1 Corinthians 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 [a]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.
In our ongoing study, we are departing from Acts for a while, and going to study the letter that he wrote to the church in Corinth at the point we left off in Acts.
Title for the entire book; Jesus is your Lord, now act like it.
Any time I begin a new book study, there are a number of things I think about. I think about you; the recipients of the message. I think about what I already know about the book. I read the book to get an overview of the individual themes and doctrines that are there. But over the years, I have also really tried to think about each book of the Bible as a whole. I want to know what the overall theme of the book is, and I want to be able to tell you what that theme is succinctly. I want to be able to give you an elevator pitch concerning the theme of the book. If you are unfamiliar with an “elevator pitch,” it is when you know that you will be able to catch your boss in the elevator at the beginning of the day, and that is the only time that you will be able to speak to him/her. And you have this great idea that you want him/her to consider. So, you write an elevator pitch. You have about a minute in the elevator, so you have to condense your presentation down to the bare essentials.
The title is the elevator pitch; Jesus is your Lord, now act like it.
Well, there’s one thing that helped me create the elevator pitch for the message of First Corinthians; The word “Lord” outside of the gospels, occurs more times in this book than any other book of the New Testament. If my count is correct, it appears over 60 times. The word “Lord” occurs 653 times in the entire New Testament. It appears over 82 times in Luke. But outside of the gospels…
There are books that it occurs more based on the word count. But 1st Corinthians has it more in the entire book. In 1st Corinthians, of its 16 chapters, the word occurs almost 4 times every chapter, 437 verses, once every 7 verses. It is a continual reminder to the reader that Jesus is your Lord.
The first 2 times we’ve already read.
…call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, …. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how it is used is also important.
For example; Jesus is your Lord, He is coming back, get yourself ready.
1 Corinthians 1:7-8 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It applies to all areas of Christian obedience. Jesus is your Lord, so you shouldn’t be a divided congregation.
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you
1 Corinthians 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
Jesus being your Lord should change behavior.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [b]homosexuals, nor [c]sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Jesus being our Lord should affect how we treat fellow believers.
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
And our submission or non-submission to His Lordship can bring discipline from the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Paul concludes the letter with the same thought; Jesus is your Lord, now act like it.
1 Corinthians 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
So, Jesus as Lord is a huge theme in 1st Corinthians. But what exactly does the word “Lord” mean?
The word Lord in the New Testament is Kurion in the Greek. Just to give you an idea of it’s meaning, it is translated as the name for God,
You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.
it is translated Lord, or master,
Matthew 10:24 A disciple is not above his Master, nor a servant above his Lord.
or the title of respect; sir.
Acts 25, in a letter to King Agrippa, Festus calls King Agrippa, “my lord.”
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
1. he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
a. the possessor and disposer of a thing
1. the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
2. in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
b. is a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master
c. this title is given to: God, the Messiah
The origin of the word comes from the Greek word kuros which has to do with supremacy.
So, we can gather from its repeated use in the letter that Paul was trying to make a point to the church in Corinth about Jesus being their master, owner, sovereign, ruler, and chief. He kept referencing the fact that Jesus is to be “in charge” of their lives.
He was saying that Christ needs to be the center of the church, the church needs to be built on the rock. That they needed to submit to the Lord. Why would he need to keep saying that? Because the church in Corinth wasn’t submitting to Jesus as Lord. The church in Corinth had a sin problem. Now all churches, to one degree or another, have a sin problem. We won’t be free of sin until the appearing of the Lord when we will be made like Him, for we will see Him as He is. But by comparison, if you read the letter to the Philippians, you are hard pressed to find any corrective word from Paul. The whole book is about joy in Christ. But in the book of 1st Corinthians, the whole letter is corrective. They had a problem following the rules. They had a problem submitting to Jesus as Lord. One commentator I read summarized it this way.
“There is much in 1 Corinthians that is unflattering to the Christians of Corinth. They are shown to have, at times, morality problems, doctrine problems, church government problems, spiritual gift problems, church service problems, and authority problems. It might be easy for us to think they weren’t even saved!”
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-corinthians-1/
Paul was addressing problems in the church of Corinth and showing that the reason for problems in the church was that Jesus was not Lord in the church there.
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/themes/1-Corinthians
So, I think about many things as I prepare a new book study. But there is one other thing that I think about as I introduce a new book study; relevance. How do I bring the message from then to today. That one is easy with respect to 1st Corinthians. Because frankly, today’s American church, is the church of Corinth. Of all the churches in the New Testament, the American church has more in common with the Corinthian church, than any other New Testament church. The American church has a sin problem. They have a “Jesus is Lord” problem. And we can gather from that, by extension, that many professing Christians in America, have the same sin problem, the same Lordship problem that the Corinthian church did.
Well, before we jump in further, let’s pray.
We’re just going to introduce this letter and its theme today. The Lordship of Christ is our theme.
Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master".
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 22.
And this letter deals with a great number of areas where the believers at the church in Corinth were living in disobedience. They weren’t following the Master. Now since today is an introduction I want to kind of just fly over the book first and point out its highlights. So, we are just going to introduce you today to three things;
The background story, the themes, and the major theme of the letter
I. Background story
We’ve already studied this story when we studied Acts 18. So let’s turn back there to refresh our memories about how this church was started. Acts 18:1
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Just these few words are the beginning of the church in Corinth. This is around 50 AD. Now, I put a slide up on the screen because the geography of Corinth helps to tell its story.
The city of Corinth was located in southern Greece, in what was the Roman province of Achaia, 45 miles West from Athens. This lower part is connected to the rest of Greece by a 4-mile-wide isthmus, (everybody say isthmus). It is a narrow stretch of land that connects two large land areas. It had water on both sides. On the East is the Saronic Gulf and on the West the Gulf of Corinth.
This is what made the city of Corinth so unique. The city is smack dab in the middle of the isthmus on a high plateau. For many centuries, all North-South land traffic in that area had to pass through or near this ancient city. And since travel by sea around the Peloponnesus involved a 250-mile voyage that was dangerous and obviously time consuming, most captains carried their ships on skids or rollers across the isthmus directly past Corinth. That meant that Corinth was a city bustling with travelers, trade, and sailors.
So, Corinth was a happening city. It was very busy with trade and travel. And it prospered as a major trade city.
Well, you might notice in this picture a blue line. Somewhere along the way someone decided to dig a canal across the isthmus, like the Panama Canal. It was begun by the emperor Nero during the first century A.D. but was not completed until near the end of the nineteenth century.
So, what does all of that have to do with Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and their sin problem. The church in Corinth was established in Corinth and Corinth was a very corrupt and sinful city.
Even by the pagan standards of its own culture, Corinth became so morally corrupt that its very name became synonymous with debauchery and moral depravity. To “corinthianize” came to represent gross immorality and drunken debauchery. If you called a woman a Corinthian you were calling her a prostitute. If you called a man a Corinthian, you imply he is a drunk. In 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul lists some of the specific sins for which the city was noted. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
That was Corinth. Full of the sexually immoral, idol worshippers, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunks, slanderers and swindlers.
So, Paul showed up there, before his 3 years in Ephesus, and this is what happens. Go back to Acts 18. In the first verses remember he meets two wonderful co-laborers; Aquila and Priscilla. He went to the local synagogue on Sabbath days, but as was usual, he eventually met Jewish opposition. So, this is what happened. (verse 5)
Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
He said, “I’m done with you guys.” But you’ve got to love this,
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
He met opposition, but he stayed for a year and a half, and saw many people come to faith. But, as always happened, opposition arose that tried to get him imprisoned or stopped.
12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. 13 “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
There is such irony here. The Jews go to the Roman legal system to complain that Paul was teaching things that were not approved by Roman law. It’s ironic because the Jews themselves taught things that Rome did not agree with. Rome tolerated the Jewish faith for expediency’s sake. And the Jews felt the same about Rome. They did not like Roman rule, and if they had their druthers, they would kick them out. But, they go to a Roman court to try and shut Paul down.
14 Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15 But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16 So he drove them off. 17 Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever. 18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time.
That’s how the church in Corinth started. And after a year and a half he goes on to a new city.
Remember that then Paul went on to Ephesus. But something we need to remember about Paul, he goes from place to place, but he leaves behind trained leaders and elders in the churches he establishes. And even while he was in Ephesus for 3 years, he was hearing how things were going back at these churches. And over his time in Ephesus, he is hearing some things that are not good about the church at Corinth. The world they lived in was creeping into the church. So, he writes a letter to them. In fact, he writes more than one letter back to them. This, to me, is an interesting study. Let me ask you this. How many letters did Paul write to Corinth? You may say two, because we have two of them in our Bibles, 1st and 2nd Corinthians. But Paul says something in 1st Corinthians that make us think that this was not the first letter he wrote to them.
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people” (1 Corinthians 5:9)
So, in 1st Corinthians, Paul refers to an earlier letter. So, our 1st Corinthians is actually the second letter from Paul to the Corinthians. That’s interesting. So how many letters did Paul write to the Corinthian church? You may now say three. But…there’s an interesting statement in 2nd Corinthians. There Paul says this,
“I wrote as I did, . . . I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:3–4a)
Paul refers to a previous letter he wrote in which he was very distressed. He had great anguish of heart, and many tears. Commentators often refer to this letter as the sorrowful letter. He refers to that sorrowful letter again later in 2 Corinthians.
“Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:8–9)
So, in 2nd Corinthians he refers to a sorrowful letter that he wrote earlier. Now scholars have debated whether this sorrowful letter referred to in 2nd Corinthians was our 1st Corinthians, or if it was a fourth letter that Paul wrote. So how many letters did Paul write to the Corinthians. Well, the first letter was the letter he referred to in 1st Corinthians, which would make 1st Corinthians the second letter, so 1st Corinthians is actually 2nd Corinthians. Now if the sorrowful letter referred to in our 2nd Corinthians, not our 1st Corinthians, was another letter in addition to 1st Corinthians, then the sorrowful letter would be the third letter to Corinth. So, the sorrowful letter would be 3rd Corinthians. Which makes our 2nd Corinthians out to be 4th Corinthians. So, 4 letters. But, many believe that our 1st Corinthians is actually the sorrowful letter that Paul refers to in our 2nd Corinthians, which means that our 2nd Corinthians is actually 3rd Corinthians; thus 3 letters. Is that clear?
I just did that for fun. What’s the point? While Paul was in Ephesus, he heard what was happening in the church in Corinth, and he wrote letters back. Probably 3, maybe 4.
How do they lay out chronologically? Well, Paul was in Ephesus. During his three years there he hears about the problems in the church in Corinth and writes 2 different letters to address those problems. Then in about 56 A.D., around 4 years since he first went to Corinth, Paul follows through on his plans to go back to Jerusalem with an offering that he will collect from all the Gentile churches he has started. One of those churches that he intends to revisit is Corinth. He does end up going to Corinth, but the meeting does not go well. There is opposition and criticism directed at Paul. He leaves in great distress, possibly writing his third letter back to the church. But later Paul gets word that the letter had it’s intended effect. Many of the people have repented of sin. So, Paul writes what we know as 2 Corinthians to them as a letter of encouragement, defense of himself, and directive to deal with continued opposition.
Themes
“Morgan says well in his introduction to 1 Corinthians: “The measure of failure on the part of the Church is the measure in which she has allowed herself to be influenced by the spirit of the age… We are sometimes told to-day that what the Church supremely needs is that she should catch the spirit of the age. A thousand times no. What the Church supremely needs is to correct the spirit of the age.”
Corinth was a cesspool of sin, the church was called out of it, but was drifting back into it. Let me just go through the outline of 1st Corinthians and list for you the sins that members of the Corinthian church were involved in.
Outline,
I. Introduction: The Calling and Benefits of
Sainthood (1:1–9)
II. Disunity in the Church (1:10–4:21)
They developed factions in the church; divisive personality cults. Some liked some leaders over others; Paul, Apollos, or Peter- the doctrinaire, the dynamo, the disciple, when they should have had their eyes on the divine Christ.
II. Immorality in the Church (5:1–6:20)
Some man was having an affair with
his stepmother, and the church was okay with it. Others were filing lawsuits against fellow
believers.
IV. Marriage in the Church (7:1–40)
Some were proposing total sexual
abstinence, even when married, others were divorcing spouses because they
weren’t believers, the beliefs and teachings about marriage were all over the
board.
V. Liberty in the Church (8:1–11:1)
Some were freely eating things that were
offensive to other believers with an “in your face” kind of attitude, while
others actively looked down their noses at others because they weren’t as
pious. Some were actively murmuring
about Paul. But some, in their sense of
freedom were playing with fire by returning to the idol worshiping lifestyle
they had left.
VI. Worship in the Church (11:2–14:40)
Worship services were chaos. Women were pushing the boundaries of their liberties in Christ. The fellowship of the Lord’s table was destroyed because the rich were showing up early and getting stuffed and drunk, and the poor were showing up late to no food left. The worship services degenerated into a noise of arrogant displays of spiritual gifts. Everybody wanted to have their moment of glory, with a tongue, prophecy, or interpretation. And everyone was interrupting and speaking over others in the room.
VII. The Hope of the Church:
Resurrection (15:1–58)
In terms of doctrine, some were
teaching that there is no resurrection for believers.
VIII. A Charge to the Church (16:1–24)
In sum, this church was a mess. Disunity, immorality, messed up marriages, egocentric worship, and false doctrine. Sounds like the church in America today.
Major theme
Jesus is your Lord, so start acting like it. And this is a very welcome and necessary message for today. Too many who profess Christian faith today, not only are ignorant of Biblical doctrine and morality, but if they are confronted with it, either refuse to believe it, or refuse to live by it. We are living in a time not unlike many other times in history. When Joshua had finished the work of conquering Canaan, he said to the people,
Joshua 24: 14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of [d]the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!
Hold it! He just said that they should put away their idols and foreign gods. You mean they were still hanging on to them? Their little images and idols? Yes. Despite the fact that God by His miraculous and powerful hand had freed them from slavery in Egypt, feed them in the wilderness for 40 years, and gave them supernatural victories in battle over their enemies, they were still hanging on to their old idols. So Joshua says,
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of [e]the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua is saying, “Pick a team!”
16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God;
This letter is a call from Paul to the Corinthian believers. He is saying, “Pick a team.” Jesus is Lord of your life, start acting like it.
Someone once wrote and asked Emily Post, the etiquette expert of another generation, "What is the correct procedure when one is invited to the White House but has a previous engagement?"
Replied Post, "An invitation to dine at the White House is a command, and it automatically cancels any other engagement."
Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.7.
And when you accept the invitation to salvation in Jesus Christ, all other prior priorities become secondary.
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