Bible Survey: 1 Corinthians
First Corinthians is Paul's letter to a troubled church. Its theme is the lordship of Christ, and its key verse is For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).
Corinth was so given over to immorality that "to act like a Corinthian" was a byword for it, and the church had not left all of that behind. The believers had written to Paul about marriage and meat offered to idols, but what grieved him more were their divisions: I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas (1 Corinthians 1:12). Cliques will kill a church. Paul could only speak to them as unto babes in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1), and envying, strife and divisions were the proof.
A man in the church had his father's wife, and nothing had been done about it. Purge out therefore the old leaven (1 Corinthians 5:7), Paul told them. Sin that is tolerated in a church spreads, and a church that will not exercise discipline will be corrupted. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19).
On things that are not sin in themselves, liberty still has limits: if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth (1 Corinthians 8:13). Brother Barker once turned down a meal at a restaurant that looked like a tavern. It would not have been wrong to eat there, but someone who saw him coming out might have stumbled over it.
Chapter 14 corrects the confusion over tongues, which in the Bible are real languages. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). The same chapter says, Let your women keep silence in the churches (1 Corinthians 14:34), and closes, Let all things be done decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40).
And after the great chapter on the resurrection, Paul turns it into a call to work: be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Next in the series: 2 Corinthians.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, March 7, 2021. Watch the lesson.
