a husband and they feel that it would be better for her if she were married, they would not be sinning or disappointing God if they provided for her wedding. Verse 37: On the other hand, if the parents and the daughter see her singleness as a way to free her to serve God more fruitfully, then this would please the Lord if done with faith as the motive, not guilt. Verse 38: It is no sin to see ones daughter married, but if both parents and daughter have it in their hearts to allow her to remain living at home, so she can minister, then her singleness will release greater ministry than her marriage.
Verse 39: Paul now specifically addresses widowed women, probably because their singleness may again necessitate their returning home for support. Paul reinforces his earlier point (7:1013) that Christians should remain in their marriages whenever possible, but he goes on to affirm that a believer who is widowed is Biblically free to marry again if he or she wishes. However, they are free only to marry another Christian. Its one thing to stay married to an unbelieving spouse after one is converted, all the while hoping and praying for your spouses salvation (7:16), but its quite another to deliberately enter a marriage covenant with an unbeliever or nominal believer. The latter is a disobedient and ungodly thing to do (2Co. 6:14, 15). Verse 40: Pauls counsel to widowed Christians is to stay single and not seek to remarry. The reason he gives in this case is not because it releases more ministry, but because he believes the widow (or, I assume, widower) would be happier remaining single. The term he uses for happy means this person will receive more of the joy of the Lord that comes from serving God. He reaffirms that this is his personal opinion and not a directive from God. Nevertheless, he underscores his opinion by saying he believes he is passing on wisdom he believes the Holy Spirit has revealed to him. In other words, this counsel should not be discarded casually.
1 Corinthians 8:1
Verse 1: Paul turns to a new topic here, introducing it with the familiar words, now concerning. The Corinthian church has asked for guidance on another matter that is making believers hostile toward one another. The church has been in existence only five to six years so that all except those who are Jews
have come fairly recently out of pagan idol worship. In following Christ they have had to turn away from worshipping in pagan temples to worshipping God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Where open worship was concerned, I doubt that any of the true believers would ever think of being caught again in such ceremonies, but the line between worship and social gatherings was not always that clear in Corinth. Could a Christian still join their unbelieving family or friends at a banquet or festival held in a pagan temple? To refuse probably produced a lot of animosity, and some in the church had decided it was permissible for them to go and eat in these ceremonies as long as they didnt worship the idol in their heart. They defended their actions by pointing to the truth that Paul taught them that these idols do not represent true deities since there is only one true God. But the issue isnt as simple as that because when other Christians hear that believers are taking part in the old ceremonies they are tempted to do the same thing even though their consciences are deeply troubled.
1 Corinthians 8:13
Verse 1 (continued): Paul affirms that the Corinthians do have an accurate theological point to make in the defense of attending idol ceremonies, but he immediately warns that there is more to Christianity than just good theological knowledge. In fact, if a person just focuses on accumulating mental comprehension of doctrine, the result is pride. He literally says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. So, without saying they are wrong in what they believe, he turns the spotlight on their attitudes. Those who are eating in these idol ceremonies dont seem to care what their example does to new believers who dont understand whats going on. Again and again in this letter to the Corinthians Paul will come back to the issue of lovingly putting the needs of others ahead of our own. Verse 2: True knowledge about God does not lead to pride, but rather to humble gratitude. The attitude that feels superior to others and self-confident is not a quality of spiritual maturity. The truly mature person actually grows more dependant on God, not less, with the passing of time. And the more someone really knows about God, the more they sense how little they actually comprehend. Verse 3: Real theology will lead people to love God for who He is and all He has done for us. When we see how great God is, the heart will marvel that God knows us, loves us and has personally come to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit. Real revelation leaves us amazed, not proud.
Verses 4, 5: Now Paul will state the theological truths that he does agree with, but which many are using to justify loveless disregard of weaker believers. First, he confirms that pagan idols are thought to represent various gods who control aspects of the universe. This, of course, is false. There is only one God, and that is the God of Israel. So, its true that the idol worship going on in the pagan temples is a deception. Paul would never say that there are no spiritual forces behind the idols, only that they are mislabeled as gods (1Co. 10:20). The pagan mind, assisted by Satan, had invented a whole spectrum of beings they supposed were their gods. What they worshipped were actually demons (10:20) which they supposed had the powers belonging only to God.
1 Corinthians 8:6
Some in Corinth are arguing that since pagan deities are not true gods at all that there is nothing wrong with them continuing to attend the fellowship meals that were part of worship services in the pagan temples. These were important social events and it was undoubtedly a great strain on social and family relationships to refuse to attend. Weddings, funerals and other important events of ancient life were
observed by religious ceremonies, so there was great pressure on Christians to continue to participate even after their conversion. Those that gave in to the pressure and went to the feasts must have said that they did not worship in their hearts even if they were obliged to sing or recite at points. After all, they knew the truth that these werent real gods at all. So what did it matter? Verse 6: Undoubtedly they had based their defense on the foundational Hebrew principle: there is no God but one (Dt. 4:35, 39; 6:4). In this verse Paul affirms that truth, but Christianizes it by stating that our one God includes the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul does not flinch to make the illogical, but true, statement that our one God includes two Persons. Though Paul does not mention the Holy Spirit here, he has already referred to Him (1Co. 2:1013; 3:16; 6:19), and will again later in this letter (12:311). He identifies God the Father as the source of all things, meaning that He is the One who commanded the universe to come into being and he states that we exist to glorify Him. He then addresses the term lord to Jesus Christ which in this context would have conveyed the idea of a divine king to the Greeks of Corinth. Jesus is then portrayed as being an active participant in the creation of the universe and the church. This idea of a pre-existent Son participating in creation of the universe and the church is stated elsewhere as well (Col. 1:1520; Jn. 1:1 3,10; Heb. 1:2, 3).
1 Corinthians 8:7
Now Paul gets down to the practical problem. People who have been subjected to spiritual deception for years, if not a lifetime, arent immune to those old influences just because they have been converted. Knowing a theological truth doesnt necessarily protect a person from falling back under the control of old attitudes and habit patterns. In my judgment, the crisis Paul faced was this: Some people, under pressure from their families, were attending at least the meal portion of temple services and were defending their actions by saying that it didnt matter since the pagan gods didnt really exist. They were setting an example that said it was all right for Christians to keep going to the temples. If this were allowed to continue many of the church members would drift into whats called syncretism. This means they would slide back into many of their pagan superstitions and ways while still maintaining a level of Christian behavior and theology. Needless to say, it is a recipe for spiritual death and is a tendency we still struggle with today. Verse 7: Many in the Corinthian church still viewed the pagan gods as real. They had chosen to worship the God of Israel, but they still carried fearful respect toward the old gods. So, to encourage these to go back into the temple worship services was to expose them to confusion and shame.
1 Corinthians 8:8
Verse 8: The actual meat of the animal sacrificed to the pagan god is not the issue to Paul. In his mind it is just a hunk of meat, and if that were all there were to this, God wouldnt care if we did or didnt eat the meat. But that is not all thats involved. We must take into consideration the effect of our behavior on other people. Later on Paul will straightforwardly forbid the Corinthians from attending any portion of the temple services or eating any part of the ritual food served there (1Co. 10:1922). He tells them that though the idols arent true gods, they are terribly mistaken to think that there is no evil power involved. Demon spirits are the source of power for these false religions. For further insight into the neutral nature of the food itself, read Romans 14:1423; Mark 7:1423 and 1 Timothy 4:35.
1 Corinthians 8:9
Verse 9: When Paul speaks of causing another person to stumble, he is not talking about making that
person angry. One who stumbles is someone whose walk with or toward Christ is interrupted. My influence has: 1) caused another believer to feel ashamed before God; 2) reintroduced him or her to addictive behavior; 3) subjected him or her to deceptive spirituality; 4) has undermined that persons confidence in Gods power, faithfulness or character. I also believe its possible to cause those who are not yet Christians to stumble by doing things which undermine the reputation of the Christian community. When Christians exhibit poor character, the credibility of Christ Himself is damaged in the minds of unbelievers. Verse 9 (continued): Christians have been freed from trying to earn their salvation by the practice of religious rituals, but this does not mean they are free to follow the dictates of their old natures. God has set us free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who will always direct us toward loving service of others and other Christ-like attitudes (Gal. 5:1325). Some in Corinth were claiming that they were free from their old superstitions so they could attend these temple feasts without being damaged. Paul will have more to say about this later (10:1422), but here he just focuses on their loveless disregard of weaker believers who were susceptible to being pulled back under the mind-control of old religious environments.
Verse 10: In fact, it wasnt right for any of them to dine in the pagan temples, but it did more damage to some than others. The example of some Christians going back to these temple feasts and then claiming that their ability to do so showed how spiritually mature they were, only served to provoke other Christians to try to do the same. The resolve of a sincere believer to never again enter the halls of a pagan temple now that they had become joined to Christ would be made to look cowardly. If they were really a Christian, those old forces ought not bother them in the slightest. This is the kind of presumptuous reasoning that still gets Christians today to step back on the slippery slope of compromise. Verse 11: Once reintroduced to the old powers and pleasures of pagan worship, some would fall back into its deceptions and lose their hold on Christ. We can be confident the Spirit of God would continue to seek to draw that person back, but, at least, much time would be lost in serving Christ, and, at worst, they might forsake Him altogether. Paul will say more on this later (1Co. 9:2410:13).
Verse 12: When my example or influence causes another person to stumble (see comments on 8:9), I have sinned against that person and I have also sinned against Christ. I have offended Christ by injuring a member of His Body whom He nourishes and cherishes, as a good husband does, his wife (Eph. 5:25 30). To disregard the needs of weaker members is not just unwise, Paul labels it nothing less than a sin against Christ Himself. Verse 13: At the dawn of human history Cain defiantly refused before God to be his brothers keeper (Ge. 4:9). And now Paul is saying that every Christian must function exactly in the opposite attitude from Cain. We must willingly sacrifice personal freedoms, if necessary, to keep from damaging another persons walk with God. Paul says if eating meat in this situation damaged weaker Christians, not only would he not enter the temples to eat it, but he would become a vegetarian if necessary. Paul let his loving concern for others govern how much he would exercise his own personal freedom. This did not mean he let himself be controlled by the opinions of others. In following his example we must make the distinction between matters which are merely a clash of differing opinions and what might provoke stumbling in a believer or an unbeliever.
1 Corinthians 9:1
Verse 1: Having just stated how much he would personally sacrifice so that others would not be hindered in coming to or continuing with Christ (8:13), Paul is reminded of another aspect of the disagreement he is having with some in the Corinthian church. Believe it or not those who dont like what he teaches have tried to undermine his authority by declaring that he cant be a true apostle because he refused to let them support him financially while he was ministering there. Probably the line went something like this: True spiritual leaders should be too busy doing important spiritual things to waste their time working with their hands. After all Jesus didnt continue to work as a carpenter once He began His public ministry and He taught His disciples that God would support them as they carried the gospel from town to town (Mt. 10:9 11). When a real apostle like Peter was here in Corinth he and his wife lived with us in our homes and ate at our tables. Paul must work to support himself because he knows hes not a true apostle.
1 Corinthians 9:1
In our study for Saturday of last week we tried to summarize what must be the reasoning behind an attack on Pauls right to be an apostle. When we dont like the message we often attack the messenger, and this is occurring in Corinth. I would guess it would especially come from the leaders who are trying to take control of the church. In order to lead the church in another direction they must undercut the authority of the founding pastor, so they are claiming that Paul isnt a true apostle because he works to pay his own way during his off hours. They contended that real apostles had been given the right by Jesus to stay in peoples homes and eat at their tables when they were traveling to preach the gospel (Mt. 10:911), so if Paul hadnt functioned this way while in Corinth, it must be an indication that he lacked the authority to do so. In other words, they were trying to claim that Paul didnt have the authority to prohibit them from eating the ritual meals held in the pagan temples. Verse 1 (continued): Pauls relationship to God was no longer based on carefully observing religious rituals. As a Christian he was free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who would, of course, guide him in such a way that he would produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:1323). Jesus had never meant to impose a new law on how apostles had to raise their support. His directions in Matthew 10:911 were specific for that situation and were primarily meant to free His disciples from feeling unable to go unless they had the funds in hand to support themselves. Paul was free to follow what he believed the Lord asked him to do in this matter so long as it was moral, motivated by love and carried out by faith.
Verse 1 (continued): The way Paul asks these questions in the Greek demands that they be answered by yes. In other words, Paul expects the reader to say, Yes, of course, you are free to choose how youll fund your ministry; Yes, of course, you are an apostle, commissioned by Jesus to establish churches; Yes, of course, you are a personal eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus when He appeared to you on the Damascus road (Ac. 9:19; Lk. 1:1, 2; 2Pe. 1:1618). And who in Corinth could deny the fact that the church existed there because Paul had come as an apostle and had evangelized, organized the church and had taught them what to believe? So they would have to say, Yes, of course, we in Corinth exist as proof of your apostolic authority. Verse 2: People who didnt know Paul might misunderstand what he was doing and question his apostolic authority (Gal. 2:210), but the validity of what had been started by Paul in Corinth could not be challenged. God Himself had placed His seal of approval on what Paul did
by pouring out His Holy Spirit upon them. How could the very people who had become Christians through the ministry of this man question whether God truly ministered through him? A seal is a mark that guarantees the purity of the contents of something. The Corinthian church proved Pauls authority to plant churches.
1 Corinthians 9:35
Verses 3, 4: Again each of Pauls questions expect the reader to answer, Yes, of course. Paul has freely chosen to set aside some of the rights he has as an apostle because he believes by doing so he is able to reach even more people for Jesus Christ. Certainly he could have expected his converts to supply him with room and board while he ministered in their city, but when unbelievers saw him staying in their homes free of charge, some would suspect that Paul was just using religion as a technique for making a living. They would doubt his motives and refuse to give a fair hearing to the gospel he preached. For this reason, Paul found jobs when he stayed in a city and would refuse to personally receive any offerings. He earned his own keep and paid for his room and board. No one could say he was in it for the money, and therefore, some would listen to him who would not have otherwise. Verse 5: We dont know whether Paul had been married prior to his coming to Christ, but afterward he is clearly unmarried (7:8) and chooses to remain so, believing that his singleness allows him to devote more time and energy to the preaching of the gospel. Apparently, it would not have been Biblically wrong for Paul to have gotten married or to have traveled with his wife if he had. If he had chosen to do this he would have had the right to expect his converts to provide for his wifes food and housing as well. From this verse we learn that most of the apostles and the half-brothers of Jesus (James & Jude; Mt. 14:55) traveled in this fashion with their wives.
1 Corinthians 9:68
Verse 6: Paul is not alone in this practice. Barnabus, a Levite who became a Christian during the earliest days of the church (Ac. 4:36), also supported himself when he traveled. Is anyone in Corinth going to suggest that Barnabus isnt a true apostle either? Verse 7: Over the next four verses Paul will explain why it is not wrong for a Christian minister to receive food, housing and financial support from those to whom he or she ministers. Then, after establishing his right to receive such support he explains why he has chosen to waive this right. In this verse he draws our attention to three analogies: a soldier, a farmer and a shepherd. A soldiers expenses are provided for by the government which sent him; a farmer eats some of the grapes he grows in his vineyard; and a shepherd uses milk from his flocks. In other words, the normal patterns of life show us that a minister who tends to the needs of a congregation should also expect to receive support. Verse 8: But Paul can make a stronger argument than this. He can move beyond the example of normal human experience to show that Gods Word also agrees that a minister should receive support.
1 Corinthians 9:911
Verse 9: In a section of Deuteronomy in which God gave instructions on providing for the members of society, He states that even an animal while threshing out grain is not to be muzzled so that it can eat some of what its preparing. Paul uses this statement about the ox to show that if God saw a matter of justice in allowing an animal to receive some of the benefit of its labors, how much more could this principle be applied to humans and in this case spiritual ministers (1Ti. 5:17, 18). Verse 10: Those who
work hard have a right to have a share in the good things their labor produces. Its true of an ox. Its true of a farmer, and well see it is also true of a spiritual minister. Verse 11: Carrying on the analogy of a farmer, Paul pictures his ministry as an apostle like that of a farmer who sows seed in his field. It is normal for a farmer to reap what he sows, and it is normal for those who sow spiritual blessings into the lives of people to reap material support to help them live while this ministry is going on.
Verse 12: Paul is defending his right to be supported, not because he wants money from them, but because they have made this a point of attack on his authority as an apostle. He doesnt want others leading the church astray, so hes defending his call from God as an apostle. After making a case for ministers being supported, he claims here that he had more right to their support than anyone else since he had sown more in them than anyone else. Then he turns and says that he refused to exercise this right in order to see the greatest number of people reached with the gospel. Read the following passages where Paul discusses this same issue: Acts 20:3335; 2 Corinthians 11:59; 12:1115; 1 Thessalonians 2:59. It appears that he would receive financial support from churches where he was not ministering. But when he was serving in a city he would not allow the believers of that city to carry his support. He wanted them to know that he was there because God loved them, not because he needed their money or hospitality. Verse 13: He adds another argument in support of ministers receiving money or room and board from those they serve. The priests in the Temple in Jerusalem were instructed by Moses to take part of the offerings for themselves and their families. Clearly, God had instituted the concept of ministers being supported. Verse 14: Here is his last point in the defense of this practice. Jesus had commanded His disciples to do this (Mt. 10:911; Lk. 10:48). With this final piece in place, Pauls defense of this practice is so strong, it becomes necessary for him to explain further why he doesnt do it.
1 Corinthians 9:15
Verse 15: Paul assures them that all this discussion about his right to receive financial support from them is not meant to encourage them to care for him next time he comes to Corinth. He is passionately committed to his method of evangelizing and he says that he would rather die than let anyone take away his boast. What his boast is he doesnt specifically say, but Im going to step out and suggest what I think it is. First of all, when Paul boasts he only boasts in the Lord (1Co. 1:31; 2Co. 10:17, 18). So he means he is walking with God by faith in this matter of finances and is seeing God work miracles. The Old Testament example of what he is doing is found in 2 Kings 5:127 in which Elisha refuses to allow Naaman the Syrian to give him a gift after Naaman was healed of leprosy. When offered gifts, Elisha replied, As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing (2Ki. 5:16). Apparently, Elisha wanted this Gentile to realize that you cant pay God for His grace. The only acceptable response is to give Him your life through worship, which is exactly what Naaman understood him to mean (2Ki. 5:17, 18). The account goes on to tell how Elishas servant sinned by running after Naaman and asking for a gift. Which, in effect, damaged the witness the Lord had made. I believe this is the model Paul has in mind and his boast is, like Elishas, to demonstrate with his own life that you cant pay God for His grace. He is striking at the heart of human pride which wants to pay God back for what He does for us so that we arent left as desperate recipients of mercy (Ac. 20:33).
Verse 16: Part of Pauls methodology in evangelizing a city is to preach the gospel and then to pastor his converts without taking any personal financial support nor allowing people to give him room or board for which he didnt pay. By this he was reinforcing a great spiritual lesson that you cant pay God for His grace. He was also removing any suspicion in the minds of unbelievers that he was just one more traveling philosopher making his living off his teachings. He has just (v. 15) referred to his boast in this regard, so in this verse he is clarifying what he means by his boast. He explains that he is not boasting that he preaches the gospel, because, the truth is, God told him he was to preach the gospel and gave him no choice in the matter (Ac. 26:1420). His only option is to deliberately disobey Gods clear command and this is something he is afraid to do. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of the suffering he endured because he preached Gods word and yet he said the Holy Spirit compelled him to keep preaching as if he had fire burning in his bones (Jer. 20:79). Verse 17: Paul says if he cooperates with Gods plan for his life with a positive attitude, God will reward him for faithfulness, but even if he did not want to cooperate, God assigns ministries as He wishes. Paul will be held accountable to carry out the plan God entrusted to him. Of course, Paul is personally grateful for Gods plan, but still he is left with nothing to boast about. His call is entirely Gods decision. Jesus illustrates this principle by a parable in Luke 17:710. Those who serve the Lord ought not to think that He owes them for their service. In obedience we are finally doing what we ought to do.
Verse 18: So Paul is not free concerning whether or not he preaches the gospel, though of course, if he chose to rebel and pay the price, he could. But he does have freedom in certain aspects of how he carries out his ministry and in this matter of taking personal support from church offerings he is free to do it or not as he chooses. Paul considers his freedom not to take financial support a reward because, in his estimation, this policy results in more people being saved. Lost men and women finding Christ is his greatest reward, and he wants to win every soul he possibly can. Verse 19: Paul gladly puts the needs of lost people ahead of his own. He has dropped all his own rights to the point that he functions like a slave serving a master. He would only serve in this way insofar as he was winning people to Christ, he would never have meant by this statement that he would do anything that displeased God or wasted his time. Still, this verse shows the intensity of Pauls love for unsaved people. His statement in Romans 9:13 shows the shocking lengths to which Paul would go if it would turn rebellious hearts toward Christ.
Verse 20: Though Paul was now free from having to observe the ritual requirements of the Law of Moses, when relating to Jews he would still carry out all these practices which he knew so well. He would do this not because he believed the rituals brought him any merit with God, but so as to not offend those he was with. He wanted them to listen to him as he explained from the Old Testament Scriptures how Jesus Christ was their promised Messiah, and the fulfillment of such important promises as Daniel 7:914 and Isaiah 52:1353:12. Its significant to note that Paul did not feel it was forbidden for him to carry out Jewish ritual practices now that he was a Christian. As long as he realized his righteousness was a gift given by God which he received by placing his faith in Christ, his conscience was strong enough to release him to participate in these practices. With Jews he would eat kosher, observe holy days, etc. He removed every offense possible except the offense of the gospel and the offense of Gods desire to save the Gentiles (Ac. 22:2123). Verse 21: Then when Paul was with Gentiles he would eat whatever was
served (unless he was told the meat had been sacrificed to idols; 10:27, 28) and he would ignore the Jewish calendar (Col. 2:16, 17). Without compromising essential morality or being drawn into activities which involved demons (10:20), Paul would live among Gentile people as he sought to explain the true God and the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.
Verse 21 (continued): Paul explains that his flexible behavior is not a form of lawlessness (without the law of God), for he practices it totally submitted to the law of Christ which would refer to the new commandment Jesus gave, that you love one another, even as I have loved you (Jn. 13:34; Gal. 5:14; 6:2). His motive is not selfishness, but a love for people, and undoubtedly he is being led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18) and acting in faith (Gal. 5:6). With these pillars in place he is free to move in all sorts of cultures without sinning against God or unnecessarily alienating people. Verse 22: He has just told us how he functions when with Jews and Gentiles, and now, in this verse, he tells us how he behaves when he is with Christians who are vulnerable to stumbling (see comments on 8:9). In Romans 14:16 he mentions two such categories which he associates with Christians who are weak in faith. One category is Christians who have become vegetarians out of fear of accidentally buying meat which had been part of pagan ritual sacrifice. The other category is Christians who have previously been observant Jews and who still feel uneasy at the idea of disregarding Jewish sacred days. If this means that they are again trying to earn righteousness then Paul would renounce any observance of these (Gal. 4:10, 11). But if it comes simply out of a desire to worship the Lord, it is to be respected for what it is (Ro. 14:5, 6). In other words Paul might be a vegetarian while with the one group (8:13) and might observe days of purification when with the other (Ac. 21:2326).
Verse 22 (continued): Paul has laid down his own freedoms, rights and cultural preferences, whenever possible, in order to reach those who would have allowed cultural offenses to keep them from hearing what he had to say. Paul doesnt just want some converts and disciples, he wants every one he can possibly get and so adjusts his life-style according to their needs, not his own. Verse 23: Paul has put the saving of souls and the nurturing of believers as the single, all-encompassing goal of his life. He is confident that with this as the focus of his energies he will persevere to the end and share in the wonderful salvation he is constantly presenting to others. As the verses ahead of us will make clear, Paul does not believe that it is impossible for a Christian to turn aside from the path of salvation and to die without saving-faith any longer present in his/her heart. He is confident of Gods power to keep us, but he balances this with our responsibility to use our will to keep focused on Christ and to utilize the resources He has provided that are meant to nurture us to the end.
Every two years the city of Corinth sponsored athletic games which drew thousands of spectators and competitors from all over the empire. These were held at a site about 20 miles away from the city and Paul would have had the opportunity to attend those held in the Spring of A.D. 51 (Gordon Fee, First Corinthians, footnote, p. 433, 1987). So the images of boxing, running a footrace and of an umpire declaring a winner are all very familiar to those to whom hes writing. Verse 24: In the original Greek Paul literally says, Dont you know that the ones running in a stadium all run, but one receives the umpires
decision as the winner? By this illustration hes asking them to see the rest of their lives as a race course which will require focus, energy and endurance. It isnt enough that they have started a life with Christ, but they must continue to turn aside from false doctrines or temptations. They must apply the diligence necessary to remain faithful to Christ to the very end of their life or to His Return, whichever comes first. Verse 25: Just as athletes use their will to press themselves to train their bodies and deny themselves things that would reduce their competitiveness, so Christians ought to take at least as much care to keep themselves in a right standing with God. Paul would expect us to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this, but by his illustration he clearly expects us to make responsible choices and to exercise our own will. God will always be there for us, but we must aggressively lay hold of Him or we can find ourselves disqualified at the Judgment Day.
Verse 26: Paul invites the Corinthian Christians, and us for that matter, to follow the model he provides of his own life. He says he stays in the lane assigned to him on the track rather than run in any direction he chooses. This means he is humble in the way he approaches spiritual matters. He lets the Old Testament Scriptures, the teachings of Jesus and the inner counsel of the Holy Spirit determine how he will live his life. To do otherwise is like a runner who leaves his lane during a race and heads off in his own chosen direction. That runner will not receive the prize for crossing the finish line, but will be disqualified. In this way he is asking the Corinthians to stay within the teachings and life-style that they have been taught by himself and other true apostles. They are in danger of leaving their lane by inventing theologies and justifying poor morals. Verse 26 (continued): If Paul were to think of himself as a boxer, he would spend his energy in fighting the ungodly appetites and tempers of his body, keeping them in submission to his spirit, rather than futilely trying to fight against the true ways of God. Verse 27: In reality Paul is in a boxing match with the appetites and tempers of his body. If left unchecked, these have the power to lead him away from Christ and into activities which will place him under Gods discipline, and if let go far enough, to even keep him out of heaven. And what an irony that would be, that the man who had preached the gospel to so many so that they would go to heaven, would let his own body appetites drag him to hell.
1 Corinthians 10:1
Having just made the point that not even he can presume that he will be saved if he turns aside from basic Christian truth or ceases to deny the immoral appetites of his body, Paul now continues to illustrate the danger of presuming too much on Gods patience in these matters by comparing the Corinthians situation to that of Israel during the Exodus. Apparently the Corinthians had developed a doctrine of eternal security which held that those who had been baptized in water and took part in communion services (bread and cup) would go to heaven regardless of whatever behaviors were in their lives. Paul will counter this thinking by showing that Israel had its own form of water baptism and communion and yet they died in the wilderness and did not arrive in the Promised Land. His point is to warn the Corinthians that caving in to their immoral drives and rebelling against Gods leadership can disqualify them from the salvation they had once shared in. By pressing these basic limits they are playing a very dangerous game. Verse 1: Though he is speaking to Christians who are largely from Gentile ancestry, Paul refers to ancient Israel as their fathers. This reflects his deep belief that saved Gentiles are spiritually grafted into the family tree of the men and women of faith in Israel (Ro. 11:1724; Eph. 2:1122).
Verse 1 (continued): The situation in Corinth appears to be that some are again attending services in the pagan temples, which would involve them in ritual meals, and some may even be engaging in the religious prostitution (6:1520) being practiced there. Though this behavior is bad enough, there are leaders who are making matters even worse by inventing theological teachings that help remove any fear that the congregation might have that God would punish those who do such things. Apparently, one of these teachings is that once a person has been baptized in water, that person must go to heaven regardless of what else transpires in his/her life. To counteract this Paul now demonstrates that Israel had their own form of water baptism. In effect they were baptized when they walked between the parted waters of the Red Sea with the cloud of Gods Spirit hovering over them. Verse 2: The entire nation was baptized in this manner, yet most of them were disqualified from entering the Promised Land by their immoral behavior, their return to idol worship, their bitter attitudes toward being challenged to walk in faith and their rebellion against Gods appointed human leaders.
1 Corinthians 10:24
Verse 2 (continued): In pursuing this analogy, Paul uses language parallel to Christian baptism by referring to Israel being baptized into Moses. Christians, of course, are baptized into Christ (Ro. 6:3), but Pauls point is that Moses served as an illustration of what Christ would do when He came. As Israel was submitted to Moses leadership and followed him through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, so Christians are submitted to Christs lordship and follow Him by faith into eternal life. Verse 3: Now Paul makes the point that Israel had its own form of communion or the Lords Supper. Just as Christians eat bread as a part of this service, so the Israelites also ate a bread given to them by God in the wilderness (Ex. 16:4, 1315, 31). Jesus Himself supports Pauls comparison of manna with the bread of communion by explaining that God meant to illustrate the future gift of Christ by the miraculous bread (Jn. 6:3135, 41, 42, 4858). Verse 4: Paul sees the wine (or juice) of communion being prefigured by the water that poured out of a rock which Moses struck with his staff. In Pauls mind this rock was another illustration of the ministry Jesus would have to His church. Read Exodus 17:57. There are strong spiritual parallels between this event and Christ. The people of Israel were camped in a place where there was no water and they would die if God did not do a miracle. God instructed Moses to take his staff and strike a particular rock which was situated on Mount Sinai (Horeb). When he did, water poured out to save the people. The spiritual parallel is that because of sin we were all dying spiritually and God caused His Son to be struck and His blood poured out to give us eternal life. Again, Jesus Himself uses language which supports this (Jn. 6:5356; 7:3739; 4:1014). By the way, it was because God was teaching Israel about Christ when He provided water for them from the rock that made Moses second striking of the rock such a severe sin (Nu. 20:712). The rock was to have been struck on only one occasion. At this second encounter it was to have been spoken to, since the rock represented Christ and He would only be crucified (struck) once. After having been struck once, we need only speak to Him in prayer to receive from Him. Moses temper ruined Gods illustration.
1 Corinthians 10:46
Verse 4 (continued): I think Pauls statement of the spiritual rock which followed them simply means that the pre-incarnate Christ was always there when Israel needed Him as they traveled through the wilder 1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell
ness (Ps. 78:1122, 35). It doesnt mean that a rock was rolling along behind them as they walked. Verse 5: Even though Israel had its own form of water baptism and communion most of them died in the wilderness and were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. They died without receiving this symbol of eternal life because of the sins Paul will list in the next five verses. Verse 6: Paul bluntly says that Christians ought to take a warning from the experience of Israel. We ought not become presumptuous and feel that we can practice the same sins they did and still go to heaven. Israel too was dearly loved of God and given miraculous support, but their own choices caused them to lose Gods salvation.
Verse 6 (continued): Having warned the Corinthians to avoid the failures of Israel, Paul begins here to list five specific danger areas. In this verse he warns believers not to crave or passionately long for things that are impure or spiritually unhealthy. In Numbers 11:410, the people of Israel (and others who traveled with them) are found to be longing for pleasurable things they used to enjoy while still slaves in Egypt. As time passes they foolishly forget the terrible oppression of those days and remember only the good things (better variety of food). Paul is warning against allowing self-pity to creep in because of the self-denial and discipline we experience as disciples of Jesus Christ. Verse 7: Now we really get to the point because returning to the rituals of idol worship is exactly what was going on in Corinth. Paul takes his readers back to that terrible moment when Israel grew tired of waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai and made a gold calf and worshipped it with a ritual meal and immoral sexual behavior (Ex. 32:110). By quoting Exodus 32:6, The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play he shows that Israel was judged for the two activities that the Corinthians are trying to justify: participating in ritual meals and religious prostitution. As the account goes on in Exodus, we hear Gods verdict on the people who participated in these sins (Ex. 32:3335).
Verse 8: Next Paul reinforces his warning that immoral sexual behavior leads to spiritual death. He draws the Corinthians attention to another instance in which Israel participated in idol worship and religious prostitution, this time with the Moabites on the very borders of the Promised Land (Nu. 25:19). By the way, if you are not familiar with the account of Balaam, a prophet who lived among the Midianites, you would benefit by reading Numbers 2224. What we see happening in Numbers 25 (the event Paul is referring to) is actually a temptation advised by Balaam in order to get God to remove His protection from Israel. Balaam couldnt curse Israel as long as they obeyed God, yet he was promised a great amount of money by the Moabite king for such a curse. What he finally did was to counsel Moab to induce Israel to join them in their sexual worship ceremonies knowing that this sin might result in God lifting His protective hand off the nation (Nu. 31:16; Jude 1:11). Mercifully, God did not judge the whole nation, but a plague claimed the lives of 23,000 people on the first day, with an overall total of 24,000. Again, the point is clear: even baptized people and those who take communion are not exempt from judgment if they practice idol worship and sexual immorality. Verse 9: This verse refers to the occasion in which the Israelites grew bitter toward God and this human leader, Moses, because they grew impatient with the hardships of the journey (Nu. 21:46). Paul selects this example because the Corinthians are similarly growing impatient with areas of self-denial and the uncertainty of walking by faith. Paul is warning them not to grow bitter toward God when they are forced to endure suffering for His sake (Gal. 6:9). What Paul is asking of them will possibly subject them to harassment and alienation from family and friends for years to come. They
must avoid growing bitter over this toward God or His apostle with the passing of years.
1 Corinthians 10:10
Verse 10: Here is Pauls final illustration from the Exodus. In this case, self-appointed leaders rose up and challenged Moses authority (Nu. 16:13). Under the direction of a great-grandson of Levi named Korah, they said that all the people of Israel had a right to decide for themselves what they felt God was saying. Who did Moses think he was by exalting himself as the nations spiritual leader? This parallels exactly what Paul is facing from leaders in Corinth. They claim to have their own revelation of Gods will and are claiming that Paul has no true apostolic right to dictate anything to them. In the case of Korahs rebellion a test was instituted to see who God ratified as His appointed leader. When the test took place God destroyed by fire the ones who opposed Moses and the earth opened up and swallowed their households and belongings (Nu. 16:435; Jude 1:11). The warning in this passage is clear: God will not allow someone to attack His anointed leaders as a way of avoiding obeying Him. God sees through this ploy and knows the true motive behind their attack on Paul is rebellion against God or impure ambitions.
1 Corinthians 10:11
Verse 11: In case anyone has missed the point he has been making, Paul bluntly reminds the Corinthians that all this talk about Israel in the Exodus is meant to warn them that the same thing can happen to them if they follow Israels example. He said as much in verse six, but now he says it again here, five verses later. After all, the Corinthians have a habit of mistaking what he means. But this time he even strengthens the warning by saying that Israel didnt just happen to serve as an example; God intentionally had these events recorded in Scripture to caution the future church that would arise after He would send His Son into the world. This doesnt mean that Israels walk with God wasnt important in its own right, but ultimately all of Gods promises were pointing forward to the coming of Christ. The word Paul chooses for the ends of the ages (Teleios) speaks of something that has passed through the immature stages of development and has arrived at full, mature expression. Christians are people who have come to know the One who embodies all of Gods intentions and promises. Christ is the ends of the ages (Col. 2:16, 17).
Verse 12: Him who thinks he stands refers back to those in Corinth who had presumed that because they had been water-baptized and taken Communion that their return to the ritual meals in idol temples and even participation with temple prostitutes would not affect their standing before God. These need to wake up and see how God dealt with people who participated again in these behaviors. They died in the wilderness without reaching the Promised Land. They werent allowed to enter what spiritually represented heaven, and Paul warns that similar presumptuous sin by Christians can, unless true repentance occurs, also deprive them of eternal life (Ro. 11:11, 1723). Verse 13: Having given the Corinthians such an unnerving warning of the eternal danger faced if these practices were continued, Paul gives a great word of reassurance. Yes, they needed to repent and turn away from idolatry and immorality, but they must not feel helpless in the face of the overwhelming pressures that tempted them. They are not fighting this battle alone, for God sovereignly takes control of the circumstances. True, He allows His people to be tempted, but only in certain ways and only to certain degrees. As He did with Job, God puts a hedge of protection (Job 1:10) around each believer.
1 Corinthians 10:13
Verse 13 (continued): There is a basic array of temptations shared by all humans, including Christians. Believers do not become exempt from the appetites of the body, nor from the tendency to greed or covetousness, nor from the tendency to be self-reliant and to compete with others (1Jn. 2:16). From Adam and Eve onward humans have felt these pressures, and without exception (other than Jesus Christ) we have caved in to them. But Christians should not be alarmed by this because they have Gods Fatherly care watching over them. He can be trusted to never fail. He wont allow us to face temptations that are so great that we are helplessly captured by them. Knowing as He does the true strength of each person, He controls the amount of temptation so that its force remains below the persons power to resist. As Paul goes on we see that our power to resist the temptation generally takes the form of choosing to flee from the temptation in a manner God has provided. Paul doesnt seem to be saying here that God makes us so strong we are unmoved by the temptation, but that He will show us the method by which we may hide in Him and escape its power. Though we may feel trapped in a corner with our backs against a wall, God will see to it that in every circumstance there is a spiritual escape hatch accessible to us if we will only choose to use it. We dont have to be stronger than the temptation, we need only choose to accept Gods method of rescue.
1 Corinthians 10:14
Verse 14: When this wonderful promise (v. 13) is applied to the Corinthians situation, their escape must be to flee idol worship and all that goes with it. Undoubtedly they are facing tremendous pressure from family and friends to attend the temples. They may even be threatened with death if they do not go along with the sacrifices made to the gods of their city. But they arent the first humans to experience this, and if they choose to obey God regardless of what others threaten, they will find that He miraculously intervenes to protect them spiritually, if not necessarily physically (Heb. 12:14; 1Ti. 6:11; 2Ti. 2:22). An Old Testament illustration of fleeing temptation is seen in Josephs escape from Potiphars wife (Ge. 39:1 23). Joseph ended up in jail, but he was not overwhelmed by the temptation.
Verse 15: The Corinthian leaders have invented arguments to support their improper activities based on half-truths (5:9, 10; 6:12, 13; 7:1; 8:4). They have twisted the meaning of a number of Pauls statements, yet here Paul appeals to their common sense as if they were men of reasonable judgment. Over the next six verses he progresses through a logical argument intended to show how inconsistent it is for a Christian to partake of the ritual meals in idol temples. He invites the Corinthians to affirm or deny his logic and spiritual accuracy. Verse 16: He asks if they agree that the cup of wine that is passed in a communion service represents their spiritual identification with Jesus death on the cross. When a person drinks the cup isnt he/she joining him/herself by faith to Christ and the fellowship of His people? He uses the term cup of blessing which is the name given in Judaism for the final cup taken in a Passover meal (Gordon Fee, First Corinthians, p. 4678, Eerdmans, 1987). It was this final cup that Jesus passed to His disciples in the upper room as He spoke the words, This cup is the new covenant in my blood (1Co. 11:25). Apparently, the early church continued to use this term for the communion cup. At any rate, by taking this cup they are spiritually washing their sins away in the sacrificial death of Jesus. Their deep spiritual identity with Him is refreshed each time they partake.
Verse 16 (continued): Next he turns to the communion bread; again the same idea of participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus is present, only this time there is a double meaning present. Christs body speaks of His own physical body which died and was resurrected, but as a metaphor it also refers to the community of His people. In our relationship to Christ, we are collectively His body, serving on His behalf in this world, and He is our Head, directing our actions by His Spirit. As we will see in the next verse, Paul draws out this communal meaning to make his point. Verse 17: As the communion bread is eaten, all Christians are, by faith, expressing their spiritual participation in Christ as He died on the cross and rose again (Ro. 6:111). Jesus not only died for us, taking upon Himself the judgment we deserved, but in Gods mind we died with Him. By faith we participate in His death and resurrection as though He spiritually carried us with Him as He went through those events. This is why Paul can claim we have died with Christ (Ro. 6:8). Our death and resurrection are already a completed fact as long as we remain in Christ. So all Christians are eating from the same bread (Jn. 6:41, 48, 50, 5158).
Verse 17 (continued): Since all Christians eat the same bread when we take Communion, we are also expressing that we have all been joined to Him as His body. People from all different backgrounds are transformed into a new man which is the collective body of Christ (Eph. 2:1122; Gal. 3:27, 28; Col. 3:11; 1Co. 12:12, 13). So, by taking the communion bread we are expressing not only our identification with Christ, but also with His people. We have been joined to an eternal community of believers. Verse 18: The eating of things sacrificed in temples has always meant that one was appealing to a particular god and identifying oneself with his/her followers. Not only did Gentile religions give such meaning to the eating of this kind of food, but God Himself instructed Israel that they were to bring their tithes to His tabernacle (later Temple) where they were to eat and rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God (Dt. 14:2229). God taught His own people the principle that in eating this special meal they were fellowshipping with Him and were expressing their identity with the people who worshipped Him.
Verse 19: As we noted earlier the Corinthian Christians apparently put a lot of emphasis on the significance of water baptism and communion (10:14), and in the preceding verses (10:1618) Paul has just made the point that indeed communion continues Israels ancient understanding of fellowshipping with God and expressing their identity as His people. Now Paul speaks to the confused theology that the Corinthians had used to justify their return to the ceremonies in idol temples. They had prided themselves in their knowledge that their old gods werent true gods at all (8:46) and with that theological insight in hand they had tried to argue that their presence in those temples was therefore meaningless. What harm could there be in attending a ceremony dedicated to a god which didnt exist? In this verse Paul agrees that the idols dont represent true gods because there is only one true God (8:6), but in the next verse he will explain that this does not mean that there is no evil spiritual power present. Idol temples may be mislabeled as the residence of a god, but they are not spiritually neutral. Verse 20: Basically Pauls answer to the Corinthians is No, youre right that there arent gods in those places, but youve been terribly naive in thinking that those environments are harmless. Demon spirits are the forces at work in the ceremonies. Far from being harmless, those places are crawling with Satans spiritual servants who are
doing their assignment of drawing worship away from the true God and perverting the character of humans. Temple activities involved fellowship with demons and an expression of identity with its people. An impure bonding was taking place.
Verse 21: God will not remain with a human heart that turns back to other spiritual sources. He will not allow Himself to be one of the gods we worship, He is either the only God we worship or He will not continue His covenant relationship with us at all. The first two of the Ten Commandments express His absolute intolerance of this (Ex. 20:36). He declares Himself to be a jealous God, meaning He will not allow His followers to worship any other. Paul clearly has this foundational truth in mind when he says it is impossible to participate in idol ritual meals and then take the cup and bread of the Lords table. God will simply not tolerate this behavior and, in fact, He will actively punish those who try. Verse 22: Such spiritual compromise will provoke Gods jealous anger, which ought to cause us to fear the discipline God would bring upon them. After all, no human is strong enough to escape Gods punishment.
1 Corinthians 10:23
Verse 23: Back in chapter 6, Paul quoted much of this same statement which the Corinthians were using to mean that Christians could do anything, no matter how wrong, and still be acceptable to God because of His grace (6:12). Paul had undoubtedly taught them that their faith in Christ had freed them from having to keep the ritual requirements of Old Testament Law (Gal. 2:1621; Ro. 3:21, 22, 28; 6:46; 8:3, 4; Eph. 2:49). They had been told that they were not required to keep the Jewish rituals in order to be saved. In that sense, the Law had passed away, but Paul would never have implied that the moral values of the Law had passed away. He never meant that a Christian could continue to murder, lie, fornicate, steal, practice idolatry, revile, etc. (6:9, 10). When a Christian stumbled in any moral areas they should confess their failure to the Lord and repent (1Jn. 1:8, 9). The attitude which regarded such behaviors with moral indifference was totally unacceptable. All things were not lawful (accepted as righteous by God). Gods moral standards have never, nor ever will change because they express His eternal character (Mt. 5:17 20). Christians are freed from earning acceptance with God by religious behavior or even by moral perfection. By walking in the Spirit they are to become like Christ in character and behavior (Ro. 8:3, 4). The way verse 23 reads, the Corinthians had developed a theology of moderation: Nothing they did would bring Gods judgment. Common sense alone cautioned them that not everything was profitable or would edify. This understanding distorted what Paul had intended to communicate. Christians are forgiven for even moral violations, but to imply that everything is lawful as if God didnt care anymore or that no danger exists if serious acts are continued is to thanklessly exploit Gods mercy.
Verse 24: Even if a person were to decide their behavior on the basis of what is profitable or would edify, if they allow Christian love to guide them in this, they will make decisions that please God. They will seek to do things that are spiritually profitable and edifying (build up) for those they come in contact with. Their decisions toward others will become selfless and loving (Php. 2:38). This will give them Christs attitude. Verse 25: Part of the larger question of participating in idol feasts was whether or not to buy meat in the public meat markets since it often included meat left over from the temples. Was it just as wrong for a Christian to eat the meat that came from the idol temples as it was to go inside the temples
and eat it during the ceremonies? Pauls answer is no, unless your eating would harm someone elses walk with the Lord. When shopping in the marketplace, or eating meat purchased there just dont ask where it came from.
Verse 26: Paul quotes the statement with which David opens the twenty-fourth psalm. David declares that because God has created the world and all its physical elements that He is the proper owner of it all as well. Everything belongs to Him, and this would certainly include the animals that were being eaten. This fact sanctifies the meat and means that the meat itself should be received as a gift from God. The problem isnt in the meat, its in the attitudes of people and the spiritual uses they put it to. If the meats history isnt known, the meat is acceptable and doesnt carry a demonic residue. Verse 27: If a Christian is invited to dinner at an unbelievers home the possibility exists that the meat served may have been part of an idol ritual. That should not stop a Christian from accepting the invitation if they wish to. Again the meat isnt the problem, its the effect the meats history has on unbelievers or believers with weak consciences that is the problem. Paul cautions the Christians to not ask questions about the source of the meat. This will only bring up an issue that can result in contention or confusion. A Christian with knowledge (proper Biblical perspective; 8:1) doesnt have a problem with the meat itself.
Verse 28: If, however, during the meal in a private home, someone is worried about the meats history and warns the Christian that earlier it was part of an idol sacrifice, this means the Christian now has to do whats best for the person who informed them. Paul is not specific whether the person who does the warning is another Christian or an unbeliever. Most likely it would be a Christian with a troubled conscience, but it might also be an unbeliever who knows enough about Christianity to understand that a Christian would have nothing to do with the worship of an idol. In either case, once the issue is raised the main concern becomes what best cares for the other person. If your eating would encourage another Christian to join you and then feel ashamed before God, dont eat it. Or, if it was an unbeliever who spoke to you either because they are respecting your faith in Christ or because they wish you to join them in honoring the idol they worship, dont eat it. Protecting a weaker Christian or giving a faithful witness to an unbeliever is more important than dinner. Verse 29: A Christian is to willingly limit their own freedom of action in order to protect believers or to help witness to unbelievers. But it is important to remember that another persons lack of proper perspective on the issue does not mean that my own freedom of conscience has been replaced with a new law. My self-restriction is a loving gift to another person whose walk with (or toward) God might be hurt by my actions. But Christians whose consciences differ on this matter have no right to try to force their convictions on me and assume that God insists that I do everything exactly the same way they do.
Verse 30: If a Christian has a proper Biblical perspective on the acceptability of eating meat whose history may include idol sacrifice, and if that person has the faith to give thanks to God for the gift of the food and then eat it without a guilty conscience, other Christians who have different feelings on this matter have no right to pass judgment on the one who eats. This issue falls into the broad category of matters to be decided by each individual conscience and is not part of basic morality. Verse 31: The
guiding principle in a Christians mind in deciding whether what they are doing is right or wrong should be to ask whether or not Gods love and character motivates what he/she does. In this way our actions extend Gods reputation and influence. In this way we bring glory to God. Verse 32: On matters which are not essential to our walk with God, Christians ought to try to avoid offending the conscience of Jews, nonJews or other Christians. If people are going to be offended with us it ought to be because they choose to reject the lordship of Jesus Christ which they see at work in our lives, not because weve been insensitive.
1 Corinthians 10:32
Verse 32 (continued): God gives Christians great liberty to function within the bounds of our conscience. There are moral boundaries that we must not cross, but within these we are each free to serve God as we believe is right. Paul, however, does not forcefully insist on exercising his freedoms when to do so would offend people and possibly prevent them from coming to Christ or continuing to grow in Christ. This would mean he would eat kosher, observe holy days and observe appropriate prayers & washings when among Jews. He didnt want attention to focus on why he no longer needed to practice these behaviors. He wanted them to listen to him as he showed them how the Scriptures showed that Jesus was the Messiah. Then when he was living among Gentiles he would set aside the Jewish observances he had grown up with and would live as one of them, except of course, anything that was immoral or demonic. He wanted them to repent and believe the gospel knowing that the Holy Spirit would clean up their lives after they were born-again. And even when Paul was with other Christians who didnt have all the knowledge he had, he would try to avoid offending them unless they had slipped back into legalism. In that case he would have challenged their misunderstanding (Gal. 1:610; 8:15). With each of these three categories of people he would put what best served them ahead of his own rights. In this verse he is instructing us to do the same.
1 Corinthians 10:33
Verse 33: This kind of accommodation of the concerns of others could easily become nothing more than compromising our beliefs unless the motive behind it is kept firmly in view. Paul would never tamper with the truth about God in order to please people. To do that would be a form of self-protection or would reveal a lack of commitment to God (1Th. 2:4; Gal. 1:10). His statement in this verse of seeking to please all men in all things refers only to negotiable cultural behaviors and in no way implies that a person should water-down the essential truths of Christianity in order to gain acceptability with people. Paul is asking the Corinthians to put the goal of saving the lost above their own spiritual comfort when dining in someones home. It may be lawful (10:23) for them to behave in a certain way, but it may not be profitable in the sense that God will receive the profit of new converts in His kingdom.
1 Corinthians 11:1
Verse 1: If the Corinthians have any questions as to what all of this looks like when lived out, they need only look at Paul himself. His own life-style will show them the balance between what is compromising of essentials and what is the heart of a servant seeking to win every possible soul to Christ. He actually orders them to watch how he lives and to copy the way he deals with these issues. Then he explains that he has developed this life-style by watching what Jesus Christ did as He carried out His ministry. Jesus Himself disregarded Jewish laws when they no longer represented Gods essential values. In spite of the religious rules of the Judaism of His day, Jesus touched a leper (all following references are from Mat 1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell
thew)(8:14); was willing to enter a Gentiles home (8:58); fellowshipped with tax collectors and sinners (9:913;11:19); didnt fast (9:1417); touched the dead (9:18, 19, 23, 26); picked grain on the Sabbath (12:914); healed on the Sabbath (12:914); didnt practice ritual washing (15:13, 11, 1620); drove animal sellers and money-changers out of the Temple (21:12, 13); and refused to submit to the ungodly demands of religious authorities (21:2327). On the other hand He intensified the demands of the Law on a persons inner life (Mt. 5:1748; 19:310). So when Paul says that he is imitating Christ, he is quite correct. Jesus put the spiritual needs of others ahead of the demands of religious ritual, and He set aside His own rights and personal comfort for others more than any other person in history (Php. 2:38; Heb. 12:2, 3). Jesus is ultimately our model in setting aside our own rights for the sake of winning people for God. He has also modeled cultural flexibility in areas which are not essential morals.
1 Corinthians 11:2
In chapters 1114 Paul will bring correction to the Corinthians in three specific areas of their corporate worship: 1) women covering their head in service; 2) disgraceful behavior during communion; and 3) loveless manifestations of spiritual gifts. The common theme that seems to lie beneath these next chapters, and, for that matter, beneath the entire letter, is that the Corinthians are, through pride and selfishness, pulling away from relationships with one another. Each only seems to care whether he/she is getting his/her own needs met. The church is dividing, people are suing each other, marriages are dividing, men and women are dividing, rich and poor are dividing and even the gifts of the Spirit are dividing worshippers. It all sounds sadly familiar to our situation today. Verse 2: So far in his letter to the Corinthians Paul has addressed one issue after another in which the Corinthians have twisted the meanings of the truths he had taught them. But in their letter to him which he is now responding to (along with verbal reports that have come to him), the Corinthians have assured him that they are keeping in mind all the things he taught them and are holding faithfully to sound doctrine. As we can see from all Paul has said to them so far, this is not really the case, but it may well be that many mistakenly think they are. Some of the would-be leaders who are attacking Pauls right to apostleship cant possibly think this, however, unless they are just plain lying, most must think of themselves as still loyal to Paul. Pauls comment in the verse includes a quote of what they wrote to him, and he thanks them for their wonderful obedience. It may even be true that he had taught the women that they were free from having to veil their heads during worship and that they were spiritually released to participate in public worship (Gal. 3:28). So, in that sense, the issue which follows is again a misuse of truths Paul taught.
1 Corinthians 11:3
Verse 3: My guess at the situation that lies behind Pauls discussion of men and women is this: he had taught that in Christ women were now the spiritual equals of the men and that they were free from observing religious rituals, since for them too the Law had passed away. The women in Corinth have responded with a fervency that arises from a lifetime of subordination to males. We saw in earlier chapters they were even taking the opportunity to divorce their husbands and live singly (7:117). Though no one can blame them for their frustration, the result was a breakdown in the cooperation between men and women. Paul is now asking the women to restrict some of their freedom for the sake of the harmony of the church. He will also argue that women owe men a debt of respect because of the order and plan of Gods creation. Verse 3 (continued): The word head here refers to that which is the source of anothers exist-
ence, and along with this idea comes the implication that the one that came forth from the head was intended to bring honor (glory) to their head. Pauls goal is not to emphasize lordship, but to show how each was designed to glorify their head. Notice how Christ is the agent of creation in Pauls mind here as he refers to the creation of Adam in the garden of Eden (Ge. 2:7; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; Jn. 1:10; 1Co. 8:6). Man came forth from the pre-incarnate Son and was intended to bring honor to Him.
1 Corinthians 11:3
Verse 3 (continued): Next Paul refers to the creation of the first woman which occurred as God, through His pre-incarnate Son, took a rib out of the man and fashioned Eve. The man was in this way the source of the woman; she was made for the purpose of helping him and completing what was laking in him (Ge. 2:2025). Then finally, Paul points out that even Christ has a head which is God the Father. The Father begot the Son and is His eternal source, and the Son was begotten (not created) for the purpose of bringing honor to the Father by faithfully carrying out His part of Gods plan. This last relationship shows us the true character of this type of headship. The relationship is marked by love and mutual respect, nevertheless the Son freely chooses to honor the Father (1Co. 15:28). This is that attitude Paul is asking the women to show by continuing to cover their heads with a shawl during their worship services. Though in Christ they have great freedom and spiritual equality, they ought to realize that Gods plan for them as wives to be helping their husbands would continue until this age passes away at the return of Christ. Ephesians 5:2533 shows the attitudes expected of the husbands.
Verse 4: The custom of Jewish men covering their heads with prayer shawls had probably not yet begun to be practiced in Judaism. The familiar picture we see today of orthodox men praying with a blue and white prayer shawl over their heads was a practice that had not yet begun in Pauls day. Men were to pray or prophesy with uncovered heads for they were created for the purpose of glorifying God. For them the uncovered head was a symbol of acknowledging submission to the One to whom they belonged. Verse 5: I think the women in Corinth were expressing their new spiritual equality by unbraiding their hair and removing their shawls from their heads. Jewish women would normally braid their hair and cover it with a shawl when in public or in worship. It was a symbol of modestly covering their beauty so as not to attract undue attention. Apparently, even the Greek culture of Corinth had such a custom. In Judaism for a woman to untie her hair and let it hang freely was a sight that only her husband should see. In Jewish weddings, after the ceremony was complete, the couple was led to the bridal chamber, with the brides hair unloosed and hanging freely. In that setting it was a beautiful expression of what was about to take place, but for the women in Corinth to sit in church this way was to press cultural sensitivities too far (Alfred Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 142, 1994 Hendrickson Pub.). Inadvertently, these women had taken on a cultural symbol which labeled them as sexually immodest. Paul is trying to explain that though they are free from religious ritual, they still needs to show respect for social custom and, as Paul will soon note, their husbands.
Verse 5 (continued): It is important to note that in this verse Paul accepts the circumstance of a woman publicly praying or prophesying during the formal gatherings of the church. Through Old Testament his-
tory women are, on occasion, seen to be prophetesses or even judges, however, it was not often. For the most part women took no leading part in public spiritual ministry. But clearly in Christian gatherings it was different. The women in Corinth were participating in the spiritual ministry of the gatherings. Pauls only concern is that they do so dressed modestly and continue showing respect for their husbands. This verse will later help us understand Pauls words in 14:3436. Verse 6: As was mentioned in verse 5, for the Corinthian women to take the shawl off their heads and to let their unbraided hair hang loosely down their backs was to give off a cultural symbol of sexually immodesty. Paul had undoubtedly taught them they were spiritually free from religious clothing requirements in Christ, but cultural perceptions change slowly and the impact they were having on church gatherings was disruptive. In this verse Paul bluntly summarizes the cultural message they are sending by saying they appear to others as adulterous wives. In the Mosaic Law a woman suspected of adultery took an oath standing before a priest with her hair hanging unbraided (Nu. 5:18).
Verse 6 (continued): Its one thing for a woman to realize that in Christ she is no longer forced to take a subordinate role to men in spiritual matters, but its quite another for her to try to behave like a man. Paul is saying that the attitude behind the removal of head coverings from some women in Corinth was an attempt to mimic men. They might as well cut their hair short like a mans. Their equality in spiritual matters was something Christ had accomplished for them on the cross. It was a gift that needed to be received by faith, whereas the attitude they were showing was one of a frustrated challenge of their role as women. Equal though they were, they still needed to show a humble spirit. Verse 7: Gods original intention for the relation between husband and wife has not changed, nor will it until the return of Jesus Christ. Between now and then a mans submission is to the Lord Himself. Ultimately each man is responsible before God to allow Gods glory to shine through his life by obedient service and expressing His character. This accountability to no authority above Gods is symbolized by his bare, uncovered head. Of course, men have many forms of human authority that govern their lives, but each man must earnestly discern what is to be rendered to Caesar and what belongs only to God. When all is said and done, the man may have no gods before the Lord. Thus each is to stand bareheaded before Him.
1 Corinthians 11:7
Verse 7 (continued): In Gods original intention for husbands and wives, the wife was designed to help her husband carry out his assignment to glorify God. In fact, before sin ever entered into the human situation God saw that Adam was not able to succeed in what he was called to do alone (Ge. 2:1825). Eve was designed to bring to the union aspects Adam lacked. Adam was expected to follow God and live to glorify Him, and Eve was a partner essential to his success. The two in marriage were then viewed by God as a new creation: they were to cleave together and become one flesh (Ge. 2:24). The fundamental issues being addressed by the term one flesh arent sexual, they have to do with the family unit being called to glorify God. They have been joined by God as a team to fellowship with God and bring Him honor. This original intention has, of course, been damaged by sin, but our proper response as Christians is to seek to function as He intended, not to use our freedom in Christ to cast our roles aside. The wife covers her head to indicate her willingness to follow her husbands leadership. He uncovers his head to indicate he is humbly following Gods. Verse 7 (continued): Though Paul makes special mention that the
man is the imageof God he would not have meant by this that a woman did not also have the eternal spiritual nature that I believe this phrase refers to. In fact, the verses where this phrase originates (Ge. 1:26, 27) describes man as a composition of husband and wife. Both have the same eternal spiritual nature.
Verse 8: Remember that the root idea involved with head was that a head was the source of someone elses existence (read comments on v. 3). When God formed Eve He did so by taking a rib out of the side of the sleeping Adam. In this way Eve has been made out of Adams bone and flesh. However, as Paul points out in verse 12, this process of origin has been reversed ever since with every man having been born of a woman. Verse 9: The other meaning associated with headship is that of purpose. The one that comes forth from the head is intended to bring honor to their head. As we saw in verse three man is to honor Christ who made him in the garden of Eden; a wife honoring her husband by serving as his partner is bringing glory to God; and Christ has been begotten by His Father and has lovingly offered Himself to incarnation and the cross to bring the Father glory by redeeming His rebellious creation. Pauls statement in this verse is simply to remind the wives who were taking off their shawls that their roles as partners to their husbands was not concluded with salvation, but would continue until the new creation arrived.
Verse 10: The shawl over the head was a womans way of modestly preserving the view of her full beauty for her husband, and of acknowledging his leadership in their marriage. Paul is saying that the women of the church ought to minister in the services with the shawl still on their head as a way of indicating their submission to Gods role for them. Then he says that in some way the angels will observe this action. Whether he means Gods good angels who would approve of their cooperation with Gods plan, or bad angels who were watching for an opportunity to tempt a rebellious heart, is unclear. Verse 11: Having made his point about Gods original intention for husband and wife, Paul now states that even in the Lord, that is as both function in Christ after their salvation, men and women still need each other. Whether married or not, women need the spiritual ministry of men, and whether married or not, men need the spiritual ministry of women. Not even our new birth has made men and women so self-sufficient that they can serve God successfully independent of the other. This statement of Pauls tells me that the root issue he was addressing was an angry separation between women and men. Verse 12: Ever since Eve was taken out of the side of Adam, men have been born out of the womb of their mothers. In this way even the process of nature shows that men and women are dependant upon each other for their existence, and ultimately both exist because God created them to glorify Himself.
Verse 13: Occasionally Paul will add to his theological arguments, arguments drawn from common sense. He will appeal to his reader to step back and look at a matter, allowing their own human judgment to reinforce the truth he is pointing out (1Co. 9:7, 8). In this case, when a woman unbraided her hair, removed her shawl and stood up to pray or prophesy didnt their own hearts feel troubled at the sight? If they were honest they would have to admit that there was an uncomfortable sensation of something being wrong with the way things were being done. In that culture it was an immodest and rebellious thing
to do, and culture changes slowly. Verse 14: Though there are exceptions, in most human societies, and certainly in the Greek and Jewish societies of that day, men kept their hair cut shorter and women grew their hair longer. A persons hairstyle helped to identify their sex as male or female. For a male to sport a females hairstyle was an act by which he disgraced himself. The Bible has always forbidden one gender to intentionally look like the other (Dt. 22:5). God created us male or female and we are to gratefully accept whichever He made us. To send out confusing cultural signals on this matter is dishonoring to the person who does it. In this case Paul is reemphasizing his main point that women should cover their heads in a worship service by pointing out that nature seems to universally dictate that men do not normally cover their head with a shawl-like flow of hair, while women do.
Verse 15: Continuing this line of reason he notes that women normally do have a shawl-like flow of hair and that rather than being a shameful thing as with a man (v. 14), it is considered an important part of her beauty. In this way God has provided a natural, built-in shawl to indicate His intention. Lets remember as we go through these arguments that Pauls purpose is not to reintroduce Christian women to a law concerning shawls in service, but to keep women who normally wore shawls as a part of their culture from trying to make a statement of independence from their husbands by taking them off. The issue was the attitude of the heart toward their husbands and the immodest sexual signals being sent to the rest of the church. The underlying issues are still matters to be considered today, but the way we express these in our culture today will be different. Verse 16: On this subject Paul has supported his argument by appealing to Gods created order, to cultural implications, to common sense and, in this verse, he adds one more support by reminding them that the women of churches in other cities had not removed their shawls. If what they were doing was led of the Spirit, surely He would have prompted other women to do the same.
Verse 17: With these chilling words Paul turns his attention to another pattern of behavior going on in the Corinthian gatherings. He tells them that their behavior and attitudes during the Lords Supper are so fleshly and insensitive to the spiritual realities being expressed that God had been disciplining them rather than blessing them. Their gatherings were actually damaging people rather than helping them and the result was that God was being forced to allow some severe suffering among them in hope of alerting them to repent. Normally Paul would be grateful to hear that a church was gathering to celebrate the Lords Supper and would have a word of praise for them, but the Corinthians were carrying their unhealthy attitudes even into this most precious expression of worship. Verse 18: We have seen in Pauls earlier comments that many of the members of the church were split into opposing groups that followed after particular leaders (1:1013), and now that same tendency to pull away from each other and to selfishly take care of ones self while neglecting others is being visibly expressed in their worship services. Schisms or dividing lines where Christian love stops flowing between people could be seen by the way certain groups of people separated themselves from others.
Verse 18 (continued): Paul says that he wasnt surprised when it was reported to him that the church even sat together in different camps when they came for services. Knowing their immaturity as he did,
he had no reason to doubt that some would stoop to this kind of behavior. Verse 19: Though Jesus warned Christian leaders against trying to forcibly remove hypocritical church members from their midst before the day of Gods judgment (Mt. 13:2430), Paul is pointing to the fact that people who turn away from the Lord will often choose of themselves to leave the fellowship of true believers and will try to draw others with them as they go. St. John describes the process in 1 John 2:18, 19 and Paul also warned the Ephesian church of this pattern (Ac. 20:2830). So Pauls statement in the verse before us means that he views what is happening as a sad, but predictable tendency. The process that is occurring will prove the reality of faith in some members of the church and, by contrast, leave the lack of true faith glaringly apparent in others. Though God will perfectly separate the wheat and the tares in His final judgment, a natural separating process begins even now.
Verse 19 (continued): The Greek word translated factions in this verse refers to a group of people who have been rallied around a particular cause or doctrine by a leader. The danger, of course, arises if the motivation of the leader is to use the group for his or her own personal advantage, or if the doctrine focused on is a perversion of truth. Our English word, heresy comes directly from the Greek word used here which meant to take or choose. Verse 20: The divisive spirit that was in Corinth was nowhere more grossly out of keeping with an aspect of their worship life than when they took the Lords Supper. Apparently it was customary for churches of that day to gather in a home for a common meal (Jude refers to these as a love feast, Jude 1:12), then somewhere during or after the eating of this meal the bread and cup of the Lords Supper (Communion) were taken. Paul is letting the Corinthian church know in this verse that their attitudes toward one another and toward Christ Himself were so far from what God intended that God did not view their taking of the bread and cup as an act of worship at all. Verse 21: When the house churches gathered for the common meal, people werent sharing their food with one another, or at least not with some groups within the church. The fundamental selfishness that marked so many in this church was glaringly evident in the way they ate. People were eating what they had brought and were not sharing with others, even when there were poor who were seriously hungry. Some at the meals were stuffed with food and drunk with wine while others had nothing at all.
1 Corinthians 11:22
Verse 22: Though eating together is often a part of church life, the food itself is of secondary importance because the goal is meant to be fellowship. A fellowship meal is an opportunity for people to share food and talk together like a family. Some in Corinth had totally lost sight of why the church was eating together in the first place. They focused only on getting their own stomachs filled and felt no obligation to share with others. The concept of being the Family of God or the Body of Christ was lost on them. They werent worshipping or fellowshipping, they were just eating and probably doing that only with their own likeminded group. Paul says that kind of eating ought to be done at home. Their loveless behavior made it appear they hated the rest of the church, especially those who were poor and didnt have enough to eat. One of the divisions (v. 18) Paul must be talking about in these verses is between rich and poor. James blunt discussion on favoring the rich over the poor would no doubt apply to this situation (Jas. 2:29, 14 17) as would Johns unavoidably clear comments on loving our brother (1Jn. 2:10, 11; 3:1418). You can tell by the way this verse reads Paul is shocked and saddened by the reports hes received.
1 Corinthians 11:23
Verse 23: Paul will now remind them of Jesus own words by which He explained the spiritual meaning of the bread and the cup of Communion. Paul had already delivered these words to the Corinthians when he first founded the church, but obviously they needed to hear them again. Though he was not himself a disciple of Jesus while the Lord ministered on earth, Paul knew and talked at length with Peter, John and James (the Lords brother) (Gal. 1:18, 19; 2:1, 9). He may also have had a copy of early gospel accounts (2Ti. 4:13). For that matter, Luke, his traveling companion, must have already begun collecting material for the gospel he would write within the next five years (Lk. 1:14). So when he speaks of what he received from the Lord he is passing on the account he has heard or read from those who were in the upper room with Jesus. Verse 23 (continued): Read Luke 22:1423 and youll see each of the elements of Lukes account included in Pauls beautiful encapsulation. First, Paul sets the institution of the Lords Supper in the night in which He was betrayed (Lk. 22:16, 2123). By opening with this sad reminder of Judas Iscariot who failed to discern the significance of Christ in that final Passover meal, Paul begins his warning to people who had stumbled into a similar spiritual blindness.
Verse 24: As Jesus took a portion of the Passover matzah (unleavened bread), He broke it and explained that it spiritually represented His body which would soon be broken on the cross. He was both showing how the Passover meal prophetically spoke of Him and also was allowing His disciples to take part, by faith, in His coming sacrifice. The bread represented the physical body of the Son of God, and so the idea that some in Corinth were not showing respect for it or were refusing to give any to the poor was blasphemous. Jesus had specifically instructed His followers to remember Him when they took this bread. Verse 25: There are four main cups to be drunk in a Passover meal, and the one that comes after supper is the cup of redemption (redemption means to buy out of slavery). With this cup Jesus explained the new covenant which He was inaugurating. The old covenant required obedience to the Laws of God to be in effect, but the new covenant would be received by faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus. The cup spiritually represented the blood of Jesus which was poured out in the tortuous death He endured. To get drunk on this wine (v. 21) should be unthinkable for a Christian, but apparently some of the Corinthians were doing it.
Verse 26: Just before passing the bread and cup to His disciples Jesus had said He would never again eat the Passover with them until the salvation it represents is literally fulfilled at His Second Coming (Lk. 22:16, 18). So the bread and cup not only look to Jesus death, they also look forward to His coming again and our resurrection. Verse 27: So in light of all that these elements represent, for Corinthian Christians to take them with no respect or thanks in their hearts was viewed by God as a willful blaspheme of the body and blood of Christ. The warning in Hebrews 10:2931 comes to mind here. Pauls admonition against eating and drinking in an unworthy manner does not mean that Christians with sin are not welcome at the Communion table. It means that people ought not take part who arent deliberately expressing fresh faith in the cross of Jesus Christ for forgiveness and transformation, and are affirming their spiritual union with the Body of Christ, which means every true believer without regard to human preju-
dices (1Co. 12:12, 13; Gal. 3:27, 28; Col. 3:11). Being unworthy means a person has degraded Christ or the Body of Christ (the church) in his or her heart. As we will see, those who partake with these wrong attitudes can fall under severe judgment of God (vs. 2830). On the other hand, the Communion table is intended to be a place repentant believers can bring their sins and be assured of forgiveness and have their consciences cleansed (Heb. 9:14; 10:2, 22). Verse 27 (continued): God is very close to us in the Communion service. To the sincere believer He is powerfully close: bringing forgiveness, physical healing and comfort to the oppressed (Isa. 53:46). To the insincere and unloving He is dangerously close: bringing harsh discipline to confront these wrong attitudes so they will be repented of before the person dies (v. 32).
1 Corinthians 11:28
Verse 28: Rather than waiting for God to discipline us through hardship until we repent, the wise Christian will choose to honestly scrutinize his or her own attitudes and behavior to see if they correspond to Gods will as revealed in the Bible. This honest recognition or confession of my failures to live up to Gods standards is the preliminary step toward repentance. When I have recognized my failed behavior or attitude, then my heart, which has already determined ahead of time to seek to obey God, can willfully reject the idea of continuing the wrong behavior in the future. Along with my willful rejection of my failure, I must also acknowledge to myself and to God that I am helplessly dependant on the Holy Spirit to enable me to change. This process of willful choice to change combined with faith-filled dependance on God rather than myself for the power and wisdom to change, describes the heart of a person who has repented. This is the process that Paul is inviting the Corinthians to undergo as each prepares to take the Lords Supper. In their case any honest confession would reveal their wrong attitudes toward other Christians and their blasphemous lack of respect for the spiritual significance of the bread and the cup. Once they had confessed and repented they would be ready to participate in the Lords Supper.
Verse 29: By taking Communion with wrong attitudes the Corinthians were provoking Gods discipline, and the focal point of their wrong attitudes was that they did not properly distinguish between the bread and wine of Communion and the bread and wine of their lunch, nor did they recognize that all the believers who gathered for worship were valued members of the Body of Christ. In both these ways they did not judge the body rightly. Verse 30: Whether God judged their blasphemous behavior and attitudes brought into the Lords Supper by directly imposing weakness, sickness and death on some, or whether the church removed itself from His protective hand by their conduct can be debated. However, Pauls language here makes God directly responsible for the judgment, and he will shortly explain that the severe discipline is an attempt to bring them to repentance because some are in such a serious condition that they will be condemned to hell at the Judgment, along with those who openly hate God, if they do not repent (1Co. 5:5).
Verse 30 (continued): Youll notice that Paul refers to the existing situation in the Corinthian church that there were many who were unhealthy and some apparently had died an untimely death. I doubt very much that only those who had badly sinned were the ones who were suffering. What more likely had
happened is that the evil behavior of some grieved the Holy Spirit and lifted the anointing on their gatherings so that when people came seeking healing there was no power. It is sadly true that innocent people often suffer the consequences brought on by the sins of the guilty. Its not fair, but it is the way things often happen in this age. Only at the Judgment and after the Return of Christ will Gods pure justice reign. Some may have been delivered over to Satan for the destruction of their flesh (1Co. 5:5), but doubtless many others came to services seeking Gods touch on their bodies, but the level of faith and power was so low they left unhelped. Verse 31: This simple statement tells us how to live free of Gods judgment. If we will honestly examine our own lives, allowing the Holy Spirit and Gods Word to point out areas of Gods displeasure, we can save ourselves going through episodes of corrective discipline. Communion, in particular, invites this kind of personal introspection, and believers who regularly use this event to confess and repent of their shortcomings will find that their relationship with God is unmixed with doubts that difficult things that happen are somehow God punishing them, or shame in bringing needs to God in prayer. God is not an abusive Father and He never disciplines a child who seeks to obey Him. A misguided child He will simply instruct. For a believer to qualify for corrective discipline generally means that the person has stubbornly refused to repent when confronted by God in other ways.
1 Corinthians 11:32
Verse 32: If the situation arises where God is forced to discipline a stubbornly unrepentant believer, even then His purpose for doing so is redemptive. He uses the adverse circumstances to warn the person and to make them so uncomfortable that they will consider repenting just to get relief. Its a sad comment on the rebellious human nature thats in us, but when we perceive we have much to lose by obeying God, we tend to hold out against Him as long as possible. Its possible to get trapped into patterns so destructive, that if left unchecked, they will place us into the category of hypocrite at the Judgment Day and we will share the destiny of unbelievers (1Co. 5:5; Mt. 7:1723; 24:4551). In order to pressure us to change our minds before it is too late, God will withdraw His protective hand allowing us to suffer some of the hardship the devil longs to inflict upon us. Remember, God never starts out by using such harsh discipline to correct us. His early appeals come through the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit, the counsel of Scripture and prophetic appeals by believers who love us enough to tell us the truth. Only when these gentler methods are consistently resisted is He forced to get tough. His unchanging motive in this is love, and His purpose is to save us. True, some in Corinth actually died under this process (v. 30), but we can be assured that each one who died was given plenty of opportunity beforehand to recommit their life to Christ (Jude 1:24; Php. 1:6).
Verse 33: The very words that the Corinthians are reading are part of the process weve just described to bring repentance. Paul prophetically invites them to repent of the attitudes that are bringing such harsh judgment so that they may escape further judgment. He suggests they show their changed attitudes toward each other by waiting to eat until everyone gets there and then, of course, his point is that they would share the food equally among all, or even better, the rich might forego much of their portion leaving more available for the poor. Verse 34: The reason the church gathered for communal meals was not primarily to eat food. The actual eating itself was secondary to the expression of their oneness as a spiritual family in Christ. So if a person came to these gatherings (rich or poor) just to get a good meal,
they were exploiting what was intended as an act of worship. Those who were doing so needed to stop so that they would not be subject to the same discipline others had faced (v. 30). Wait until everyone arrives and then take your portion thankfully while carrying on edifying conversation with others. Verse 34 (continued): Paul had more to say to them, and as we have already seen, he planned to return to Corinth as soon as the Lord would allow him (1Co. 4:19). He intended to challenge those who were undermining his teaching and dividing the church into hostile camps (4:19), and as weve seen, this breakdown of relationships was expressing itself in their gatherings for the Lords Supper (11:1820). This part of the problem couldnt be solved until he dealt with the leaders personally. But let the leaders be warned, when he got there they would answer to him for bringing the church under such judgment. In my opinion, much of the problem between rich and poor in these communion services had to do with the influence of these divisive leaders who naturally sought out a following among the rich church members rather than the poor (1Co. 4:8).
Verse 1: Using those familiar words now concerning (7:1, 25; 8:1; 16:1), Paul responds to another matter addressed to him in the letter he has received from Corinth. The Corinthian church was particularly fond of the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit and over the next three chapters Paul will explain how these things of the Spirit are intended to function when believers assemble for worship. Apparently, they have a lot of zeal in this area, but not much knowledge. Verse 2: Only a small core of the Corinthian church are Jews from the synagogue (Ac. 18:117), while most are Gentile converts. Obviously this statement is addressed to the Gentile majority. Paul begins his explanation of spiritual things by reminding the Corinthians that not all spiritual manifestations are from God. The devil can also inspire prophesies and do wonders. Oracles, divinations and even healings were a regular part of pagan spirituality, just as they are today. But the guidance and power they received didnt lead them toward the true God or His salvation. Rather these demonic powers led them astray and left them in greater bondage. The statues of their gods had no true voices to speak with because they werent true gods at all. The powers behind their old religious experiences were only demonic. This memory ought to serve to keep them cautious about automatically assuming that every spiritual manifestation is from God.
1 Corinthians 12:3
Verse 3: As Christianity began to expand in Corinth, priests of the old religions prophesied curses on Jesus Christ, and obviously, the spirit animating them wasnt the Holy Spirit. In all their experiences with pagan prophecy, no one ever declared that Jesus Christ is Lord, because the spirit in those prophets hated Christ. Demon spirits might recognize Christ or His true followers, but they would never worship Him as Lord (Mt. 8:2834; Mk. 1:2327; Ac. 16:1618; 19:1117). True prophecy comes only through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and it will always exalt Jesus. The Corinthians must discern the spiritual source of an utterance and also examine its content so they will never be led astray again (1Jn. 4:13; 1 Th. 5:20).
Verse 4: The statues of their old gods had no true spiritual existence, so they had no power to help them (v. 2). But the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the true and living God and He has unlimited power to
guide and to help those who have faith in Jesus Christ. When believers gather to worship or step out to minister, the Holy Spirit can work in a variety of ways. This is all the more reason that the Corinthians need to be discerning and careful to examine the content of what is communicated. They must not be put off by the different ways the Holy Spirit expresses His care for those in need, because even though the expressions vary there is only one Person at work. Verse 5: The Holy Spirit isnt alone in creating diversities of function in the Body of Christ. Jesus, as Lord of the Church, calls different people to different patterns of service. The gifts (charismata) of the Spirit are supernatural empowerments that are spontaneously given to meet a need existing in a person or a group. But a ministry (diakonia) is the way in which the Lord repeatedly uses a person and this service is often associated with a sense of call in the persons heart and a decision to invest disciplined time in doing the ministry. Lists of some of the ministries the Lord calls people to can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11 and Romans 12:68.
Verse 6: Pauls point in verses 46 is to reinforce the Corinthians understanding that diversity of expression and function is something intentionally created by God. He is saying that the Holy Spirit (v. 4), the Son (v. 5) and the Father (v. 6) all produce such variety. Narrow uniformity is not part of Gods character. They must not try to restrict ministry to a few people or develop formulas for the way God works. To determine what is true and what is false they must be diligent to discern the source and examine the content. Verse 7: When the church gathers for worship the Holy Spirit will act upon different people in different ways, ministering to each of them in such a way that when shared it will benefit everyone present. In this statement Paul is giving the Corinthian church another criterion to consider in evaluating whether a supernatural manifestation is or is not truly from God. In public gatherings a person should ask whether what they are about to say or do is something that will help the larger gathering or is only meant for them personally. There is much God ministers to each of us during worship which is only intended for us personally. While waiting on Him, God may encourage me or call me to repent or give me specific guidance or care for me in any number of other ways. These are wonderful, life-changing moments, but we must not assume that everything God speaks to me personally is intended for everyone to hear. Sometimes its best kept hidden in our own hearts. But there are other times when what God has said to me is very likely needed by others around me. In that case I may feel prompted to share what Ive experienced in order to let that gift minister to more people than just myself. The term translated here as manifestation is different from the terms he used in verses one and four. The root of this word has to do with the revealing of something by having light shine on it. Paul seems to be speaking poetically of the light of the Spirit shining through different people in different ways.
Verse 7 (continued): As we noted above, many of the things we would share with others start out as something initially applied to us personally. However, there are occasions when from the moment I receive the gift the Lord gives, I understand it to be intended for someone else or for the gathering as a whole. Whether I share something, when I share something and how I state what it is Ive received all need to be considered before I speak. Verse 8: Now Paul will list a number of categories of gifts which he has observed the Holy Spirit minister in gatherings of believers. Its my guess that Paul has developed these terms after seeing the Holy Spirit repeatedly do certain kinds of ministry in Christian gathering, in
evangelistic meetings and when caring for a person one-on-one. After seeing what God did when the anointing of the Spirit came on believers he has recognized certain categories. Each category undoubtedly represents a broad variety of ways in which this gift has come to be expressed. The God who makes every snowflake different from another would not likely follow formulas in the way He met needs, but the patterns of human need are fairly predictable, so here is a list of the general ways Paul has seen the Holy Spirit care for people.
1 Corinthians 12:8
Verse 8 (continued): Paul has frequently seen believers receive what he calls a word of wisdom from the Holy Spirit. He doesnt give us a definition of what this looks like in action, but if we consider the Old Testament concept of wisdom and then look to see how the Spirit ministers such wisdom today, we will probably not be far off. One further check of our accuracy would be to examine the gospels to see if Jesus expressed such a gift of the Spirit. There is much literature in the Old Testament devoted to wisdom and Israel even recognized certain people as wise. Basically, Biblical wisdom is the divinely-inspired capacity to see how God wants us to live life. Often it comes in concise statements that reveal how human circumstance is viewed from Gods perspective. Since Paul refers to a word of wisdom, we might expect the Holy Spirit to inspire a person to speak a divine truth that casts light into a confusing situation, showing the recipient the choice that would be pleasing to God (1Co. 2:1115). I think Jesus frequently expressed this manifestation of the Spirit, but the following are some particularly obvious examples: Mark 11:2733; 12:1317; John 8:39. To suddenly rise above confusion and to have perspective so that right decisions can be made if one so chooses, is the heart of this gift.
1 Corinthians 12:8
Verse 8 (continued): The next manifestation of the Spirit in Pauls list is the word of knowledge. Again, like the previous category, it is characterized as not simply knowledge, but as a word of knowledge, implying that it comes as a spontaneous revelation of the Spirit meant to be spoken out rather than general knowledge which is accumulated through disciplined study. The acquisition of knowledge about God through study is a very good thing, but Paul is speaking in these verses of manifestations which are distributed by the Holy Spirit during a gathering of the church (and undoubtedly in other ministry situations as well). So its probably safe to assume that this refers to the revelation of factual information which the speaker did not learn through natural means. Examples of this form of divine revelation can be found many places in the Old and New Testaments (2 Ki. 3:15, 17; 6:812; 7:116; Mt. 2:13, 14; 17:2427; Lk. 5:49; 9:46, 47; Jn. 1:4850; 4:1619; Ac. 5:111; 11:27, 28; 21:1014; 27:944). When God gives divine information in the Bible it is always needed as part of His care for people. The word of knowledge is divinely imparted information which is given to guide, provide for, heal or protect His people.
1 Corinthians 12:9
Verse 9: In this context it is only natural to assume that the sort of faith Paul is speaking of here is a miraculous transformation of a persons attitude toward God which leaves the person with an inner assurance that God has promised them something and that He will indeed keep that promise. The person who receives this gift may have entered the service filled with fear or doubt, but as the presence of the Holy Spirit comes over them the negative attitude melts away and a deep confidence that God will act on their
behalf takes its place. The focus of that faith may be trusting Christ for salvation (Eph. 2:8, 9), the childlike faith needed for healing or other types of miracles (Mt. 9:2; Ac. 14:810; 1Co. 13:2) or the assurance that persevering through hardship will ultimately be rewarded (2Th. 1:4; Heb. 11:6). Faith imparted this way is clearly a gift of grace unearned by the recipient. Such gifts of faith can come not only to meet our own needs, but sometimes we are given the faith to help another person receive from God (Mt. 8:513). Verse 9 (continued): Paul says that to another person is given gifts of healings. Both the terms gifts (charisimata) and healings (iamaton) are in the plural. What is probably being referred to here is that as the anointing of the Spirit comes, certain persons are empowered to pray for more than just one person and for different kinds of sicknesses. If Jesus and the apostles are our model, then healing is foundational to the preaching of the gospel and the ministry of the church (Mt. 8:16, 17; 9:46, 35; 10:1, 7, 8; 11:4, 5; Lk. 10:9; Ac. 3:110, 16; 5:1216; 8:58; 10:38; 14:3; 28:710). When the church assembles, as well as at other times when the Spirits presence is powerful, we can anticipate that some will be given gifts to pray for the sick.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10: When God miraculously reverses a disease we call it a healing, but when His power does other kinds of supernatural wonders we call them miracles. Pauls literal term is workings of powers. This broad category includes all sorts of events in which God interrupts the natural course of events to provide, protect, guide and, in some cases, what we might otherwise call a healing is better described as a miracle in a persons body. The Old and New Testaments record so many miracles that it would be difficult to list them here. One needs only to reflect on Moses and the Exodus or the ministries of Elijah and Elisha to remember how miracles played important roles in the life of Israel. And when we turn to the ministry of Jesus we again see many varied sorts of miracles. Here is a list of a few: Matthew 8:2327; 9:2326; 14:1921, 2333; 15:3638; 21:1822; Luke 5:111; 22:50, 51; John 2:111; 7:1115; 11:1744. And miracles continued to take place through the early church. Many had to do with healing, but here are some that did not: Acts 13:611; 16:25, 26; 28:36.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10: The next gift or manifestation of the Spirit which is likely to be expressed when believers gather to worship is prophecy. It appears from comments Paul will make later on that every believer is capable of prophesying from time to time (14:5, 31; Ac. 2:17), but the fact that a person prophesies on occasion does not mean that the person is a prophet. As a Christian, two truths are at work in me at the time. On the one hand, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so I must never limit what the Holy Spirit can do through my life by saying, No Lord, thats not my gift. The Holy Spirit may choose to express any of the manifestations listed (12:810) through me at any time and I must remain flexible to His leading. On the other hand, God has placed the members, each one of them, in the Body, just as He desired (12:18). With this statement Paul points to the fact that God chooses to repeatedly use each of us in specific patterns of service. The ways He uses us over and over again can be called ministries, and peoples ministries vary widely. A person who prophesies repeatedly and who, when ministering in prophecy, is clearly used by God could be called a prophet. So when we distinguish between these words, any Christian may at times prophesy, but only some Christians are prophets.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10 (continued): Because the New Covenant has made it possible for the Holy Spirit to remain within each believer even when they sin, the role of the prophet in the church is somewhat different from the prophet in the Old Covenant. Paul explains that the prophecy which the Spirit brings to the church will largely serve to edify (build up) the bodys faith, hope, love, etc.; exhort (encourage to obey or repent); or comfort (speaking tenderly to relieve the pain). On rare occasions the prophet can still predict future events (Ac. 10:28; 21:1014), but this can also be classified as an exceptional word of knowledge in order to provide protection. Undo interest in the future is actually forbidden by the Lord (Mt. 6:34), so someone claiming to be a prophet who does a lot of this should be corrected, if possible, or avoided. Verse 10 (continued): Because of the indwelling Holy Spirit the New Covenant believer is intended to find their guidance primarily by the inner leading of the Spirit. In the Old Testament this permanent indwelling was rarely, if ever, possible (Jn. 7:38, 39; 14:16, 17; Mt. 11: 11), so prophets then spoke much more directively to the people. They were spokesmen for the covenant calling the people to obey what they had promised to do. However, now, when a person places his/her faith in Christ he/she is automatically given enormous inner resources (Gal. 3:234:7; Eph. 1:3) and each is capable of hearing Gods voice for him/ herself. Obviously, believers can still disobey and need confrontation at times, but on the whole the ministry of the prophet is now less parental than before Christ (1Jn. 2:20, 27).
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10 (continued): One last note on the subject of prophecy: There are generally two stages which are experienced by the person prophesying: the revelation itself and the communication to others. In the initial revelation God communicates to the mind the message which He wants conveyed to others (or in some cases just that person alone). The revelation can be received in a number of different ways. The person may see a picture in their minds eye (like a daydream, but stronger); they may hear or read words that come to mind; they may start by speaking a few revealed words only to find a flow of words comes to mind after they start speaking; they may have a verse or passage of Scripture come to mind which is appropriate to the need of the moment; they may not see or hear anything, but may instead feel in their own emotions the emotions being felt by the Holy Spirit toward that situation at that moment. Depending on the means which God has chosen to present His revelation, the person receiving it may have to ask God to give them the interpretation (spiritual explanation) of the information so it can be delivered and explained to the people. Sometimes the whole process is instantly understandable to everyone without explanation. It is possible to receive an accurate revelation but to become confused when actually delivering it to those gathered. Anger, fear or disagreement with what God is saying can produce this confusion. If we are not careful these feelings can distort the message we bring. It is very important to test the revelation in our heart, but then, if satisfied it is what the Lord would say, to bring exactly what we have received and not modify it. When we bring it, the tone of our delivery, our volume, etc. are all under our control once the word is received, but the message itself should not be altered, because the heart of prophecy is speaking forth the Lords words (Ex. 4:1417).
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10 (continued): The Greek word translated distinguish or discern literally means to separate
one thing from another. In this case Paul has observed that the Holy Spirit will empower some believers in a gathering to examine carefully a spiritual gift that is being expressed and to be able to separate in their minds what is from God and what arises from the human flesh or even a demonic spirit (1Th. 5:20, 21; 1Jn. 4:1). One would think that the difference would be obvious to all, but this is not always the case. Sometimes when spiritual ministry takes place everything seems in order on the surface, but in truth there are unhealthy motives beneath the surface. The person with this gift would recognize this and would identify what they perceived as a way of protecting the Body from being misled (14:29). It is interesting to note that this is the same word which Paul used earlier when he spoke of being able to decide legal conflicts which arose between Christians (6:5, 6). It ought to be a great comfort to know that God can empower us to judge between something that is truly from Him or from another source; or between the truth and a lie. And remember, these gifts can be expressed outside church gatherings.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10 (continued): Paul clearly believed that the Holy Spirit empowered people to speak a language which they had never learned, nor understood even as they spoke it. By including this in his list of manifestations he is saying that the church can expect that the Holy Spirit will prompt certain persons to speak out in such a language during a worship gathering of the church. He will have much more to say about this in the next chapters, but for now we should understand that Paul believes these to be true languages, though when spoken out, will be unknown to the speaker and probably the congregation. He repeats the words, kinds of tongues in 14:10, 11 and his reference there is clearly to true language, not to ecstatic babbling. He will later explain that what is being spoken is Spirit-inspired prayer, praise and giving of thanks to God (14:1416). Since God is probably the only One in the gathering who knows the meaning of the language, it needs to be supernaturally translated so the rest of the church can be edified by listening to and agreeing with the prayer, praise and giving of thanks to God. The person who is doing the speaking is edified as well, whether or not they hear the interpretation, because for them this gift allows their human spirit to pray God-inspired prayers without the limitations of their own intellect (14:2, 4, 14). This ability to edify self through tongues is the heart of the Corinthian problem Paul is dealing with in these chapters. They were gathering and all speaking in tongues at once, which would be individually edifying but would neglect those who came into services to inquire about Christianity, and most often sent them out the door frightened and confused. As we progress through chapters 1214, Paul will give the church an order for these manifestations so that everyone is edified and so that inquiring visitors can continue to draw closer to Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:10
Verse 10 (continued): Most versions of the Bible translate the next manifestation as interpretation of tongues, but when the word for interpretation is used elsewhere in Scripture it is rendered as translation (Jn. 1:38, 42; 9:7; Heb. 7:2). So essentially Paul thinks of this gift of the Spirit as a divinely-given translation of the divinely-given word in a foreign language (tongues) that just preceded it. In the synagogues of the day the Scripture would be read first in its original Hebrew and then, since many of the Jews living in foreign countries no longer spoke fluent Hebrew, a bilingual person who was designated for this task would stand up and translate what had just been read adding comments which would help to explain its meaning. I think this is the model Paul has in mind when he instructs the Corinthians to seek
the interpretation (or translation) of the tongues which were spoken in the service. Once the tongue had been translated with explanation, the entire assembly could receive the benefit of hearing in their own language a divinely inspired word of prayer, praise or thanksgiving.
1 Corinthians 12:11
Verse 11: Having just listed nine manifestations or gifts of the Spirit which might be expressed through believers gathered for worship, Paul once again affirms that each believer is a potential candidate for the Spirits ministry and that the process of selecting who will bring which manifestation is a sovereign choice made by the Spirit Himself. He is in charge of orchestrating the manifestations brought to a service and though we obviously have the capacity to render ourselves unavailable to Him or to distort what He brings, we humans do not dictate to Him what He will do. If we truly submit to His leadership we will find our gatherings are marked by diverse expressions of the Spirit manifested through a variety of people which He chooses. These gifts will edify the entire Body and create a community in which each member is capable of contributing, not just receiving.
Verse 12: To illustrate how the Lord ministers through His church, Paul compares a community of believers to a human body. A persons physical body is made up of many different organs and limbs each of which function in ways very unlike the others, but this variety is necessary for the body to live and carry out its activities. Paul is saying that a local church is similar to a human body in that it is normal and healthy for people to be used in a variety of ways by God. Different ways of serving God shouldnt separate us from one another, but rather, we should realize how much we need all these ministries to express the full dimensions of Christs ministry. No one person can reveal all that Jesus wants to do to save, heal and mature His people. Verse 13: This is a very important verse in understanding what happens to us when we are saved. Paul says the Holy Spirit joins every believer to Christ, and since every Christian is spiritually united to Christ, they are at the same time united to one another. The word baptize here means to immerse. So when the Holy Spirit comes to baptize us with His presence, He immerses us into Christ and His people. Our old human identities are swallowed up by our new identity as a member of Gods family. This brief statement by Paul in Corinthians (baptized into one body) is explained in greater detail in Ephesians 2:1122. Furthermore our relationship as a body to Christ as our head is explained in Ephesians 4:1116. In this new spiritual family all previous human distinctions (racial, social, economic, etc.) are melted away by the overpowering realities we have in common.
1 Corinthians 12:13
Verse 13 (continued): Having said that the Holy Spirit has immersed all believers into a new union with Christ and His people, in the last statement of this verse Paul points to the permanent indwelling of the Spirit using the poetic language, we were all made to drink of one Spirit. It also seems likely that Paul had read the words of Jesus which describe the receiving of the Holy Spirit with the same metaphor of drinking: John 4:1015; 7:3739. He makes this statement to remind the Corinthians that though they came from many diverse backgrounds, and though the Spirit ministered through each one in different ways, there still existed between them a deep, organic unity that bound them together as a people based on the fact that they had all been filled with the same Holy Spirit. If God Himself had taken up residence
in each of them, and in exercising His prerogatives as sovereign Lord chose to distribute differing gifts and manifestations among them, the Corinthian believers ought to accept Gods plan and celebrate the diversity which He had created.
1 Corinthians 12:14
Verse 14: Human bodies are complex organisms which require the coordinating of many different parts, and every part is necessary for the successful functioning of the whole. A person with all the parts of their body working properly is able to function more easily than a body which must carry on with some parts missing. Healthy persons are grateful to have all their body parts and do not consider the complexity of their construction to argue against their being one single person. Paul wants the Corinthians to view the local church like a human body. The church also needs to be a complex organism which coordinates many different people with different gifts and ministries. This diversity is not to be considered a problem but welcomed as a sign of health. Just as a human body requires much diversity to function normally, so the church requires diversity to carry out the ministry of Jesus.
Verse 15: Now Paul applies his body metaphor to problem attitudes that were plaguing Corinth. He envisions a human body in which a foot compares itself to a hand and become envious. It loses sight of its own important contribution to the body in helping it walk and bitterly assesses itself as useless. This foot seems to be thinking that only one particular member of the body makes a significant enough contribution to have earned its place as a member of the body. Apparently some church members in Corinth valued certain gifts or ministries so highly that if they didnt possess those particular gifts they considered themselves as having nothing of value to contribute to others. He wants these believers to stop comparing themselves to one another. Their feelings of inferiority and envy arise from fleshy competition, not from mature understanding of the needs of a church. Their self-assessment is wrong and has caused them to refuse to minister in the way God had uniquely designed them. Rather than comparing and competing with each other they ought to focus on doing well what God had given them to do. The truth was that God had intentionally chosen to minister differently through each person. Each was a significant member of the body whether they knew it or not. Unfortunately, their attitudes were preventing them from fulfilling their role. Verse 16: Paul makes the same point again using two different organs of the human body. This time he chooses the ear and the eye. The foot and the hand were similar in that they were both moving limbs; the ear and the eye are also similar because they are both organs designed to perceive external activity. He may have chosen body parts similar to one another to make the envious attitudes appear all the more silly, or it may be that he had observed that similar ministries tend to compare themselves to each other. Again, envy has rendered a member of the body inactive, leaving the body without the service of a needed organ.
Verse 17: The Corinthians apparently valued one or two gifts to the exclusion of all the rest, so Paul shows the absurdity of their thinking if it were applied to a human body. A body which had only one organ could do only one thing, which would leave it helpless to do all the other activities a body needs to do. Churches can so value certain gifts or ministries that they function as if all the other gifts and ministries
were meaningless. From Gods perspective this produces a crippled, distorted expression of His church. The full ministry of Jesus through His church is badly limited and incomplete where such attitudes prevail. Verse 18: The truth is God is responsible for causing people to minister differently from one another. These differences are not something to be avoided but to be accepted as a spiritual reality. There is sovereign determination going on in all of this. God is designing each person to serve Him in certain ways (Ps. 139:1316; Eph. 2:10; 1Co. 12:11, 28); when worship and ministry are taking place the Holy Spirit manifests His care in different ways and through different people. When we fight this process we are fighting against God. God decides how a person should minister, not the person. Each of us must decide whether we will be faithful or not to do what God has given us to do, but God alone decides what it is we will do to serve Him, and He makes this decision without first consulting us.
Verse 19: Just as a human body cant exist with only one member, neither can the body of Christ. With this illustration Paul is again trying to help them see how wrong their value system is concerning gifts by showing them how absurd their values would be when applied to a human body. A one-organed body is a grotesque monster that is helplessly crippled. Verse 20: God creates diversity of ministry, but He has also designed each believer so that they are incomplete without the ministry of others. In this way He provokes us to depend on the ministries of others in order to receive all we need from God. Verse 21: In verses 15 and 16 we saw how wrong it is to measure our value to God by comparing our own abilities to serve with those abilities belonging to someone else. This kind of envy causes me to stop ministering in the way God designed me. Now in this verse Paul addresses the opposite attitude: proud self-sufficiency. The person with this attitude would feel that the ministry God had given them was so important that all other ministries were unnecessary. Here he pictures the envied eye of verse 16 saying to the envied hand of verse 15, I have no need of you. The person with this particular ministry is so self-sufficient in what they do they feel no need to receive ministry from any other believers.
1 Corinthians 12:22
Verse 22: These proud, self-sufficient attitudes that look down on other gifts, ministries and people are, in fact, out of touch with reality. Just as every organ and limb has a part to play in the healthy functioning of a human body, so every gift, ministry and believer has a needed contribution to make. Paul carefully describes these as members which seem to be weaker. His literal words are, the members thought to be weaker. So it isnt God who is labeling them as weaker, it is the proud, self-sufficient minds in Corinth. The human body includes many organs that are internal and hidden from view, yet without them we would die. The church also has people who serve in ways that are not as glamorous or prominent as others, yet without their faithful service that congregation would be much less effective spiritually or even die. Verse 22 (continued): When we read this verse we are inclined to ask who or what is being referred to when we speak of the weaker members of a church. By surveying the things that the word weakness is applied to in the New Testament we will probably get a glimpse of who the Corinthians were looking down on: those weak in faith (ignorant, fearful/Ro. 15:1; 1Co. 8:9; 9:22); those diseased in body (Ac. 28:9; 1Co. 11:30; Gal. 4:13; 1Ti. 5:23); those weak in the face of temptation (Ro. 6:19); those lacking courage to minister (1Co. 2:3); those aging and dying (1Co. 15:43); those suffering religious persecution and the hardships of discipleship (2Co. 11:30; 12:5; 13:4); those lacking formal education; those not
holding positions of authority in society; those not members of respected families; and the poor (1Co. 1:25, 27).
Verse 23: There are parts of the human body which are not appropriate to expose to the view of the general public; there are other parts (face, hands, etc.) which we normally keep uncovered. Paul is drawing on this common human experience to remind the Corinthians that those people in their church that are less healthy, successful or mature than others ought to be given extra care, not ignored. After all, any normal human will take the time to cover with clothes the unpresentable parts of his or her body. He or she doesnt just ignore them, leaving them exposed. So the church ought to increase its level of care to the needy members rather than pouring its attention on those already mature. Verse 24: Some believers dont need a lot of special ministry because they are already reasonably healthy in their spiritual lives. In calling together a local fellowship of believers God deliberately mixes those who are strong and healthy with those who are immature and needy so that the strong can help the weak grow and heal. The weak members ought to receive a disproportionate amount of that bodys capacity to care.
Verse 25: There ought not be boundaries of prejudice within a church where our love and care stops flowing. We must never show favoritism, but equally value every believer. Equally valuing every believer will result in an unequal funneling of care to those that need it most. Just as a hospital gives its most intense care to the most critically ill, so a church should do the same. In this way needy people are transformed over time to become strong enough to be a source of caregiving to others. Verse 26: If we are injured in our physical body, our entire body feels the pain and suffers with it. A community of believers ought to be the same way. Individuals arent to remain aloof from the sufferings of others. In becoming part of a church, we enter into a level of relationship comparable to that of a healthy family. We belong to each other to such a degree that we are to feel responsible to help one another if possible, or to truly celebrate the successes of others in our community. This would mean that if another believer is advanced in some way we would not react with envy, but instead share their joy.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Verse 27: Once again Paul presses his point home to the Corinthians that they are to think of their community of believers as a collection of diverse individuals who are to function with the coordination and interdependence found in a human body. But he also reminds them they are not members of just any human body. The body they are part of is intimately and eternally united to Christ Himself. The church is more than just a gathering of like-minded believers, it is a corporate society which continues the physical incarnation of Jesus on earth. With Christ as our Head, and the Holy Spirit as our source of communication and power, the church is to carry on His saving, healing and discipling ministry. No one person, of course, can come anywhere near the full dimensions of Christs ministry, but when everyone plays their part in a broad community of believers, then much more of the full range of Christs power and character can be seen. No one person can express all that Christ would express, but each person does have an important role to play as the member he or she has been fashioned to be.
1 Corinthians 12:28
Verse 28: Paul again emphasizes that the diversity of gifts and ministries that we see in a church is a good thing that has been planned by God. God wants diversity and places diverse people together in a church to get it. He also varies the types of ministries He calls them to, and is even unpredictable in the way He ministers through believers when they gather for worship. To illustrate the variety of people and gifts God uses to build His church, Paul lists several examples. The first three he introduces with the words, firstsecondthird. His point is to show that in establishing the church in Corinth God brought different people with different ministries. The first was an apostle, Paul himself who preached, healed, taught and set apart elders. Second, God brought prophets who edified, exhorted and comforted the young church. Third, God brought people grounded in Scripture to teach them the written Word and how to walk in the Holy Spirit. All three of these represented people who came to Corinth to strengthen the church until they were mature enough to stand on their own.
1 Corinthians 12:28
Verse 28 (continued): The next two categories of miracles and gifts of healings Paul introduces with the words, thenthen. Though both these manifestations were at work through the apostles and prophets who came to Corinth, I believe Paul selects them as examples of the various manifestations of the Spirit which would occur as they gathered for worship (12:810). Helps and administrations are examples of the practical ministries that different people in the church would be called to so that the church could minister harmoniously as a body. And finally, he lists kinds of tongues, not because hes establishing a hierarchy of importance and tongues is the least important, but because tongues is the gift which the Corinthians are most flagrantly misusing and therefore will be the main focus of his counsel over the next two chapters. He is showing that they are part of the diverse workings of God in a churchbut only part. As we will see the Corinthians had made tongues too large an emphasis in their services. Verse 28 (continued): The main purpose of this verse, then, is to remind them of the diverse ways God had ministered to them in Corinth. He had sent specially gifted people to get the church started. Each had been sent by God, but they ministered differently from one another. He expressed a variety of manifestations in their gatherings such as miracles and healings. He gave the Corinthians themselves different ministry abilities so the church could function as a body. And, of course, He had given them the gift of tongues which they were overemphasizing (to which Paul will now turn his attention).
Verses 29, 30: Each of the statements in these two verses is posed as a question so structured in the original Greek that the reader knows that Paul expects them to answer no to each. So when he starts out by asking, All are not apostles, are they? He intends the reader to say, No, of course not! He proceeds to work his way through most of the same list he gave in verse 28, making the point that no one of these ministries or gifts was meant to be done by everyone in the church, at least not at the same time. Different people did different things at different times which brings us to the last gifts mentioned of tongues and interpretation of tongues. The problem he will now address is that most, if not all, in the church in Corinth were speaking in tongues at the same time (14:23) and this practice was so dominating their meetings that other types of ministries were squeezed out (14:18, 19).
1 Corinthians 12:31
Verse 31: It is a bit uncertain as to what Paul is referring to in the first half of this verse when he speaks of the greater gifts. Some teachers have tried to rank the charismata (gifts/manifestations of the Spirit) from the most to the least important. Their main purpose is to show that tongues comes at or near the end of the list in 12:810 and 12:2830. In their minds, if tongues is at the end of these lists it is nearly worthless as a gift and should be overlooked in favor of those which are more important. One problem with this kind of thinking is that Paul has just spent the last 30 verses teaching the Corinthians to stop comparing and ranking the gifts and ministries of God and to rejoice in the diversity He creates. He made it absolutely clear we are not to look down on even the most humble member of the Body of Christ, so its ridiculous to suppose that he now turns and encourages us to zealously seek for those gifts that we consider to be better than the others. Verse 31 (continued): Over the next two chapters Paul will explain what he means by the greater gifts. He will make the point that the way God evaluates the greatness of a gift being ministered is by the motivation of the persons heart who brings it and the gifts ability to communicate to those present. In the first 3 verses of chapter 13 he will explain that love, not power, is the factor that makes something great in Gods eyes. In 14:5 he compares two charismata (gifts of the Spirit) and explains which is greater. He says that the greater gift in a church gathering is the one that edifies the rest of the church. The basic concepts of love and servanthood which underlie his teaching, of course, come directly from Jesus Himself (Mt. 20:2528; Mk. 9:3335; Jn. 13:1214). So the greater gift will vary from situation to situation, but can be identified by the presence of the proper motivation (love) and the effectiveness of the gift caring for the needs of others. The Corinthians have been zealous for certain spiritual gifts in order to nurture themselves and be honored by others, but in the next chapter Paul will show them that zeal alone is not the best motivation, there is a more excellent motivation to guide us in the ministry of the gifts of the Spirit, and that is zeal under the control of selfless-love. Zeal with love is the more excellent way, not zeal alone, nor love alone.
1 Corinthians 13:1
Please reread the comments on 12:31 as an introduction to our study in chapter 13. In this famous chapter Paul deals with the motivations of a person ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit. What is immediately clear is that power does not equate to maturity. The expression of powerful gifts through a person is not a measure of their Christ-likeness. It is remarkable but true that God gives the ability to be used by the Holy Spirit to every believer beginning at the moment they are filled by Him. In other words, He doesnt wait for people to mature before He bestows His power. People can have the power of God working in them while they are still selfish, unloving, dishonest or even morally impure. In one way this is good news because, if put to the test, none of us would have hearts that truly qualify. Who has the love, humility, courage or selflessness needed? But in another way, it can be very confusing. We may at times see Gods power at work through people with glaring flaws and it leaves us questioning the validity of that gift of the Spirit or wondering if God is indifferent to their misbehavior. One of the most important truths Paul is about to explain to us is this: character is vastly more important to God than power. This doesnt mean we shouldnt seek power, but we must never forget we will all be evaluated on the motivations of our hearts and the most important motivation of all is selfless love.
1 Corinthians 13:1
Verse 1: Apparently the Corinthians emphasized speaking in tongues and did it all at once, loud and long, when they gathered (chapter 14). Paul says that when tongues are operated lovelessly they have no more ability to minister to others than if someone were banging on a gong. He goes on in the next chapter to explain that the loveless operation of tongues is to have more than two or three people speak in tongues during a service and for those tongues to go uninterpreted particularly because of people who are new to Christianity or unexperienced with the gifts of the Spirit. Judging from the explanation he will give shortly, Paul would not mean that the person speaking receives no benefit for themselves nor that what was being said to God was meaningless. But the selfishness involved by such disregard of others will not help to prepare that person for eternity and will undoubtedly be a subject of the Lords disapproval during His judgment of believers (1Co. 3:1015; 4:4, 5; 2Co. 5:10). Verse 1: Paul refers to speaking in tongues as tongues of men and angles which may mean that the languages which are being spoken are drawn not only from the thousands of human language groups and dialects which have existed on the earth, but also from the language or languages spoken by the angels of heaven. The Bible does not clearly state elsewhere that angels have languages of their own, but if they do, Paul would be in a position to know since he had seen heaven and heard things spoken there about 12 years before the writing of this letter (2Co. 12:25).
Verse 2: Though the misuse of tongues is Pauls main focus of correction in this section of his letter, in this verse he goes on to show that all the gifts of the Spirit can be similarly stripped of their spiritual value by selfishness. He mentions prophecy, revelational understanding of Gods plans, the word of knowledge and faith that can release miracles. All of these are wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit, but when used by a person only to serve him or herself rather than as tools with which to lovingly minister to others, the effect is to bring no spiritual reward from God. The ability to manifest gifts does not mean that a person is mature or pleases God at all. The most fundamental mark of maturity for a Christian is Christ-like love. If we had to pick one, we would pick love over power, but that is not the conclusion to which Paul will come. He will encourage us to zealously pursue power and love, all the while remembering that power is meant to serve as a tool in the hands of love. Verse 3: Humans are even capable of doing acts of service to others with a wrong motive in the heart. Paul says that a Christian could literally give everything he or she had to the poor and still receive no reward from God because the real reason he or she did it was not from Christ-like love. He takes his point further by saying that a Christian could even endure the most horrible martyrdom with wrong motivations in the heart. Obviously, in Gods thinking, why a person does what they do is as important as what they do (Mt. 6:14; 7:2123). The Corinthians were seeking certain gifts of power and were using these to decide a persons standing with God. Paul is powerfully refuting such thinking by showing them what God really looks for.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Verse 4: There are many different kinds of love in the world, and so that he will not be misunderstood, Paul spends the next four verses describing the love that God is looking for. The Greek language had several different words for love to choose from, but none which adequately described the kind of selfless
love that Christ showed us, especially by the cross. So the early Christians basically invented a word (infused an old word with new meaning) for such love. The word they chose was agape, and this is, of course, the word Paul uses here. It is enlightening to note that he is able to describe this love by what it does not merely by what is felt. Verse 4: The first thing this love does is to suffer long. This is the literal meaning of what we translate as love is patient. A person with this kind of love is able to patiently endure hardship or mistreatment while waiting for God to accomplish His purpose in the beloved. It buys time for God to do His work in a person or a situation.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Verse 4 (continued): To be kind is to mercifully help someone in need. Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan is an illustration of kindness. The Samaritan mercifully served the injured man in the practical ways he needed help. He dressed his wounds, carried him to an inn and paid for his stay while he recuperated. Jesus used the parable to explain what it meant to love your neighbor as yourself (Lk. 10:2737). This type of practical service is what Paul is also referring to. Real love doesnt just sit there, it gets up and does something to help a loved one in need. Verse 4 (continued): Love is not jealous: People who act out of Christ-like love do so because they love God and want to let His love reach through them to others. Their attitude tends to bring harmony and peace. This is very different from people who are zealous because they want to prove that they are as good or better than someone else. Jealousy, as we translate this word, is a form of competition. It produces pride, shame and strife (1Co. 3:3, 4).
1 Corinthians 13:4
Verse 4 (continued): Love does not brag: Those who act in Gods love dont take credit for the good things He accomplishes through them (1Co. 1:31). They acknowledge their absolute dependence on God and marvel at the fact that God would condescend to use someone like them. Boasting in spiritual matters shows proud self-confidence and is an attempt to hide ones inadequacies. In either case, it is a symptom of being focused on self, while agape is thankfully focused on God and prayerfully focused on others. Verse 4 (continued): is not arrogant: The idea here is to be puffed out like a pair of billows with ones own self-importance. It describes a person who pushes into positions of leadership for which they are not actually qualified or called by God. Much of this kind of striving for prominence was taking place in Corinth (1Co. 4:610), but at its heart it lacked the essence of Christ-like love which is to regard one another as more important than yourselves (Php. 2:3). A loving person seeks to serve, an arrogant person seeks to lead.
1 Corinthians 13:5
Verse 5: Continuing on with the list of actions produced by Christ-like love, Paul next mentions that a believer whose heart is right does not intentionally do things that embarrass or offend others. There may be times when God asks us to minister in a situation which embarrasses certain people, but thats not the kind of offense to which Paul is referring. Hes talking about people who selfishly ignore accepted patterns of behavior or dress because they frankly dont care what others think. Real love offends only when necessary because it is seeking to open doors of relationship with people so God can minister to them (10:32, 33). Verse 5 (continued): does not seek its own: Christ-like love is focused outward, away from self. Paul has already stated this idea in 10:24, 33. His purpose is not to point us toward a life of self-
neglect or self-loathing, but to point people who are themselves repeatedly being filled by Gods goodness toward lives of serving others rather than greedily hoarding the spiritual riches they have been given. Very shortly he will give us a practical illustration of how this selflessness controls the use of the gifts of the Spirit in a church gathering.
1 Corinthians 13:5
In verses 48 Paul is painting a picture for us of the behavior of people who are motivated by Christ-like love. He wants there to be no confusion over the meaning of the word love and the goal he has in mind is to convince us that a healthy Christian is someone who pursues both the gifts of the Spirit and Christlike love. God wants to place His gifts of power into the hands of people who are governed by the heart of Christ. Verse 5: He next states that love is not provoked. The selfless focus of this love keeps a person from being touchy or easily drawn into heated arguments. Read Acts 15:38. The word translated sharp disagreement is the same as the one we translate here as provoked. Verse 5 (continued): The person who loves with Christ-like love does not keep a mental record of the bad things that have been done to him or her with the hope that someday the chance will come to settle the score. Gods love longs to win the lost to Christ and to heal the broken so its concern is to see change come into that persons life rather than waiting to get even.
Verse 6: A person with love is never happy to hear that another person has stumbled and fallen morally. Nor does a person with love laugh and think its funny or enjoy telling others when ungodly things are done (Ro. 1:32; 1Co. 5:1, 2). Instead love longs to see people do what pleases God so that every possible person will go to heaven and be rewarded by Christ for their faithfulness (Mt. 25:2023). Verse 6 (continued): The truth that causes love to rejoice is when it sees people obeying Gods Word. The highest goal of Christ-like love is to see Gods heart rejoice when people come to Him, so when things are done that draw people closer to God, the loving heart celebrates. Verse 7: Christ-like love is greater than anything that comes against it. It is able to endure every kind of attack that might arise and still continue to flow out of a Christians heart, because it has its source in God.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Verse 7 (continued): Love causes a person to grow in faith. Since love sees and wishes to help the many needs that surround it, it aggressively lays hold of all of Gods promises in order to release His healing and saving power to touch these needs. In this way love presses a person to believe all the things God has promised. Love makes us want to grow in our capacity to be used by God, and this necessarily means our faith must increase. Verse 7 (continued): lovehopes all things: Biblical hope is the confidence that good things will happen because God is at work in the situation. Since agape love flows out of the realization of all God has done for us, it keeps a person optimistic that God will sooner or later transform the beloveds heart as well. Love keeps expecting God to win, and this hope sustains us as we pour ourselves out on behalf of others.
Verse 7 (continued): The more love we give, the more love we have. This is a miraculous quality of agape
love. One would think that by loving more we would run out of love, but that is not the case. We discover by loving that God increases our capacity to love. So when Paul says love endures he means it doesnt die out with the passing of time, nor do we run dry when we give loving service to people. Verse 8: Instead this kind of love deepens and will stay within us right into eternity. Love may appear weak compared to the different forms of human power (military, economic, political, etc.), but ironically it is stronger and will out last them all. Though the present heavens and earth will be destroyed by fire (1Pe. 3:1013) and many human works will be judged by the Lord to be worthless (1Co. 3:1315) the things which have been accomplished by love will bring eternal rewards.
1 Corinthians 13:8
Verse 8 (continued): In contrast to Christ-like love, the manifestations of the Spirit (12:810) will no longer be used after Jesus Christ returns to earth. Paul is trying to put things into perspective so the Corinthians will value character development at least as much as they do manifestations of power. He selects three gifts of the Spirit (prophecy, tongues and word of knowledge) to represent all nine and says that there is a moment coming when these will cease to operate (he will tell us when that moment is in verse 10). He probably picked prophecy, tongues and word of knowledge because these were the most highly valued marks of spirituality in the Corinthian church. Concerning prophecy he says it will cease to be active. The Day is coming when all predictive prophecies will be fulfilled and edification, exhortation and comfort (14:3) will be spoken to us directly by the Lord Himself. Concerning tongues he says they also will cease. They wont be needed anymore since we will be able to speak directly to the Lord. Concerning the word of knowledge it also will cease to be active because, as he will explain in verse 12, in the new age no truth will any longer be hidden from our view. Verse 8 (continued): Remember, Pauls point in all of this is to show the Corinthians that they ought to pursue love as zealously as they do spiritual gifts. He is not saying the gifts are unimportant, just that they have been temporarily provided by God until Jesus comes again, and after that they wont be needed anymore. Qualities of Christ-like character (like faith, hope and love) are eternal and therefore deserve greater emphasis. Actually, Paul is trying to convince them to let agape love guide the manner in which they express the gifts of the Spirit. In chapter 14 he will give practical examples of love guiding these gifts.
Verse 9: Gifts such as the word of knowledge or prophecy, as wonderful as they are, only reveal to us a small glimpse of all that God knows or wishes to say to us. We experience now only limited foretastes of all God will reveal to us in the future. Paul wants the Corinthians to value the gifts of the Spirit, but to exercise them humbly realizing they are very limited revelations compared to all that will be revealed on the Day they inherit the Kingdom. Verse 10: This is a tremendously important verse. It tells us when our exercise of these manifestations of the Spirit will cease. Pauls clear statement is when the perfect comes these partial revelations will no longer be needed. The question we must answer is what does Paul mean by the term the perfect. Some Christians have tried to say Paul was referring to the moment when all the letters of the New Testament were written. Those who hold this position argue that once the whole Bible was available there was no longer any need for the manifestation of the Spirit (12:810). Without discussing the merits of this line or reasoning lets turn our attention to the word perfect because that is the central issue. The Greek word is teleios, and it described that which has passed through
various stages of development and has finally arrived at full maturity, just as a bud becomes a flower or a child becomes an adult (1Co. 14:20 where teleios is translated mature; Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28; Heb. 5:14; 6:1; 1Jn. 4:18). Paul will shortly tell us that this mature expression of things will arrive when we see Jesus face to face and know Him with the same clarity that He knows us now (verse 12). This kind of talk can only refer to the second coming of Christ when the partial gifts of the Spirit will give way to complete union of the Body of Christ with our Lord. So the gifts of the Spirit will pass awaywhen Christ comes again. Until then they are precious provisions to help the church prepare to meet Him.
1 Corinthians 13:11
Verse 11: Paul uses here an analogy which captures the essential meaning of the word teleios. He compares the limited ability to communicate and the limited capacity to comprehend of a child with the mature abilities of an adult. A child possesses only a portion of the abilities which he or she will have as an adult. With adulthood comes mature speech and intellect; no adult chooses to go back to the limited capacities of childhood because those of adulthood are much better. By this analogy Paul is illustrating the limited capacity of the gifts of the Spirit to enable us to fully communicate with God or to understand what He wishes to reveal to us. During this present age we are like children who can only comprehend a portion. The gifts of the Spirit are Gods provision to help us grasp as much as we are able, but when Christ returns we will have such uninterrupted fellowship with Him that we will be like adults who look back on these gifts as child-like expressions. This insight ought to humble our pride in ministering in the gifts of the Spirit, but it was never intended by Paul to stop us from participating in them because until Christ returns we need all the help God has for us.
1 Corinthians 13:12
Verse 12: Paul continues to put this discussion into an eternal perspective. Illustrating the limitations of the gifts of the Spirit to perfectly reveal to us the will and character of God, Paul contrasts the clarity a person had in those days when looking into the polished metal plates used for mirrors, as opposed to the crystal-clear view of seeing someone face to face. Ancient mirrors were plates of polished bronze and the city of Corinth was famous for making such mirrors. When looking into these shiny surfaces a person could see main features but not small details. The image was much less precise than looking at something directly. Pauls choice of words in this verse makes it likely that he was thinking of an Old Testament incident (Nu. 12:58) in which God compares the limited revelation of other prophets with Moses experiences of seeing Him face to face (Dt. 34:10; Ex. 24:918; 33:711; 33:1823; 34:6). In eternity all believers will talk face to face with the Lord in a manner even more direct than Moses (Rev. 22:35). Not only will we see the Lord with unobstructed clarity when we put on the resurrected bodies He has prepared for us, but we will personally know Him with the same intimacy and truth that He knows us now (1Jn. 3:2). By reminding us of our present limitations and our future glory, Paul is urging the Corinthians to focus on things which will pass with them into eternity, like a Christ-like character and saving the lost.
1 Corinthians 13:1314:1
Verse 13: Some of the spiritual qualities we develop here on earth will stay with us when we step into eternity, but others will be left behind. Spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues and the word of knowledge will cease to be needed when the new age arrives, but Christ-like qualities of character like faith, hope and
love will continue to be present within us. Even in eternity we will continue to trust Gods promises (faith), to expect good things from His hand (hope) and, more than anything else, our future lives will be marked by our love for Him and for one another. Verse 14:1: Though Paul has said character is more important than power, it would be a mistake to conclude that he was saying forget about power and just work on being loving. In 12:31 he has already instructed us to zealously desire the greater gifts, and in our study on that verse we concluded that the greatness of a gift was determined by its ability to edify the rest of the church (14:5 illustrates this). So the more excellent way (12:31) that he promised to show the Corinthians was a value system which viewed everything from the perspective of eternity. From that vantage point things done in love will have the greatest value. So Pauls summation of all that he has said is that we should still zealously seek for the gifts of the Spirit, but the manner in which we minister these gifts should be controlled by selfless love for others. In other words, a healthy Christian should long for the power of God in order to minister to the needs of others.
1 Corinthians 14:13
Verse 1 (continued): Paul will now show the Corinthians how love will decide what is the greater gift. He tells them to pursue love and the gifts; in their case, they need to prefer prophecy over tongues because when tongues are left uninterpreted they can be used very selfishly. Verse 2: When no interpretation accompanies the speaking in a tongue neither the speaker nor the people listening have any idea what has been said because the language is foreign to them. God is the only one who understands. Through the enablement of the Holy Spirit the persons inner being is communing with God, uttering things that their mind does not comprehend. Verse 3: By contrast, when a person prophesies, they would naturally speak in the language of the majority of the people present. What is being said can be understood by those gathered. The goal of such a prophecy is to help others, while the goal of an uninterpreted tongue is to help the speaker personally. In this sense, uninterpreted tongues spoken in a gathering are more selfish and less loving toward others than prophecy.
1 Corinthians 14:35
Verse 3 (continued): We have already examined Pauls three applications of prophecy (edification, exhortation and consolation) in our study on verse 12:10. What we should note at this time is that Paul views prophecy as a means of participating in Gods care of others. In this sense it exhibits more love and is therefore greater than speaking in tongues without interpretation among an assembly of Christians. All of this may seem so obvious it hardly needs to be said, but as we will see in upcoming verses, Paul is having to say these things because the Corinthians are failing to show love in just this way (14:23). Verse 4: Heres the heart of the matter: uninterpreted tongues do edify the speaker, but everyone else is left listening to a language they dont know. However, when a prophecy is spoken everyone present receives edifying. Verse 5: Paul is not condemning tongues. In fact, he wishes that every believer in Corinth would speak in tongues. Tongues are a good thing and something he wants them to do, but when believers gather together the priority system changes. Now I must be more concerned about helping others than helping myself. When I am alone, focusing on my own needs is a good thing to do, so long as I also give time to praying for others as well. But in a church gathering love insists that I turn my attention outward putting the needs of others ahead of my own.
1 Corinthians 14:5
Verse 5 (continued): When others are present prophecy is the greater gift compared to uninterpreted tongues because it serves others. Nevertheless, it is very important to note that Paul says the person prophesying is greater than the person speaking in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may receive edifying. When the tongue is interpreted it becomes understandable to those present and they apparently receive the same amount of spiritual strengthening as they would from a prophecy. An interpreted tongue would, in this way, express love for others, just as would a prophecy. His purpose is not to stop tongues, but to insist that they are limited in number and that each one is interpreted (14:27). This is an example of love controlling the gifts of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:6
Verse 6: Paul wouldnt need to expand on the obvious point that uninterpreted tongues dont help other people, unless the church in Corinth had this very problem. Apparently, they must have gathered and spoken in tongues all at once to such an extent that visitors were being frightened and leaving. So in this verse Paul asks the Corinthians how much help he would give them if when he sailed to Corinth he got off the boat and would only speak to them in tongues. The whole experience would be extremely frustrating because they wouldnt be able to understand a word he was saying. He would be truly expressing a gift of the Spirit, but nothing helpful would be communicated. No, if hes going to be of help when he comes, hes going to have to minister using words they understand. Guided by the love in his heart for them, he says he would choose to be available to the Holy Spirit for such gifts as a revelation (a general term for a prophetic insight which once received, must then be communicated to the people; 14:29, 30); a word of knowledge; a prophecy; or a teaching on some aspect of Christian life or faith (as he is doing now in this passage). If Paul brought these kinds of gifts to them they would be strengthened as Christians, and so, his point is they ought to bring these kinds of gifts to each other as well.
Verse 7: He uses another illustration to reinforce his point. This time he asks how they would enjoy listening to musical instruments that were making only random noises. In other words, sound that makes no sense to the hearer is of no value to that person. Musical sounds must be organized into melodies before they can communicate meaning to others. What is true of musical instruments is equally true of the human voice. Verse 8: He extends his illustration using musical instruments to signals a bugler gives to the troops in a battle. A particular melody can tell the soldiers to assemble, charge or retreat; but a bugle blowing random notes would only produce confusion. The human mind must comprehend the message for some kind of benefit to be passed from one human to another. Again, Paul is saying for a gift of the Spirit to help another person they must be able to mentally comprehend what is being said. Its possible the Corinthians had created the idea that tongues spoken all at once had a powerful spiritual effect, but if so, Paul clearly disagrees. He says in order for a person to edify another there must be comprehended communication passing through the mind.
Verse 9: In case the Corinthians have missed the point he has made with his illustration of musical
instruments, Paul bluntly says their voices, like these instruments, must speak words that can be recognized by others in the gathering. Otherwise, the people just hear noise and the speaker is not accomplishing anything helpful. Verse 10: In Pauls mind, when a person speaks in tongues they are speaking an actual language, one of the many thousands of human languages that do or have existed somewhere on the planet. He wants to make sure the Corinthians realize he is not saying that speaking in tongues is only verbal noise, though his previous illustrations might lead them to that conclusion. So on this verse he is clarifying that though these are true languages being spoken, the problem lies in the hearers unfamiliarity with the language. Even real languages, when we dont know them, are meaningless to us when we hear them spoken. Verse 11: To the Greeks, barbarians were the uncivilized foreign people who spoke strange, unrecognizable languages, so for Paul to suggest to the Corinthians that they sounded like barbarians to those around them would have been culturally embarrassing as well as an example of impossible verbal communication between two people of different languages.
Verse 12: Paul is not telling the Corinthians to quit pursuing the Spirits gifts of power and start working on their character development. He wants them to pursue both (12:31; 14:1). His goal here is to redirect their zeal for the gifts away from self-serving motivations to loving concern for others. Their zeal for the gifts isnt the problem, its their selfish use of the gifts that hes trying to correct. So he tells them to focus that zeal on abundantly upbuilding the others who are sitting around them. Verse 13: Now he gets very specific in showing them how love for others will guide their use of speaking in tongues. Since he has already established the point that uninterpreted tongues do other people no good since they cant understand what is being said, he starts by instructing the person who speaks in a tongue during a meeting of the church to immediately ask God to also anoint him/her with the gift of interpretation of tongues so he/ she can translate the tongues for benefit of the others in the service. Paul seems to mean that the person who brings the tongue is also first in line to be responsible to interpret it. This would caution a person who is considering bringing a tongue in a service that he/she must also be prepared to interpret it immediately afterward.
1 Corinthians 14:14
Verse 14: This important verse sheds light on the inner process involved in speaking in tongues. First, Paul refers to it as prayer, so we begin to have an idea of its substance. Second, he says the prayer originates in the human spirit though the words themselves are supplied by the Holy Spirit. Notice he says my spirit prays. And third, he tells us that a person speaking in tongues does not understand the words that he/she is saying. God has deliberately designed this gift to bypass the persons mind and to come directly out of their born-again spirit. We are not directly told why God would design a gift to bypass a persons intellect, but it seems reasonable to suppose that the prayer offered this way would be unmixed with the doubt or selfishness which so often tarnishes the prayers that originate in our minds. In other words, the prayers spoken in tongues are freed to be highly aligned with Gods will and therefore very effective (1Jn. 5:14, 15). This supernatural support for our prayer life is all very much in keeping with Jesus promise that He would not leave us as orphans upon His Ascension into heaven, but that He would ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit to reside in us (Jn. 14:1618). Paul has said elsewhere that the Holy Spirit will help us to pray as we should and will intercede for us before God (Ro. 8:26, 27).
1 Corinthians 14:15
Verse 15: So having said all this, what does he want the Corinthians to do? He wants them to follow each prayer spoken in tongues with an interpretation. By pray with the spirit he means speaking in tongues, and by pray with the mind he means interpret the prayer just given into words everyone can understand. Verse 15 (continued): In the second half of this verse Paul makes reference to a practice which he has not mentioned until now in this discussion. He says he will also sing with the spirit which can only mean in this context that unknown languages can at times be sung as well as spoken. He doesnt say but I would assume that the accompanying melody would also be spontaneously given by the Spirit. When this type of spontaneous song is brought in a service it is to be followed by an interpreted song, just as spoken tongues. The word he chooses to mean sing is directly related to the word psalm (14:26; Eph. 5:18, 19). I doubt that it was considered necessary to have an instrument to accompany this gift in the early church, but apparently the Spirit inspired songs of praise that could be interpreted so all could understand.
1 Corinthians 14:16
Verse 16: Paul does make the same point over and over again about the need to interpret these Spiritgiven languages, but the reason he keeps reinforcing this particular point must be that this is the heart of the problem he is having with the Corinthians in their worship gatherings. Weve seen earlier in this letter how they were able to distort the meaning of things he has taught them in the past, so I would suppose, he is trying to be so clear that he leaves no room for confusion. Verse 16 (continued): Along with his main point about the need for interpretation, he gives us more valuable insights into the nature of speaking or singing in tongues. First, he refers to this gift as a blessing in the spirit, so we may understand that when speaking in tongues, a persons spirit may also be praising God by declaring His wonderful deeds and character (Ac. 2:11). The benefit gained from this aspect of the Spirits ministry would be the same heightening of our awareness of His presence that we enjoy when we praise freely in English. The fact that such praise is being done in tongues allows unrestricted blessing of God even when our mood at the moment might be fearful or doubting. Again, we see the Holy Spirit helping us in our weakness.
1 Corinthians 14:16
Verse 16 (continued): In the second portion of this verse Paul gives a bit more insight into the content of what is spoken or sung in tongues. He asks how the one who fills the place of the ungifted, referring to those who are unexperienced in the gifts of the Spirit, especially the interpretation of tongues, can say Amen at the giving of thanks which was said in tongues. Here we see that thanking God for His good gifts is also part of what is being spoken through this gift. Pauls reference to the word Amen also tells us something. Amen is a Hebrew word which was spoken by a congregation after a solemn vow was made before God (Dt. 27:1426; Ne. 5:12, 13); a psalm of thanksgiving and praise (1Ch. 16:736; Ps. 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; 106:48); a prayer is made involving the blessing of God (Ne. 8:6; Mt. 6:13; Ro. 9:5); or the blessing of people on behalf of God (Ro. 15:33; Gal. 6:18). By saying this word a person is agreeing with the statement just made and views it as coming from his/her own heart. We might translate it as yes, I say the same thing or yes, it is true and will always be true. The idea that the people would respond to what has been said in tongues by saying Amen is appropriate if the tongues content is prayer, praise or thanksgiving to God.
Verse 17: Again Paul reinforces his statement that thanks is often being given when a tongue is spoken and he affirms that the Spirit-inspired thanks is being done well. The problem he comes back to again is not with the content of speaking in tongues, but that those without the gift of interpretation dont understand whats being said, and so are forced to sit there listening without receiving any spiritual benefit. Verse 18: In case the restrictions Paul is putting on the Corinthians causes them to suspect that he has a hidden motive in his heart, he tells them that he not only speaks in tongues, but does so more frequently than all of them put together. In order for this to be true, I would suppose that most of their speaking in tongues took place during church gatherings, while most of Pauls was part of his private devotions which he carried on almost constantly while traveling or working mending tents (Lk. 18:1; Eph. 6:18; Php. 4:6, 7; 1Th. 5:17). No one can say Paul is restricting tongues in a service because he himself doesnt appreciate the value of the gift. He appreciates and uses tongues more than they do, but love constrains him to consider the needs of others ahead of his own. They havent been doing that and thats the problem.
Verse 19: What a believer does during his/her own private devotions is one thing, but the rules change when a group of people gather for worship. Now each persons focus must move off of him/herself and onto the needs of those around. While speaking in tongues is very personally edifying, its practice belongs primarily when one worships privately. A limited number of gifts of tongues is beneficial in a church service so long as each is interpreted (14:27), but without interpretation the other gifts of the Spirit, which minister in the peoples own language, are vastly preferable. Five words of a prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom or a teaching are more helpful to others than ten thousand incomprehensible words in a tongue (14:6). Verse 20: Paul does not consider the things hes teaching them to be merely a matter of opinion. He isnt talking about personal preferences in worship style. Hes teaching them how Christ wants them to function. They have been functioning with substandard values and attitudesbehaving as immature Christians who are ignorant of the right way to behave. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 3:13. Here Paul uses the same sort of terminology (infants) to describe Christians who are still acting like unbelievers by making decisions guided by their own selfish interests and the appetites of their bodies. Though the Corinthian leaders, especially, have been following their old natures rather than the Spirit, they are Christians with the Spirit in them, so Paul asks them to stop the pattern theyve been following and to deliberately think Biblically with the Spirits insight.
1 Corinthians 14:21
Verse 21: In my opinion, verses 2125 have been improperly interpreted by nearly every teacher Ive ever heard. I believe this is because the rabbinical nature of Pauls argument in this passage is overlooked. By quoting Isaiah 28:11, Paul is doing more than just taking a verse out of context which happens to mention the speaking of strange tongues. Paul was a rabbi who deeply understood the context of what was being said in Old Testament Scriptures. In chapter 28 Isaiah is warning the leaders of the northern ten tribes of Israel that God would bring upon them foreign conquerors (the Assyrians in 722 B.C.). God is saying to Israel that He had many times tried to teach them His ways as a parent would a child, but they had stubbornly refused to listen to Him. So now He says He would bring foreign invaders
who spoke in languages they didnt understand, and this babel of foreign languages was the new way He would speak to them. In other words, He was through trying to reason with them and was cutting off all meaningful communication with them. The prophets would go silent and they would be abandoned to hearing only foreign tongues around them. The tongues themselves were to be a sign of judgmenta sign that God was through talking to them because their hearts were hopelessly hard. Read back over Isaiah 28:129. You may not understand everything you read, but youll get the main point if you realize that Ephraim is, in this case, another name for the northern kingdom of Israel.
1 Corinthians 14:22
Verse 22: If we keep Isaiahs overall meaning in mind, then Pauls comments in this verse make perfect sense and fit nicely into the overall flow of his cautioning the Corinthians against corporate, uninterpreted tongues in their services. When he says tongues are a sign to unbelievers, he doesnt mean by unbelievers people who are not Christians yet, he means hard-hearted, religious people who refuse to believe what God is saying to them. Paul is trying to show the Corinthians the confusing spiritual message they are giving out when they gather and all speak in foreign languages, long and loud. It is a wrong prophetic sign to be heard over their assemblies. The babel of incomprehensible languages over Gods people is a sign of judgment, meaning He considers them so stubborn He has given up talking to them through words they understand. When Gods people are listening to Him and obedient, He speaks to them through prophets in their own languages. So, prophecy in the midst of a church gathering is the opposite sign that God trusts the hearts of those people and that they will listen to what He says to them and obey. Pauls use of the term those who believe is this verse means those who believe Gods promises and so will obey Him.
Verse 22 (continued): Many teachers ignore the larger context of Isaiah 28:11 and take this verse to mean that Paul is saying that tongues, when spoken out in a gathering, assist in the conversion of nonChristians (unbelievers). The non-Christians present will see the miraculous power involved in enabling a person to speak in tongues and this revelation would convince them of the truth of Christ as Savior. The biggest problem with this interpretation is that it directly contradicts what Paul has been saying up to this point, and will go on to say in verse 23 and following. Furthermore, if Paul meant tongues were miraculous signs that brought people to conversion, he picked an unfortunate Old Testament text to support it because Pauls summary of Isaiah ends with the discouraging prediction: even so they will not listen to Me, says the Lord (reread 1Co. 14:21). If tongues were meant to be a sign leading to conversion, apparently not even God thought they would work well. Verse 23: In my opinion, verse 22 was meant to be a spiritual insight which would further warn the Corinthians not to speak in uninterpreted tongues all at once in their services. He was saying that practice made them look like they were under Gods judgment rather than being blessed as His people. Now, in verse 23, he continues his cautioning of their use of tongues with another very practical observation: if non-Christians, or Christians who are unfamiliar with the gifts of the Spirit, are present they will listen to the noisy confusion of unrecognizable languages and conclude they are sitting among a group of people that are crazy. Far from being impressed or converted by the experience, they are more likely to be repulsed. I have personally heard of situations where unbelievers listened to uninterpreted tongues and were positively impressed by them, but Paul doesnt think
that would usually be the case.
Verse 23 (continued): One final observation on this verse: Paul seems to be admitting to the possibility that all the Corinthians could speak in tongues (if all speak in tongues ), and actually hes spending all these verses to correct the practice that they all were speaking in tongues at the same time and without interpretation. If these observations are accurate (also: 14:5, 26), it would mean that his reference to not all speak with tongues, do they? in 12:30 must refer to proper procedure in a public service, rather than some Christians not being given the gift to speak in tongues at all. Verse 24: Paul says if they all insist on bringing the same gift of the Spirit in a service, it would be much better that it was prophecy rather than tongues. He actually doesnt want every believer to bring the same gift because thats not the Spirits intention at all (12:712; 14:26). The Spirit wants to minister in different ways through different people, but if everyone in a service did prophesy, and it could happen (14:31), then the non-Christians and ungifted believers present would still be powerfully ministered to. Since they could understand what was being said, the Spirit could show them what was in their hearts and where they needed to repent.
1 Corinthians 14:25
Verse 25: If we will lovingly choose to use the gifts of the Spirit in ways that allow unbelievers and untaught believers to understand, they will hear things said that only they themselves and God could know about. When these secrets hidden in their hearts are brought out by somebody who doesnt even know them, they will be convinced that God is the power behind these gifts and they will most likely respond by humbling themselves before God and worshipping Him. If this response doesnt motivate the Corinthians to obey Paul, it can only mean they have lost their love for unbelievers and untaught Christians. The prospect of ministering effectively to these groups of people ought to bring great joy to the heart of any healthy Christian.
1 Corinthians 14:26
Verse 26: With this verse Paul summarizes what a church gathering should look like if were allowing the Spirit to lead it and if we are making ministry decisions based on Christ-like love. In a properly functioning gathering each believer will be given something from the Spirit to contribute to the upbuilding of the whole group. He then lists a sample of the sort of gifts a person might share with the others: a spiritual song (14:15); a teaching from Scripture or personal experience; a prophetic insight which would be the starting point for a word of wisdom or knowledge, or a prophecy; and, of course, tongues will still be a part of the mix, but each tongue will go hand-in-hand with an interpretation. Everything contributed in the service should be intended to minister to others present.
1 Corinthians 14:27
Weve already noted (v. 23) that the Corinthian gatherings were apparently dominated by loud, corporate speaking in tongues. In chapters 12, 13 and 14 Paul has been explaining to them that this practice is out of order because 1) the gifts and ministries of the church are intended by God to be diverse; 2) love should compel them to seek gifts which are understandable to those who cant yet participate in tongues; 3) the babel of strange languages to the exclusion of prophecy in the past has been a symbol of judgment
indicating that God was withdrawing His communication with His rebellious people and therefore the pattern in Corinth gave off a bad spiritual signal; and 4) everyone talking at once in strange languages gave visitors the impression these Christians were insane. Verse 27: In verse 26 Paul said that each believer will be given something from the Spirit to contribute to the upbuilding of everyone present. Now he lays down some clear rules which will prevent their past excesses from happening again. He says that no more than two or at the most three gifts of tongues should be brought forth publicly in any given church gathering, and these should occur one at a time, not overlapping each other as had been done in the past. When the tongue is finished, then either the person who brought the tongue (14:13) or someone else present who is given the gift of interpretation is to speak out an interpretive translation of what was said.
1 Corinthians 14:28
Verse 28: The bringing forth of a tongue is obviously under the control of the speaker in the sense that the tongue can be held back if the person so chooses. The person who is considering speaking in a tongue intended for everyone to hear, must include in their decision the likelihood that someone is present who can interpret it. If the person is unable or unwilling to interpret, or if a tongue has already come forth and been left uninterpreted, then the decision must be made that it is not the right time to bring forth a gift of tongues. The person is very likely sensing an inclination to speak in tongues, so Paul says that while they may not speak out for all to hear, they can speak softly, under their breath, at a volume that doesnt distract others around them. Though the person may be disappointed that the congregation will not hear the gift they feel they have, they should still take some comfort in knowing that even when they have no choice but to speak softly, God still hears the prayer, praise or thanksgiving coming from within.
1 Corinthians 14:29
Verse 29: In our study on prophecy in 12:10, we made the point that while all believers could prophesy, if moved upon by the Holy Spirit to do so, this potential did not mean that everyone who prophesies should be called a prophet. Being a prophet was a specific ministry assignment by the Lord Jesus. It involved an awareness of being called (God wants me to do this); a decision to invest disciplined time into doing the ministry; and confirmation by other mature Christian leaders. Pauls restrictions in this verse are addressed to those who are specifically identified as prophets. It is my guess that a few such prophets tended to dominate the meetings with long, sermon-like prophecies. The pattern of the Corinthian services was probably long, loud episodes of everyone speaking in tongues at once, followed by wearisome monologues by prophets. Both practices tended to restrict the Spirits free distribution of the gifts among those believers present in the fashion described in 12:711 and 14:26. This use of tongues was Pauls greatest concern and the one to which he has given most of his attention, but while he repeatedly prefers prophecy to uninterpreted tongues in a service, it appears in these chapters that he prefers a broadbased approach to this gift rather than the monopolizing of a service by a few who are expected to minister in that way. Hearing from many people present seems to be a high value for Paul, so he restricts the number of prophets who are allowed to speak in a particular meeting, and diminishes their assumed authority somewhat by inviting the whole church to examine the validity of what they say (1Th. 5:21; 1Jn. 4:16; Ac. 17:11).
Verse 30: If we assume that Paul is trying to lessen the dominance by prophets over the Corinthian meetings so that more people will be free to contribute the differing gifts the Spirit is distributing to each of them, then the primary purpose of this verse is to make long-winded prophets sit down when revelations are received by other believers. The picture here is of some prophet standing up and addressing the assembly at such length that others who receive insights from God are unable to find an opportunity to present them during the service. Paul simply says that others wishing to share should be the cue for the prophet to sit down and listen. Verse 31: The capacity to receive and speak forth insight from the Lord is not restricted to a few people designated as prophets. Now that the Holy Spirit permanently indwells all believers it would not be impossible for every Christian present to bring forth a prophetic gift. Pauls point isnt to make everyone in the church prophesy at every service, but to open their meetings up to wider participation. They are not dependant on only a few for insights from God, for God can, if He chooses, use each of them in this capacity (14:1, 5, 19, 2426). Prophets certainly have a contribution to make, but even they should limit the amount of time they take in a service. Hearing from many is better than hearing from only a few.
1 Corinthians 14:32
Verse 32: In case any of the prophets he is restraining reply that when the Spirit comes over them to prophesy, they no longer have control concerning how long they speak, Paul simply says that the prophet is in control of the expression of the gift. The revelation itself comes from God, but the process of communicating that revelation is under the conscious control of the prophets will. The initiation of a revelation and the content of what is said is from God, but if, how, and even when we speak what God has given is under our control. So no one could say the Spirit forced them to disregard Pauls instructions. By the way, what is true, in this regard, of prophecy would also be true of other gifts such as tongues. It is entirely possible to hold a tongue when no interpreter is present (v. 28), just as it is to cease prophesying when someone else receives a revelation.
1 Corinthians 14:33
Verse 33: Paul has laid out a number of important truths that should govern Christian gatherings for worship. One truth is that the Spirit sovereignly distributes His gifts to each believer. Another is that love should govern how we express these gifts. But here in verse 33 he gives us one more foundational insight. He says Gods own personality is orderly and peaceful. If God is really in charge of a meeting it is impossible for that meeting to degenerate into noisy disorder. The Corinthians must realize that their loud tumultuous services were very unlike the gatherings of believers in other locations. Probably no one at that time had been in more churches than Paul and he is telling the Corinthians they are the only ones behaving in that way and if what they are doing was really under the Spirits control, as they claim, then why doesnt the same Spirit cause similar practices elsewhere. Actually, the services in the great majority of churches around the known world were peaceful and well-ordered. The peace and order common in the worship gathering of other churches stood as testimony against the wild services in Corinth. The Spirit wasnt doing something unique in Corinth. They were an immature church sadly out of step with God and His people.
1 Corinthians 14:34
Verse 34: Paul wants peace and order restored to the Corinthian services. Having just dealt with tongues and prophecy he is reminded of another aspect of their services resulting in noisy disorder. Some of the wives are making disrepectful comments toward their husbands. The condition of many of the marriages in the church is very poor anyway (5:1; 7:15, 10, 11). Added to this, there is jealousy and strife present between hostile factious groups (1:1012; 3:3). So the climate of the services is not only noisy and disordered, it must also be hostile and divided. Part of this equation may even be that some of them are drunk (11:21). Apparently this environment is giving rise to rude challenges or questions coming from the women. Paul has already scolded the women for uncovering their heads which amounted to a defiant challenge of the leadership role of men (11:316), and considering the way the men of the church were leading, the womens disrepect was understandable. Nevertheless, their dishonoring of the men, and particularly their husbands, was not in keeping with Scripture. Since verses 34 and 35 are placed in the middle of a discussion on prophecy, I would guess that the women were contributing to the disorder by challenging the right of certain prophets to speak, or criticizing what they said, or asking aloud their husbands opinion of what had been said. Verse 34 (continued): These two verses, taken out of context and ignoring Pauls clear statement concerning the possibility of women praying or prophesying in a worship service (11:5, 13), have been taken to mean that women were forbidden to participate in the spoken gifts in meetings. Other scholars are so offended by what they perceive these verses to mean, they seek to argue that they are not originally part of Pauls letter. But, if we simply reconstruct the situation of the Corinthian church in our minds, Pauls comments make sense and his reference to women submitting themselves according to the Law would be the same point he made in 11:316. He is asking the women to show respect to the men, though little may be deserved, if only because Scripture asks them to. And at any rate, he wants them to quit contributing to the clamoring of voices.
1 Corinthians 14:35
Verse 35: Men and women may have sat separately from each other during church services. This custom of seating men and women apart from each other was practiced in Jewish synagogues and these served in part as models for early church gatherings. If, in fact, the Corinthians were seated apart from each other, any discussion being carried on between husband and wife would need to be loud enough for everybody to hear. As we mentioned in the comments on verse 34, there are unmistakable signs of hostility between different groups in the church, including tensions between rich and poor, and even husbands and wives. In this environment, women directing antagonistic questions across the room to their husbands would have added to the overall confusion. Paul says, Ask your questions at home for its shameful for the women to be talking in this way during worship. Again, its not wrong for a woman to prophesy or pray aloud (11:5, 13), but the running dialogue with their husbands is out of order.
1 Corinthians 14:36
Verse 36: Pauls frustration with the Corinthian leaders begins to break through. Obviously, he expects them to challenge the guidelines he is giving them. They have a history of accidently reinterpreting what Paul has taught them, and he knows they arent going to like what hes been telling them in the past few chapters. The fact is if they carry out the changes in their services that he has directed, they will have to
become a very different church. Chances are some of the spiritual leaders in Corinth will get words of God that contradict Paul, so Paul puts the matter of spiritual authority into perspective. The questions he asks are designed to remind the Corinthians that they are only one of many churches in the world and that they should not disregard the principles being observed by so many other Christians. Christianity did not begin with them; they are only one of many churches planted by Paul himself. Basically they have been thinking too highly of themselvesthinking they have the wisdom and experience to define Christianity for themselves, but they dont. Though Paul doesnt say it here, they actually appear to be the most immature church he writes to in all his letters. At any rate, hes letting them know that the instructions he has given them are not negotiable. Hes their apostle and spiritual father and he expects them to obey him.
Verse 37: He challenges the proud, self-anointed leaders who have led the church into such a mess to prove that they really do have the capacity to recognize a true word from God when they hear it. What Paul has written, whether they like what they read or not, has been written under the direction of the Holy Spirit. If they know Gods word when they hear it, theyll confirm Pauls letter. Verse 38: If not, they only prove that they are not true prophets or leaders who know the voice of the Spirit. Basically, if these leaders do not support Pauls instructions, the others in the church should no longer regard them as a healthy leader to be followed. Verse 39: So, the principles hes laid out arent mere suggestions, they are directives he expects to be followed. With this in mind, he summarizes some of the main points he has been trying to drive home over the past few chapters. First, they should give prophecy a much higher profile in their services. By this he doesnt primarily mean long discourses by prophets. These he has already put a restraint upon (vs. 29, 30). What Paul must be referring to are the revelatory gifts of the Spirit which are distributed under the Spirits direction to anyone He wishes in the gathering of Christians (12:711; 14:5, 24, 26). He wants broad participation in gifts which edify, exhort and comfort the whole Body in a language they can understand. Second, none of his comments should be taken to mean that he wants people to stop speaking in tongues, only that he wants the use of tongues controlled in worship services.
1 Corinthians 14:4015:1
Verse 40: Third, their worship services should have a peaceful beauty with each person wanting their turn so that the community they live in will learn to respect Christianity rather than be disgusted by it. Paul does not mean by this statement that there should not be spiritual manifestations present or broad participation by the people in the church, only that each person should learn the principles hes teaching here and should govern his/her own behavior accordingly. If this is done, their gatherings will be beautiful, peaceful and powerful. Verse 15:1: At chapter 15 Paul turns his attention away from the church gatherings in Corinth to a very serious distortion of one of the most important things that every true Christian must believe. Not only were the Corinthians being noisy and unloving in their services, but a teaching was emerging among some that Jesus body was not really raised from the dead. Probably what they were teaching was that His spirit ascended to be with the Father, but His body stayed behind because people dont need or want bodies in heaven. A common Greek philosophy of the day taught that human bodies are part of an evil order of creation and that our souls are divine beings held prisoners by our bodies. In
this system of thought, death is the moment the soul finally escapes to rejoin its divine source. Such thinking obviously would find the idea of being resurrected into physical bodies repulsive. Even today groups of people will adjust certain Bible truths until they fit more comfortably with the prevalent cultural views of the day. Or they will reinterpret a divine revelation until it makes more logical sense to the human mind. The problem with this, of course, is that by the time the truth has been altered enough to please the human mind, it no longer resembles the truth as God revealed it. People are now being deceived into believing a lie which can damage their walk with God.
1 Corinthians 15:1
Some of the leaders in Corinth have been uncomfortable with the resurrection part of the gospel Paul originally preached to them. It so violates their cultural bias against the physical body, that they have taken it upon themselves to correct Pauls mistake (Ac. 17:16, 18, 31, 32). Undoubtedly, they have taken the tact of saying that the literal resurrection of the body isnt the point. After all, who wants these old bodies back when we can soar free as birds as eternal spirits? At first glance it all may sound harmless enough, but as Paul will soon explain, if there is no resurrection of the body, then the gospel is a lie and were all on our way to hell. Verse 1 (continued): Once again Paul will rehearse to the Corinthians the main points of the gospel which he first preached in Corinth when he started the church there about five years before. These were the beliefs which they received by faith at that time and as a result of their faith were born-again. They had continued to believe these basic truths over the past years and so had remained solidly planted in the faith that saves people.
1 Corinthians 15:2
Verse 2: People arent saved just because they are sincere about their religious convictions. They must sincerely believe the truth, at least a few basic essentials of truth about God, Christ and our own sins. There are many areas of religious truth which are important, but are not vital to our salvation. These can be freely decided by a persons conscience. But there are also certain truths which must be sincerely and accurately believed for a person to be accepted by God. In this verse, Paul is saying he presented these foundational elements to the Corinthians; when they believed what he told them, their relationship with God was completely changedthey were saved. Verse 2 (continued): Youll notice that this verse contains a very ominous warning. Paul has just spoken about their believing the gospel and being saved by it, but here he adds a warning. Their saved condition can be reversed if they cease to believe the essential ingredients of the gospel. In other words, by altering an essential foundation stone, such as the resurrection of Jesus and of His followers, the Corinthian leaders can take their people into a postChristian condition. The modified religion they are inventing can no longer be called Christian, and if people transfer their faith to this new religion, it will no longer save them.
1 Corinthians 15:2
Verse 2 (continued): The phrase unless you believed in vain should be read after the statement, by which you were saved to make its meaning clear. Paul is saying, The gospel I preached to you will save you on the Judgment Day, unless you turn away from it and die in that condition. In that case, what was started in you would have failed to accomplish its purpose, because you didnt endure in it until you crossed the finish line of life. (Also read Ro. 11:1923; Gal. 3:14; 4:911; Col. 2:18, 19; and remember
1Co. 9:2410:12; Jesus expresses the same warning in Mt. 13:1922; 24:1013; 25:113.)
1 Corinthians 15:3
Verse 3: Paul takes them back to the founding of their church and reminds them of the first, and most important, things he taught them. He makes it clear that he did not personally invent these truths, but he was only a link in the chain of people who passed on these foundational truths, going back to Jesus Himself, and even further back in time to the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament. If the Corinthian leaders argue with him on these points they are not just arguing against Paul, but with the very revelation of God concerning His plan of salvation. There is no room for debate on these particular matters. Verse 3 (continued): The first creedal statement he makes is, Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. There are several important truths contained in these words. To begin with we mustnt overlook the identification of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ or promised Anointed One waited for through the whole of the Old Testament. That the Christ would die for our sins is a subject still debated in Judaism, but Paul boldly asserts that this was done in keeping with what the Old Testament intended to teach on the subject. In saying this he would certainly have in mind such passages as Isaiah 52:1353:12; Daniel 9:26; Psalms 16:10; 22:131. In addition to such clear statements, he would be thinking of Christ as the fulfillment of the sacrificial system (Nu. 15:2228); the scapegoat (Lev. 16:510); the Passover Meal (Ex. 12:114); and the brazen serpent in the wilderness (Nu. 21:49).
Verse 3 (continued): One more observation on the statement Christ died for our sins, Israels Promised One didnt simply die, His death had a great purpose behind it. It was the centerpiece of Gods plan to save humans from eternal judgment. He died to rescue all men and women who had failed to live up to Gods standards. The universality of Jesus death is shown by the fact that Paul says our sins speaking to Greeks in Corinth. Though Jesus was promised to Israel, the salvation He provided was not limited to Israel, but included the whole world. Verse 4: By including in the gospel the statement that Christ was buried, the early church was clarifying any misunderstanding that might arise over the nature of His death. It was a literal, physical death that He died. He didnt just appear to die. He died and His brutalized corpse lay in a tomb over a portion of three days. In other words, He died like we die, which is remarkable that the eternal Son of God would allow such a thing to happen to Him, but that fact also underscores the reality of the resurrection which followed. He really died, and He really rose, which means deaths absolute grip on the human race has ended. It couldnt keep Him in the grave and because we believers are, by faith, joined to Him, death will not be able to hold us either.
1 Corinthians 15:4
Verse 4 (continued): The original Greek states He has been raised on the third day. The verb (has been raised) tells us that Jesus didnt raise Himself, somebody else raised Him from the dead. In Romans 8:11 Paul tells us more specifically that it was the Father, by the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus up. The verse in Romans goes on to assure us that the same process will happen to those who belong to Christ, which is the very point Paul will go on and make for the Corinthians in the verses ahead. Verse 4 (continued): Just as Jesus death was a literal, physical death, so His resurrection was a literal, physical resurrection. Jesus did not come to life spiritually. His physical body came back to life, although it gained new
properties it never had before (Jn. 20:2429; Lk. 24:3643; 1Co. 15:3550). Paul says the burial and resurrection on the third day were also according to the Scriptures. Some of the Old Testament passages he most likely had in mind would have been Psalm 16:811; Hosea 6:2; Jonah 1:17 and Isaiah 53:912. The strongest predictions of His being raised on the third day come from Christ Himself (Mk. 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; 14:58; Jn. 2:1822).
Verse 5: To further emphasize the solid, physical nature of Jesus resurrection, Paul lists people or groups of people who actually saw Him alive after being dead for three days. Though Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene (Jn. 20:1118), Paul starts by mentioning that He appeared to Cephas (Peter) (Lk. 24:34; Mk. 16:7). Undoubtedly, he focuses on Peter because Peter has ministered in Corinth and is greatly respected there (1Co. 1:12; 9:5). The same Peter who has been a guest in some of their own homes has talked face-to-face with the resurrected Jesus. This isnt a myth, or a vision one person had. This is verifiable. Honest people of character can tell the Corinthians what theyve seen. Verses 5, 6: Many others saw and touched Him, and ate food with Him. His twelve disciples (minus Judas Iscariot, of course) (Mt. 28:16, 17; Mk. 16:14; Lk. 24:3343; Jn. 20:1931; 21:124) and a crowd of over five hundred were among those who saw Him alive over a period of forty days following His resurrection. And these werent vague sightings either. He did many convincing proofs, probably including allowing Himself to be touched and eating food in their presence (Ac. 1:3; Jn. 20:27; 21:1214). Nor were these brief encounters. At times He ate full meals with them, carried on extended dialogue, or engaged in prolonged explanations of Scripture (Lk. 24:2732; Ac. 1:13). Though Paul is writing this letter to the Corinthians twenty years after these things took place, most of the people who saw Him are still alive and could be interviewed to confirm what he is saying. They must not try to rationalize away the resurrection. It is a confirmable historic fact.
Verse 7: That Jesus had a private appearance with His half-brother James is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, but it explains why a very skeptical brother (Mt. 13:55; Jn. 7:210) turned into a devout believer and leader of the church in Jerusalem (Ac. 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; Jas. 1:1). Pauls mention of all the Apostles includes a larger group than just the twelve (v. 5). More than the twelve were commissioned by the Lord to carry the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the remotest part of the earth (Ac. 1:2 8). At this point in the churchs history the term apostle was still a very functional term describing someone who traveled to evangelize and was authorized to establish new believers in their faith. Verse 8: Paul himself, though he never believed in Jesus during our Lords earthly ministry, was given the privilege of seeing Him in His resurrected glory. This took place all out of proper order compared to the other apostles. They had followed Him and then saw Him resurrected. Paul, on the other hand, was in the process of violently persecuting the church when Jesus appeared to him (Ac. 9:118). While Paul was still spiritually dead, he saw the resurrected Lord and was converted in the middle of the revelation. Probably for this reason he describes himself as a stillborn child whom the Lord had to come back and visit specially to bring to life. Like a premature baby he had much to learn before serving as an apostle.
Verse 9: Paul can never entirely forgive himself for overseeing the imprisoning and murder of Christians prior to his conversion (Ac. 7:548:3; 9:1, 2). He realizes the Lord has forgiven him, but the memory that he violently opposed Israels true Messiah appalls him. How could a man who was so totally deceived about spiritual matters be qualified to exercise leadership in the Lords church. For this reason, Paul considers himself to be unfit as a candidate for the authority he has been given. Verse 10: But Gods gifts and callings are never something we deserve. Everything a believer receives is mercifully given because of Christs qualifications, not our own, and even Paul is no exception. He also has received the forgiveness of Christ and His empowering Spirit. In his new state of regeneration Paul also begins to fulfill the purpose for which God designed him. And Paul faithfully continued to serve Jesus all of his life, so that Gods kindness to him did not end up wasted on someone who quits following Jesus out of fear of persecution or love of the world. In fact, Paul could honestly say that though he started as an apostle later than the others, he had exerted more physical effort in spreading the gospel than anyone else. Pauls point isnt to say he is better than the other apostles just that he has shown his thankfulness to God by serving God with all his energy. His potential to serve God was not limited by his past.
Verse 10: Paul is quick to correct any misunderstanding that might arise from what he has just said about himself. In saying that he worked harder than any other apostle in spreading the gospel, he wasnt saying that he had tried to pay God back for His salvation or take credit for what had been done. The statement about his work was true, but Paul had been constantly strengthened and anointed by God to do what he did. Even there he couldnt take credit for what he had done because without Gods power he could never have done what he did (1Co. 3:6, 7). God had guided him, protected him, saved, healed, baptized in the Holy Spirit those who listened to him and responded in faith. Pauls working with God was a partnership, but Paul was very much the junior partner. He did his part, but God was the One who made it work. This too, was the result of Gods undeserved kindness (grace). Verse 11: Paul is saying that what he preaches concerning the resurrection is exactly the same as what is taught by all the other apostles. This was the truth they believed when the church was founded, and if they leave it now they will be distorting their original faith and choosing a path out of step with all the rest of the Christian churches.
Verse 12: If Paul and all the apostles consistently preached the physical resurrection of Christ as an essential element in the salvation message, how is it possible that some of the leaders in Corinth (3:18; 4:18; 8:2; 9:3; 14:37) have dared to presume that they are in a spiritual position to renounce this truth? They have arrogantly begun to teach that neither Jesus nor anyone else has been or ever will be resurrected. As we noted in 15:1 the underlying motive in Corinth must have been an attempt to sanitize the gospel by removing a concept which was offensive to the Greek culture surrounding them, and, for that matter, offensive to the Greek culture still within them. Verse 13: Probably, there were some of these who were willing to admit that Jesus did physically rise from the dead, but they would go on to argue that He was a special exception: Even if He did rise from the dead, there is no future resurrection of all believers. In saying this they were attempting to compromise with apostolic teaching. By allowing that Jesus rose from the grave they would remain orthodox, but by saying no one else would they might possibly escape ridicule or persecution. Paul will permit no such dishonesty. The resurrection of Jesus and the
resurrection of His followers is inseparable. He will explain why shortly (15:21, 22, 45, 48, 49, 56, 57).
1 Corinthians 15:14
Verse 14: If anyone were to argue that Christ was never actually raised from the dead, then they need to consider the implications of such a position. By resurrecting His Son, the Father declared that His atoning death was successful in forgiving the sin of humanity. If Jesus had remained in the grave, then it would have meant that the cross had failed. Jesus went to the cross bearing the sin of the world, but as David had prophesied, it was impossible for death to hold Him because of His perfect obedience to the Father (Ac. 2:2236). Apparently, in order to release Jesus from death, it was necessary for the Father to break the hold of death on all humanity. As He was resurrected, Jesus reversed the sentence of death placed on all humans beginning with our first parents in the Garden of Eden (Ge. 2:17; 3:19). Because of Jesus resurrection, all humans, good and bad, will physically come out of the grave. The death that Adam brought on us has been reversed (1Co. 15:21, 22). Of course, the reversal of physical death does not mean that all people will live in heaven with Christ. The Bible is clear that though all will hear Christs voice and come out of the grave, that those who have done evil will be resurrected to face Gods judgment (Jn. 5:2529; Rev. 20:46, 1115; Isa. 26:19; Da. 12:1, 2). Nevertheless, in rising from the dead Christ destroyed the grip of death on all humans.
1 Corinthians 15:14
Verse 14 (continued): So, from Gods perspective, some sort of spiritual resurrection is not an option. If Jesus body remained in the tomb it could only have meant that He had not been sinless in His obedience to the Father or that the Father did not accept His sacrifice on our behalf and therefore He had fallen prey to death like every other human. Without the resurrection, the cross ended in failure. Our salvation has its beginning in the moment Jesus was resurrected. When God pronounced Him sinless by raising Him, He pronounced those of us who believe in Him sinless as well, for it was our sin He was carrying. The sin that couldnt hold Him in the grave was our sin. When He rose it meant that our sin had been paid for. The rising which announced He was righteous (Ac. 2:27; 13:2939) announced that we who believe had become righteous because He had no sin of His own. With these things in mind we can see why Paul says in this verse (14) that without the resurrection there is no salvation message to proclaim and those who believe in Jesus will stay dead, just as He did.
Verse 15: Not only is the gospel message about Jesus powerless to save people from death if there is no resurrection, but Paul and the rest of the twelve Apostles are actually liars because they were traveling everywhere telling people that they had seen, with their own eyes, Jesus alive. Verses 15, 16: Paul again makes the point that the resurrection of all humans is inseparably linked to the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus has been raised it can only mean that He has conquered death for all humanity, so all will be raised; the reverse is also true, that if there is no general resurrection of all humans, it can only mean Christ failed in His attempt to save us and remained in the grave Himself. Verse 17: Again, Paul makes the point that if the resurrection did not take place, then the Father refused Christs sacrifice on the cross, and, as a result, all humanity remains under the curse of death begun by Adam and Eve and continued as each human commits his or her own sin. Verse 18: Do the people in Corinth understand the practical implica-
tions of their denial of the resurrection? It means they will never again see their family members and friends who became Christians before they died. Wherever it is the spirits of the dead are kept, we can be sure of this, that there is no fellowship going on there. If this is our future we will never see these special people again. They are lost to us in the world of the dead and remain under the judgment of God.
1 Corinthians 15:18
Verse 18 (continued): The Greek culture of Corinth was wrong in picturing life after death as a spirit-world populated by immortal souls. The Bible describes the spirits of the unregenerate dead in a shadowy place of waiting called Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek) (Mt. 11:23; 12:40; Lk. 16:2326; Ac. 2:27). These await the resurrection and the Judgment (Rev. 20:13; Da. 12:1, 2). The regenerate dead also await the resurrection, but in a much different place called Paradise (Lk. 16:9, 2226; 2Co. 5:8; Rev. 7:9, 1317; Mt. 16:18; Rev. 1:18; Lk. 23:3943; Php. 1:21). The place we refer to as hell has not been populated yet, though it exists. The Bible calls this gehenna (as opposed to hades), and it is a final destination for the unregenerate along with the devil and his angels following the resurrection and Judgment (Mt. 25:41; Mk. 9:43, 48; Mt. 10:28; 5:23; 23:33; 2Th. 1:610; Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15). So, without the resurrection, which indicated that Christs sacrifice was accepted, there is no paradise for the regenerate dead, nor a new heaven and earth for them to inherit. They would remain under the earth in darkness. This is what Paul means when he says those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. (For the distinctions on hades and gehenna, see: J. Jeremias, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged In One Volume, pages 23 and 113, 1985.)
Verse 19: When Paul says we here he is primarily referring to the Apostles who are traveling about preaching the gospel and planting churches (vs. 911, 15). These people suffered terrible persecution as Paul described earlier in this letter (4:913; 2Co. 6:410). If he and others have given up the pursuit of their own pleasures in order to promote a doctrine that is false and powerless, they have suffered for nothing. They would have been fools proclaiming a lie and enduring hardship to do it. No wonder he says this would make them the most pitiable of all men. If, on the other hand, the cross and resurrection are the only door to eternal life, then no sacrifice is too great to gain it (Php. 3:712; Mt. 13:4446). Verse 20: Whether the Corinthians are comfortable with the fact or not, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and Paul, along with many others, saw Him. So its time to put aside their cultural biases and accept reality. Paul goes on to explain the implications of Christs resurrection using an Old Testament concept of first fruits (Lev. 23:1014). The first cuttings of Israels harvest each year were brought before the Lord as an offering. The first fruits was actually the beginning of the harvest, but before the rest of the field was cut this first sheaf was set apart as holy to the Lord. By doing this the farmer was offering the entire crop that would follow to the Lord. It is interesting to note that the first fruits was to be offered on the day after the Sabbath following Passover, which would be the Sunday of Christs resurrection. This may have been the reason Christ knew He would be 3 days in the grave (Lev. 23:511). He would be crucified on Friday (Passover), all were to rest on Saturday (Sabbath) and then the first of the new harvest (first fruits) was to be waved before the Lord on Sunday. He was the first person to be resurrected, with the pledge of many more to come. By calling Christ the first fruits of the resurrection, Paul means He is the first one resurrected with many to follow. The first of many have escaped the power of death.
Verses 21, 22: By choosing to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Ge. 2:17; 3:6), Adam introduced a rebellious nature to the human race that has caused every one of us to rebel against God and thus fall under the power of death. But the resurrection of Christ has broken deaths stranglehold on the human race. When death lost its hold on Christ, it lost its ultimate hold on every human. At a moment in the future, this resurrected Lord will call out and all humans will hear His voice and come forth (resurrected) from their graves (Jn. 5:2529). Some will be resurrected to eternal life, and some to face judgment, but, at any rate, death will have lost its hold on all (read comments on v. 14).
1 Corinthians 15:23
Verse 23: Though the resurrection of Christ has broken the power of death, we have not yet seen its impact on the rest of the human race. Only Christ has now been resurrected, but that is because God has a timetable for each event. His plan is that His Son should be resurrected first and then, at the moment set for the return of Christ (2Pe. 3:8, 9; 1Th. 4:1318) all believers will be resurrected. In this way Christ is the first fruits of the harvest of all righteous souls. There is some question when the resurrection of the unrighteous occurs. Paul does not focus on this in his letter to the Corinthians. His purpose is to reestablish the literal nature of the resurrection in their thinking and to encourage an expectancy in them. Jesus words in John 5:2529 seem to picture one moment when the just and the unjust come to life, but John sees two resurrections in Revelation 20:46, 1115 which are separated by a thousand-year period of time. The first is that of the righteous who are raised to take part in a thousand-year rule of Christ on the earth. The second is that of the unrighteous who are resurrected after the thousand-year period to stand before God in judgment. These two passages are not in conflict with one another. What is likely the case is that through John, God has revealed that there is an order and timetable to these events while Jesus did not need to explain such things because this insight was unnecessary to the point He was making.
1 Corinthians 15:24
Verse 24: As human history progresses there is a constant dividing between those who willingly submit themselves to Jesus Christ and those who do not. At a time in the future which God the Father will determine, the separating of the human race will be finished. There is a series of specific events which will lead up to this moment described in such passages as: Daniel 7:927; 9:2427; Matthew 24:431; 2 Thessalonians 2:18; and Revelation 4:120:15. When Jesus comes He will save every person possible and destroy all forces which oppose Him, and then will report to His Father that His mission has been successfully completed. Jesus asked the Father to glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You (Jn. 17:1). In response to this the Father gave the Son all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18; Php. 2:911), and since His ascension into heaven Jesus has been using that authority to give eternal life to those humans who believe in Him (Jn. 17:2; 3:15, 17, 18). Even the devil and his forces must submit to the authority of the name of Jesus (Lk. 10:18, 19, 22). Once every person who will be saved has been saved (2 Pt. 3:9) the Lord Jesus will return to earth and personally destroy the forces of evil. He will at that time resurrect those Christians who have died and bring them back with Him, and also, catch up into the air the believers who remain alive, resurrecting them in that instant as well (1Co. 15:51, 52; 1Th. 4:15 17). All of this is done to glorify God the Father who started the whole process because He so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jn. 3:16). Everything Jesus does, or ever will do is meant to glorify His Father whom He loves beyond measure and joyfully submits to.
Verse 25: Satan is the primary enemy of Jesus Christ and his goal is to deprive the Father of the worship and fellowship He ought to be enjoying from humans (Rev. 12:9). As the New Testament unfolds we discover that Satan carries on his fight against God through different sources: humans (Jn. 8:44; Rev. 13:418); fallen angels (Rev. 12:9; Da. 10:13, 20, 21; Eph. 6:11, 12), and even death itself. Verse 26: Youll notice that Paul calls death our enemy as well. Though believers need not fear death, we are never instructed to view it as our friend. It arrived as a judgment upon our disobedience (Ge. 2:17; 3:2224). Thankfully, Christ has broken its power over us by His resurrection, and at the end of this present age death will release all it holds and then cease (Rev. 20:13, 14). Verse 27: To reinforce his statement that the Father put all things under Christs feet (v. 25), Paul quotes from Psalm 8. In this psalm David apparently praises God for the authority He has given humans to rule over the other forms of life on this planet. Both Paul and the author of Hebrews (Heb. 2:510) take this psalm literally when it says You have put all things under his feet (Ps. 8:6) and conclude that this is a prophetic reference to the complete authority given to the Perfect Man, Jesus Christ. Having made such a statement, Paul has learned he cant be too careful in explaining his meanings to the Corinthians because they tend to misunderstand what he means and make crazy doctrines out of them. So Paul says, When I said everything is in submission to Jesus, I didnt mean God the Father was included in the term everything. God the Father who commanded that everything come into submission to Christ, remains the final authority of everything, including Christ Himself.
Verse 28: When all the universe (except the Father) has bowed its knee and called Jesus Christ Lord, then Jesus will turn to His Father and offer the glory up to Him for He is the source of all. Such action does not mean that Jesus is any less divine than the Father. The Bible clearly states that Jesus Christ is the divine, pre-existent Son of God who was sent into the earth to save as many as possible (Jn. 1:15, 918; Php. 2:511; Col. 1:1523; Heb. 1:14). The Bible also describes Him as sharing His Fathers attributes of authority and glory and of receiving worship (Rev. 3:21; 21:22, 23; 22:15). Jesus Christ Himself remains divine but He glorifies and submits to the Father. Verse 29: What Paul means by those who are baptized for the dead is something that no Biblical scholar can really say for sure. At first glance one gets the impression that people were being baptized on behalf of those who have already died to help them get saved in the afterlife, but such an idea is outrageous from a New Testament (or Old Testament) perspective. First of all, people cant have saving faith for another person (Jn. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:10). Each person will be evaluated on his/her own decisions (Eze. 18:2024). So the idea that someone can make a decision or act out a religious ceremony that changes the status of a dead person is against the rest of Scripture. Second, the Bible tells us that decisions for Christ cant be made after death. Once a person dies, his/her eternal destiny is set (Heb. 9:27; Lk. 16:2531). And third, Paul never considered water baptism an essential part of a persons salvation (1Co. 1:1417). Its an important step of obedience, but it was only meant to give outward expression to an inward attitude (Ro. 6:311).
1 Corinthians 15:29
Verse 29 (continued): In my opinion, the one interpretation of this verse which makes sense Biblically is that Paul is referring to those who are becoming Christians and openly professing this in water baptism in order to someday be in heaven with Christian family members who have already died. Ive seen such decisions made at funerals where people repent and give their lives to Christ so they can see their loved ones again when they themselves die. This is a very real human motivation which must have affected the Corinthians just as it does us today. If this is Pauls meaning, his following statement makes complete sense. If some have turned to Christ so they can spend eternity with loved ones whove gone ahead, unless these are resurrected they will be greatly disappointed since there will be no fellowship in Hades.
Next Paul says that unless there is a resurrection, the personal sacrifice that he and other apostles are making is of no benefit to them. They would be much wiser to seek lives filled with pleasure because after they die all fulfillment will come to an end. Verse 30: Pauls aggressive style of evangelism made him a target for persecution everywhere he went. He never knew when the next attack might strike, so he lived with the awareness of this danger constantly. Verse 31: Paul endured physical or spiritual attacks on a daily basis (2Co. 4:812, 16, 17; 6:4, 5, 9, 10; 11:2333; 12:710). Years of his life were spent in prisons because he would not stop preaching about Jesus. Once he began to serve Christ, he never again lived without these pressures until he finally died as a martyr. He truly took up his cross daily to follow Christ (Lk. 9:23, 24).
1 Corinthians 15:32
Verse 32: Because the account of Paul in Ephesus in the book of Acts does not mention him literally fighting wild beasts while in that city, some scholars believe Paul is using poetic language to describe the mob he faced during his stay there (Ac. 19:2941). But since it is quite possible that Paul met wild beasts while traveling about, or was persecuted by being put into an arena to fight such beasts, we have no reason not to take him literally. His brief reference here no doubt, points to a terrible life and death experience with ferocious beasts. Obviously, God delivered him from death, but his point is that unless God had a great reward on the other side of the grave awaiting him, he had put himself through meaningless suffering. If there is no resurrection, then God has no rescue from Hades planned for us. In that case, we might as well live by the sensual code of the Greeks who tried to pack as much pleasure into their brief lives as possible before death engulfed them. His quote let us eat, and drink, for tomorrow we die, is a Greek proverb which they all knew well.
Verse 32 (continued): Paul has just told us that his response to the promise of the resurrection is to daily put his life on the line to tell people about Jesus Christ (v. 31). We might respond that Paul is overreacting a bit and needs to relax. But his attitude is actually very much in keeping with the teachings of Jesus (Mt. 13:4446; 10:28, 37, 38). If Christianity is true it deserves a wholehearted response, but if it is not then there is no other religion which can take its place. If all we have to look forward to after death is an eternity in the darkness of Hades, or worse, then we must frantically try to pack all the pleasure we can into the
days we are still alive. The statement let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die was quoted by Isaiah eight hundred years earlier to describe the attitude of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Isa. 22:12). They were living only for each day and ignoring God. Verse 33: In reply to this hopeless philosophy of life, Paul quotes another Greek proverb that the Corinthians would all recognize: Bad company corrupts good morals. With this verse he has stopped speculating on what the situation would be without the resurrection and is bluntly confronting the Corinthians. Some in the church are living like they are hopeless atheists. They are expressing the values of their Greek society rather than those of the Word of God. Their morals are being corrupted by being associated with so-called Christian leaders who are teaching that there is no physical resurrection. As is so often the case, false doctrine has resulted in moral dissipation. His point is: Get away from these teachers and their followers.
1 Corinthians 15:34
Verse 34: Pauls choice of words in this verse is powerful. He commands them to wake up from the spiritual drunkenness they have fallen into. They know this is the right thing for them to do. God does exist and His moral standards havent changed. They arent living out some new enlightened lifestyle. They are sinning against God and they must stop immediately. Those who are leading them into new doctrines dont have special revelation of God, they are ignorant of God. Considering how much Paul has taught them over the past five to six years and considering that they must have access to Old Testament Scriptures, there is no good excuse for the direction they have been going. The shameful truth is they are making choices based on low character. Repentance is called for, not clever arguments.
Verse 35: Paul could have easily finished his defense of the resurrection with verse 34, but he remembers one more point used by the false teachers to make the resurrection of the body look ridiculous. They must have argued that in death human bodies decompose so completely that there would be very little left for God to resurrect after a few years. They may have concluded that Jesus resurrection was possible because He had been dead only a portion of three days. His body would still have been somewhat intact when the Holy Spirit brought Him to life again. They probably laughed at the idea that the dust of bodies long dead could ever be raised to life again. Surely, they would conclude, it was only reasonable to assume that the Lords statements about raising the dead were meant to describe our continued spiritual existence. Verse 36: While they were mocking the idea of the resurrection of the body it was really they who were talking like fools. Thinking themselves so wise, they were misunderstanding the whole idea of resurrection. They thought that resurrection meant that a persons dead body just came back to life again with the same composition and powers it had before it died. If this were true, the person would begin to age again as soon as they came to life. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, but he went on to die again at a later time (Jn. 11:144). Lazarus was revived, but he was not resurrected. Both are miracles, but resurrection transforms the persons body to a whole new level of existence.
Verses 36, 37: Paul begins his explanation of resurrection with the analogy of a seed which is sown into the ground. When a farmer plants seeds he doesnt expect the same seeds to come popping back out of the ground does he? Of course not, he expects the seed to decompose and give birth to a whole new
plant. Verse 38: When a seed is placed in the ground a miracle takes place. Each seed is transformed into a living plant much greater than the seed itself. Paul says God is responsible for that miracle of life. The analogy he is making is clear: he is comparing our human bodies to the seeds a farmer might plant. His point is we shouldnt be surprised our bodies die and decompose, just as seeds do. God will miraculously transform them just as He does a seed. Dying, being placed into the ground and decomposing is a normal part of the process. Just as each seed is individually transformed, so each persons body will also be transformed into something greater than it was before. Verse 39: With this verse Paul begins to explain the miraculous nature of the resurrection bodies we will receive. These bodies will be of a higher nature than the ones we have now, but that doesnt mean they wont still be real physical bodies. Even now when we look around us we can see living beings which have bodies made of material different from human flesh. Mammals, birds and fish are made of meat which is different in its color and texture from that of humans or each other. Yet, they are still solid, physical beings. Our bodies will be changed into a higher level of physical reality, but they will be physical bodies.
Verse 40: Having just pointed out that the flesh of different types of creatures differs but all exist in a physical body, Paul explains here that the resurrection bodies (heavenly bodies) we will have also differ in substance from the ones we have now (earthly bodies), but they too will still be made of truly physical material. True, they will be more glorious than these in that they will be imperishable (v. 42) and full of spiritual power (v. 43) but they will be solid, physical bodies nonetheless. Verse 41: Using another analogy drawn from the visible heavens, Paul makes the point that one object being more glorious than another is no reason to question the physical reality of either. We commonly look up into the sky and see objects which do not shine with the same brightness. The sun vastly outshines the moon, but both are real and physical. Even stars which cant compete in brightness with the sun or moon appear to have different amounts of glory (radiant light). One star shines very brightly while another is a faint point of light.
Verse 42: Our resurrection bodies will have a much greater degree of glory than the one that gets buried in the ground. Just as the sun is more glorious than the moon, so will our resurrection bodies be more glorious than these bodies we have now. For one thing, these bodies get injured, ill, they age and finally die, while our new heavenly bodies will never be injured, become ill, age or die. Verse 43: When we die our bodies go through a humiliating process of decomposition. To say the least, there is nothing glorious about death as it pertains to our bodies. However, notice the verb Paul uses. He keeps repeating the word sown. Our bodies are sown perishable (v. 42), in dishonor, in weakness, a natural body (v. 44). This agricultural language takes us back to the analogy of verse 36. Like a seed in the ground, our human bodies will experience Gods miracle (v. 38) and come forth at a different level of existence. The dishonor of death will be forgotten as we put on our glorious resurrection bodies. These present bodies may now be weak in that they are subject to injury, illness, weariness, aging and death, but when God raises them out of the grave all those weaknesses will have passed away. They will be full of health, vigor, strength and these qualities will never wear out.
Verse 44: This verse literally reads: It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. By spiritual body Paul does not mean a body made up only of spirit. If this were the case the Corinthians would have had no struggle with the concept of resurrection because the idea of a purely spiritual body is what they had been trying to get to all along. Paul is using the terms soulish and spiritual to describe the kind of influence the body will have on the person. Our present bodies are the source of emotions, impulses and appetites that often lead us away from obedience to God (1Co. 9:27; Gal. 5:1621; Ro. 8:410). This is the soul side of our natures. By spiritual Paul is describing bodies which are under the influence of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23). These new bodies will no longer have Adams rebellious nature in them, nor will it be hampered by the damaging effects of sin. Verse 45: God warned Adam that the day he ate from the forbidden tree he would surely die (Ge. 2:17), but after Adam ate, neither his body nor his personality died right away. He continued to live, day to day, while his body died slowly. However, his spiritual relationship to God was severed immediately and this was the real point of his death. The part of him that continued to function no longer directly connected to God is called his soul. The soul is human life functioning at a lower level than it was originally intended to. Our soul is limited to our purely human capacities: life guided by a mixture of ignorance and learning, body appetites, psychological needs, spiritual longings, etc. When a person is born-again what Adam lost is once again restored. The spiritual nature is reconnected to God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. A born-again person is given a new capacity to choose to follow the Spirit rather than the souls impulses or the temptations of the devil. That we will have a body governed only by Gods Spirit after the resurrection means we will no longer have to struggle against our fallen natures (Gal. 5:17; Ro. 7:1523). At last our bodies will be at peace with Gods will. Christ is the last Adam and He has reconnected us to God by making it possible for the Holy Spirit to live inside us. At the resurrection our new bodies will fully submit to the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:46
Verse 46: Wouldnt it be wonderful if believers were resurrected the moment they became Christians and didnt have to go through the process of aging and dying? Its very possible that those teachers in Corinth who were reinterpreting the Apostles teaching of the resurrection might have been claiming that Christians were already transformed and need not die if they just believed properly. Something like this must have been also the teaching in Thessalonica to which Paul responded by reminding them of the things that must happen first (2Th. 2:16). If his statement here in verse 46 is meant to correct Corinthian thinking, then the point he is making is to assert that there is an unavoidable order and timetable Christians must go through before we undergo resurrection. There is no short-cut. We still have to participate in the dying process we have inherited as part of Adams children. Yes, at some moment in the future the believers who are alive at the return of Christ will be instantly transformed and caught up into the air (1Co. 15:51, 52), but until that God-ordained time arrives Christians also must endure the weaknesses of our soulish bodies. The natural (soulish) season of earths history comes first until the moment God has appointed, and only then will we all put on our Holy Spirit-empowered, physical bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:47
Verse 47: Our present soulish bodies are all similar in nature to the first human, Adam. Adams body
was formed out of the dust of the earth (Ge. 2:7; 3:19), so our dying and returning to dust is an unavoidable process. As a result of disobeying God, Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden in order to prevent him or his offspring from eating from the tree of life which would have kept them physically alive forever (Ge. 3:2224). God did not want rebellious humanity living eternally. By placing their faith in Christ, believers are given eternal life immediately, and yet their bodies will not be substantively transformed until the return of Christ (v. 52). By the way, one of the blessings of our resurrected state will be unrestricted access to the tree of life (Rev. 22:1, 2). Verse 47 (continued): The second man refers to Christ who is portrayed by Paul as a second Adam, meaning the father of a new race of people. Adam fathered fallen humanity, but Christ has become the model of character and ministry to which all believers are conformed, beginning at conversion and continuing through all eternity (Ro. 8:29; Eph. 4:13, 15). By His dying and rising, Christ has become the spiritual father (not to be confused with God the Father) of believers who will one day have resurrected bodies just like His. Adam was made from dust, but Christ has come from heaven to reconcile us to God and fit us for citizenship in heaven.
Verse 48: Just as we have inherited bodies made out of dust (or loose soil) like that of Adam, we will inherit heavenly bodies (resurrected bodies) like our Lord who is now in heaven clothed in His resurrected body. Verse 49: Originally, God created Adam in His image (Ge. 1:26, 27), primarily meaning that Adam was a rational being. This meant that humans were persons capable of full person-to-person fellowship with God. This does not mean we were divine, but only capable of knowing and fellowshipping with God. When Adam rebelled, a tendency toward disobedience became inextricably joined to his nature and that of his offspring. As his children we share his image in several ways: we have his capacity for fellowship with God, yet we also have his tendency toward ungodly behavior. Just as sin eventually brought death to Adams body, so it brings death to ours. We share in the positive and negative aspects of his nature. Verse 49 (continued): When a person is born-again the negative aspects of Adams nature begin to reverse. By the placement of the Holy Spirit within us, we have again constant fellowship with God made possible and a new power which frees us from obeying the old compulsions to rebellion if we choose to draw upon it. As time passes we are increasingly conformed to the image of Christ (Ro. 8:29) in terms of our personality and behavior. The Holy Spirit within us continues to nurture and correct us toward this goal. However, our destiny as believers is to one day have all the negatives of Adams nature fall away, to be replaced by Christs obedient nature and a body resurrected just like His. On that day we will not be divine, but we will fully have His image.
Verse 50: The Corinthian leaders had better get something straight in their minds. The bodies they have right now are not capable of existing in the realities of the new heaven and earth (2Pe. 3:1013). Though there is some substantive relationship between these present bodies and those we will have following the resurrection (Jesus still had scars), God must miraculously transform them to exist eternally and to bear the impact of His undiluted glory (1Jn. 3:2; 1Co. 13:12). We will live in a heightened level of reality which will make this present existence seem shadowy by comparison. These perishable bodies of flesh and blood need to be miraculously reconstituted to live in that new world. Verse 51: Now Paul describes the moment when this miraculous reconstitution will take place. The truth he is about to tell them is a
mystery, meaning it is a truth God had not previously revealed in the Old Testament. In the next few verses Paul will describe the final great Day of the Lord to which Daniel and other prophets looked forward (Da. 7:2628; 12:13), but the details of the resurrection itself are a new revelation from God.
Verse 51 (continued): Paul reveals that there will be Christians who are still living on the earth at the moment of the Lords return and that these will never experience physical death. Next, he reveals that these people will be resurrected without having died first. Every believer must be resurrected to live in the new reality God has planned for us, so even those still alive when He comes will be resurrected on the spot. Verse 52: The transformation from our present bodies to resurrection bodies will happen in a split second as must have been the case in the garden tomb as Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Its not a lengthy process. It takes place instantaneously. Paul refers to the signal for this change to begin as the last trumpet. Jesus had made it clear that His return would be announced by angels with a great trumpet who sound the trumpet to call all His faithful to gather to Himself. Read Matthew 24:2931: Here believers respond to the call by coming on the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. This moment of rapture harmonizes with Pauls words in this verse (v. 52) and his words in 1 Thessalonians 4:1517. John further supports the picture of angelic trumpets announcing this moment, only he sees seven trumpets overall and when the seventh (or last) trumpet is sounded (Rev. 11:15) Gods undiluted judgment begins to fall on the earth, as He brings the old era of human history to a close.
Verse 52 (continued): Those dead who belong to Christ will be resurrected at this moment, while the unbelieving dead most likely will be resurrected later (Rev. 20:46; Jn. 5:28, 29). Those believers who had died prior to this were not waiting in unconscious sleep, but were awake in the presence of God (Php. 1:2124; 2Co. 5:6, 8, 9; Lk. 23:42, 43). At the trumpet their souls are rejoined to their resurrected bodies which then rise up from their graves to meet the Lord returning in the air. Immediately following the resurrection of the dead and their ascension into the sky to meet the Lord, those believers still alive will undergo their transformation and ascend to the Lord as well (1Th. 4:1517). It appears that after this resurrected multitude meets the Lord in the air they will return to the earth with Him in triumph (Rev. 19:1116; 1Th. 4:14; Da. 7:18, 27). Verse 53: Speaking of our bodies, Paul says that in order for us to take part in the new reality of life which will include a remaking of the physical universe (2Pt. 3:7, 10, 13; Ro. 8:1923; Rev. 21:1), we must be composed of new material. We must have bodies that no longer break down, decay or die. Verse 54: Paul says this great moment of transformation he is describing is the final undoing of the curse of sin. The prophet Hosea had warned the northern ten tribes of Israel (called Ephraim here) that because of their persistent rebellion to God they would experience the violent death brought on by war (Hos. 13:1214). This type of prophetic warning was a common theme and came to pass in bitter experience throughout Israels history. Paul uses Hoseas sad pronouncement to declare that this terrible cycle of death resulting from human sin (which began in the Garden of Eden, Ge. 2:17; 3:1724) is finally over forever.
Verses 54, 55: Using the reverse of Hoseas warning, Paul says at the moment of the resurrection of the
dead and the rapture of the living church, death, which had brought down every living being except Christ, will lose its hold forever. Nothing is said here one way or another about animals, but as far as human life is concerned, all will be rescued from slavery to death. As we have seen earlier (15:14) even the unregenerate will be resurrected from death, but this will not save them from eternal judgment. In a battle with death, Christ, by virtue of His perfectly obedient life, could not be held in the grave. Our sin allowed Him to die in the first place, but His righteousness was so great it outweighed the moral offense the human race had made against the Father. His purity and obedience was so great it was of more value than the debt we owed, so death lost its hold on Him, and we were now paid fordeath lost its hold on us as well. The last statement in verse 55 is where is your sting? The word sting literally means a goad or sharp stick used to poke animals to drive them. Death no longer will drive us with a sharp stick like an animal (Rev. 20:14).
1 Corinthians 15:56
Verse 56: As we noted in verse 54, the underlying reason death exists is rebellion against God. God did not originally design death as a part of human existence. Had Adam and Eve not rebelled against God they would not have died. But they did rebel and so has every one of their offspring. This brought death to every human, but somehow it also brought death to the rest of creation as well. When Adam sinned, God said even animals and the ground would be cursed (Ge. 3:14, 17, 18; Ro. 8:1922; 2Pe. 3:13). So rebellion against God (sin) is the instrument (sharp-pointed stick) which has been used to herd us all into the grave. Sin is the reason death has such power, and sin rises up in our hearts whenever God tells us not to do something we want to do. When Paul says the power of sin is the law he means Gods commands to us. The law for Adam and Eve was only one simple command: from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat (Ge. 2:17). By the time God gave the law to Moses He handed out over six hundred commands in order to do damage control by trying to guide Israel into godly behavior. The number of commands is not the issue; however, it is our human response to anything God tells us that we dont like: we rebel. In this way, Gods law does not cause sin, but exposes the defiant tendencies of our hearts and leaves a judicial record of our deliberate acts of disobedience (Ro. 4:15; 7:5, 714). When God examines our lives we are left without excuse and are justly condemned to death.
Verse 57: Up until Christs death and resurrection it appeared that death would hold onto the human race forever. No one had permanently escaped the grave, and so it seemed that our sin had given death the victory. But God amazingly defeated death by sending His Son to suffer the judgment due the human race and then to allow His righteousness to outweigh all that sin and qualify Him to be resurrected from the dead. When death lost its grip on Christ, it lost its grip on all those who He made righteous (perfectly obedient). Through Christ God gave those who love Him victory in the battle with death (Ro. 6:410). Verse 58: The knowledge that Christ has ultimately freed us from death and that a wonderful resurrection life awaits us ought to strengthen believers in our resolve when facing persecution or other hardships. Rather than caving in to pressure such as the Corinthians had been doing, we ought to remember that no matter how bad things get, the good things God has prepared for us vastly outweigh them (Php. 3:814). The resurrection ought to make us unwilling to compromise or back down from the truth about Christ. It ought to make us happy to pay the price of moral restraint. It ought to energize us to serve the Lord
tirelessly knowing that He will eternally reward us for our faithfulness.
1 Corinthians 16:1
Verse 1: Paul has now finished his discussion of the resurrection, but before he closes his letter he still needs to answer two more questions addressed to him by the Corinthians (16:1, 12). As he has done repeatedly, he notes that he is answering their questions by the words, now concerning (7:1, 25; 8:1; 12:1). Apparently, they asked for guidance on how to go about collecting money to help the poor in Jerusalem. The number of Christians in Jerusalem had grown very large, but they were also very poor. Exactly why this is so is not certain, but it likely resulted from several sources: A great famine had occurred nine years earlier (46 A.D.) (Ac. 11:2730); there were many widows needing support (Ac. 6:1); and I would suppose that believers were frequently disinherited and refused employment in retaliation for being baptized as Christians. Such passages as Acts 12:13 and 21:2731 indicate an environment of religious abuse toward Christians that continued over these decades. In addition to wanting to respond to the poverty itself, Paul wanted to strengthen the relational bond between converted Jews and Gentiles. Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah often tended to be skeptical that Gentiles could really come to God without first becoming Jews and such an expression of Christ-like love would go a long way to melting this down (2Co. 9:1214). He also believed the Gentiles owed the Jews a deep debt for the central role they had played in Gods plan of salvation (Ro. 15:26, 27; Gal. 2:810). Helping the poor in Jerusalem was a debt of love owed by one part of the Body of Christ to another (2Co. 8:1315).
Verse 1 (continued): From his wording in this verse we can recognize that Paul is also gathering this collection from many other Gentile churches which he had planted. The churches of central Asia Minor (or Galatia) would contribute, as would the churches of northern and central Greece (Ro. 15:26). And the procedure for collecting and handling the money donated is a standard policy Paul wished them all to follow. Verse 2: The first day of a week means Sunday which is the day the early church often gathered for worship (Ac. 20:7; Rev. 1:10). Though this was the day they gathered, it is important to keep in mind that they did not simply move the Jewish Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. As far as Paul is concerned, the requirement of observing a Sabbath day passed away with the Old Testament ceremonial law (Col. 2:16, 17; Gal. 4:911). So, in this verse Paul is asking the Corinthian believers to set aside a financial gift each Sunday as part of their worship to the Lord. The way Paul states this in the Greek sounds like a person would be saving the money at home rather than bringing it to religious leaders. There is no set amount required or percentage on this gift, the person is expected to give from the amount left over after essential needs were met each week. How much is given depends on the faith and generosity of each persons heart (2Co. 9:511).
Verse 2 (continued): The last statement Paul makes in this verse is quite remarkable. He insists that no offerings will be taken once he personally arrives in Corinth. This is surprising because it differs from the common way money would be raised in modern times. One would expect Paul to give strong emotional appeals for money once he got into town. His presence could surely stimulate giving, but Paul insists that it be an unmanipulated reflection of their hearts toward God. Paul himself would not handle the money at
all. Verse 3: Being careful to avoid any opportunity for accusations of greed or dishonesty to be made against him, Paul directs the Corinthians to appoint trusted members of their church to carry the funds to Jerusalem (2Co. 8:20, 21). Its possible Paul may not even accompany them on their journey, instead sending them with letters to the leaders of the Jerusalem church explaining who these Corinthian representatives were and why the gift was being presented.
Verse 4: Paul will accompany the team sent from Corinth to Jerusalem if it appears to be necessary at the time, but he clearly views it as their gift to the poor, not his. This is not to say that he doesnt care that the Corinthian are faithful to fulfill the promise they had made originally (2Co. 8:10; 9:35). In fact, his focus is more on the spiritual health of the Corinthians as it is expressed in their giving than the sum they finally raise (2Co. 8:7, 8, 12, 24; 9:511). Their generosity will show their love for Christ and His people, and will also reflect their faith in God as their provider (2Co. 8:8; 9:6). Verse 5: Paul is writing his letter to the Corinthians from the city of Ephesus (16:8) which lies on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea. He realizes the Corinthians are doing poorly and need some serious help, so he is trying to make plans to travel north along the west coast of Asia Minor and across to Philippi in northern Greece (Macedonia). The northern churches are also taking up an offering for Jerusalem and he plans to visit these churches on his way down to Corinth.
1 Corinthians 16:6
Verse 6: Pauls travel plans that he describes here are also recorded in Acts 19:21, 22. The passage in Acts says that he sent Timothy and Erastus (a man who had been the city treasurer of Corinth but now traveled with Paul; Ro. 16:23) on ahead of him while he remained in Ephesus. If you read Acts 19:2341 you will see some of the persecution Paul encountered before leaving for Corinth. In Acts 20:13 we learn that Paul did travel through northern Greece (Macedonia) as he proposed in his letter (16:5), but only stayed three months in Corinth rather than the winter. When he tried to sail back to Israel to deliver the money collected, he was informed of a plot to place assassins on board his ship and he changed his plans, going back to northern Greece on foot and sailing to Israel from there. Next week we will see that many more events took place for Paul than these brief descriptions tell us.
1 Corinthians 16:6
Pauls travel plans as described here in First Corinthians 16:59 and what is recorded in the Book of Acts are consistent with one another. However, when we turn to Second Corinthians it appears that a number of significant events took place between the writing of First Corinthians and Pauls arrival in Corinth to pick up their financial gift for Jerusalem. When we try to reconstruct what took place from his comments scattered through Second Corinthians, heres what probably took place: When the Corinthian church received this letter (First Corinthians) they rebelled against Paul and Timothy (who had arrived shortly before the letter). When Timothy got word back to Paul, who was still in Ephesus, he decided to go immediately to Corinth by ship. Unfortunately, his surprise arrival did not produce the repentance he hoped for, but turned out to be a humiliating confrontation with the false leaders who defied his authority and publicly declared he was unfit to be a spiritual leader. Paul left Corinth in sorrow and travelled north, after telling them he would come back again and sail from there to Israel. After visiting the Macedonian
(northern Greece) churches, he could not bring himself to return to Corinth (1:23; 2:1) and instead went directly back to Ephesus (1:1723). Probably as part of his notifying the Corinthians that he would not travel back through Corinth on his way to Ephesus, Paul wrote a confrontational letter demanding that the main leader who opposed him be disciplined by the church. He sent this letter off with Titus and then returned to Ephesus (2:3, 4; 12:18).
1 Corinthians 16:6
After setting things in order in Ephesus so he could leave, he travelled back to Macedonia (2:12, 13; Ac. 20:1, 2), picking up their financial gifts for Jerusalem along with church representatives to see that the money was transported safely and honestly. Titus found Paul there and gave him the good report that the Corinthian church had repented and disciplined the rebellious leader (2:611; 7:516). The first nine chapters of Second Corinthians show Pauls relief at Titus news, but his tone changes dramatically at chapter ten. At this point in time he must have received another disturbing report. Judging by what he writes in these chapters, apparently a new group of false leaders had arrived in town and had levelled fresh attacks on him personally. They must have been Jewish Christians and probably came originally from Jerusalem (11:22). They tried to undermine his influence in the church so they could gain control, and with it, financial support. Chapters 1013 of Second Corinthians record Pauls defense of his right to be an apostle, and warn that he is coming back to Corinth a third time to personally confront those who are trying to take the church away from his teaching (12:14; 13:1, 2, 10). His third and final arrival in Corinth is the one recorded in Acts 20:13 and planned in First Corinthians 16:6. (For a discussion of these events see: F.F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, New Century Bible, pp. 164170, 1971.)
1 Corinthians 16:69
Verse 6: As we have just seen Pauls plans to travel through Macedonia, then to spend the winter in Corinth, and from there to sail to Israel were sadly interrupted by trouble in the church. He did in fact take their gift to Jerusalem, but not before a series of highly emotional exchanges (Ac. 20:36). Verse 7: Paul did not get his wish of a prolonged, peaceful visit, but as weve seen, he had a lot of contact with Corinth. Verses 8, 9: Paul had wanted to devote more time to the region around Ephesus because the Holy Spirit was moving powerfully on these people and great numbers were being saved (Ac. 19:1720, 26, 27). This is what he means by a wide door for effective service has opened to me. He also mentions here and there are many adversaries. Acts 19:2341 describes at least some of the adversaries to which hes referring.
Verse 10: Just prior to writing this letter we call First Corinthians, Paul had sent Timothy, his young assistant, to investigate first-handed what was happening in that church and to correct what he could (1Co. 4:17; Php. 2:1923). The problem was that Timothy was younger in a society where authority went with age (1Ti. 4:12) and he tended to be less confrontational than Paul (2Ti. 1:7). So, Paul is sending this letter on after Timothy and here he tells the Corinthians to treat Timothy with respect and not to frighten him. Considering what weve seen of their treatment of Paul (comments on 16:6), he had good reason to be concerned for Timothy. Undoubtedly, Timothy did walk into a hostile situation, and when Pauls letter (First Corinthians) arrived in Corinth the rebellion exploded. Verse 11: Timothys youth and gentle ways
could cause him to be despised by the rude leaders in Corinth. The Corinthians had grown hostile toward each other (1:1012) let alone outsiders, so Paul is rightfully worried about the treatment Timothy would receive there. Nothing is said of how he was treated, but its reasonable to assume that he was the one who brought a report so alarming to Paul that Paul modified all his plans and went straight to Corinth. Pauls words for I expect him with the brethren seems to imply a warning that Timothy had better arrive safely with some scheduled group of brothers. Paul may be concerned for his young assistants safety.
1 Corinthians 16:12
Verse 12: Once more Paul uses the words now concerning, which indicates that the Corinthians had asked when Apollos could minister in Corinth again. Apparently, he is a favorite among many there (1:12; 3:46, 21, 22; Ac. 18:2419:1). Paul is being harshly criticized because he wont tolerate the immorality, doctrinal distortions or selfishness going on in the church, but Apollos is still popular. His popularity must have been the result of his absence, for he would not have approved of what was going on any more than Paul. In fact, when he heard that the Corinthians wanted Apollos to come there, Paul encouraged him greatly, but Apollos firmly refused. Paul must have had confidence in Apollos ministry, but very likely Apollos didnt want to stop doing effective evangelism to get in the middle of Corinths infighting. The fact that Paul was more than willing to deal with Corinths pain and sin shows the depth of his love for them and his commitment to them as their founding pastor.
1 Corinthians 16:13
Verse 13: Beginning with this verse, Paul moves to his final remarks as he closes the letter. He gives a series of rapid-fire exhortations meant to encourage them to move forward on his instructions to them. First, he tells them to be spiritually alert to what is happening in Corinth. Jesus used the same word to instruct His disciples to keep spiritually ready at any time to answer to Gods judgment (Mt. 24:42). A Christian should never forget the Lord is coming again and that we will account to Him in every area of our lives. This should produce zeal in serving Him and a caution toward disobedience. Next, he tells them to remain committed to the essential elements of the gospel as he had taught it to them (15:14, 58). They had begun to walk away from some foundational truths, such as the physical resurrection of Christ and believers, and they had been compromising themselves by returning to pagan temples. They need to stand still in the Christianity they had begun in as a church. Verse 13 (continued): Pauls next encouragement is for them to have the courage to stand up to persecution like a brave soldier in battle. They are to have the courage to face the assault rather than run from it like a frightened child. This is a particularly important admonition since many of the problems in Corinth have to do with trying to accommodate Christianity to their Greek culture so they wont have to face persecution. Paul is asking them to fearlessly live like Christians even if that means arousing hostility from their society.
Verse 13 (continued): This verse holds one more exhortation: He tells the Corinthians to be strong. The word he uses implies taking hold of something and not letting go, and is used in the New Testament to describe holding onto gifts of the Spirit (Eph. 3:16; Lk. 1:80; 2:40). Since Paul has just asked the Corinthians to fearlessly obey Christ even in the face of persecution, it would seem appropriate that he next tell them
to lay hold of the power of the Spirit and not let go. This will be their source of strength to endure the hardships that may result from standing firm. Verse 14: Sadly, the Corinthian church is proof that people can function in the Spirits gifts of power and yet be very immature and unloving. Pauls words here, Let all that you do be done in love, is the solution to many of the problems he addresses in this letter. If they would choose to follow the guidelines of selfless love in everything they did, the church would be transformed from a proud, divisive group into a healthy fellowship. Love would melt down their divisions (1:10); eliminate strife and jealousy (3:3); stop lawsuits against each other (6:1); heal marriages (7:116); cease offending those with weak consciences (8:113; 10:2333); resolve tension between men and women in worship (11:216); motivate them to care for the poor (11:21, 22); cause the church to value Gods gifts in each believer (12:21, 26); make their ministries acceptable to God (13:113); bring proper functioning of the Spirits gifts in their worship services (14:1, 26); and insure the monies were joyfully donated for the poor in Jerusalem.
1 Corinthians 16:15
Verse 15: Starting in verse 13 Paul closes his letter with a series of commands meant to remind the Corinthians of important points he has made, and to encourage them to obey. These next four verses (1518) are centered around one more exhortation from Paul. The heart of the problem in Corinth is that certain men have proclaimed themselves leaders of the church. These are proud men who have had the audacity to teach the people to lower their moral standards and to change essential elements of Christian beliefs so that they would face less ridicule and hostility from the Greek culture around them. In order to gain control, they have had to undermine the respect the people held for Paul. They have constantly looked for ways to put Paul in a bad light, so they can take the church in another direction. Basically, its a power struggle for the hearts and minds of the Corinthian church and rather than run away from it, Paul is facing it head-on. He urges the Corinthians to not follow the self-anointed leaders, but to submit to a man who has remained loyal to him. Stephanus and his family were some of the very first converts of Pauls ministry in Corinth, and as such would have had him as their pastor for the first year and a half of their Christian lives. They were solidly grounded from the beginning. They stepped out and began preaching the gospel and pastoring believers as soon as they were able. These are the kind of faithful people every pastor loves: People who drink in what they are taught and then, without ambitious ego-needs, serve the Lord faithfully.
Verse 16: Stephanus and two other men, Fortunatus and Achaicus (who may be members of his family), have traveled from Corinth to Ephesus to talk with their pastor about the troubles at home. Paul may hand this letter (First Corinthians) to Stephanus to carry back to Corinth and to read aloud to the church as soon as he has finished it. With this verse Paul is instructing those still loyal to him in Corinth to follow the leadership of Stephanus and those like him who continue to preach the gospel and care for people the way in which he taught them. Quite simply, Paul is telling the church who they should trust as leaders and who they should not. He does not mention the names of the false leaders, but everyone in Corinth will know exactly who it is that Paul has rejected by declaring Stephanus and those like him as leaders. Verse 17: Here Paul tells the Corinthian church that Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus have supplied what was lacking on your part. I believe Paul is primarily referring to gifts of financial support. Pauls policy was
to refuse to take any financial support from the city where he was ministering so that no one could question his motives for preaching the gospel. He would not let them think he was one more religious professional who used spiritual matters to make a living. He proclaimed Gods free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and he wanted people to see Gods heart. In fact, he would find a job sewing tents to support himself (and those working with him) whenever necessary. However, he would allow established churches to send him financial support when he was evangelizing in other cities. This released him to preach and teach full-time. In Philippians 2:2530 and 4:1019 we see that church sending Paul such a financial gift to care for him while he is in prison. 2 Corinthians 11:79 and 12:13-18 show Paul discussing his financial procedures with the Corinthians. The false leaders criticized him for not taking collections when he preached, stating that he didnt support himself the way true apostles were supposed to (Lk. 9:16; 10:19). At any rate, the Corinthian church had lately sent little or nothing to help Paul, until Stephanus recent arrival.
1 Corinthians 16:18
Verse 18: Financial gifts from churches he had planted represented more to Paul than just needed funds. He had a fatherly interest in the spiritual health of each congregation and it brought him joy and encouragement to see believers sacrificially give to evangelize the lost. It meant they were generous and concerned about the salvation of people beyond their own circle of family and friends. To see these qualities in Christians, and to receive representatives from churches bringing love and prayers must have meant much more than the money itself. Paul says it refreshed or rested his spirit. Verse 18 (continued): Paul also reminds the Corinthians that Stephanus and those with him were ministers who had faithfully been working to refresh their spiritual lives for years. He wants them to remember the character and fruitful service of these men, so that these will be the men the church follows rather than those who have risen up and seized control by the force of their personalities. He wants them to recognize that Stephanus, and those like him, had produced good fruit, as opposed to the fruit of the other leaders (Mt. 7:1523).
1 Corinthians 16:19
Verse 19: At the time Paul wrote, Asia was the Roman province which covered the western third of Asia Minor (Turkey). Acts 18:1821 describe Paul, along with Priscilla and Aquila, arriving in Ephesus. Paul did not stay in Ephesus at that time, but left Priscilla and her husband Aquila, to settle there and continue evangelizing. Paul would later return and spend a total of three years in the city (Ac. 20:31). From Ephesus evangelists traveled out into other parts of the province planting churches in other cities such as: Troas (2Co. 2:12, 13); Colossae; Laodicea and Hieropolis (Col. 4:13, 15, 16). Forty years later, John will mention more churches in Asia: Smyrna (Rev. 2:8); Pergamum (Rev. 2:12); Thyatira (Rev. 2:18); Sardis (Rev. 3:1) and Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7). How many of these were in existence when Paul wrotewe dont know, but probably several. By saying, the churches of Asia greet you, Paul is able to communicate with Corinth that, while they may be questioning his authority, the churches of Asia were all looking to him as their apostle and send their greetings along with his.
1 Corinthians 16:19
Verse 19 (continued): Aquila and Prisca (short for Priscilla) had lived in Corinth before coming to Ephesus, (and Rome before Corinth) (Ac. 18:13). The evangelism of Corinth had been headquartered in their house, so their names mentioned in support of Paul will further remind the Corinthians of the healthy
leaders they have had in the past. In fact, it was Priscilla and Aquila who had prayed for Apollos to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Ac. 18:2428) just before he had come to Corinth, and Apollos was still very popular with them. With Apollos (1Co. 16:12), Priscilla & Aquila (16:19), and Stephanus (16:17) all showing their respect for Pauls leadership, it must have caused some of the church members in Corinth to ask themselves how it was that they were openly challenging Pauls authority.
Verse 19 (continued): Aquila and Prisca are now located in Ephesus doing the same kind of foundational work for the church there that they had done in Corinth. Undoubtedly, they have opened a tent-making business, and bought as large a house as they could afford which would serve as a meeting-place for the new church in the city. Together, with Paul, they pastor the new believers who gather in their home. After the church is well established in Ephesus, this couple will move back to Rome (two or three years later) where they will host another house church (Ro. 16:35). At the end of Pauls life (12 years later) they will again be in Ephesus (2Ti. 4:19). Whether they are living there or just visiting to do ministry is unclear, but when all these glimpses of Aquila and Prisca are put together they reveal a couple who played a major role in establishing the early church. Verse 20: All the brothers may refer to the large body of Christians in Ephesus, or it may mean the rest of Pauls traveling companions who are known to the Corinthians; we dont know who is with Paul at this time other than Sosthenes (1:1) and possibly Titus (2Co. 2:13). Verse 20 (continued): Holding someones face and kissing their cheek was an ancient Jewish greeting for family and close friends (Ge. 27:26; 1Sa. 20:41; Lk. 15:20). Paul encouraged Christians to think of each other as family, so this instruction for them to greet each other like a Jewish family is meant to deepen their commitment to each other.
1 Corinthians 16:21
Verse 21: Paul did not sit down and write out his letters, instead he would dictate while someone tried to write fast enough to keep up with him. Then, when he came to the last few statements of the letter he would write these in his own handwriting which served not only as a personal touch, but as a way of identifying which letters were authentically his (Ro. 16:22; Gal. 6:11; Col. 4:18; 2Th. 3:17; Phm. 1:19). It was not out of the question that some persons might try to influence a congregation by falsely signing Pauls name to a letter he had not written (2Th. 2:2). Pauls handwriting was unusually large and quite recognizable, so Paul wrote out the last statements himself so it would be harder to forge his letters (Gal. 6:11).
1 Corinthians 16:22
Verse 22: This statement has the frightening quality of a curse. The false leaders in Corinth are not just overzealous and immature. They are hypocrites who are using Christianity to exploit people and if the people follow them, these leaders will take them to hell with them. Jesus had bluntly said, If you love Me, you will keep my commandments (Jn. 14:15), so by their refusal to accept basic Christian morality and doctrine, the false leaders in Corinth had proven they didnt love Jesus. If these leaders refused to repent and stayed on their ungodly course, then their final eternal condition would be anathema: remaining under Gods judgment, they will be cast away from Him at the Judgment. In Galatians 1:69 Paul pronounces the same verdict on those who were perverting the gospel there. Verse 22 (continued): To give
even greater emphasis to his warning, Paul utters two Aramaic (a common dialect of Hebrew spoken at that time in Israel) words, which mean either, Our Lord has come! or Come, O Lord! If the meaning is Come, O Lord! Paul is setting his dire warning of anathema directly against a Jewish prayer for the Day of the Lord to come quickly. The false leaders will one day answer to the Lord Jesus when He comes again to judge all humans (2Co. 5:10).
Verse 23: Against the backdrop of such a warning, Paul turns his attention to the believers in Corinth. Though there are false leaders trying to take them away from the sound Christianity they were taught, most would still love the Lord. Paul opened his letter to them by praying for Gods grace to be on them (1:3) and now he closes it with the same prayer. Their actions would qualify them for punishment, but Paul prays God will be merciful to them and draw them back to Himself. This abundant grace (undeserved kindness) is possible because of what the Lord Jesus had done for them on the cross. Verse 24: In case anyone in Corinth wondered how Paul still felt about them, he settles that matter with his final words, My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus. In fact, if he didnt love them he wouldnt be so upset by their present spiritual directions. This Corinthian church would go on to wound Paul terribly, but he never abandoned them. He loved them with love that is patient and kind does not take into account a wrong suffered bears all things endures all things [and] never fails (13:48).

1 Corinthians

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The Book of First Corinthians

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

that would usually be the case.

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell

1999 Written by Dr. C. Stevens Schell