1 Corinthians: Christians gone wild.

It is often said, ‘The church today needs to get back to how it was in the original church.’ Whoever first originated that saying clearly had not read 1 Corinthians. My prayer for any church would be, ‘God, don’t let this church be anything like the church in Corinth’. If you think your church is in a bad state, then reading 1 Corinthians will encourage you. You might find yourself praying, ‘God, we’re not where you want us to be – but thank you God, we’re not like them.’

Paul’s letter to the 1 Corinthians reveals the underbelly of a church that had lost the plot seriously. Chapter after chapter of his letter reveals yet another shocking error in the life of the church – whether it was pride and arrogance, divisiveness and elitism, sexual and financial immorality, divorce and depravity, reverting back to pagan rituals in order to be accepted by the culture, gender and authority confusion, the wealthy humiliating the poor, the pursuit of spiritual frenzy in meetings (causing even seeking non-Christians to call the church ‘out of their minds’), the wrong belief that spiritual power not humble love is the height of spirituality, or the heresy that there was nothing substantially more for the Christian beyond the grave. ‘Christians gone wild’ is a perhaps an understatement. 

Yet the scandal of grace is that Paul affirms their salvation and the persistent grace of Christ available to the church. We sense God’s relentless pursuit of compromised Christians, as we read Paul’s tireless call to repentance, and his ingenious application of some facet of the gospel to these flawed aspects of their lives, and their church.

As we’re exposed to the horrors of compromise and the devastations resulting from seriously distorted perspectives on the one hand, and the sheer brilliance of the gospel’s ability to bring comprehensive freedom from these sins and heresies on the other hand, we are both humbled by our own failures, and awed by God’s grace to get us on track. As we read it, we hear God’s whisper, ‘No matter how far you’ve drifted, I’m not giving up on you. By my grace you can still be all I want you to be, and do all I want you to do.’

ENTIRE COMMENTARY IN ONE DOC

INTRODUCTION

1)    THREE GREAT PRIVILEGES OF THOSE IN CHRIST (1:1-17)

2)    THE GOSPEL OF THE CROSS (1:17-31)

3)    THE SPIRIT WHO EMPOWERS, ENLIGHTENS AND TRANSFORMS (2:1-3:4)

4)    LEADERSHIP AND THE CHURCH (3:5-23)

5)    SIX QUALITIES THAT GOD WANTS IN EVERY CHRISTIAN (4:1-17)

6)    RESPONDING TO SIN IN THE CHURCH AND WORLD (4:18-5:13)

7)    CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE IN THE CHURCH (6:1-11)

8)    THE GOSPEL AND SEX (6:12-7:7)

9)    MARRIAGE, SINGLENESS, STATUS AND HANDLING CRISIS TIMES (7:8-40)

10) TRANSFORMED BY THE GOSPEL (8:1-13)

11) LIVING TO ADVANCE THE GOSPEL (9:1-23)

12) PURSUING ALL GOD HAS FOR US (9:24-11:1)

13) GENDER ROLES (11:2-16)

14) THE LORD’S SUPPER (10:16-18 and 11:17-34)

15) THE MIRACULOUS GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT (12:1-11)

16) FUNCTIONING IN THE BODY (12:12-28)

17) LOVE IS THE GREATEST (13:1-13)

18) THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT: TONGUES AND PROPHECY (14:1-5)

19) SOME ESSENTIALS IN A CHRISTIAN MEETING (14:6-40)

20) THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL (15:1-11)

21) WHERE TO FROM HERE? PT 1: (15:12-34)

22) WHERE TO FROM HERE? PT 2: (15:35-58)

23) FINAL INSIGHTS AND INSTRUCTIONS (16:1-24)