No. 4. He was also humble enough to know that even his hard work was the work of Gods grace in him. What of the dead in Christ before that day? ( 1 Corinthians 15:1-2) Preface to the proclamation of Paul's gospel. Christ: This is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah, or Anointed One. This is the One prophesied by the Old Testament Scriptures, sent by the Father to save and deliver us. c. Sosthenes our brother: This man Sosthenes is perhaps mentioned in Acts 18:17, as the head of a Corinthian synagogue who was beaten because he protected Paul. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - Bible Gateway (45-49) The two Adams and their bodies. Paul, knowing death is a defeated enemy because of Jesus work, can almost taunt death, and mock it. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing: To those who reject the salvation of the cross, the idea of being saved through the work of a crucified man is foolish. Gods wisdom is not mans wisdom multiplied to the highest degree. After that time, there will be a final, Satan inspired rebellion (Revelation 20:7-10), which Jesus will crush and finally and forever, is an Old Testament figure for total conquest. (Mare), The last enemy that will be destroyed is death, : Death will be present during the millennial reign of Jesus (Revelation 20:9 and Isaiah 65:20), but afterward, death will be abolished. I am of Christ: There was the Jesus Party, who declared You all are so carnal, following after mere men. c. You do not sow that body that shall be God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body: When you plant a wheat seed, a big wheat seed does not come up. The power of baptism is in the spiritual reality it represents, not in who performs it. (11-13) Paul exposes the foolishness of their divisions. Click to enable/disable _gid - Google Analytics Cookie. Sin is the ultimate cause of death (Romans 6:23, Genesis 2:17), and the result cant be defeated unless the cause is defeated. They did not come behind any of the churches in any gift, v. 7. All rights reserved worldwide. O Hades, where is your victory? we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, mean that Paul predicted Jesus would come in his lifetime? Click on the different category headings to find out more. This Pauline letter is one of earliest writings in the New Testament, alongside his Thessalonian correspondence. If Jesus is not God, He cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins. If you are an unbeliever, death is not your friend; it is your enemy. Enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge, : This was the effect of grace in the life of the Corinthian Christians. i. They did not value the wisdom expressed in the message of the cross. The Corinthian Christians are called saints, but this was not based on the outward performance of the Corinthians. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. i. Finally, have all your affairs in order so that you are ready to die. c. To the church of God which is at Corinth: Notice the contrast: The church of God (something good), which is at Corinth (someplace bad). It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. For I delivered unto you first of all . iii. Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke. 2. iii. ii. iii.Redemption is a word from the slave trade. 1 Corinthians 5 - Confronting Immorality in the Church A. An apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God: With this, Paul emphasizes his point and already begins contending with the Christians of Corinth. No one will stand before God and declare, I figured You out or You did it just like I thought You should. Gods ways are greater and higher, and nothing of the flesh will glory in His presence. This should make us steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord! : This truth is essential to the gospel. It is important to understand that when Paul says, . i. It may simply be unrecorded, or Paul may mean . Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. This is proving himself the servant of Christ. : Whether Paul or one of the other apostles brought the message, the result was the same. In putting the strong and wise and great to shame, God does not exalt the weak and uneducated and worthless, but brings all of them down to one common level. (Calvin). b. Raised in incorruption raised in glory raised in power: Our resurrection body will be glorious! What will Paul boast about? c. He who glories, let him glory in the LORD: Paul uses this reference to Jeremiah 9:23-24 to show that God did it all this way so that God would get the glory. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory, : Some take this to mean there will be different degrees of glory for believers in heaven. It is the heart shown in God when it is said of the Lord, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance ( 2 Peter 3:9 ). Our resurrection body will be a heavenly (celestial) body, suited for life in heaven, not only life on this earth. In Ephesians 1:10, Paul reveals Gods eternal purpose in history: When He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, to men, to Satan, and even to death. 1 Corinthians 15 Commentary | Precept Austin . It involves truth-telling, fortitude, constancy, and tolerance (1 Corinthians 13:4-5,7). A well-known piece of graffiti in Rome shows a worshipper standing next to a crucified figure with the body of a man and the head of an ass, and it says, Alexamenos worships his god. This is how foolish the Greeks saw the cross. There was an old, contentious Quaker who went from one meeting to another, never finding the true church. is simply a thing to be understood by spiritual, rather than by merely human perception. d. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory: Some take this to mean there will be different degrees of glory for believers in heaven. (12-13) The resurrection of Jesus proves there is a resurrection. But they were. Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. i. For Paul, the message of the cross was the gospel. You dont understand the tension between Christ and crucified. If you are an unbeliever, death is not your friend; it is your enemy. Some mock the idea of resurrection. Later, in 2 Corinthians 6:1, Paul pleads that we might not receive the grace of God in vain: : Paul compares himself to the other apostles. Should it not show us that gifts are nothing, unless they are laid on the altar of God; that it is nothing to have the gift of oratory; that it is nothing to have the power of eloquence; that it is nothing to have learning; that it is nothing to have influence, unless they all be dedicated to God, and consecrated to his service? (Spurgeon). ! A strong church once inscribed these words on an archway leading to the churchyard. So He receives resurrection first as, of Jesus described here uses the ancient Greek word, of our resurrection, does that mean He was the first one raised from the dead? God loves them, bears them hearty good-will, and bestows on them his fatherly smiles and blessings. Paul, knowing death is a defeated enemy because of Jesus work, can almost taunt death, and mock it. Let every pulpit rightly say, we preach Christ crucified! A strong church once inscribed these words on an archway leading to the churchyard. Thou lookest like a dragon, but thy sting is gone. When Paul looked at the Corinthian church, he could say: These people proclaim Jesus, they know about Jesus, there are the supernatural gifts of God among them, and they are excited about Jesus return. Whatever problems they had, these are some pretty impressive strong points. This is a question Paul doesnt really answer in the following verses, because the answer is obvious. means good news. As the word was used in ancient times, it didnt have to describe the message of salvation in Jesus Christ; it could describe any good news. The Greek word has both a Gentile and a Jewish background. a. Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord: Because we know death is defeated and we have an eternal, resurrected destiny with Jesus Christ, we should stand firm and unshakable all the more for Him right now. Death has no power over the person found in Jesus Christ. 6. Click to enable/disable _ga - Google Analytics Cookie. 1. Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits. Where did the Corinthian Christians get their strange ideas about the resurrection, ideas Paul spent this chapter trying to correct? Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Isis, Serapis, and Asclepius, among others, had temples to their honor in Corinth. Paul tells them just what kind of apostle he is, a called apostle. I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily, : Paul will boast a little here. III. If Jesus cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins, our sins are not completely paid for before God. ! Our resurrection body will be a heavenly (. ) i. i. Certain divines tell us that they must adapt truth to the advance of the age, which means that they must murder it and fling its dead body to the dogs which simply means that a popular lie shall take the place of an offensive truth. (Spurgeon). However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. . They were not looking for the message of the cross. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1. i. : The Corinthian Christians had their strong points, and they had their weak points. It is as if he says, You all may not recognize my apostolic credentials. Secondly, it was right and proper for Paul to live as if the coming of Jesus was imminent, though he did not in fact know when Jesus would return. You see that the mark of a child of God is that by the grace of God he is what he is; what do, His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, : Though grace made Paul what he was, Paul still, i. But this is not necessarily the case at all. But resurrection means, that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. No one will stand before God and declare, I figured You out or You did it just like I thought You should. Gods ways are greater and higher, and nothing of the. At the core of the gospel are things that. (Isaiah 55:8-9). So when he says we he means we believers. (Morris). But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. We know that Jesus could do this after His resurrection; He could miraculously appear in a room that had all the doors locked and the windows shut. The Corinthian people were also world known: for partying, drunkenness, and loose sexual morals. But Hodge recognizes that Paul isnt necessarily referring to only believers of his day with all; it is a word that properly embraces all believers, over all time. This remarkable, instant gathering of Christians unto Jesus in the clouds has been called the rapture, after the Latin word for caught up in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. ii. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. Through much of this book, Paul deals with the moral problems of the Corinthians: envy, divisions, pride, immorality, greed, irreverence, and selfishness. For those who are not in Jesus Christ, death still has its sting. That is of little importance to me, because I am not an apostle because of a popular election. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. . a. Is made a "making alive spirit," a spirit that makes alive. They both describe a work in progress. They know Jesus rose from the dead., followers of Jesus before His Ascension, though Acts 1:15 mentions only the 120 who were in the Jerusalem area. i. The Listener's Bible: NIV Edition Copyright 2011 by Max McLean. It is true that knowing Jesus and loving Jesus can make this life better, but sometimes it will make this life worse. It predates the writing of the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation by decades. Their desire for deliverance was not bad, but their rejection of Gods way of deliverance was. In terms of what love "is not," Paul says it is not self-seeking, short-tempered, and offensive. i. This thought will not only to keep you going, but 1 Corinthians 15:58 also says that it can motivate you to always abound in the work of the Lord.' I believe that God has used this exhortation to encourage the guardians to abound in the work of the Lord. If one preaches the word with a reliance on, i. : In the wording of the ancient Greek, it is even stronger: : Paul says our bodies are like seeds which grow into resurrection bodies. A truly Christian minister will seek much more to do spiritual good to men's souls, than to get the greatest applause to himself. But in the first century, saying, is foolishness to those who are perishing, To us who are being saved it is the power of God, : Though it is a strange message, and regarded as foolish by the perishing, to those who trust in it and are, in the preaching of the true gospel, when it is received with faith. It was founded on a promise of God, when He said, : In his first few words, Paul lays the foundation for a fundamental issue he will address in this letter: Christian unity, based on the common Lordship of Jesus Christ. i. Philippians 3:21 repeats Pauls theme: Who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Click to enable/disable Google Analytics tracking. David has been happy to be part of the Blue Letter Bible . Ironside says that the last trumpet was a figure of speech that came from the Roman military, when they broke camp. But in the first century, saying message of the cross was about the same as saying message of the electric chair except worse! He clearly denies here that he considers baptism essential to the remission of sin or the means of obtaining forgiveness. (Robertson), How did Paul preach in Corinth? ii. The way Paul lived his life all-out for the gospel was evidence of the truth of the resurrection. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God. If the cross doesnt seem strange to you, then you either dont understand how the cross was seen in Jesus day, or you dont understand who Jesus is. i. 1 Corinthians 1:14-17 INTRODUCTION 1. Let a man so consider us: Paul asks that he, and the other apostles ( us) be regarded by the Corinthians as servants. As Paul said to Agrippa in Acts 26:8, Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? Study Guide for 1 Corinthians 15 by David Guzik - Blue Letter Bible 1 Corinthians 4:9 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary - StudyLight.org Those who feel called to rebuke sin and correct error in the church today should follow Pauls example. (1-2) Preface to the proclamation of Pauls gospel. Finally, one could only read, , and the church also just became another social gathering place, all about, To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, ; perhaps this is better understood as an, . He is happy to do it in this way, which offends the height of human wisdom. We know that Peter had a wife, because . Click to enable/disable Google reCaptcha. Paul writes this letter from Ephesus, where these people from Chloes household visited and told him about the condition of the the Corinthian church. The term Korinthiazomai was well known in the Roman Empire and it meant literally to live like a Corinthian. But everyone knew it really meant to be sexually out of control. Aelian, the late Greek writer, tells us that if ever a Corinthian was shown upon the stage in a Greek play he was shown drunk. (Barclay), v. Fee comments on Corinths sexual immorality: The Asclepius room in the present museum in Corinth provides mute evidence to this facet of city life; here on one wall are a large number of clay votives of human genitals that had been offered to the god for healing of that part of the body, apparently ravaged by venereal disease. Fee sums up his analysis of Corinth by writing: All of this evidence together suggests that Pauls Corinth was at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world. Leon Morris describes Corinth as Intellectually alert, materially prosperous, but morally corrupt.. While therefore it is unscriptural to make baptism essential to salvation or a certain means of regeneration, it is nevertheless a dangerous act of disobedience to undervalue or neglect it. (Hodge). ii. We dont find freedom by focusing on ourselves, because, He who glories, let him glory in the LORD, : Paul uses this reference to Jeremiah 9:23-24 to show that God did it all this way so that God would get the glory. those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If the cross doesnt seem strange to you, then you either dont understand how the cross was seen in Jesus day, or you dont understand who Jesus is. . When writing Scripture, Paul was infallible, but not omniscient. Paul made it clear that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). i. Lord: A title designating not only master and boss, but also the Lord revealed in the Old Testament (known as Yahweh or Jehovah). You dont understand the tension between, iii. July 16, 2017 / by Enduring Word 1 Corinthians 13 - Agape Love. It is certain that a blind man is no judge of colours, a deaf man is no judge of sound, and a man who has never been quickened into spiritual life can have no judgment as to spiritual things. (Spurgeon). Death is defeated by resurrection. e. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed: In a single moment, Jesus will gather His people (both dead and on the earth) to Himself, for resurrection. They say, Here is a Christians body, lying in a grave with no casket. Next, come every day, just as you did at conversion, to the cross of Jesus, as a poor guilty sinner. Many things made Corinth famous. Finally, have all your affairs in order so that you are ready to die. a. Jesus, who became for us wisdom: Jesus perfectly shows us, in His teaching and life, Gods wisdom. We need 2 cookies to store this setting. Spurgeon gives seven steps to dying daily in a sermon titled. But God cannot be found through human wisdom, but only through the, : The Corinthians wanted to believe that the gospel itself was a sublime form of wisdom, as the Greeks considered wisdom (. In the Old Testament, the offering of firstfruits brought one sheaf of grain to represent and anticipate the rest of the harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14). Believers in Palestine are described this way (1 Corinthians 15:9), as well as the church at large (1 Corinthians 10:31-32). b. ii. Believers in Palestine are described this way (1 Corinthians 15:9), as well as the church at large (1 Corinthians 10:31-32). iv. are significant. When Paul explained it like this, it shows how foolish it is to focus on anyone but Jesus. 1 Corinthians - Free Bible Commentary in easy English This is the sharpest and the shrillest note, the boldest and the bravest challenge, that ever man rang in the ears of death Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face, and bidden to do his worst. (Trapp), ii. 7. But God did not respond to the polling data. iii. They take the submission of God the Son as proof that He must not be equal in deity to God the Father. Children are apt to be struck with novelty; but do not act like them. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. The good news or euangelion, rests on just such a confession which Paul first proclaimed at Corinth and by which they were in the process of being . The Corinthians were a rich church, not only materially, but also in their speech and knowledge of Jesus (all utterance and in all knowledge the testimony of Christ), in their abounding in the gifts (come short in no gift), and in that they lived in anticipation of Jesus coming (eagerly waiting). Paul isnt condemning all learning or education; he merely says that by themselves they are useless for obtaining spiritual wisdom. Lifting up Jesus, honoring, and proclaiming His goodness to all mankind Click to enable/disable _ga - Google Analytics Cookie. I. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For the grace which was given to you by Jesus Christ: This was the specific reason for Pauls gratitude. The message of the gospel must first be believed and embraced. - The point is that reliable people have claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ in the flesh (sarx) and upon that confession we have come to believe. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentilesthat a man has his father's wife! iii. ; it is well to recall what the title means. These meetings were important in proving to the disciples that Jesus was who He said He was. i. Barclay on joined together: A medical word used of knitting together bones that have been fractured, or joining together a joint that has been dislocated. It doesnt matter if you get the praise or the encouragement; sometimes you will and sometimes you wont. b. This is in contrast to the Galatian church, who was quickly being moved away to another gospel (Galatians 1:6). Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. He has destroyed the wisdom of the wise, just as He said He would., was the man who wanted to dispute every issue and solve it by human reason. (Mare), The world through wisdom did not know God, : There is a constant tendency to think that the smartest and wisest humans will know the most about God. How sobering this is! : When you plant a wheat seed, a big wheat seed does not come up. Used by permission. We dont need to waver, we dont need to change direction, we dont need to fall, and we dont need to quit. He clearly denies here that he considers baptism essential to the remission of sin or the means of obtaining forgiveness. (Robertson), iii. It is a new order of life that will never die again. Each of us is definitely moving in one of those two directions. Originally it said strongly, we preach Christ crucified. Their idolatry was that they now had God completely figured out; he would simply repeat the Exodus, in still greater splendor. (Fee). If there were not men who differed a little in their creeds, we should never get as much gospel as we do God has sent different men to defend different kinds of truth; but Christ defended and preached all Christs testimony was perfect. (Spurgeon), ii.