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CHAPTER 1
UNITY IN THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 1-4; 16
EDITOR'S NOTE: This study of the letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians does not run straight through the letters from beginning to end. In order to bring greater clarity to the material, Dr. Blair has chosen to deal with material from the end of several of the letters out of sequence and earlier in the study.
DIMENSION ONE: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Answer these questions by reading 1 Corinthians 16
1. Where is Paul at the time of writing this letter, and what are his future plans? (16:1-11)
Paul is at Ephesus. He plans to journey to Corinth via Macedonia, leaving after Pentecost, and to remain in Corinth for a considerable time (perhaps over the winter). After arriving in Corinth, he will send a Corinthian delegation to Jerusalem with money for the church there and possibly go himself.
2. What does Paul desire the Corinthians to be and do until his arrival? (16:1-18)
Paul tells them to take up an offering weekly for the Jerusalem Christians. They are to receive Timothy graciously, respect his authority, and send him back to Paul. They are to respect their own leaders, including the three-person delegation. They are to cultivate certain spiritual qualities: watchfulness, tenacity, courage, and love.
Answer these questions by reading 1 Corinthians 1:1–2:5
3. What does Paul say about himself and about the church at Corinth in the opening greeting? (1:1-2)
Paul says that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus through divine appointment. He is joined in the writing of this letter by a Christian brother, Sosthenes. Paul speaks of the church at Corinth as "the church of God," as "those sanctified in Christ Jesus," and "called to be ... holy." He indicates that the Corinthian church is part of a widespread Christian community.
4. What are the Corinthians quarreling about, and what is Paul's attitude toward their quarrel? (1:10-17)
Rival groups in the church are claiming superiority for different leaders — Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ — and in their dissension are destroying the unity of the church. Paul is horrified that Christians should divide around different leaders and thus split up Christ.
5. Who are the advocates of the wisdom of the world? (1:18-20)
The wise man, the scholar, and the philosopher of this age, according to Paul, are advocates of the wisdom of the world.
6. What is wrong with their attitudes and spirit? (1:18-23)
Those who are advocates of the wisdom of the world arrogantly regard the preaching of the cross as "foolishness," demand "signs," and seek "wisdom." They do not believe the Christian preaching about Christ.
7. What is the result of their preoccupation with human wisdom? (1:21)
Human wisdom does not bring them knowledge of God.
8. What attitude do the Christians have toward the preaching of a crucified Savior? (1:21, 29)
They believe in Jesus Christ and humbly accept God's way of salvation.
9. What results have come to them from believing in such a Savior? (1:18, 21, 24, 30)
They have experienced God's power, salvation, wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
10. Through what kind of words, concepts, and persons is the gospel properly proclaimed? (2:1-5)
The gospel is properly proclaimed in simple words. The gospel deals only with the crucified Jesus Christ and is announced by one who relies on the power (Spirit) of God, not on his or her own ability.
Answer these questions by reading 1 Corinthians 2:6–3:23
11. By what terms does Paul describe the condition of the Corinthians? (3:1-4)
Paul describes them as "worldly ... infants in Christ ... mere humans."
12. What three metaphors are used to explain who the Corinthians are in relation to God, Paul, and Apollos? (3:9, 16)
Paul uses the metaphors "God's field," "God's building," and "God's temple" to show who the Corinthians are.
13. What ideas in 1 Corinthians 1–3 are summarized in 3:18-23?
The following ideas are summarized in these verses: the foolishness and futility of the wisdom of this world; the inappropriateness of arrogant attachment to human leaders; God's desire to enrich believers through various persons, through the universe and its processes, and through Christ.
Answer these questions by reading 1 Corinthians 4
14. Why is it wrong to judge others? (4:1-5; see also Matthew 7:1-5)
Judging the motives and stewardship of God's servants is the Lord's (Christ's) prerogative, not ours, and will be carried out when Christ comes again.
15. How do the attitudes of the Corinthians compare with the attitudes of the apostles? (4:8-13)
The Corinthians are boasting about the gifts they have received and are acting, in their self-indulgence, like kings. The apostles are humbly suffering for the sake of Christ and others — being "fools for Christ."
DIMENSION TWO: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN?
Background
Our First Corinthians is not the first letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, as 1 Corinthians 5:9 clearly shows. The letter mentioned there is lost. A letter between our First and Second Corinthians seems to be referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:1-4 and 7:8, 12. It too is lost. And our Second Corinthians may consist of two letters (see lesson 6, dimension 2).
Thus, Paul may have written five letters to that troubled church. Paul was determined that the Corinthian "infants in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1) should "become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
Paul's agony had a double source: his own situation in Ephesus, as well as the trouble in Corinth and possibly in other churches.
In 1 Corinthians 16:9, Paul speaks of his many adversaries at Ephesus, and in 15:32, of having "fought wild beasts in Ephesus." The "beasts" probably were the silversmiths of Ephesus, whose business in silver shrines of Artemis was threatened by Paul's mission (Acts 19:23–20:1). As a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25-29), Paul would hardly have been subjected to an ordeal involving actual wild animals. The metaphor effectively indicates the ferocity of his opponents and probably serves to explain his utter despair and his brush with death there (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).
Possibly an imprisonment, nowhere specifically mentioned in our sources, occurred at Ephesus (note the "been in prison more frequently" of 2 Corinthians 11:23). Some scholars believe that Paul's prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon) were written at Ephesus, rather than at Rome. If so, the care of many churches lay on his heart when he was in Ephesus. His grief over the bickering and downright immoralities of the Corinthian Christians, on top of everything else, must have made his cup of suffering almost undrinkable.
In the attempt to help the Corinthians with their problems — knowledge of which had come to him through "some from Chloe's household" (1 Corinthians 1:11), a letter from the Corinthians (7:1), and reports brought by a three-person Corinthian delegation (16:17-18) — Paul sent Timothy (via Macedonia) to assist them. (We do not know if Timothy ever got to Corinth.) Also, Paul wrote our First Corinthians and probably sent it by the three-person delegation. As nearly as we can tell, he wrote this letter about AD 54.
Corinth
The divisions in the church at Corinth had deep roots in the political, economic, religious, and social life of the city.
In addition to its political importance — re-founded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and made the capital of the province of Achaia — Corinth was a bustling commercial center. Trans-shipping cargoes across the nearby isthmus, warehouse storage, banking, temple traffic (sale of artifacts and sacrificial meat, healing baths, religious prostitution), factories, shops, tourism, and business travel all contributed to the wealth of the city.
Corinth's religious life centered on worship of the old Greek gods and recently introduced exotic foreign deities imported from the East, along with the practice of astrology and magic.
As a Roman colony not subject to taxation, Corinth's citizens enjoyed a large degree of independence. Cultural activities flourished. Philosophers and teachers, both native and foreign, offered to their disciples learning and skills as keys to success in life. Professional people abounded. Slaves, though numerous, were often well educated and had legal rights. Upward mobility, regardless of national origin, was possible. Competition in business, religion, politics, and sports ran high; the latter whetted by the renowned biennial games held at nearby Isthmia. Corinth had a "do your own thing" culture, where unity and conformity were largely disdained.
The high individualism at Corinth naturally led to preferring different Christian leaders. All these leaders had somewhat different understandings of the gospel and the requirements of discipleship. Paul recognized the differing perspectives of the leaders, but he viewed them as God's way of enriching the Corinthians, not as threats to Christian unity.
What the different parties in the church stood for is not clear. The Paul group may have stood for salvation by faith alone (apart from merit through obedience to law) in Christ crucified and resurrected for our sins (1 Corinthians 2:2-5; Romans 4:25). The Apollos group may have delighted in that preacher's intellectualism and rhetoric, and stressed human logic and eloquence as the essential requirements of Christian preaching. The Peter group may have been impressed with Peter's superior status as an apostle of Jesus and insisted, with this great apostle, that Jewish Christians must observe the requirements of the Jewish law. The Christ group may have rejected the exaltation of human leaders and favored life under the direct control of Christ and the Spirit (see 2 Corinthians 10:7).
Whether or not the church had four distinct groups with differing theologies, the whole church was clearly overemphasizing human knowledge and the freedom in the realm of conduct that knowledge brings. Arrogant human wisdom lay at the bottom of their divisions and of most of the problems Paul treats in First Corinthians.
In handling the problem of divisions, Paul addresses two underlying misconceptions about the basic nature of Christianity and about the proper function of Christian ministers.
1 Corinthians 1:12-17.Cephas and Peter are identical in meaning ("rock"), the former being Aramaic and the latter Greek. Christ is Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah. Christ rapidly became a part of the name of the new faith's Lord, "Jesus Christ."
These verses show that Paul believes Christianity is neither sectarian nor sacramentarian in character.
The Messiah and his people (Messiah's body) were regarded by Paul as an inseparable unity. To split up Messiah, whose function was the unification of humanity in the new citizenry of the kingdom of God, would defeat the whole purpose of God in the work of salvation.
In sacramentarian religion, leaders (priests) are water pipes through which divine grace and power are communicated to their followers. The special rites administered by them allow the divine grace and power to flow through the priests to the worshipers. Thus, the priests stand between the deity and the worshipers as mediators.
For Paul the leaders are signposts pointing to a reality beyond themselves: a personal relationship between the deity and the worshipers — a relationship affected, not by rites and ceremonies directed by proper persons, but by faith (trust) in God and in God's representative (Jesus) and by obedience to God's will. The leader is thus a preacher, a proclaimer of the good news, not an intermediary.
We can now understand Paul's subordination of baptism to the preaching of the gospel. That he valued baptism is evident from such passages as Romans 6:3-4 and Colossians 2:12. Probably all early Christians were baptized. But Paul seems to have held that unless baptism was preceded by preaching about God's deed in Jesus Christ, especially in his cross and resurrection, and by the response of believing acceptance on the part of the hearer, baptism would have no meaning. Paul's position is plain from the fact that he mostly left the work of baptizing to his assistants, as verses 14-16 here show.
1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5. You can treat this section effectively by contrasting on a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper what Paul says about the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. Line up the contrasts in parallel columns.
Add any more contrasts you and class members may discover.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Paul next tries to describe the wisdom of God in some detail. You can look at this section through the following outline:
1. The source of wisdom — God (2:7);
2. The nature of wisdom — "a mystery that has been hidden" (2:7), yet understandable by the "mature" (adults, not infants [3:1]), though not by "the rulers of this age" (2:6) who crucified Jesus (Pilate, the Jewish authorities, the demonic principles and powers mentioned in Romans 8:38; Galatians 4:3, 8-9; Colossians 2:15);
3. The objective of wisdom — the eternal enrichment and blessedness of humankind (2:7, 9, 12);
4. The method of disclosing wisdom — the Holy Spirit, who reveals the hidden purposes of God (2:10-12);
5. The manner of communicating wisdom (to those who are spiritually receptive) — "words taught by the Spirit," in spiritual language (2:13-15).
In some of the mystery religions of Paul's time, people who were initiated by baptism and other rites were called "the mature." They were then "in the know" about the secret teachings and experiences of their new faith. Paul borrows the term and applies it to Christians who have come to understand "God's wisdom" (2:7).
"The rulers of this age" who crucified "the Lord of glory" (2:8) may be Pilate and the Jewish authorities; but, if so, Paul undoubtedly viewed them as instruments of the demonic powers whom Christ defeated through the cross (Colossians 2:15).
The New Testament often mentions the activity of the Holy Spirit in revealing to believers God's truth (2:10; also Luke 2:26; John 14:26; 16:13; Ephesians 3:4-5).
In 2:13-16, Paul speaks of two kinds of people: the unspiritual and the spiritual. The first are people who live according to what they naturally are, apart from any outside help. The second accept God's Spirit and live out of God's strength and help. The former live a "worldly" existence (1 Corinthians 3:1), whether they indulge their natural impulses (Galatians 5:16-24) or curb them in a moralistic pattern of life, as Paul did (Philippians 3:2-6). The unspiritual (natural) person is thus one without the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual person is one who possesses the Holy Spirit.
The latter is able to apprehend inwardly profound divine truths and can communicate these truths to others who possess the Spirit. "Words taught by the Spirit" and "Spirit-taught words" (2:13) speak of a spiritual language for this communication. This language cannot mean "tongues" of the type Paul speaks of later (12:10, 28; 13:1; 14); he says that "tongues" are not given to all Spirit-filled Christians but only to some (12:30), and here he is talking about a language of communication open to all who possess the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:5-23. The three metaphors (field, building, temple) used here to explain the relationship among God, the servants (Paul, Apollos, Cephas), and the Corinthians are skillfully developed. They serve to point up another misunderstanding on the part of the Corinthians. They have failed to see the proper role and function of Christian ministers.
These ministers are "servants" (3:5), not lords demanding homage from others. The real Lord, Jesus Christ, has given them their service. The Greek word behind servant here often means "waiter" — a lowly but useful form of service. Here their service is said to consist of gardening in God's field, of carpentering in God's building, and (in 4:1) of assisting Christ and serving as custodians (household administrators) of God's mysteries. All cooperate in God's work; they are not rivals encouraging partisanship.
Each leader has appointed tasks. Paul planted in God's field at Corinth. Apollos, coming after Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:27-19:1), watered what Paul planted. But the real credit goes to God, who gave the growth! Paul laid the foundation of the church there by preaching Jesus Christ. Apollos, Peter, and others built upon this foundation through their preaching and teaching. They used different materials for the superstructure. The value of each builder's work will be tested by Christ at the Day of Judgment. Some work will stand the test of fire and some may not. All workers will be saved, though some may barely escape the flimsy, flammable structure they erected and may even lose their pay. Paul assumes that all work to the best of their knowledge and ability.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Genesis to Revelation: 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians Leader Guide"
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