Addressing division, immorality, and disorder — practical Christianity for a messy church
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1 Corinthians 1:101 Corinthians is Paul's most practical letter — written to a church drowning in problems. Corinth was a wealthy Roman port city notorious for sexual immorality and pagan religion. The church Paul planted there around 50 AD was young, immature, and syncretistic — importing the culture's values into Christian practice. Paul writes from Ephesus around 55 AD after receiving disturbing reports: divisions over favorite preachers, a man sleeping with his stepmother (tolerated by the church), believers suing each other in pagan courts, abuse of the Lord's Supper, confusion over spiritual gifts, and denial of bodily resurrection.
The letter addresses each problem head-on. Chapters 1-4 confront division and pride: the cross is foolishness to the world but the power of God; Christian leaders are servants, not celebrities. Chapters 5-6 address sexual sin and lawsuits: the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; flee fornication. Chapter 7 tackles marriage and singleness. Chapters 8-10 handle food sacrificed to idols and Christian liberty. Chapter 11 corrects abuses in worship — head coverings and the Lord's Supper. Chapters 12-14 regulate spiritual gifts: they are for building up the body, not personal glory; love is greater than all gifts. Chapter 15 defends the resurrection: if Christ is not raised, our faith is vain.
What makes 1 Corinthians so enduring is that the Corinthian problems are universal church problems. Every age has divisions, sexual sin, lawsuits, confusion over gifts, and doubt about the resurrection. The letter is a manual for applying the Gospel to the messiness of real church life. Paul's method is consistent: ground every correction in the Gospel. 'For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified' (2:2). The problems are diverse, but the solution is always Christ.
2 chapters per day · a manual for messy churches
'What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' The Corinthians were tolerating sexual immorality, partly because Greek culture separated body and spirit — the body was unimportant, a prison for the soul. Paul demolishes the dualism. Your body is not neutral; it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not your own; you were purchased at Calvary. Sexual sin is not just a private matter or a bodily appetite to manage; it is desecration of the temple. This verse is the foundation of all Christian sexual ethics. The body matters. Holiness includes the physical.
Sandwiched between two chapters on spiritual gifts comes the most famous chapter in the letter — and one of the most quoted passages in all literature. 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.' The Greek word is agape — self-giving love, the love of the cross. Paul catalogs what love is and is not: patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Then the climax: 'And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.' Gifts are temporary. Love is eternal. The Corinthians were obsessed with flashy gifts; Paul redirects them to the one thing that will last.
Chapter 15 is Paul's fullest treatment of the resurrection — and the earliest written account we have (earlier than the Gospels). Some in Corinth were denying bodily resurrection, possibly influenced by Greek philosophy that saw the body as a prison. Paul's response is surgical. First, he recounts the witnesses: Christ appeared to Peter, to the Twelve, to 500 brothers at once, to James, to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul himself. Second, he argues the logic: if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised; if Christ is not raised, our preaching is vain and our faith is vain. Third, he describes the resurrection body: sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. The chapter ends with triumph: 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?... But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Christianity stands or falls on bodily resurrection.
'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God... For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness.' The Greeks wanted philosophy — rational systems, eloquent rhetoric, wisdom that impressed. The Jews wanted miracles — signs and wonders that proved divine authority. Paul preaches a crucified Messiah — offensive to both. To Jews, a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms; the Messiah was supposed to conquer, not die. To Greeks, the cross was barbaric and shameful, the lowest form of execution. But God chose what the world calls foolish to shame the wise. The Gospel will always be an offense to worldly standards. That is the point.