THE CALL TO HOLINESS, THE PATH OF LOVE Paul's First Letter to Corinth 1:1-3 The purpose of the letter is set out in the greeting which Paul sends to Corinth. Paul, who himself is called to be an apostle, is writing to the Corinthian Christians who are called to be holy and to be united with Christ and united with all Christians. 1:4-2 Understanding God's Gifts 1:4-1:9 God has given many gifts, and nowhere is this more evident than at Corinth. Already the Christians there excel at Christian studies as well as in all other areas. Furthermore, God will maintain them in faith. These gifts are given in Christ and are received in fellowship with Christ. 1:10-1:16 And yet, there are quarrels in Corinth - something which doesn't agree with unity in Christ. The church seems already to be breaking into sects; the people are looking at different points of view and different manners of expression instead of seeing the one truth which these different views and expressions are teaching. 1:17-25 Paul's own mission is instructive. Paul's call is to preach the message that Christ, the Annointed One of the omnipotent God, came and was executed. What foolishness! How weak a God is this who can't even keep the appointed savior safe? Paul believes that even if God had made a foolish mistake here, that mistake would still be smarter than any plans which human beings could devise. But, of course, there was no mistake. Christ crucified is the path God has chosen to bring us to safety. 1:26-1:31 Again, we may look at the people God chooses. The educated, the rich, the important people are not well represented among the Christians. God is on the side of the poor and the ignorant. Scholars (like Paul) can only get in if they are able to accept the unexpected choices God makes. When we submit to God's choices, then we must also admit that we have not accomplished anything ourselves. 2:1-2:5 The Christian message does not depend on the ability of the preacher or the quality of the argument. A faith which depends on such human things can easily be shaken when the preacher is shown to have feet of clay or the argument is refuted. A solid faith is built on the power of God in action. 2:6-2:12 There is a wisdom in God's action, it simply isn't the kind of wisdom humans have grown accustomed to. Wisdom, after all, is the ability to discern what is more important and what is more valuable. This is insight we have through the Holy spirit. The spirit, by knowing not only human intentions but also God's, is able to recognize what there is in life that has truly lasting value. 2:13-2:16 Without God's wisdom, a person will not be able to understand God's gifts or accept them. With God's spirit, a person knows the value of everything. People who live in the spirit can't be judged by anyone else because such people will make decisions which don't make sense to others. 3-6 Good Order Among the Saints 3 Our unity with God's work 3:1-3:4 People new to faith behave like the ordinary people they were before. They walk according to human understanding. The divisions among the Corinthian Christians show that they are in this condition. 3:5-3:11 These divisions are foolishness. They arise from paying attention to the different workers who are each contributing to the work. Only God matters. You can think of the church as a cultivated field; it is God's field. Or think of it as a building under construction; it is God's building and Christ is the foundation. 3:12-3:15 Each of us is given a job in the construction of this building and each of us builds in our own way. It is true that the work of some is better than that of others, and the worth of everyone's work will be revealed in the end. Worthless work will be lost - but the failure of the work does not imply the loss of the worker. 3:16-3:23 Indeed, God's spirit lives in every believer. Each of us, therefore, is a temple of God, holy to God and under God's protection. This is not a result of how well we did our work, because anything we can think or do is just foolishness. But through God's spirit we are united with God, with God's purpose, and with God's ultimate victory. 4 Judgement by God alone 4:1-4:5 Because we belong to God, God alone has the right to pass judgement on us. In the first place, this means that we don't need to be concerned about what others may think of us; we don't have to answer to them. We don't need to pass judgement on ourselves, either. We are subject to God's judgement, and we can be confident that God's judgement will be based on our hearts' intentions and not mere externals. 4:6-4:13 In the same way, none of us ought to pass judgement on others. None of us have anything except what God has given us. Anyone worthy to judge others must be better than the apostles. Or would it be better to save the dirty bath water? 4:13-4:16 Of course, Paul was being sarcastic. He feels like the father of a couple of teenagers. Why can't they follow his example wherever he is being faithful? Why don't they put their energy into becoming the very best Christians, instead of wasting their effort on selfish distractions? 5:1-6:20 Living with due honor to God 5 The Christian community needs to keep itself pure. We need to use the wisdom we have in God's spirit to separate ourselves from blatant abuse of God's gifts. Paul does not suggest that we isolate ourselves from the world - he specifically denies this meaning - but we should not give Christ's name to sin. 6:1-6:11 Similarly, we shouldn't not contaminate our gift of discernment by referring to the opinion of people who do not have God's spirit. God's wisdom acting in us is the only thing which makes our judgements worthy. If we honor this wisdom in God's spirit, we won't feel the need to go to outsiders for judgement. Doing so puts the whole matter upsidedown. 6:12-6:20 Personal purity is a part of the purity of the community. This is especially clear in matters of sexual morality, for there the individual's body is polluted and so pollutes the corporate body of which we are each parts. Paul has already said that our lives are sacred to God; our own purity is a way to give honor to the Christ to whom we are dedicated. 7-11 Instructions and Examples 7:1 In these chapters, Paul provides instructions and advice about living as Christians. The specific examples are based on questions the Corinthians had asked, but Paul uses the opportunity to state some fundamental truths about our relationship to Christ. 7 Marriage: Fixing our attention on God's work 7:2-7:11 Marriage is valuable for Christians because its mutuality and permanence provide a method for avoiding sexual immorality. Paul himself is more inclined to the virtues of celibacy, but God's differing gifts mean that we must each respond in different ways. 7:12-7:16 An interfaith marriage, in Paul's view, should also be honored. Union with a non-believer provides additional opportunities for God to act. Nevertheless, we should not make this a new legalism; that would only give rise to new conflicts. 7:17-7:24 As with a pre-existing marriage, so with an existing connection to Judaism. There is no reason for a Christian man to get circumcised; the physical marks of the old covenant really don't mean anything either way. Even slavery has no essential significance any more, since all of us are Christ's servants and find our true freedom in doing God's will. This is more important than any external condition. 7:25-7:40 And so, returning to the question of marriage, Paul suggests neither beginning nor ending marriages. Why? Because seeking a mate and trying to get out of a relationship are both distractions from the Lord's work. It is not only marriage, as was already said; buying and selling, mourning and dancing - all the facets of living day by day - they will go on but they should never get our full attention. So if passion is a worse distraction than marriage, get married. But if not, then give all your attention to the Lord's work. 8-10 Food from idols: Our rights and duties 8 As Christians, we know that there is only one God and that the pagan gods have no reality. So food that has been offered to such idols is the same as any other food. But knowledge is not the same thing as love, and we have been called to love and to be constructive. Exercising our privilege to eat is not nearly as important as keeping stumbling block off of the path where those we love are walking. 9 Paul uses his own work as as example: It is his duty under the Lord to preach the gospel, but he makes himself the servant of everyone he preaches to so that his actions will not become a stumbling block keeping anyone out of Christ's church. 10:1-10:13 Being a member of the Christian church is not a license for immorality, arrogance, or complaining. Sharing in communion doesn't exempt us from doing God's work any more than the old equivalents protected the Hebrews. We are always in danger of failing - although we can also trust God not to put us into a situation that we can't escape. 10:14-10:22 Communion is a way for us to share in the death and in the substantial reality of Christ. We join together with all Christians in a single reality of Christ. The reason we avoid food offered to idols is not because of the food itself or the offering itself, but because we do not want to align ourselves with any power except Jesus Christ. 10:23-10:33 Hasn't Christ set us free? Yes, we are free to carry each other along; we are free to build each other up. There is no need to conduct an inquisition into the source of the food we buy or which is served to us when we are a guest; there is nothing evil about the food itself. The guide for our actions should be how well our actions help to carry others to health and freedom. 11 Worship 11:1-11:16 The same kind of logic makes use of customs of worship. As Christians, we know that the true relationship between men and women is mutuality. On the other hand, a woman with a covering on her head honors the way that Christ covers the church with his authority. 11:17-11:34 The Lord's supper can't be eaten selfishly; if you eat for yourself it is your own meal and not Christ's that you eat. The bread and the cup are shared in Christ's memory and selfishness dishonors this memory. 12-14 Living Spiritually 12 Mutuality among the holy people 12:1-12:11 The gifts which the spirit gives all have Lord Jesus as their focus. There are many different gifts and many different kinds of work to do, but all true gifts enable us to serve the Lord in a common purpose. 12:12-12:31 Like a human body we have both differences and an essential unity. The parts of our bodies don't go wandering off by themselves. Each part contributes something to the total experience of our lives. Similarly, as members of Christ's church we contribute to the totality of Christ's work. We should be jealous of the gifts that do the most good. "And I will reveal the road to the surpassing degree." 13 Love is the measure of a holy life 13:1-13:3 Love is the prerequisite for achieving anything. 13:4-13:7 Love is focused on helping others. It is love which enables us to put up with all the problems and frustrations of life without losing sight of the possibility of the final perfection of life. 13:8-13:13 Love aims at the goal. The things that we are able say today are no better than the ideas of inexperienced children, but maturity requires us to look to the end result. 14 Applying our gifts to service 14:1-14:12 Love is the measure of the holy life, but a gift such as prophecy brings God's message to others. Speaking does no good unless it is used to help others. As Christians we have a message which can be of the greatest benefit to others, but this advantage won't be realized if the message is not spoken in a way that can be understood. 14:13-14:25 Faith in Christ informs the totality of our lives and can't be reserved to some spiritual compartment of life. Mature thought is needed just as much as an eager spirit for God's message to be shared. 14:26-14:40 This does not mean that speaking in tongues is a bad thing or that it should be suppressed. All the gifts we receive are good, so long as they are used to build harmony and not to bring about disorder. (14:34-14:35) (These verses, to which most translators attach the end of verse 33, do not seem to fit the thread of the argument. They do touch on the theme of order in worship, but Paul has most assuredly not been appealing to the rule of [Jewish] law. This section is no more intrusive than the discursion on men and women in chapter 11, but there Paul assumes that women will be praying and prophesying. Some manuscripts place these two verses after verse 40.) 15 Our Confidence 15:1-15:11 Christ crucified and risen is the only gospel. The good news comes as a gift from God. No matter who preached this message, Jesus is only foundation for our faith. 15:12-15:34 Our victory is certain and our certainty is based on both faith and reason. Faith assures us that the message about Christ's resurrection is true, and reason shows how this truth is our guarantee of God's triumph. 15:35-15:53 Reason alone can also lead us astray, if we rely only on our own efforts at understanding. How are we to understand resurrection, since we have no experience of it? But reason can show us that God has provided for many analogous transformations and that, therefore, our faith in the resurrection is not unreasonable. Thus faith and reason work together, not separately, to help us understand. 15:54-15:58 From all this we can be assured that our lives are not lost even in death, but rather everything we undertake can bear fruit in the final victory. 16 In closing, Paul adds notes about the whole Christian family. There is the collection for the believers at Jerusalem, a matter of joining in the care of the whole church. Then news about the plans of Paul, Timothy, and Apollos, and whether they will be able to visit Corinth, and also word about three other Christian travellers known to the Corinthians. The letter ends with greetings from Paul and those with whom he is now staying. June, 1996