1 Corinthians Ch.1-2, theme verse 1 Cor 1:30
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this fifteenth Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, through the first Thessalonians, we learned that God’s will for us is our holy life in love. This week, we would like to learn few lessons after looking at the first Corinthians together.
1) As we saw already during last few weeks, there are 21 Epistles of the New testament. Among them, 13 were written by Paul, while 2 by Peter, 1 by James, 1 by Jude, and 3 by John and 1 by the unknown, the Epistle to the Corinthians were written from Ephesus in his third missionary journey around AD 54-55.
2) In his first missionary journey of AD 46-48, after being sent by the church in Antioch with Barnabas, Paul visited southern Galatia, the Roman territory of Turkey, along the route indicated by the white line on the screen, that is, passing through Perga and Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, even to Lystra and Derbe and then they returned to Antioch in Syria. And then after returning from Jerusalem Council at AD 49, in the following year of AD 50, he departed the second missionary journey with Silas, in which he visited again the churches in the southern Galatian region and, bringing Timothy from Lystra, he crossed the sea and landed into Greece, to proclaim the gospel to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athen and Corinth. And then he returned to Antioch by ship via Ephesus. And then he went the third missionary journey of AD 53-57 in which Paul visited again the churches in Galatia to exhort them and went to Ephesus to teach the Bible at Tyrannus for two years. At that time, he heard there arose problems at the church at Corinth.
3) So, in order to resolve those issues, Paul wrote some letters and even visited to Corinth by himself. So, summarizing his efforts,
a) first, after Paul was informed that the Corinthian people were associated with fornicators, evil-doers, or idolators even inside church, he wrote the first letter not to associate with them which is called as the previous letter in 1 Cor 5:9.
b) But, from Chloe’s household, he was informed that the Corinthian congregations misunderstood his letter not to associate with people outside the church, that is, non-believers who worship idols and live immorally and also that they were quarrelling each other, being divided into several groups who follow Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or even Christ.
c) And soon after, Corinthian delegations visited him to ask for some teachings on various issues, such as the marriage, whether it was acceptable to eat meat sacrificed to idols, the question of women’s attire at worship, and the questions on the Lord’s supper and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection, and also regarding the offering for the Jerusalem church, etc.
d) So in response, Paul wrote what we know as the first Epistle to the Corinthians, from Ephesus in AD 54 to early 55, and sent it with Timothy. But, Timothy failed to resolve the issues.
e) Therefore Paul by himself visited Corinth in person to try to resolve these issues, but he was insulted by some of the church members and returned to Ephesus in great sorrow. Paul calls this visit “a bitter visit” in 2 Cor 2:1-5.
f) And then, Paul wrote a “harsh letter” from Ephesus again “with a heavy heart and many tears” and sent it to Corinth via Titus which is usually called “the letter of tears” or “the letter of bitterness.” This letter is generally considered to be completely lost, although some scholars believe that part of it survive in 2 Cor 10-13.
g) Anyhow, Paul, who was deeply depressed due to his worries about the church in Ephesus, went to Troas to meet Titus, who might return by sea from Corinth. But when Titus did not show up, he realized that Titus was coming by land, so he crossed to Macedonia and met Titus there. And he was reported that his “harsh letter” had been effective, so ending the rebellion and condemning the ringleader who rebelled against Paul’s authority.
h) So Paul wrote what we know as 2 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 1-9, expressing his gratitude and urging them forgive those who had opposed him. And then after telling the congregation about the sufferings and glory of his apostleship, he gave them detailed advice to complete the offering for Jerusalem church again.
i) Then Paul sent Titus again to Corinth to complete the offering for the Jerusalem church, yet this offering arose the misunderstanding. And also some visitors who came to the church from Jerusalem, incited the congregation by claiming that Paul was a false apostle who had not been commissioned by the apostles in Jerusalem, showing off their spiritual experiences such as visions and miracles.
j) So to counter the claims of these “false apostles”, Paul wrote another letter, saying that the visitors to Corinth were those who preached “another Jesus,” had “another spirit” and were preaching “another gospel”. While insisting that he himself was an apostle who met all the qualifications for an apostles, saying that the marks of a true apostle were not family origins, or external commissions from human beings, or even amazing experiences of the Holy Spirit, but sufferings for the Lord Jesus Christ. This letter is know to be recorded together with 2 Corinthians in chapters 10-13.
4) Among them, examining the characteristics of 1 Corinthians, according to the ancient epistolary customs, in the opening, especially in the recipient formula, the designation of the recipient is listed not as the “church in Corinth” or the “church of the Corinthians” but rather as the “church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” through which we can know Paul’s intension to resolve the separation among them. And the thanksgiving section is shorter than most of Paul’s other ones so that through this, we can know the cool relationship between Paul and the Corinthians and deep concerns. And also we can see that Paul exhorted them to be united in love since they were called into the community of fellowship. And finally in the closing section, he ended his letter to teach one more time the spiritual order in local church, after exhorting them to be awake and walk in love.
5) And then in the long body of 1:10 to 16:12, while exhorting them to be united as one, since church belongs to God so that and also to keep the marriage holy and not to be arrogant with that knowledge that the meats sacrificed to idols are nothing, but edify one another in love, Paul taught them that in the worship and Holy supper, they had to respect the spiritual order and also had to use the gifts of the Spirit for common good and to build up the church, yet control them in love. And finally on the last day, since their bodies will be resurrected into imperishable, strong, glorious and spiritual ones, they had to always strive more diligently for the ministry of the Lord for the rewards.
6) Through Today’s text, we would like to learn few things. Firstly, we would like to think about what the root cause of all these issues in Corinthian church who was rich in the gifts of the Spirit and located in Corinth which was one of the richest cities in Roman empire and also famous in philosophy and rhetoric. I carefully insist that the root cause of so many problems at the Corinthian church was their richness and wisdom. I mean, since they were rich materially, I think they could become spiritual lowliness, in other word, humility. And also since Corinth was very famous at her intelligence in philosophy or rhetoric, so I think it was very difficult for them to completely put aside their human wisdom. I other words, as Christianity relies on Christ of the cross, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God, since human wisdom, knowledge or efforts cannot reach to the glory of God, Christians of Corinth who were soaked by the context in the rich and intellectual city of Corinth, became arrogant when they were poured with rich gifts from the Spirit, even though not many of them were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. That’s why in 3:18 Paul said “If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise” and in 8:2 “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” and also in 14:37 “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord” and saying them the spiritual person is the person who received righteousness, sanctification and redemption, which comes from Christ who is the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ, having love with the knowledge, who can judge all things, but is to be judged by no one by own deeds with the mind of Christ, he exhorted them to be the spiritual person, in other words, the mature Christian. Prov 18:12 said “Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.” As such, when we think we are wise by ourselves and proceed with it, then we became unwise and cannot reach to the wisdom of God. And also when we think we know everything and proceed with it, then we became arrogant as when we boast we are spiritual, then we became prideful to provoke the quarrels with others. That is the reality of our being with flesh. Therefore Paul said in 2 Cor 12 that when he think himself weak, then God’s power is made perfect, since Christ’s power may reside in him so that he was content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, for when he was weak, then he could rely on Jesus’ power. Therefore I pray that we all here may live in His pleasing will, fearing God after recognizing that Christ and the cross, the wisdom of God gave us His righteousness, sanctification and redemption, in addition to the guarantee for the eternal life and abundance even in this life, and also the glorious mission and the power through which we can fulfill His calling.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 Looking at the context of Corinthian church whose spiritual gifts were abundant and which was located at a rich city whose philosophy and rhetoric was very famous, we can know they had lots of problems through which we can remind the words of our Lord “it is very difficult for the rich to enter the eternality. So after reviewing whether we have same issues in us, I hope we could share our experience and thought with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also Paul says that the spiritual person is the person who received righteousness, sanctification and redemption from Christ who is the wisdom of God, having knowledge in love, to judge all things, not being judged by others in their deeds having the mind of Christ. So after thinking who we are, I hope we could share our thoughts with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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