1 Corinthians - Talk One

We are to live by GOSPEL WISDOM ‘..Lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its Power’

Intro to Corinthians
Well if the letter to the Corinthians was to go before office for film and literature classification, I’d imagine it would get an iM rating, with a statement that it is recommended for Immature Audiences as this letter contains graphic depictions of:
 Division
 Idolatry
 Sexual Immorality
 Lawsuits
 Unordered Spiritual Activity
 And contains occasional scenes of death by Lord’s Supper

It is safe to say that Paul’s letter to Corinth is not just polite dinner table conversation, but a gritty, earthy and real call to know the gospel, and to live out gospel shaped lives amongst the hard parts of life.

But what do we know of Corinth and its church?
Well Corinth was a city in Greece at the time that Paul wrote to them from Ephesus in around 55AD, and Greece at that time was part of the Roman Empire. Corinth in fact was an integral part of the trade route from Italy to Asia, and as a result it had much of the trappings of a trade centre. There was much wealth to be made in the city, as well as a lot of distraction to be had. Distraction at one of the many temples to various god’s from around the world, which often included a healthy prostitution industry, which isn’t entirely surprising given it was a port where sailors spent recreational time.

The Church in Corinth had been founded by Paul, some 3 years earlier, and this letter we are looking at today forms part of a number of letters that Paul wrote to the church, it’s likely there was four or five in total. Not all of the letters have survived and so what we have in front of us, can at times feel a little like listening to one end of phone conversation.

But there is much rich advice to a struggling church, that is good for us to read today as well, advice to a church that was in dire need of growing into spiritual maturity.
V 1-3 Paul’s Introduction to his Letter
NIV 1 Corinthians 1:1
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God,
and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God in Corinth,
to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and
called to be holy,
together with all those everywhere
who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—
` their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul introduces himself in this letter as the apostle of Christ, at other times such as in Romans, Paul has used the designation ‘slave of Christ’ to describe himself and to highlight his single minded purpose for Christ and his humility. Paul’s slavery to Christ has resulted in him having to undergo great sufferings for the sake of Christ and his gospel.


In Corinthians however, Paul clearly makes an appeal for the authority of his letter, and he does this by outlining his apostolic credentials to speak for God. Paul is an apostle of Christ. The title Apostle, of course means the one chosen by Christ to be sent as his representative. Paul is reminding the Corinthians from the outset of the letter, that God in Christ is making his appeal to them at Corinth, through his chosen messenger, the Apostle Paul.

And Paul tells us, he writes to the church in Corinth, and indeed to all the saints who call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Now as you may be aware when Paul begins his letters he often describes the recipients as ‘saints’, he calls them ‘holy’ would be another way of saying it. But in this introduction in particular, it is the only place, where Paul adds the little phrase, where he describes the Corinthians as, ‘those sanctified in Christ Jesus’. In a literal sense, you could say Paul calls them the ‘ones who have been made holy, to be called holy’. Sanctification is about having godly character that expresses itself in godly action, and this godly action in Corinth is to be unity.

In using this expression Paul tips his intentions as to what he wants to say to the Corinthians about their lives in the rest of the letter, they are God’s chosen people and as such they should reflect God’s good and holy character, in their lives and actions. The Corinthian Church at the time of Paul’s writing, has the appearance of lots of things, and especially impressive Spiritual activity and especially rhetorical flare, and you could call them lots of things, but holy probably would not be in the top ten, but we’ll learn more about that in latter weeks!

In V3 Paul then lets us have his almost trademark greeting, that great gospel summary in a few words, ‘grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ’. Grace is the gift of God towards us, and peace is the result. This peace is not just a cessation of hostility, but the promise of healing and wholeness when the kingdom of God is brought in full.




V 4-9 What you have received in Christ
4 I always thank God for you because of his grace
given you in Christ Jesus.
5 For in him
you have been enriched in every way—
in all your speaking and
in all your knowledge--
6 because our testimony about Christ was
confirmed in you.
7 Therefore you
do not lack any spiritual gift as you
eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
8 He will keep you strong to the end,
so that you will be blameless
on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God, who has
called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

Paul in a way that is customary in the beginning of his letters, gives thanks to God in prayer for the people to whom he is writing. Paul demonstrates his obvious excitement that those who he is writing to, have genuinely responded to the gospels call, they have received Christ as Lord.

Paul is genuinely excited that God has been pleased to save and change these people at Corinth, and God has been pleased to do it through Paul’s ministry.
The good things that Paul sees at Corinth in the Corinthian church’s spiritual gifting (including their speaking and knowledge) are clear reminders of the great things God has done in their midst. The Corinthians really are converted, they really are saved, they really are God’s, and yet they really are struggling to be mature.

In v4 Paul reinforces his previous declaration, that God has been generous to them, God has given them a gift (or grace if you like), a Gift found in Christ that hasn’t just meant they are saved, like something rescued from the flames of a fire, but they have been enriched in every way.

From their salvation through to their new creation they receive these good things as the gift of God, found exclusively in Christ. God’s gift is not just a cancellation of a past debt, or just a future hope, but great riches in Christ now. in Christ they lack no spiritual thing.


But you could well ask, why do they need to be reminded of this?
Well I think verse 8 helps us out here. At the heart of the reason that Paul writes his letter to the Corinthians is the problem of their wrong understanding of eschatology (yeh, thanks for that, very clear, explains everything!) Eschatology sounds like a fancy word, but really it only means the study of the end things, the things that are to come to us in the future.

Well what does Eschatology mean for us? Well you may have heard it described as the ‘now and not yet’ tension of the bible. Eschatology is about trying to work out and think rightly about our experience of life, as a member of the kingdom of God now, while we still live in this created and fallen world. Gospel wisdom is thinking rightly about our world theologically, in order that we would know how to live rightly in our world ethically.



How you understand eschatology, the ‘now and not yet’ tension of the Bible will shape how you live now. In Corinth they had got the ‘now bits’ and the ‘not yet bits’ confused and it was leading to lots of problems which we will get to look at over the coming weeks.

But for now he brings up the difficult topic of:
V 10 What you currently don’t have in Christ
10 I appeal to you, brothers,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree with one another so
that there may be no divisions among you and
that you may be perfectly united
in mind and thought.

Paul makes a heartfelt, plea to the Corinthians believers, he urges them, with some apostolic authority by calling on the name of Christ, that there should not be any divisions among them. These Christians at Corinth have been enriched in every spiritual way in Christ we learn from V4-9, and yet at the moment they are using their great gifting of knowledge as a reason for division not unity.

For the Corinthians believers, they lived and breathed in a world steeped in Greek traditions and values, and in particular a great heritage of Oration and Philosophy. The great traditions of powerful public speakers and they prided themselves in their knowledge or wisdom and their good use of words. The worldly wisdom of clever words and speakers was bringing spiritual pride and division among the believers

Paul’s words here are not of a slight disagreement between people, but of arguing ‘factions’ within the church congregation. Paul is urging them to turn away from this worldliness, this madness of judging each other by worldly standards, and to agree with one another about the theological truth of the situation, that they have all received grace in Christ Jesus and so they should be united.

This theme of working out their unity will be carried on and developed throughout the letter. As will Paul’s solution to the problem of disunity, the solution of right thinking about themselves, right thinking about their world, and right thinking about each other. The solution of right thinking about the Gospel of Christ.
So as we move on Paul tells us how he knows that the Corinthians don’t have this gospel wisdom, and it is because they don’t have unity.

V11-16 How I know that you don’t have it!
11 My brothers, some from Chloe's household have
informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12 What I mean is this:
One of you says,
"I follow Paul"; another,
"I follow Apollos"; another,
"I follow Cephas"; still another,
"I follow Christ."
13 Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
14 I am thankful
that I did not baptize
any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so no one can say
that you were baptized into my name.
16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that,
I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.)

Right thinking expresses itself in right action, and Paul hears reports of the Corinthians crazy actions and he joins the dots!
Paul goes says in these verses that it is obvious to all that you are not in fact mature and spiritual, because you are divided!
And Paul himself has learned this situation in Corinth through another group’s reports to him, and now he feels compelled to take some pastoral action. Paul’s action comes in the form of some quite stinging rhetorical barbs, about whom they are to follow, Paul asks three questions in V13 to which each the resounding answer to be supplied by the Corinthian reader is an emphatic NO! But in their actions it is currently a yes (and it is to their shame).

But why is baptism such a big deal in Corinth?
How has it became a reason for division?
IT seems that because baptism was a sign of discipleship, (still is actually), but it seems the people in Corinth had distorted this and were engaging in a little my dad is bigger than yours, or My leader is a better orator and philosopher than yours, because it seems in their Greek influenced culture, to follow a wise teacher was something of a mark of prestige.

But in this they were thinking in worldly ways, they were evaluating the merit of who they followed by worldly values. They evaluated them by who spoke in the most impressive way, or who could do the most spectacular spiritual performance.
They were evaluating the life and leaders of Church not according to the wisdom and standard of the Gospel, but the wisdom and standard of the world. But Paul points out Gospel wisdom doesn’t seek the things of the world or its standards but it seeks the good of the other, it seeks to build others up not compare, it is as Paul says in chapter 10
24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
The Corinthians in contrast were immature in their thinking and it lead to the immature behaviour of comparison and division.

V 17-19 The Solution to your problem
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize,
but to preach the gospel—
not with words of human wisdom,
lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the message of the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Paul in these verses rips into the Corinthians about how wrong they have got it. Paul the teacher takes his students to school and today the lesson is maths. You see Paul gives the Corinthians two equations.

1. Clever words = worldly wisdom = emptied cross = division……
clever words = division
2. Message of a Crucified Christ = God’s wisdom = Salvation and Sanctification = Corporate unity.
Message of a Crucified Christ = Corporate unity

To the whole of the world, Paul’s maths seems a screwy, but to those who understand it, they know it to be the wisdom of God, the genius of God at the heart of the universe. A secret that God revels to whom he chooses, that can not be the result of man’s prying eyes. God’s gift is not some trinket found in a $2 store, it is a gift of a pearl, that is not thrown to swine. The message of a crucified Christ, this is God’s wisdom, and it is Paul’s message and work also.

The gospel has always challenged mans wisdom, because it involved a crucified God. In the Greek mind this was unthinkable, how can God die, surely this is foolishness! And to the Jews the gospel was foolishness, because how could the God of all the universe become a man, a created thing, in the first place? And even if he could, everyone hung on a tree is cursed by God, how can God be cursed by God on a wooden cross?

The cross has always been offensive, and this is God’s good design, it is not a truth that is available to the wise, (it is a frustration to the wise), but it is God’s gift given to the simple and the perishing, that he chooses.

But the question is, is the cross offensive to our generation today?
What do you think?


Let me suggest that If David Beckham, (the uber chic pop culture icon who occasionally plays football), can have a large crucified man tattooed across the centre of his back, I think the answer is no. People aren’t offended by the cross anymore, in fact it is so common, people don’t even notice it anymore, they are inoculated by the sight of it. Round your neck, on a T shirt or tattooed on your arm, the cross is a mainstream image of western society today.

Why is it not an offence today?
Well the Greeks objected because how could God die on the cross!

Which gives a hint I think why people today don’t object because, well there is no God, so how can the cross be offensive?


Today generally, Jesus is just another a good man (and a good teacher) who died for their cause. Good men die all time. Perhaps this is attitude is best typified by Mahat MaGhandi, the man who brought the sun to set on British rule in the sub continent, he thought Jesus was the perfect example of non violent protest, and he followed Jesus in this. Jesus was a noble teacher, but not a saviour, and certainly not God.

People aren’t offended by the cross anymore, because they don’t understand the cross, they have an at best anemic understanding or a caricature of what is happening there. They do not understand the scandal that it is the cross, the foolishness that it is the cross, the foolishness that God would die for us, to save us from our sins.

But just incase correcting their view of the cross sounds too hard and you were worried that the gospel has become palatable, well just jump to the next bit and ask people what they think of the dead being raised?
They’ll think you’re message is foolish soon enough.
And yet, it is the wisdom of God.

Application:
So what about us, what worldly wisdom are we in danger of evaluating the church and it’s gospel by today and being like the Corinthians?
Every Christian knows the very real temptation to make the foolishness of the Gospel a little more palatable, a little less confronting, and a little less difficult to ‘sell’ to the non-believer. The temptation to try and show an impressive face to the world!
And one particular form of this at the moment is the trend in Christian circles to follow the Idol of success.

If we just live impressive lives, of wealth, health and general success and respectability, then others will have to listen to us won’t they?
Admit it, we’d all like it to be true at one level, and in fact I bet at at-least one level we all buy into it.
I mean sure it mightn’t be as crass as wearing the right label clothes and having a Tag watch, but maybe it’s something a little less obvious and more subtle.

If we only had a good organization structure, if we only had a good building, if only we had great music, if only we had a café style church – with café styled coffee. if only the preacher talked for shorter, if only he would use multimedia!

We all know the very real temptation to make the gospel more palatable and more appealing, and the current temptation to follow the idol of success. Just look at the latest Koorong catalogue and see how many titles offer you success, in areas as widely varied as church growth, to slim for him… But all of these miss the problem totally..

Because the Bible reminds us that the opposition to the gospel is not rational, it is spiritual. Trust me, you can talk to a man who knows he has only days to live, and they will still think the gospel is not for them, even when there is nothing else left. You would only have to be a Christian for two days out 85 years and you get eternal life, it’s a god deal. How is not accepting that rational?

The problem is spiritual from start to finish, and the antidote is the foolish gospel, the whole gospel, God’s gospel of a crucified Messiah brought to bear under the power of the spirit. It certainly is Not a tag watch and ‘good worship music’ with nice coffee to boot.

And what it is in total contrast to this worldly wisdom, the Bible points out that the Christian life that recommends the gospel the best, is not a life of success and influence, but a in fact a life of bearing up under suffering, just look at the Apostle Paul as an example.

The Gospel is foolishness to the world, but it is the wisdom and power of God for salvation of all who are perishing. Tell people the gospel, the whole gospel the foolish gospel of God, of a crucified Christ, the one who dies to take away the sins of the whole world. The foolish gospel may be a bitter pill for a proud generation to swallow, but it is the pill that does the greatest good for the soul.