The First Letter to the Corinthians

PAUL OPENS WITH A SALUTATION  Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-11

   Paul begins one of the greatest epistles ever written by informing the Christian people of Corinth that they are called of God to be saints, in the same way that he, Paul, is called to be an apostle. His words of commendation are brief, however, for he must hasten to the immediate issue that prompted his writing: the splintering of the Corinthian church into contentious groups that threatened to destroy it.

AN URGENT APPEAL FOR UNITY  Read 1:12-31

   "How can you divide? Is Christ divided?" Paul demands of the Corinthians. How preposterous it is for some of them to claim, "I am of Paul," and others, "I am of Apollos," and so on. Let's look at the facts: Jesus Christ commissioned me to preach the gospel of his cross, which may seem silly to some, but not to Christians; for unto us which are saved the message of Christ's atonement on the cross is the power of God. For that matter, what if it does seem silly to some? Even the "foolishness" of God

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is wiser than the wisdom of men. God has an exasperating way of choosing weak things to confound the mighty, in order that no flesh might glory in his presence.

THERE IS ONLY ONE MESSAGE  Read 2:1-16

   That is why I, Paul, when I came to Corinth, was determined not to preach anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I knew only too well that such a message was not particularly enticing either to Jew or Greek, but it did impart faith to the called because it demonstrated the Spirit's power and wisdom.

   The wisdom of God is tremendously deep, but to the man who believes in Christ the mystery becomes clear. The Holy Spirit not only teaches him, but provides spiritual discernment, with the result that we believers have the mind of Christ.

AND ONLY ONE FOUNDATION  Read 3:1-23

   The pity of it is that you Corinthians still are obviously mere babes in Christ, whereas you should have reached spiritual maturity by now. What proof do I have? Why, these divisions are proof enough. Who are Paul and Apollos and Cephas, that followers should rally around one or the other of them? There is only one foundation of our faith, and that is Jesus Christ.

   We have our work to do, work that can be done best in cooperation with each other; therefore we are in a sense all labourers together with God. But we realize that the Lord is going to test every man's work to see of what sort it is, and whether it is built on its proper foundation. And not simply our work as Christians, but the church itself, the temple of God, will be under scrutiny. What good will wisdom and craftiness do then?

   So let us not be applauding ourselves, or giving special preeminence to particular men. Why should we? Surely you are aware that in God's plan all things are yours and you belong to Christ and Christ is God's.

DISTINCTIONS ARE FROM GOD  Read 4:1-13

   Now, those who are in Christ are known as stewards of the mysteries of God, but does that mean they have the right to judge everybody else? Let God be the judge. He will bring to light

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the hidden things of darkness. If Christians start flocking after "Paul" or "Apollos" or some other, drawing fine distinctions between the brethren, they will end by being puffed up.

   The Corinthians [says Paul] may reckon themselves spiritually rich, and indeed they are, but I would like to ask: What do you possess that you did not receive from God? You are rich, wise, strong and glorious in Christ. Does it follow that the apostles are the same? It so happens that we are fools for Christ's sake, weak, hungry, despised, naked, buffeted, needy, homeless, weary, reviled, defamed; we are treated like the filth of the world!

BUT WHO GAVE THEM THE GOSPEL?  Read 4:14-21

   I do not write these things in order to shame the church people of Corinth. I only want to remind you that I, Paul, am actually your spiritual father, and while you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, you won't have many fathers. Therefore, I am now sending Timothy to Corinth to refresh you. I myself will be making the journey shortly. But whether I come to Corinth with a rod, or in a spirit of meekness, depends upon the attitude of the church people.

GO AFTER THE TROUBLE SPOT  Read 5:1-13

   Some terrible things are commonly reported among you: for example, that one should have his father's wife. Even non-Christians shun such behavior, but not you! I have judged already that this offender is to be put away from among you and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

   Such display of pride on the part of you Corinthians is not good. We Christians need to purge ourselves of immoral company and unwholesome leaven in order to keep the feast of Christ our passover with sincerity and truth. Naturally one cannot avoid all contact with the world's evildoers, but we can certainly get rid of those who creep into the church. The Lord will take care of the rest.

LET'S STOP PARADING OUR DIFFERENCES  Read 6:1-11

   Now let me ask why you Corinthians are taking your quarrels to the pagan law courts. Is there no one in your midst wise

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enough to settle differences between you? Don't you know that the saints will one day judge the world and angels too? Yet you insist on parading your squabbles before unbelievers. For shame! It would be far better for you as Christians to suffer wrongdoing to yourselves, but you even defraud your own people.

   Let us get one thing straight: unjust men will no more inherit God's kingdom than will fornicators, idol worshipers, adulterers, homosexuals, crooks, greedy men, alcoholics, hatemongers or extortioners.

USE YOUR BODIES TO GLORIFY GOD  Read 6:12-20

   To be sure, as a free man in Christ, I, Paul, can do whatever I want, but I will not be brought under the power of anything that is profitless or harmful to my body. For our bodies are the members of Christ and belong to him. They are temples of the Holy Spirit, designed and erected to glorify God. The only sure way to handle bodily temptation is to turn one's back and flee from it. God gives no alternative. You are not your own; you are bought with a price.

PROBLEMS OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE  Read 7:1-11

   You wrote asking me about marriage, and I am replying that husbands and wives should be faithful to each other, as the Lord commands: not depriving each other of rights, but being fair and kindly disposed in their mutual relationships. Let me add that in our present immoral climate, I think it would be better if believers as a rule did not marry at all, but remained single and chaste as I am. However, not everyone has this self-control, and it surely is better to marry than to burn with unsatisfied desire.

REMAIN IN A QUIET STATE OF BEING  Read 7:12-24

   Christians who are married to unbelievers should remain faithful to them, for the sake of the children and the unbelieving partner. Such a marriage may bring salvation to the husband or wife. But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so.

   The safest rule of conduct is: let every man abide in the same calling

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in which he was called. That applies to marriage, circumcision and even to slavery — although if a slave has an opportunity to go free, he ought to take it. But whatever our portion from God may be, let us carry on our daily walk in quietness of spirit, and abide with him. I advise this in all churches.

FOR THIS WORLD'S FASHION IS PASSION  Read 7:25-40

   The times are being shortened and the present scheme of things is passing away. That is why, for the present, it is best that both married and unmarried remain as they are, without seeking to change. Now is no time to take on added cares; let us rather attend to the things of the Lord which are of first importance. It is no sin for virgins to marry, yet the single state, in my judgment, is happier and more conducive to a holy life both in body and in spirit.

DON'T LET YOUR FREEDOM HARM OTHERS  Read 8:1-13

   You Corinthians asked about eating food sacrificed to idols, and my answer is based not so much on knowledge as on love. After all, what difference does it make? Since there is only one God, an idol is absolutely nothing, and sacrifices to an idol mean even less.

   Yet some new Christians still nourish the fear that to eat sacrificed meat from the temple is to go back, as it were, to the idol. We who know better must take heed, lest in our freedom from such superstitious ways, we ourselves become a stumbling block to the new ones in our midst. To sin against the brethren is to sin against Christ, and I personally will never eat meat if it offends my brother. This is where love comes in.

NOW LET ME ASK SOME QUESTIONS  Read 9:1-5

   I know some among you in the church of Corinth are "investigating" me, and to you I would put a question or two myself: Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? Do we not have just as much right to travel with a Christian wife as do the other apostles?

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WE HELD OFF JUST FOR YOU  Read 9:6-15

   More specifically, has authority been withheld from Barnabas and myself, so that we cannot give up manual labor for apostolic work? Think for a moment. Soldiers, planters, shepherds and temple priests all share in the fruits of their work. Moses wrote, "You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox while it treads out the grain." God meant this law for us; and so if we sowed spiritual things to you, is it such a great thing if we reap some of your material things? Yet we have deliberately not used this God-given privilege because we did not wish to hinder the good news of Christ. I would rather die first.

MY REWARD IS TO GET OUT THE GOSPEL  Read 9:16-23

   Preaching the glad tidings is not something I do for reward; woe to me if I preach not the gospel! Instead of claiming my rights as a free man, I have made myself a bondslave to mankind; indeed, I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

THE LAUREL GOES TO THE WINNER  Read 9:24-27

   Many competitors will contend in a race at the Olympic games, but the sprinter who wins the prize is the disciplined one who has achieved self-mastery. That is the way I train for an immortal crown (for having preached to others, I would not wish to be disqualified myself). I invite you Corinthians also to compete in the game of life for this greatest of prizes — and to run to win.

TEMPTATIONS ARE MANY AND STRONG  Read 10:1-13

   Don't presume too much on your spirituality. Remember that the children of Israel received frequent blessings from God during their wanderings, yet with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn in the desert. By their experiences God is teaching us not to succumb to idolatry, fornication or grumbling, or to tempt Christ as some of our fathers did. Let the man who thinks he stands beware lest he fall; but let him remember, too, that he can rely on God to provide a way of escape from every form of temptation.

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TAKE CARE AT WHOSE TABLE YOU SIT  Read 10:14-22

   Idol worship holds a particularly strong lure in your city but I warn you, as lovingly as I know how, to keep away from it. You are intelligent; you know that a man cannot at the same time have fellowship with God and fellowship with demons. How can a Christian drink the cup of blessing and eat the bread of communion in Christ at the Lord's table, and then join with pagans in sacrifice to demons?

GLORIFY GOD, SERVE MEN, WIN SOULS  Read 10:23-33

   The answer to your question is, then "Be thoughtful of your neighbor." If meat is sold in the market, eat it and ask no questions, and the same holds if you are invited to dine with an unbeliever. Why not? The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof [Psalm 24:1]. But if someone who is present has objections based on Christian convictions, and tells you it is meat that has come from the temple, don't eat it.

   While we live by grace, we try not to give offense to anyone, Jew, pagan or Christian. Our business rather is to glorify God in all that we do, to serve men and to win souls.

THE CUSTOM OF THE CHURCHES  Read 11:1-16

   In answer to your query, I believe nature teaches us that man's hair should be worn short, but that women's hair, being their glory, should be left long. In any case the custom of our churches is that a man, when praying, does not cover his head. This is our way of acknowledging the headship of Christ. A woman on the other hand should keep her head covered during worship, acknowledging the headship of her husband.

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT YOUR MEETINGS?  Read 11:17-22

   Something is shamefully wrong with the way you Corinthians have been meeting together. I hear stories of the Lord's Supper being turned into a kind of free-loading banquet, with some going hungry and others getting drunk! Don't you people have houses in which to have your meals?

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GETTING UNDER SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE  Read 11:23-24

   I made it clear to you while I was in Corinth that the Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, told us to follow his example in breaking the bread ("This is my body, which is for you") and drinking the cup ("This cup is the new covenant in my blood").

   If we proclaim the death of Christ in this way, but do it unworthily, it will only react upon our own souls, and indeed upon our bodies as well. Let us therefore submit to God's spiritual discipline, and at the Lord's table let us wait for eachother. Probably it would be best if you did your eating at home. The other things I will settle when I get there.

LET ME EXPLAIN ABOUT GOD'S GIFTS  Read 12:1-13

   As Gentiles you were forever being led "every which way" by your idols, but I do not wish you to be ignorant now concerning the spiritual gifts of God. Nobody can say "Lord Jesus" except by the Holy Spirit. But while we worship only one Lord and one Spirit, there are in the Christian life many varieties of gifts and services and operations. God distributes to some his special gifts of wisdom; to others gifts of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and the rest. Even with this diversity, however, we are still all one, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free.

THE UNITY OF CHRIST'S BODY  Read 12:14-31

   Consider by analogy the way in which the human body is put together. The body is not one member, but many, and each part has need of the others in order to function properly.

   So it is with the body of Christ, which is the church. God has set in the church apostles, prophets, teachers and the like, each with a different function. Each of us is expected to strive after the better gifts, and I now want to show you what they are. Especially do I want to show you the supreme gift of all.

PIETY MINUS LOVE EQUALS NOTHING  Read 13:1-3

   If I were to speak in every tongue known to men or angels, but did it without Christ's gift of a loving spirit, I would be

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nothing but a big noise. And if I divined all hidden mysteries, worked fabulous miracles of faith, gave away all I had to the underprivileged, and even died at the stake in martyrdom, but did it all without love, I would still turn out to be a cipher.

LOVE EXCELS ALL SPIRITUAL GIFTS  Read 13:4-13

   Love, you see, is long-suffering and kind; it is not envious or egotistical or touchy. Love is unselfish, and unfailingly looks and hopes for the best.

   All the other spiritual gifts we have been talking about will one day cease. A lot of them were needed because we talked and felt and acted like children. Some of them are still needed for the same reason. But when God's maturity comes to us, our childishness will seem obsolete. We shall at last become full-grown men and women in Christ. Then we shall know and be known by him, and we can dispense with these lesser gifts, for the truly great gifts will always abide with us: faith, hope, love, these three remain forever; and the greatest of these is love.

SEEK THE GIFT OF PREACHING  Read 14:1-19

   If you pursue this gift of love and seek to cultivate with it the other endowments of the Spirit, you will encourage people in their faith and build up the church. Especially is this true of the gift of preaching, which I warmly commend to you. I cannot speak as highly of the gift of talking in tongues, although it too is desirable. The trouble with ecstatic speech is that it may edify the speaker, but no one else can get anything out of it, any more than out of a musician repeatedly playing the same note. For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?

   If you must speak in an unknown tongue, then be sure to interpret what you have said. And when you do your praying and singing, keep your minds on what you are doing. How in the world can anyone thank God for your prayer if he doesn't know what you have been talking about? I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you, but in church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, so that I might teach others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

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IN UNDERSTANDING BE MEN  Read 14:20-25

   By all means be as naive as innocent children when it comes to the subject of evil, but in understanding be men. The law teaches us that strange tongues are startling supernatural evidence to unbelievers of the power of God. They are signs that have the effect of astonishing outsiders and hardening their unbelief. Preaching, on the other hand, is intended to show God's power to believers. If an unbeliever were to come into church and find everyone speaking in tongues, he (not understanding the supernatural) would probably say you were mad. But if there is preaching going on, it is possible he will be convicted of sin, fall on his face and become a believer himself.

PEACE, DECENCY, ORDER  Read 14:26-40

   Whatever takes place during the worship service should build up those who are present. Let the service proceed decently and in order, for God is a God of peace, not confusion. You Corinthians should do your speaking one at a time, and be respectful when someone else has a turn. Let him who speaks in an unknown tongue keep silence if there be no interpreter; and I would suggest that the women keep silence in church. Any spiritual man should recognize that the things I write you are the commandments of the Lord.

THE HEART OF MY GOSPEL  Read 15:1-11

   Now let us go over the glad tidings I set before you, by which presumably you are saved. I told you what I received: that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised the third day, as the scriptures foretold. He was seen by Peter, James, the twelve and many others; last of all he appeared to myself, as to one whose birth was abortive. For you see I am least among the apostles and unfit to be called such, since I persecuted the church of God. But I am what I am, and by the grace of God my work has been more exhaustive and more fruitful than anyone else's. But that doesn't matter, for we apostles are a team.

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IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN  Read 15:12-19

   Now there are some among you who follow the Sadducees in asserting that there is no resurrection of the dead. Do you realize what such teaching implies? If there be no resurrection, then Christ was not raised and ours is only a pseudo witness. That means that your faith and hope are in vain, that you are still in your sins, and that we are of all men most miserable.

BUT THANK GOD HE IS!  Read 15:20-28

   But Christ did rise, and is now the first living evidence of God's breakthrough of death. It is true that, as sons of Adam, all men die; but it is also true that in Christ shall all be made alive. The Lord must reign until all enemies are under his feet, and death last of all. Thus God's final victory is sure.

DISBELIEF ONLY FOSTERS EVIL  Read 15:29-34

   Would we be baptized for the dead if there were no rising from the dead? Would I, Paul, be risking death in Ephesus if I could not boast of a risen Lord? Men of Corinth, wake up! Your ignorance of God's truth will inevitably breed corruption.

OUR BODIES WILL BE SPIRITUAL  Read 15:35-50

   "Well," some will say, "how do the dead rise? What do their bodies look like?" Look around you! God gives everything in the universe a body as it pleases him, and each one different. That's how it is with the resurrection of the dead. The body we now have, moral, weak, and lacking in honor, dies like a seed in the earth. Then, like the seed, it receives a new body, one that is no longer "natural" but rather a spiritual body.

   Notice the order: first the natural, then the spiritual; the first man (Adam) from the dust of the earth, then the second man (Christ) from heaven. So even though flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, we who bear this earthly image shall one day bear the image of the heavenly.

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WE AWAIT THAT LAST TRUMPET  Read 15:51-58

   We will not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds we shall be changed instantaneously, and our mortal body which is corruptible will become immortal and incorruptible. Then we shall see the scriptures fulfilled, for sin and death will be vanquished through our Lord Jesus Christ. So be firm, my brothers, abounding in the work of the Lord, for in him our work is never wasted.

FINALLY, THIS PERSONAL NOTE  Read 16:1-24

   Rather than take up a collection after I get there, begin now to set something aside each Lord's day for the destitute brethren in Jerusalem. It may be that I will spend the winter with you, but opportunities are so promising here in Ephesus that I expect to remain until Pentecost.

   Should Timothy arrive there, make him feel free to do the Lord's work among you. Apollos expects to visit you later on. Be watchful, stand fast in the faith, act like men, be strong, and what you do, do in love.

   I want to ask you to acknowledge the special ministry of our first converts in Greece, the household of Stephanas; and since I can't see you, I am delighted that Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus have arrived. The churches of Asia send you greetings.

   If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be considered under a curse. The Lord is coming! May his grace and my love reach all of you.

*  *  *  *

   Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians has been called the most beautiful letter ever written. Yet it is possible to be so caught up in the sweep and grandeur of its movement that Paul's teaching on personal Christian discipline is overlooked. This letter is not a symphony; it is a blueprint for daily living.

   Our condensation is intended to help precisely at the point of meaning. It cannot supplant the New Testament. Unless you are led into a deeper study of God's Word, this work will not have achieved its purpose, for there is a wealth of truth in the Corinthian letters which can only be tapped from the text itself.

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   The secret of Paul's life is contained in the last half of the first chapter. In chapter 2, the final three verses provide a key to the understanding of all Scripture. Paul's warm, open heart and his depth of insight combine in chapters 6 and 7 to provide wisdom in matters of disputes at law and relations between the sexes that is still relevant today. In chapters 8 and 10, Christians will find guidance for improving their relationships with others.

   The famous "love chapter" (13) is seen here in proper perspective, as part of Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts. Note particularly how 13:11 appears in the context. As for chapter 15, there is no more important passage in the New Testament. Its key verses are 3-4, 20 and 55—57.

   To read this whole letter is to understand afresh the meaning of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

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