Summary Notes on 1 Corinthians

The Corinthian church was active and vibrant.  They were excited about the working of the Spirit in their midst, and eager to experience all that God had to offer them.  They were also heading into serious error, though, so much so that three of their number felt compelled to make the trip from Corinth to Philippi to seek Paul's counsel.  His letter addressed several problems:

• Division in the church.  Many of the members were focused on following personalities, rather than on following Christ.  Each group thought they were right, and the seeds for splitting the congregation were there.  Both Paul and Apollos had done important work there, and Peter was highly regarded as a bulwark of the church.  Apparently, Paul and Apollos were not on the best of terms, based on his comments at the end of the letter, and this knowledge may have helped encourage the opposing groups to snipe at each other.
• Spiritual pride.  This was manifested in two ways: The presumably "enlightened" spiritual attitude that allowed the church to tolerate gross sin in their midst, and the "holier than thou" attitude of those who exercised the most highly prized spiritual gifts, like speaking in tongues, and prophecy.
• Confusion about the role of marriage.  Evidently, some in the church were insisting on celibacy as the proper role, perhaps based on the example of Paul himself.  Others, already married, had decided that sexual intercourse, even with a spouse, was something best given up to concentrate on service to the Lord.  Spiritual pride played a part here, too, since foregoing marriage and sex were considered as marks of holiness.
• The proper attitude toward the worship of idols.  All of the Corinthians, other than converted Jews, would have come out of cults of idols.  Some of the new Christians took the cavalier attitude that it didn't matter if they participated in temple feasts for idols, or ate food sold in temple stalls, because the gods involved were false anyway.  Others, though, still believed the old gods were real, even as they worshipped the only true God.  These still believed that they were committing sacrilege when they participated in the feasts, or ate meat offered to idols.
• The proper attitude toward the worship of God.  Worship services in the church at Corinth were wild affairs.  Communion services were drunken brawls, former prostitutes were flaunting their sexuality, and everyone in a service wanted to give a message in tongues or a word of prophecy at the same time.  Again, the underlying issue was pride, along with refusal to submit either to the authority of God, or to local leaders.
• Heresy was creeping in.  Some in the church were denying the central fact of the Gospel, the resurrection of Christ after he died for our sins, by denying the general resurrection of the dead.  As Paul recognized, this notion challenged everything he had tried to teach the church about Jesus Christ, salvation, and the promise of eternal life.

Paul addressed each issue in turn.  He tried to restore the proper focus for all Christians, on Jesus Christ, rather than on individual Christian leaders.  The problem persists today.  He also brought them to task quite severely on the issue of the member living in sin with his father's wife, probably a stepmother.  In order to take their attention away from the "flashy" spiritual gifts like tongues, he gave a more complete listing of the spiritual gifts, and made clear that their purpose was to build up the church, not to glorify the user.  Further, everyone in the church had a role to fill, and it was improper to give greater credit or attention to one over another.  God, he said, would judge what we did in his service, and things we did for our own purposes and glory would be burned up as "wood, hay and stubble" in the fire of the judgment of Christ.  We should not use spiritual knowledge, presumed or real, as an excuse to indulge in behavior that, while not wrong in itself, might cause other Christians of weaker faith to stray into sin.  That also will not stand the test of fire.

 In an effort to seek the spiritual, the heavenly as it were, we should not neglect the practical.  Not everyone can control their physical lust, so it was better to marry than risk the sin of fornication.  Depriving a spouse of the marital duty of sexual intimacy was improper, and could well create the same problems as not marrying, along with adultery.

Worship is an activity dedicated to God, and deserves to be taken seriously.  Communion, in particular, is not an occasion for revelry or gluttony, but a sacred memorial to the sacrifice Christ made for us all.  God is a God of order, not chaos; and decorum, not confusion.  Worship services should reflect the same sense of order that is apparent in all creation, and should also respect the reverence and awe in which God deserves to be held.  As members of a congregation, we are under authority, and we should do only what we're called on to do, not insist on showing everyone else how spiritual we are.

Either the Gospel is true as a whole, or none of it is true.  If any part of it, like the resurrection of the dead, is discounted, then all of it is a lie.  If we choose to believe, we cannot pick certain things, like the virgin birth or atonement for sins, and reject something else, like the resurrection or the promise of eternal life.  That is what some liberal churches are doing now, and it is just as dangerous and as wrong in our day as it was in Paul's.