ES1COR01 Introduction and 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Notes
Transcript
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today, I am starting a new book in the evenings, namely, 1 Corinthians. As always there is a need to give an introduction to the book though I will keep it as brief as possible.
Corinth had been in existence since around 3500bc and it steadily grew.
In the earliest Greek literature it was linked with wealth (Homer Iliad 2. 569–70) and immorality. When Plato referred to a prostitute, he used the expression “Corinthian girl” (Republic 404d). The playwright Philetaerus (Athenaeus 13. 559a) titled a burlesque play Ho Korinthiastēs, which can be translated “The Lecher.” And Aristophanes coined the verb korinthiazomai to refer to fornication (Fragment 354). According to Strabo (Geography 8. 6–20) much of the wealth and vice in Corinth centred around the temple of Aphrodite and its thousand temple prostitutes. For this reason a proverb warned, “Not for every man is the voyage to Corinth.”
Then in 146bc Corinth was burned to the ground by the Roman army because they participated and led the rebellion of that time. Those living there were killed or sold into slavery and for a hundred years it lay in ruins until Julius Caesar saw its value because of its strategic position and he created a new Roman colony made up of freed slaves, former soldiers and those living in the vicinity in 46bc. About twenty years later it became a government seat and in Acts 18 we find Gallio as proconsul allowing Paul to preach the gospel in peace.
We have all heard of the Olympic games but in Corinth they held the Isthmian games which was almost as popular. And they were well known for metalworkers especially in bronze.
The reputation of Corinth was no different before it being razed to the ground than after and it is into this that Paul came with the Gospel, weak he tells us in chapter 2, especially after his run ins in previous towns.
That’s a quick potted history. 4 or 5 years after coming to the city he wrote the letter we now have in our bibles. It is important that we get an understanding of Paul’s contact with this Church over the years. And it is exceedingly likely there were more contacts than we have recorded for us...
The First & Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (King James Version) Special Features
a. Contact 1: Paul’s founding of the church. c50-51
b. Contact 2: Paul writes a letter that has since been lost (1 Co. 5:9).
c. Contact 3: Paul, in Ephesus, receives disturbing news of division and moral corruption within the church from two sources. There is a visit from the household of Chloe (1 Co. 1:11), and there is a letter from the church requesting answers to certain questions (1 Co. 7:1f).
d. Contact 4: Paul writes I Corinthians. c54-55. Chapters 1-6 cover the things that have been brought to his attention by Chloe, chapters 7-14 answers the questions raised by the Church and Ch15 focuses on the doctrine of the Resurrection, and as the climax of the letter probably is where everyone’s focus should be. Above all, the very existence of a church in Corinth is a testimony to the power of God and the gospel.
e. Contact 5: Paul apparently hears that things get worse and he makes a hurried visit to Corinth. However, he is painfully disappointed in its results (2 Co. 12:14; 2 Co. 1:15) for he says “I determined that I would not come again to you in heaviness” (2 Co. 2:1).
f. Contact 6: after Paul recovers his spiritual composure and strength, he writes the severe letter and sends it by Titus. (It is mentioned in 2 Co. 2:4 and 7:8.)
g. Contact 7: in waiting for an answer, Paul becomes so anxious he strikes out to meet Titus. He meets him in Macedonia and learns that the severe letter has made its impact. Therefore, he sits down, probably right there in Philippi, and writes II Corinthians. (Which is at least the 4th letter he wrote to them)
h. Contact 8: he pays a possible final visit to the church (Ac. 20:1–4).
Let’s now see if we can look at the first 9 verses...
.1 The standard way of writing letters back in the day, I’m sure you all know, was to start with the one who is writing it. Here, it starts, Paul or Παuλος in the Greek. Then convention would be a short self-description, the name of the recipient and then a short descriptive comment followed by a word of greeting. And Paul keeps it to that. His self-description was ‘apostle’. Included in this, though, is another name, and that was Sosthenes, a brother. Sosthenes can be found elsewhere in:
17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio took no notice of these things.
This was when Paul was in Corinth for the first time and he stayed for 1.5 years, and it was when Sosthenes took over the leadership of the synagogue. But, in this letter, as it is being written from Ephesus, Sosthenes is plainly no longer part of the synagogue. He is mentioned here probably as one who did the scribing for Paul. Paul, it seemed, did not write any of his letters himself and had a secretary do it for him for we know that Paul only and always signed off his own letters. Paul dictated the letters and there appears to have been artistic license on part of those writing however, with that said, it does not make it any less God’s Word to us, exactly as God would have us have it.
.2 It was written to the Church at Corinth which means it was to be read out for all to hear. There was no private reading of this letter. We follow in this example of reading God’s Word aloud and we are told in
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The word sanctified here means set apart or holy ones. Then the scope of the letter seems to be broadened beyond the Corinthians and therefore includes us who are also sanctified in Christ Jesus and who have called upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
We can therefore take it that those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ have already been made holy, already been made perfect, already saints. And this will be important for us to grasp when we discover what kind of people this church is, for if you think that you find it hard to get on with anyone here then be all the more grateful you were not in this Church at Corinth. For if you had these as your brothers and sisters you would barely allow them into your homes or shake their hands or even stay in the same room. But this is why Paul is writing for he is seeking relationships to be mended.
But If all we had were these first nine verses we would have though there there is everything commendable about this Church at Corinth. The verses that follow, that we will see, God willing next week, will end that notion.
.3
In all 13 of Paul’s letters he starts off with or a form of ‘Grace to you and Peace’. This is almost like our greeting ‘Hello’. And like most ‘hellos’ we have already moved on to the so-called more important bit. But isn’t it a curious thing – if we started our conversation with each other ‘Grace to you and peace’ brother or sister then what would be our reaction! Stop being a superspit, holier than thou, what are you trying to prove?!
But in Israel you would still say ‘Shalom’ or in Arab nations ‘As-salaam alaykum’ meaning ‘peace with you’. In Macedonia it’s ‘Zdravo’ meaning ‘health’. And here our ‘Hello’ means absolutely nothing and we can blame Edison for this enlightened word for he invented it when he said ‘hello’ the first word ever said and recorded on a telephone. Surely Grace to you and peace is superior! May God’s favour and peace come to you, especially if it’s meant, as it is really a prayer, Lord, please bless this person. I wonder if we started using this with each other, those in our fellowship and then with those we meet if this could start a conversation that could lead to their conversion. Or on the other hand we might be considered odd-balls! It’s worth thinking about. Grace and Peace to you all!
.4
With all that we know about this Church it seems incredible that Paul genuinely thanks God for the grace that has been given to them. But really we have to remember that these were Christians through Paul’s ministry – the Church was founded through him, Paul spent 1.5 yrs with them working and toiling – God has saved these people – His favour has come to them in the sense that they are now part of His body. The fact that the Corinthians abused the grace of God will be dealt with later on. Even so, Paul is thanking the Lord that they are His.
.5+.7
And more than that; they have been equipped in every way; in word, knowledge and spiritual gifts. And Paul has much to say about these later on too.
.6
The testimony of Jesus had become for them confirmed in themselves by the Holy Spirit.
It just seems too praiseworthy for what we know about the Church at Corinth. But isn’t that the point? These people were still Christ’s. These people were still being blessed by God. These people were not getting what they deserved. This is all grace. These people are our Church today. It is all too easy to put our congregations or particular individuals down whether privately or in public and whilst we know that this congregation was not perfect he based the rest of the letter on the foundation of the opening paragraphs of his letter. He wants them to get it right. He implores them for unity, teaches about love, and eradicates error about licentiousness, the misuse of God’s grace and taking other Christians to court.
The emphasis of this passage is Jesus Christ. All the arguments that follow are formed on Jesus Christ. Look how many times in just this short passage Jesus is mentioned. He is mentioned explicitly or implicitly in every verse: Grace and Peace from Jesus Christ, Grace given in Jesus Christ, enriched in Him, that is, Jesus Christ, the testimony of Christ, the revealing of Jesus Christ, blameless on the day of Jesus Christ, and fellowship in Jesus Christ.
This is entirely deliberate. Paul is saying that everything we have comes from Jesus; His grace, peace and gifts, the testimony is about Jesus so that Jesus can be revealed, and on the day He does come back we will be found faultless, blameless, conformed and have everlasting, unbroken fellowship with Jesus which is the goal of our faith. What a great day that will be when there will no longer be any sin to break fellowship with Him, our Head, and with each other, His body. No wonder Pauls says in
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Another version says:
I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
But no matter who we are, what we have done, it’s a new dawn (I feel a song coming on), it’s a new day, it’s a new life for you and me. We look forward to the day when all things will be perfect. Come, Lord Jesus.
And I would hear an Amen from the Church at Corinth because of their waiting for the revealing of Jesus Christ – they earnestly expect Jesus’ revelation.
God is faithful, is says in verse 9. He cannot deny Himself – we are filled with the guarantee, the Holy Spirit of promise indwelt.
So what are the principles that we can take from this for us? The first to note is that there is praise. Psychologists say that if you want to say something tough or bad then praise is the way to start – not like our governments that wants to bury bad news in even worse news. We are taught in business when managing the staff – don’t just tell them off but start with what they are doing well, it is called a praise sandwich: “How good you are doing. This could be improved. How well you are doing.” If the world can get this right we in the Church should more so – we are not managers – we are servants. We have to remember that we are the same as those in Corinth – we can be just as divisive, just as worldly and take for granted the grace of God in our lives. With this said we should not duck the responsibility that we should speak on those issues that relate to our fellowship – and notice that the whole of the language is the language of love – hence why we have chapter 13 in this letter; the kind of love we should have between us; undeserving, unmerited, unconditional agape love. If there are things within the Church that do not promote love, tolerance and mercy to other believers it is not from God. We, should be about building up and enabling each other to do the work of being witnesses and disciples whilst we are here.
What is amazing about all this is how positive Paul’s tone is – you will be blameless on that Day of Jesus Christ and this is your position in Christ –and this letter is written so that we can make possible for us to prove our position by our daily living. Even so,
Paul bases his confidence neither on the strength of his converts’ faith nor on his own ability to pastorally maintain them in the faith, but rather on the sustaining and atoning power of Christ and the faithfulness of God, both of which are constantly available to those who have been called into fellowship with the Son.
In the end we and they will make it – what encouragement – it is great to know that no matter what we do we are saved in the end – not by our effort – but by grace freely given. In the light of all this shouldn’t we all be living holy lives? Where is our humility? Such was Paul’s heart when addressing factions, sexual morality, discipline, marriage, communion, gifts and the resurrection.
Thomas Aquinas was walking in a monastery where he was lecturing when out of nowhere came this monk who ordered Thomas to come with him on an errand in the City not knowing who he was and Thomas went with him not saying a word. The monk ordered him to hurry up, with the kind of impatience that I have with other road users, but at this stage of life Thomas was a bit lame in the leg but Thomas did his best. The monk then began to notice something whilst walking through those streets; people were looking at and saluting Thomas. The monk was mortified when he found out who his companion was as Thomas was the City’s most important guest. But Thomas did not complain or say a word to suggest he was anyone other than a fellow monk.
We are to have all things in common with Jesus because that is what we are called to; the path of rejection, sacrifice, glory and authority wherewith we call people to a better way – not only a better way but The Way.
Why say this: because knowing Jesus is our highest aim – nothing else matters – and when we get to know Him better then the result is humble adoration which results in us being teachable and moulded into what we are to become – like Jesus.
I discovered a prayer this morning written by Aelred (of Rievaulx) who died in 1167 and it echoed my heart and this sermon:
“O Good Jesus, let your voice sound in my ears so that my heart and mind and inmost soul may learn of your love, and the very depths of my heart be joined to you who are (is) my greatest delight and joy.”
Benediction
Benediction
“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
Bibliography
Bibliography
Elwell, W. A. (1995). Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (1996). The First & Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 Corinthians) (electronic ed., Vol. 44). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Walvoord, J. F., & Zuck, R. B., Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 21:25 25 January 2020.