I Corinthians 1
COMMENTARY:
: 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. (39 “saints” [hagion] means a person of God, understood as a person dedicated to God, holy, dedicated, set apart to, morally pure, or sanctified.)
DEVOTION: God has churches all over the world. HE has churches that meet in church buildings, in people’s houses, or other places where they can worship HIM in spirit and in truth.
This church in the first century was meeting in a place called Corinth. They were a church divided. The people were not working together. There was no teamwork. A church needs teamwork to move forward for the LORD.
Today we have many churches that are organized by people who are declared “holy” or “called” of God to serve HIM. In some translations the people are called “sanctified” and this means that they were a group of people set aside by God to serve HIM.
Every church should only have members that are called by God to serve. They must first become “sanctified” by being set aside to serve the LORD after they have confessed their sins.
We will find that even Christians can’t get along with one another which displeased God. Paul was writing these Christians to stop fighting or disagreeing with one another and start working together to serve the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Is your church working together to serve the LORD today? Are you active in this effort??
: 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. (950 “confirmed” [bebaioo] means establish, made sure, to be or become proven to be true, to verify, increase in inner strength, or ratify.)
DEVOTION: Once we become followers of Jesus Christ we have a testimony or witness that we are different from when we were not a follower of Christ. If we become a follower of Christ at a young age we might not act too much different than we did before we became a believer.
Older people who become followers of Christ have established some bad habits. Some of them have used language that was not pleasing to the LORD. Some of them had other habits such as drug use or alcohol use that affected their personality. Once they quit practicing these habits their personality changed into one that would please God.
People notice changes in people. If they knew them before they were saved and saw them after they were saved they would see a difference in their habits. This is what is called our testimony.
Has your life changed since you became a believer? Do you notice other changes in your habits that improve your service to the LORD?
One of the habits we are going to discuss throughout our study of this book of the Bible is harmony. Do we work well with people? Do we truly want to serve the LORD alone?
CHALLENGE: Are we selfish in wanting our own way or our favorite speaker speaking?
: 10 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. (2675 “perfectly” [katartizo] means to complete thoroughly, repair, adjust, fit, frame, mend, restore, prepare or make one what he ought to be.)
DEVOTION: What does God want from us once we become followers of the LORD Jesus Christ? Paul tries to explain to the Christians in the Corinthian church. They were having many problems. Paul starts where he should start – at the beginning.
The church is a group of people who have been sanctified. They have been called. They have been given grace and peace from God. They have been given knowledge. They have been gifted by the Holy Spirit. They are to walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Now he gets to the first problem in the church in Corinth. There is supposed to be “no divisions” in the church. However, it was reported to him that there were divisions. People were following their favorite author. They were following their favorite TV or radio preacher. Oh, that is today. But it was the same in Paul’s time – they were following men rather than God. When men are followed there is division in the church. Why? No two men think alike. No two men teach alike. Every Bible teacher is different. Some have charisma and others don’t. So come like the one with charisma and others like the plain teacher.
The problem sometimes is that these teachers teach different doctrines or teachings. Paul wants and the LORD wants all to have the same speech or the same teachings. Paul and the LORD want the church members to fit together like a puzzle. They want them to be joined together with the same mind and the same judgment. Paul and the LORD don’t want there to be divisions in the church.
Does that mean that we all have to believe all the same things regarding polity in our churches? Does that mean that we have to believe all the same thing regarding personal convictions from the Bible?
The answer to these two questions is NO! Does this mean that we have to agree on the major doctrines that are listed below? YES!!! We have to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. We have to believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. We have to believe in the inerrancy of the Scriptures. We have to believe that the Godhead is made up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have to believe that all the members of the Godhead are equal persons but ONE God. We have to believe that Jesus is the only way to be welcomed into Heaven. We have to believe that Hell is waiting for the devil and his angels, as well as, all those who reject Jesus Christ. We have to believe in the literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have to believe that God created the universe in six literal twenty-four hour periods, which makes the world only about 12,000 years old. This is just the short list. All full list is available in your Bible.
Our job is to help each other to be the servant of God we ought to be. It is a responsibility that needs to be worked on full time until our lives are mended together. We are sinning stones rubbing against sinning stones to make each other shine for Jesus. Who enjoys hearing about fighting among Christians? Satan! World! We shouldn’t give the enjoyment to them!!! Can genuine believers be united? Paul thinks so. God thinks so. Do we?
CHALLENGE: Learn the major doctrines of the Bible and challenge those who are not teaching them. The Bible is not full of stories but it is full of the TRUTH of GOD.
: 12 Now this I say, that every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. (2786 “Cephas” [Kephas] means surname of Peter, Simon, stone, rock.)
DEVOTION: Peter was a unique disciple of Christ. He had what I call foot in mouth disease. He would always put his foot in his mouth when he tried to confront Jesus. He would tell Jesus that he couldn’t die. He would tell Jesus that he would never deny him.
He would make some good statements as well. When Jesus was questioning the disciples regarding who men said who HE was they would give a group of names. When HE asked Peter, he said that HE was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That was a good confession.
Now we have Christ in heaven and the church is growing. There is a church in Corinth. This was a divided church. This was not a doctrinally sound church.
Paul had heard about their division. There were groups of people who thought it was good to become a follower of a human instead of Christ. They thought they were following Christ when in reality they were thinking more of other men rather than Christ.
The list included Paul who is the author of this book through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There was Apollos who we have learned was a better public speaker than Paul. Then finally there was Cephas or Peter who some liked to follow.
The last name on the list was Christ. People tended to have their favorite speaker or writer. We are not sure if Apollos wrote anything. Peter and Paul wrote books of the New Testament. Christ never wrote a book but was the author of all of the books of the New Testament through his disciples.
We can tend to honor our favorite speaker or author even today. Our only one to truly honor should always be Christ. HE is the one who provided our salvation. HE is the one who provided all the teachings of the Old and New Testament. HE is the one who is coming again to take us to heaven.
CHALLENGE: Our honor should always go to Christ. All that we accomplish in our life should be given over to HIM. Watch out for improper honor to human speakers or authors.
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