Background
Today we
begin another work of Paul. Yes! But before I begin, let me give a bit of
background into the letters of 1 and 2 Corinthians. First, let’s talk about Corinth: the city to
which this letter is written.
Corinth
was a seaport into Greece. It was one of
the cities that were at the heart of trade and commerce in the Grecian
Peninsula. Like most ancient cities that
had big business dealings, this meant that Corinth had a substantial problem
with sexual immorality. Much of this
problem was due to the plethora of gods that were worshipped in plenty of
temples. Just about every temple had
male and/or female “temple priests” who were more like prostitutes that you
could pay money to the god in order to have sex. It was a system where the “priest” was
thought to become the god’s agent during the act so if you had sex with a
temple “priest” you would be especially blessed by the god. That’s a bit of a generalization, but you get
the general idea.
Additionally,
as places of business tend to be, Corinthians struggled from a lack of social
morality and ethic in general. Of
course, much of this was brought on by its great diversity in population. After all, if it is a center of trade and
people want to make money, you can’t offend any potential customer, right?
That was
the city and the context in which Paul follows God – we already read about his
story in Corinth in Acts. But we should
know that if any church that God used him to plant faltered, it was the church
in Corinth. Their incredible diversity
led them to have issues with unity.
Their incredible diversity also set them up to have factions within
their midst and they were eager to fight.
The huge amount of worship to foreign gods caused tension as the fledgling
Christians figured out right ways to interact with people who didn’t worship
God. As we read through Corinthians, we
must read through these letters through the perspective of Paul who is writing
to a church that is almost perpetually troubled.
Finally,
there is some debate about the books themselves. There are places within 1 & 2 Corinthians
where Paul seems to hint about writing other letters to them. Of course it is possible that Paul wrote many
letters that did not survive down through the ages. It is also possible that in order to save
space Paul’s letters became combined as scribes copied them. There are some scholars out there that would
actually break 1 & 2 Corinthians up into as many as 5 individual letters
based on scope, theme, and drastic mood changes within a letter. I don’t know if I would go the whole way of
thinking that 1 & 2 Corinthians might be an amalgamation of 5 different
letters, but I do think it is important to at least consider the possibility
that over time Paul’s smaller letters were combined into two large books. This doesn’t change the spirituality one bit.
Opening
Look at
Paul’s opening. Paul identifies himself
as an apostle: one who is sent. Also
notice that in his opening he focuses on a theme of unity. The Corinthians are sanctified by God and
called to be united with each other and all the followers of Jesus Christ. We can see from the very beginning that unity
is significant to Paul and his understanding of what is going wrong in
Corinth. It says quite a bit about the
letter when Paul’s opening words are words encouraging a perspective of
unity. Either unity is one of their
strengths (which would be the case if Paul were writing a letter of
commendation!) or unity is one of their biggest issues (if Paul is writing a
letter of advice, which he clearly is writing).
Thanksgiving
As we move
into the section for thanksgiving, notice what it is for which Paul gives
thanks. Paul seems like he is giving
thanks for the Corinthians, but he is not.
Paul is giving thanks to God, who is in the midst of the
Corinthians. {If you don’t see it, read the Thanksgiving section in the beginning of
Paul’s letter to the Philippians. There
he genuinely gives thanks to God as well as for the Philippians.} Here in Corinthians …
- Paul gives thanks for the grace of God within them.
- Paul gives thanks that God sees fit to enrich them and fill them spiritually.
- Paul gives thanks that it is God who sustains them.
Paul is
writing with a very deft hand. Paul has
found a way to give thanks and praise to God in the midst of the Corinthian
church that is in turmoil. In doing so,
Paul has sent a very clear message.
There is always reason to give thanks to God; even when the people in
the church don’t deserve for us to thank God for having them as a part of our
life. In this sense, even this section
of thanksgiving can be seen as a chastisement of Corinth – especially when
compared to the amount of thanksgiving Paul gives to the churches that are
following Jesus Christ in truth – Philippi being the big example here.
Division In The Church
Now we get
to the first piece of “meat” in the letter: Paul’s words on division in the
church. Note that when Paul says we must
be united Paul is not saying we have to be carbon copies of one another. Paul is not saying that we should be copying
each other precisely. As Paul confesses
a bit later in the first chapter, we are all gifted in different areas and we
should use those gifts accordingly. We
need not be carbon copies of one another, but we must be united in purpose.
What is
the thing behind which we should be united?
What else would it be other than the message of the cross? We should be united behind that which
professes Jesus Christ to the world. We
should be united behind that which tells other people about Jesus Christ.
I think
this is where so many churches get it wrong.
Yeah, I’m getting up on my soapbox again. I’ve said this before, but it is important
enough to talk about whenever it comes up in God’s Word. So many Christians think that the question “Do
I like this?” has a place in the church.
It’s taken me many years of Bible Study and living a life of getting
knocked around, but I’ve come to the place where I don’t believe the question “Do
I like this?” even has any place in the church.
God does not call me to things that I inherently enjoy. He does not call me only to things that are
pleasant. Rather, God calls me to
proclaim His Word to the world around me.
Sometimes
that is an absolute joy. There is no
greater joy for me than sitting down one-on-one with someone and unpacking
scripture and watching them gain a new understanding about God from God. On the other hand, sometimes I have to do
things I don’t particularly enjoy in order to reach people that God also wants me
to reach. The question “Do I enjoy
this?” is nowhere near as important as “Are people being reached for Christ
through this?”
That is
the gist of Paul’s point at the end of this letter. The world – in its foolishness – wants us to
focus on ourselves. The world wants us
to promote our life. God – in what the
world thinks is foolishness – wants us to promote His Son’s death. He wants us to promote sacrificial love and
sacrificial giving. He wants us to
promote thinking of God’s ways first and then thinking of other people even
before we think of ourselves. God wants
us to put the needs of others before the needs of ourselves because we trust
that God can take care of our needs anyway.
When I am
focused on reaching the world for Christ, the questions “Do I enjoy this?” or “Is
this for me?” don’t even enter into the discussion. The only question that is important is “Can
Christ use this to reach people who need Him?”
If Christ is genuinely using something to reach people for Him and
transform their lives into godly examples of His ways, why wouldn’t we want to
be a part of it? When the church learns
to focus on the message of the cross and it’s proclamation to the world, then
we will be united. When we focus on
worshipping in ways that we enjoy, preaching the things we want to hear, and
living the way we want to live then we will remain in our disunity.
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