Welcome to this Collection for Word Online on 1 Corinthians, the first of two letters that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. It is part of the expanding library of videos and audios on Word Online in which we hope to cover the whole of the New Testament.

Introduction

Every letter that Paul wrote is totally different. There is a different mood, feeling and topic. 1 Corinthians is especially important for the church. It is not primarily about doctrine or teaching but about the life of an everyday church, and a church that was in big trouble. There are so many problems in the church in Corinth that we find out about in this book. It is very practical; many of the issues that the Corinthian church faced, we face today. You might find some remarkable help in this book for you in your church, in your country, and in your situation.

Corinth

Corinth was a city in Greece. Paul travelled to Greece to preach the gospel, and he eventually ended up in this remarkable city. It is a very unusual city. Greece is divided between a big northern area and a smaller southern area, which are almost entirely separated by the sea. There is only a very small strip of land that joins the northern part of Greece with the southern part. Corinth is situated on the narrowest strip of land. It is only six kilometres wide, between the sea on one side and the sea on the other. Therefore, Corinth was always full of people travelling. If you were living in Greece and you wanted to go from the north to the south overland, you had to come through Corinth. There was no other road. If you were travelling by sea on a good route, coming from the west to the east across the country, you came to this strip of land. Many of the boats were taken out of the water, put on trolleys and carts and dragged six kilometres across the land and put back in the sea the other side, so that they could continue the journey. There were travellers coming by road, and many seafarers and sailors who came to Corinth. There were many visitors.

Every two years there was an athletic championship called the Isthmian Games - a bit like the Olympic Games on a small scale. There were running, wrestling, boxing, music and poetry competitions. Thousands of people came to Corinth for the games.

Paul had previously visited this city. It was filled with many of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. Just outside the city was a small hill - about 550m high - with a huge temple on the top. Everybody went to this temple including all the visitors to worship the goddess called Aphrodite. She was the goddess of love and fertility. At that temple there was much prostitution and all sorts of other sexual activity in the temple compounds. The city was known as a city of free love and sex and was the liberal capital of ancient Greece. That is the place that Paul went to plant a church - not an easy place to plant a church!

Opening Greeting

“Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sosthenes. To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Corintians 1:1-3, NIV

This is a typical greeting that Paul gives at the beginning of his letter. He mentions a friend of his, a man called Sosthenes, who was converted in Corinth. We find out about him in the book of Acts. Probably this man had come from Corinth to visit Paul where he was at this time.

Paul says he is "an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God". Paul constantly mentions the fact that his calling to be an Apostle and to preach the gospel had nothing to do with any other human person. Nobody had said to Paul that he would make a good preacher. In fact, he was an enemy of the church; he persecuted the church terribly.

We find in the book of Acts what he is referring to here - the extraordinary events on the road to Damascus. You can study it, by going to 'The Spreading Flame' Collection. Paul was travelling along and suddenly had a vision of Jesus, and he became blinded. He suddenly realised he had been an opponent of Jesus. Jesus spoke to him at that time and called him to go to the nations and to preach the gospel. Paul knew that it was God himself who brought Paul to Corinth.

Paul’s earlier visit to Corinth

“I always thank my God for you because of his grace given to you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way - with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge- God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:4-9, NIV

Paul is very thankful for the Corinthians. It wasn’t long before he wrote the letter that he had been in Corinth. It is a remarkable story. Paul was working in Turkey at the time, not in Greece, and he expected to spend many years working in Turkey, going all around that country; they called it Asia Minor in those days. One night he had a vision, and, in his vision, he saw a man who said to him. ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Macedonia is the northern part of Greece. Paul had not been there before. It was a different country and a different culture. He told his friends that they were going to have to move - not staying in Asia Minor but to go over to Macedonia and Greece.

He started out in the north, in a city called Philippi, where he planted the church, ended up in jail and had a very difficult time. Then he went to another city nearby called Thessalonica, where he preached in the synagogue and had some success but some of the Jews turned against him and forced him out of the city. Then he went to another city nearby called Berea, where they gave him a good welcome but some people from Thessalonica came over and caused trouble, and he had to leave Berea. He went south to the city of Athens, the capital city, and after a short time there, he decided to go to Corinth.

He was on his own when he arrived in Corinth. All his friends that he had worked with had stopped at the various different churches on the way, for several reasons. Paul, when he came to Corinth, believed that he had been called by God, by Jesus Christ, to go to these cities. It wasn’t an accident; God had a purpose in Corinth. There were people to be saved in that city. The gospel had never been preached there before. It was a very liberal city. It was a difficult place to preach the gospel, but he spent 18 months there. Something extraordinary happened. As soon as he arrived, he met two Jewish people, a husband and wife called Aquila and Priscilla, who worked in the leather trade and had a business there. They were believers. So, in Corinth, they formed a team. There were three people in the team before his other friends arrived later, and for 18 months they preached in the city.

When Paul says he is ‘grateful for them’ he is thinking back to those 18 months where one household after another, one person after another, came to believe and were baptised. They came to the house of Priscilla and Aquila, and the congregation grew from 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, to maybe 100 people. He remembered the wonderful experiences that they had had - God working miracles, all sorts of different people being converted. He is grateful. God gave them spiritual gifts. In other words, when Paul was there, not only did they believe in the gospel, but they had a supernatural experience of God giving them powerful gifts to live the Christian life - gifts that he is going to talk about in chapters 12, 13 and 14, which we will look at in Series 4 of this Collection - gifts like speaking in tongues, prophesying, gifts of healing, gifts of wisdom - knowing the wisdom of God - and gifts to be able to perform miracles. Some amazing things happened in Corinth during the time that Paul was there. Paul is so grateful for those things that have happened. God started a really good work with them.

verse 8, ‘keep you firm to the end.’ For Paul, the gospel was not solving your problems now so you can carry on living your life; the gospel was a transformation of your life that carries on in every stage of your life until you die. If you keep following him, he will always be with you; he will keep you firm to the end. That is what Paul believed. Paul knew there were a lot of problems in the church in Corinth, but he also knew the power of God. He knew that God had done something amazing in Corinth. Where there was no church, no faith before, now, there was a living community of faith in the most unlikely and difficult place. He was grateful for the people, grateful for the work of God. ‘He will keep you firm to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Yesterday, the day before I recorded this episode, a pastor I have known for many years as a friend died in his 80s, having been quite ill for some years. I have known him for a very long time, and I know the story of his whole life - from a youngster, what he did as a teenager, when he was in the army, when he worked in business, when he worked in education, when he was a pastor, when he retired - and he was upheld by God until the end, and had firm faith all the way through his life. That is what God intends for all of us. That is what Paul said God intends for the Corinthians.

Paul didn’t expect the church just to die away when he wasn’t there. It didn’t depend on him being there; it depended on the Holy Spirit being there. Paul had a great belief in the Holy Spirit’s power and presence in the church.

A Deputation to Paul

Paul has been very positive so far but there are problems.

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me, that there are quarrels among you. 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’. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-17, NIV

We begin to see why Paul wrote this letter. He didn’t write the letter just to say: 'I thank my God for all of you; Isn’t it nice to be in touch with you?' He wrote this letter because at the time of writing, he was back in Turkey or Asia Minor, probably in the city of Ephesus, where he had been before.

While he was there, some people from Corinth visited. They came from Chloe’s household. (Verse 13). We don’t know who Chloe is, but she is obviously a member of the church, and she is probably a significant member of the church. Her husband nor her family, is mentioned; she might be single. She might be a wealthy lady and had sent some members of her household on a journey to see Paul. That journey would have been across the sea - about 500km journey. Or if they had gone by road - 1300km - several weeks' journey. It was a very big decision to go and see Paul. The reason they went to see Paul was because Chloe and her household were very worried about what was going on in the church. Things were not going that well.

It may be that Sosthenes, mentioned in verse 1, was one of the people who came over in that delegation, and Paul is writing the letter and giving it to Sosthenes to take back to Corinth. Paul is working in Ephesus and suddenly people arrive and say, ‘Paul, we need to talk to you. Things have gone badly wrong in the church that you planted about 3 or 4 years ago.’

As we go through this letter, we will find several issues that they mentioned. They wrote them down; Paul probably had a letter as well. We find that Paul says about ‘these issues that you raised,’ or ‘you wrote.’ Then he gives an answer.

A Problem of Leadership

We begin to realise, even at the beginning of this Series and this Collection, that Corinth was in real trouble and the troubles started at the level of leadership. Whatever church you are in, whatever country you are in, you will know that very often the problems of churches start

if leadership is not functioning well. Here we have a strange situation being described. They are telling Paul that people back in Corinth aren’t following any local leaders that he had appointed there. Apollos was an evangelist who had come to Corinth after Paul had left, and some people thought he was great. Other people said, we follow Cephas. Cephas is the same name as Peter and that is a reference to Peter the Apostle. Peter the Apostle could have been to Corinth and preached recently. So, can you see what is happening? Some people said that they like the founder of the church, Paul. Others said that they like that great evangelist Apollos. He is a wonderful speaker and others said they preferred Peter as he is the most important Apostle in the Church. But the interesting thing is – they are not following their local leaders - none of those people are there.

This happens in the modern church too. In many countries in the world, people are in church listening to what the pastor says Sunday by Sunday but the rest of the time they are on their phones, on the internet, and are watching on television, tele-evangelists or faith healers or national prophets. Many of you listening in different cultures will know that there are many such people. You can find yourself thinking, ‘Will I follow that person more than I follow the person in my own church?’ This is a very important lesson for us now in the modern world. It is the same thing that happened in the ancient world; people follow celebrities - people who are apparently wise or gifted or powerful. Paul always tried to explain that he was not that sort of person. He was an ordinary person.

Paul always appointed local leaders and told the church to follow the local leaders and he would support them. Of course, some people in the church, didn’t follow Paul, or Apollos, or Peter. They said, ‘I follow Christ. I don’t follow any man; I just follow Christ.’ There is something good about that but there is something risky too because the message of Christ has been given to human leaders. Sometimes you can say that so that you are not under the authority of anybody else. As you listen to that, which was something going on in the church 2000 years ago, let me ask you the question: is that sort of thing going on in churches today? This happens in different cultures around the world. You will be able to think of how it works out in your own culture, whether you are living in the West, or in Africa, or whether you are living in an Asian country, or in Latin America.

A Problem with Baptism

There was a problem with leadership, and also a problem with people being very concerned about who baptised them. Paul said that he hadn’t baptised very many people. In fact, he probably preached the gospel and then he said to Priscilla and Aquila, 'You baptise the people whilst I preach', because that was the three-person team that he started with.

Paul wasn’t worried about who had conducted the ceremony. It is the power of baptism that matters, not who baptised you. That is another thing that we find quite difficult in in our cultures; we can feel that we have a special relationship of honour with the person who baptised us. But Paul didn’t consider that to be particularly significant.

As we come towards the end of our first episode, we begin to see a tension, a paradox, a complex issue here in Corinth: Paul loved the church. He was grateful for them. They had received the Holy Spirit; they had spiritual gifts; God was working in their midst; they had been baptised into the faith; and they truly believed. But they were divided. They weren’t functioning well as a body of believers.

Reflections

First of all, the Corinthian church was in serious trouble. Paul describes it in chapter 7 ‘as this present crisis’. Paul’s fear for the Corinthian church was that it would cease to exist - it would fragment and disappear. Maybe you have been in that kind of situation. Maybe it is happening or you fear that it might happen to you. Can I encourage you? You are in the right part of Scripture in 1 Corinthians, to find help for you in that difficult situation. Paul invested time to try and build the Corinthian church up.

The crucial issue, secondly, is a lack of effective local pastors. It is the mission of Word Online to equip pastors and leaders with a good understanding of the Bible, through our videos and audios and all the resources we provide, to be able to teach and preach accurately and positively in your context. We are here to support local pastors. The local leaders and pastors in Corinth needed help because they were not effective at this time. Notice the danger of following a powerful leader outside of a church. It is something we will be talking about later in more detail.

As we bring this episode to a conclusion, note the power of thankfulness. Some people would be very depressed if they had this bad news that Paul had had. Some people might want to give up on the church, but Paul was not like that. He loved the church, and he was thankful for what God was doing within it. I want to end by asking you, how much do you love the church that you are in? You can see its faults; that is not difficult - we are human, and we fail; our leaders sometimes fail; our brothers and sisters, who we trust, sometimes let us down in the church. But Paul really loved the Corinthian church, and he invested a lot of time and energy to try and help them. Let us be thankful for the church we are in and use the wisdom of 1 Corinthians to help us understand how to deal with some of the problems that we might face in our local churches.

I look forward to seeing you for the next episode.