In Acts chapter 18, Paul’s reasonings to a church community that Paul knew really well, Corinth was a major port city in the ancient world and had lots of temples to Greek and Roman gods, it was a big economic center and so Paul strategically came as a missionary. He spent a year and a half there getting to know people, talking to them about Jesus and a whole bunch of people became followers of Jesus and formed a church community, after a while, Paul moved on to start churches in other cities and he started he started getting reports that things were not going well at all back at the church in Corinth, it was plagued by all kinds of problems.
The problem is that there are these divisions in the church, there are some other teachers who had come through town, Apollos, and then Peter, and people had picked their favorite teacher and then became groupies around that leader and then started to talk bad and disrespect people who favored another leader or teacher. Paul’s response to this, the church is not a popularity contest, the church is the community of people who are centered around Jesus and its leaders and its teachers are simply servants of Jesus. So while you might prefer one leader more then another, it’s not worth dividing over and certainly not speaking poorly about each other. The center of the church is Jesus and the good new about who he is and what he’s done.
Paul addresses some problems related to sex. There were a number of people sleeping around in the church, one guy with his stepmother, and a number of other people were still worshipping at the local temples to Greek gods and sleeping with the prostitutes who worked there. Not only that, but there were people in the church who were saying that this was all just fine, we’re free in Christ, God’s grace is bottomless, it’s fine. Paul responds, it’s not fine, he shows just how wrong-headed this kind of thinking is, remember first of all, Jesus died for your sins, including the ruin of broken relationships that’s caused by sexual misconduct. So, if you’re a Christian, sexual integrity is one of the main ways that we respond to Jesus’ love and grace. Paul also reminds them that just as Jesus was physically raised from the dead, so our bodies will be raised from the dead, if your body is being redeemed by Jesus now, and in the future, then what you do with your body matters, it matters a lot, and it’s not yours to do whatever you want with. Paul is being super clear, being a follower of Jesus involves no compromise when it comes to sexual integrity.
The issue about food, but not just food preferences, like do you like or dislike a certain food. The issue the Corinthians were divided over is meat that came from animals sacrificed in the local temples to Greek and Roman gods, there was a split between the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians about how to respond to this issue. Paul appeals to some core ideas from the gospel, our allegiance first and foremost is to Jesus as Lord, not to any other gods. If you’re in a situation where there’s meat that’s been dedicated to another god and there are people around who might watch you and conclude, Christians worship Jesus and they can worship other gods too. Paul’s saying if that’s the scenario, don’t eat the meat, your loyalty is to Jesus and you should love those people more than yourself and not mislead them. But Paul quickly qualifies this and says, as Christians we believe God is the creator of all things, including animals, and the temple idols, we believe are just pieces of wood and stone. So, if there’s no one around who’s going to misunderstand your actions and you’re hungry, eat up, your free as a new human in Christ to follow your conscience in these kind of debatable matters. So what makes it ok in one situation to eat, but not in the other? The core principle is love. Love will deny itself and look out for the well-being of other people. Love, God’s love, is at the core of the gospel, it’s what Jesus did when he died for us, and so Paul’s saying, it’s what Christians should do for other people.
Paul addresses problems in their weekly worship gathering. There were some people who were having really powerful spiritual experiences in the gathering, and so they would start praying out loud in unknown languages. There were other people who might start sharing a teaching or a word from God and then someone would get up and interrupt them, because they wanted to share, it all was really chaotic and it was distracting people, especially visitors, from hearing the gospel. Paul helps them think first of all about the purpose of this gathering, to help them see what kind of behaviors are appropriate. The gathering is a place where God’s Spirit should be working through everybody and it should happen in a unified way. Paul developed a metaphor about the church as a human body, it’s one, but it has all these different parts and each part serves a unique and important role. Paul goes on to name a whole bunch of things, that the Spirit does through all these different people, all for the building up of the church. Paul concludes that the highest value in the gathering should be a concept central to the gospel, God’s love. Love will compel each person in the gathering to use their role to serve and seek the well-being of others. So Paul applies all this to the Corinthian’s problems, some people think the purpose of the gathering is to have intense spiritual experiences or to get a chance to speak their mind. Paul saying, I’m a big fan of powerful experiences of prayer, but if it distracts other people or freaks them out, I should stop it, because I’m loving myself more than I am loving those people. The gathering around Jesus should be orderly, so everybody can learn and sing and worship and hear God speaking to them.
Another problem Paul addresses is the issue of Jesus’ resurrection and the future hope of Jesus’ followers. There were some people in the church who were saying that the idea of resurrection is ridiculous and doesn’t really matter to being a Christian. Paul reacts to this, he begins by saying that the resurrection is an indispensable part of the gospel. We believe in it, because of the hundreds of eye witnesses that saw Jesus alive in a physical body after being publicly executed by the Romans. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, that his death was meaningless, we are all still lost in our sin and selfishness, we should just stop being Christians. Paul then shows in detail how the resurrection was Jesus’ victory over death and evil, how it’s a source of life and power for us now in the present and how it’s a promise of future hope for the whole world. It’s because of the resurrection that we have a reason too be unified around Jesus, it’s the reason we have motivation for sexual integrity, it’s the source of power for loving other people more than ourselves and ultimately it’s our hope for victory over death. So Paul concludes, we do believe Jesus was raised from the dead, the gospel is not just moral advice or a recipe for private spirituality, it’s an announcement about Jesus that opens up a whole new reality, seeing every part of life through the lens of that gospel.
The problem is that there are these divisions in the church, there are some other teachers who had come through town, Apollos, and then Peter, and people had picked their favorite teacher and then became groupies around that leader and then started to talk bad and disrespect people who favored another leader or teacher. Paul’s response to this, the church is not a popularity contest, the church is the community of people who are centered around Jesus and its leaders and its teachers are simply servants of Jesus. So while you might prefer one leader more then another, it’s not worth dividing over and certainly not speaking poorly about each other. The center of the church is Jesus and the good new about who he is and what he’s done.
Paul addresses some problems related to sex. There were a number of people sleeping around in the church, one guy with his stepmother, and a number of other people were still worshipping at the local temples to Greek gods and sleeping with the prostitutes who worked there. Not only that, but there were people in the church who were saying that this was all just fine, we’re free in Christ, God’s grace is bottomless, it’s fine. Paul responds, it’s not fine, he shows just how wrong-headed this kind of thinking is, remember first of all, Jesus died for your sins, including the ruin of broken relationships that’s caused by sexual misconduct. So, if you’re a Christian, sexual integrity is one of the main ways that we respond to Jesus’ love and grace. Paul also reminds them that just as Jesus was physically raised from the dead, so our bodies will be raised from the dead, if your body is being redeemed by Jesus now, and in the future, then what you do with your body matters, it matters a lot, and it’s not yours to do whatever you want with. Paul is being super clear, being a follower of Jesus involves no compromise when it comes to sexual integrity.
The issue about food, but not just food preferences, like do you like or dislike a certain food. The issue the Corinthians were divided over is meat that came from animals sacrificed in the local temples to Greek and Roman gods, there was a split between the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians about how to respond to this issue. Paul appeals to some core ideas from the gospel, our allegiance first and foremost is to Jesus as Lord, not to any other gods. If you’re in a situation where there’s meat that’s been dedicated to another god and there are people around who might watch you and conclude, Christians worship Jesus and they can worship other gods too. Paul’s saying if that’s the scenario, don’t eat the meat, your loyalty is to Jesus and you should love those people more than yourself and not mislead them. But Paul quickly qualifies this and says, as Christians we believe God is the creator of all things, including animals, and the temple idols, we believe are just pieces of wood and stone. So, if there’s no one around who’s going to misunderstand your actions and you’re hungry, eat up, your free as a new human in Christ to follow your conscience in these kind of debatable matters. So what makes it ok in one situation to eat, but not in the other? The core principle is love. Love will deny itself and look out for the well-being of other people. Love, God’s love, is at the core of the gospel, it’s what Jesus did when he died for us, and so Paul’s saying, it’s what Christians should do for other people.
Paul addresses problems in their weekly worship gathering. There were some people who were having really powerful spiritual experiences in the gathering, and so they would start praying out loud in unknown languages. There were other people who might start sharing a teaching or a word from God and then someone would get up and interrupt them, because they wanted to share, it all was really chaotic and it was distracting people, especially visitors, from hearing the gospel. Paul helps them think first of all about the purpose of this gathering, to help them see what kind of behaviors are appropriate. The gathering is a place where God’s Spirit should be working through everybody and it should happen in a unified way. Paul developed a metaphor about the church as a human body, it’s one, but it has all these different parts and each part serves a unique and important role. Paul goes on to name a whole bunch of things, that the Spirit does through all these different people, all for the building up of the church. Paul concludes that the highest value in the gathering should be a concept central to the gospel, God’s love. Love will compel each person in the gathering to use their role to serve and seek the well-being of others. So Paul applies all this to the Corinthian’s problems, some people think the purpose of the gathering is to have intense spiritual experiences or to get a chance to speak their mind. Paul saying, I’m a big fan of powerful experiences of prayer, but if it distracts other people or freaks them out, I should stop it, because I’m loving myself more than I am loving those people. The gathering around Jesus should be orderly, so everybody can learn and sing and worship and hear God speaking to them.
Another problem Paul addresses is the issue of Jesus’ resurrection and the future hope of Jesus’ followers. There were some people in the church who were saying that the idea of resurrection is ridiculous and doesn’t really matter to being a Christian. Paul reacts to this, he begins by saying that the resurrection is an indispensable part of the gospel. We believe in it, because of the hundreds of eye witnesses that saw Jesus alive in a physical body after being publicly executed by the Romans. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, that his death was meaningless, we are all still lost in our sin and selfishness, we should just stop being Christians. Paul then shows in detail how the resurrection was Jesus’ victory over death and evil, how it’s a source of life and power for us now in the present and how it’s a promise of future hope for the whole world. It’s because of the resurrection that we have a reason too be unified around Jesus, it’s the reason we have motivation for sexual integrity, it’s the source of power for loving other people more than ourselves and ultimately it’s our hope for victory over death. So Paul concludes, we do believe Jesus was raised from the dead, the gospel is not just moral advice or a recipe for private spirituality, it’s an announcement about Jesus that opens up a whole new reality, seeing every part of life through the lens of that gospel.
