Bible Overview: 1 Corinthians
Notes
Transcript
Author: Paul
Author: Paul
1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.
8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,
10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Date: 55-56 A.D.
Date: 55-56 A.D.
Probably written from Ephesus around 55-56 A.D.
Audience: Believers in Corinth
Audience: Believers in Corinth
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
This was not the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, though it is the first that we have. In all, it appears that Paul wrote at least 4 separate letters to the Corinthians (maybe more), but only 2 of them survived.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
Purpose: Paul’s reply to several specific problems at the Church in Corinth
Purpose: Paul’s reply to several specific problems at the Church in Corinth
Paul was correcting misunderstandings from his first letter as well as calling out and correcting issues of division and confusion about proper doctrine and behavior for Christians.
Division
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Improper behavior
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
Improper doctrine (& behavior)
17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
“NOW CONCERNING” introduces a question or issue that the Corinthians had written to Paul about.
Sexuality, singleness, and marriage (1 Cor. 7)
1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”
25 Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
Food offered to idols (1 Cor. 8)
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. 12-14)
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.
Giving (offering for needy believers in Jerusalem - 1 Cor. 16)
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.
Apollos (1 Cor. 16)
12 Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.
Themes & Key Verses
Themes & Key Verses
Unity
Unity
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Love
Love
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Resurrection
Resurrection
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Application
Application
Learning and believing the right things about God and the Gospel will help us grow in our unity and our love for one another, which is what God desires for us as his people.