Greetings, Thanksgiving, Unity – 1 Corinthians 1:1-17

[TRANSCRIPT]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article with a historical background and a who, what, when, and where of the Corinthian church. I hope you read that. As we move forward, the names of the people there will start appearing in the text, especially in the first chapter. All that said, I’m excited to get things started.

At the beginning of each session, I’d like you to read the passage at hand. Though I’ll reference verses, unlike in the Hebrews study, I won’t post (or read, in case this is a video) the passage in its entirety. Read it, keep your Bible on hand, navigate the content, and engage with the questions.

Paul began 1 Corinthians with the typical greeting in all of his letters. He identified himself, identified his target audience, and then said, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” But it wasn’t just Paul. It was the normal way to start a letter in the first-century Roman Empire. But Paul says something unique to each church. For Corinth, he singled out those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. I think it’s super important that he called them saints.

Our problems as two-thousand-year-late readers of this letter are many. Some of us have been in church long enough to hear many teachings from this letter and numerous opinions about the Corinthian church. For all of us, the cultural context is foreign, meaning we must dig deeper to grasp the reasons for some of the things we’ll read about. And for many of us, our denominational upbringing will cause us to bring presupposed ideas to different parts of the letter.

Let this be lodged firmly in your heart: No matter how bad you’ve been told the Corinthians were, Paul called them saints. Regardless of what we read about their misdeeds and poor decisions, Paul considered them holy ones. That means that they are our brothers and sisters in the faith.

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours – 1 Corinthians 1:2

If I’m honest, I’ve experienced seasons of my faith where I felt like the Corinthians were somehow more fleshy than the rest. But, to my shame, I had listened to (and believed) a lot of other Christians speak poorly of them. Did they make bad decisions and get things wrong? Yes. And what church today isn’t making bad decisions and getting things wrong on occasion? It’s easy to read a two-thousand-year-old letter and make judgments about brothers we have yet to meet.

We are them. I’ve concluded that I don’t really understand what the Lord wants me to learn if I don’t identify with them. I’m just as broken and in need of correction and redemption as they were. I’m even broken in some of the same ways as they were.

So are you.

Despite their flaws, Paul is gracious in his opening. He calls them saints and offers thanksgiving for the grace the Lord gave them. In his gratitude, I observe two important things.

First, in every way they were enriched in all speech and knowledge.

that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge – 1 Corinthians 1:5

The grace of this enrichment was evident, even early in their new lives in Christ. Paul said that the testimony of Christ was still being confirmed when it became evident that the Lord had blessed them with verbal fluency and understanding of the faith. In simpler terms, the Corinthians quickly became at ease with sharing the faith and connecting the dots from what Paul had taught them.

We’ve all seen people like this. They picked it up with ease, didn’t have to study much, and seemed to grasp it with little effort. I was that guy. In high school and college, I didn’t study. I listened to the lectures, took notes, and never opened my books. I was able to intuitively understand and connect the dots. The only book I ever read was my Bible, but because I never learned how to actually study, my habits with my Bible reading weren’t great. But that didn’t matter. I listened to great teachers and preachers and absorbed LOTS of doctrine. Many dots were connected, and I could engage in discussion, teach, debate, and hold my own. Yet, I had serious problems.

So did the Corinthians. Being enriched in speech and all knowledge doesn’t guarantee you’ll make all the right decisions. It’s a great blessing, but in my experience, when you develop doctrine without discipline, you typically become a catastrophe of a believer.

Second, they were completely gifted (1 Cor 1:7). They didn’t lack any spiritual gifts. A few take that to mean they possessed every possible spiritual gift, but the more likely meaning is they had every gift necessary for their church to be spiritually healthy.

I like that. The Lord never leaves a local church’s spiritual vitality to their natural abilities. He gives every church the gifts they need to accomplish the work He has for them. And that changes over time. As the work changes, the giftedness will also change. The spiritual gifts that manifest within a local church are as dynamic and varied as the works the Lord desires us to accomplish through them.

Paul also expected these gifts would continue to manifest until the day of Christ’s return. Early in this letter, he puts a nail in the coffin of the argument that some gifts will cease. All spiritual gifts will continue to be given and useful until the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, in light of all these good things, it’s fair to ask, how did a church so enriched and so gifted end up making such a mess of things? I think we can broadly say what I said about myself. Knowledge and giftedness can still make huge messes if they’re not paired with a spiritually disciplined life. Admittedly, Paul doesn’t single out their lack of discipline in these opening paragraphs, but I believe this will become obvious as we read.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. – 1 Corinthians 1:10

Perhaps the biggest reason discipline is so vital is that we are in dire need of daily renewal. We still have sin that needs to be crucified. Knowledge and giftedness alone don’t kill sin. Spiritual discipline trains us to kill sin. The Corinthians’ lack of spiritual discipline gave rise to problems. The first of these problems in Paul’s letter is factions.

I think I can see how this happened. In the absence of spiritual discipline, being enriched in all speech and knowledge may have bent them toward forming factions that orbited their favorite teachers.

Today, it’s less common for churches to have multiple pastors who are capable teachers. Since most local churches are one hundred or less in regular attendance, most have one pastor. I attend a church with multiple pastors, and I’m one of them. We all get to teach from the platform on occasion, but only one, Noah, is the primary. Over the years, I’ve heard these kinds of rumblings from people. They don’t like it when so and so preaches, or they prefer to hear this pastor more than the other one. I don’t get to address this every time I hear about it, but when the occasion has allowed, I addressed it, and I modeled my exhortation after Paul’s.

We’re all on the same team. Preferences are fine, but preferences must not lead to divisions. Even if it isn’t your favorite guy in the pulpit today, the Lord wanted Him there, so you’d be good to listen. The same goes for me.

This passage has another matter to discuss before we wrap this session. Verse sixteen is a parenthetical remark that Paul made while discussing who baptized who. This parenthetical is often used to favor the practice of infant baptism.

(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) – 1 Corinthians 1:16

I don’t want to dive into that topic necessarily, but it’s an excellent spot to talk about something that will be hugely helpful along the way as we journey through 1 Corinthians.

Eisegesis vs. Exegesis. Have you heard those terms? Eisegesis is the interpretation of a text by reading into it one’s own ideas. Exegesis is an explanation or critical interpretation of a text. The former is marked by bringing your own values into the explanation. The latter is marked by letting the text explain what it values.

As I go through this letter with you all, my objective will always be exegesis. Let’s exegete Paul’s parenthetical remark. As a whole, the New Testament associates water baptism as something that follows repentance and belief in Christ. Therefore, if Paul said an entire household was baptized, there’s a built-in assumption from the other clear teachings in Scripture. That assumption is that each person in that household repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ. So, if Paul literally meant every person in Stephanas’ home, then the Biblical assumption is there were no infants, only parents and children (perhaps even servants) capable of expressing their personal repentance and faith in Christ.

I hope that made sense. It’s a principle of how to interpret Scripture. Clearer verses help us interpret less clear ones. When we exegete a passage, we don’t apply our best guess; we let Scripture interpret Scripture. Exegesis is harder work than eisegesis, but you end up with the actual meaning and intent of the author, not a shoehorned meaning that the original author and readers wouldn’t understand.

Ok, that’s it for now. Leave comments and questions in our Facebook group, and let’s start to work through this together.