1 Corinthians 1:1
June 6, 2010 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
As Paul ministers three years in Ephesus, he receives word of serious problems in the Corinthian church he founded, and writes the letter we call 1 Corinthians. Rather than attacking their many failures immediately, Paul opens by returning the divided, immoral, and unruly church to its solid foundation in Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians was written by Paul from Ephesus around A.D. 55-56, as he stayed because of "a great and effective door" despite many adversaries.
- The Corinthian church had drifted from its foundation into division (factions of Paul, Apollos, and Peter), snobbery, tolerated immorality, and unruliness.
- Corinth's location as a crossroads of trade made it a melting pot of world views and rampant heterosexual and homosexual immorality—much like modern California and America.
- God strategically plants His church in dark places like Corinth, just as streetlights are placed where they do the most good.
- Paul begins not with the problems but with the foundation: their calling, sanctification, and gifting in Christ.
- God sees the finished product, not the current condition; Christ Himself will confirm believers blameless until the day of the Lord.
Now after these things were ended, Paul purposed in his spirit that when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. ()
Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth... (ff)
When a church drifts from its foundation, the answer is not to attack its failures first—but to call it back to Christ.
Paul's Journey to Ephesus
As we have been following the journey of Paul, we know that on his second missionary journey with Silas he came to Corinth in , where God worked great works, and so they stayed a year and a half. Departing toward Jerusalem, they stopped in Ephesus. Paul was there only about a week. The Jews of the synagogue requested that he stay, but he said, "I have an appointment to keep in Jerusalem, and if the Lord wills, I will return to you."
At the beginning of , it was the Lord's will that they return. Paul now spent three years at Ephesus. He began in the synagogue, reasoning from the Scriptures concerning the kingdom of God for three months. When a group of Jews rose up against him, the same group that had requested he come now requested he leave. So Paul shook off the dust and departed the synagogue—but he knew it was not God's will to leave the city.
An open door was given at the school of Tyrannus, a lecture hall probably owned by a man of that name. After three months in the synagogue, Paul taught there for three years. So prolific was his ministry that people from all the surrounding cities came to hear him, and churches began to be planted—not directly by Paul, but by those he ministered to, and perhaps by his key disciples we meet in .
Word of Trouble from Corinth
During this time Paul received word that things had taken a bad turn in the church he had planted at Corinth. tells us he was stirred in his spirit to go and visit the churches of Macedonia and Achaia—and Corinth was the capital of Achaia. It is likely Paul had already planned this route, for on his third journey he first strengthened the churches of Galatia and Phrygia ().
It is very probable that believers from Corinth came to him in Ephesus with reports of serious problems. One was Sosthenes. Back in , a ruler of the synagogue named Sosthenes was beaten because of Paul's work; apparently he became a disciple, for when Paul writes 1 Corinthians, Sosthenes is with him. also tells us Paul "sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus." Erastus is believed to have been from Corinth as well. These men likely brought Paul the news he, as the apostle to the Gentiles, needed to address.
Though stirred to return to Corinth, Paul had a new pressing desire: "I must see Rome." But his work at Ephesus was not finished. The conditions at Corinth had reached a point requiring immediate apostolic attention, so Paul would write them a letter. In fact, tells us he had already written them an earlier letter we do not have. So what we call 1 and 2 Corinthians are actually Paul's second and third letters to that church.
These Things Really Happened
As we've gone through Acts, we've detoured to study the New Testament letters in the order they were written, since the letters are not arranged chronologically. We looked at James, written around . Then Galatians, Paul's first letter, written just before . Then 1 and 2 Thessalonians, written while Paul was in Corinth in . Now in , around A.D. 55 or 56, comes 1 Corinthians.
I keep reiterating these dates because I want us to remember that these things actually happened. The book of Acts and the letter of 1 Corinthians are not fictional essays written to encourage people. There really was a man named Saul of Tarsus, converted on the road to Damascus, who became Paul the apostle and carried the gospel of Jesus to the known world. He truly lived. There truly was a church in Corinth with all kinds of problems, and Paul is going to address them in a letter because, for now, God still held him in Ephesus.
In , Paul writes, "Now I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia... But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." This shows us he wrote from Ephesus. Why stay? "For a great door and effective is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." That is striking—normally we think a great door is one with no opposition. Not Paul. He recognized that the adversarial condition in Ephesus was proof God wanted him there.
We are often detoured from the very thing God wants us to do because things seem to come against it. Yet the Lord says, "Press on, church." The opposition in Ephesus rose to such a point that there was a great riot, and the people wanted to destroy Paul (). When he says there are many adversaries, he is being honest. So he sent Timothy and Erastus ahead while he remained—and they likely carried this very letter to Corinth.
A Church That Drifted
So we take another detour, and this one will take a while—1 Corinthians has sixteen chapters, far longer than James, Galatians, or the Thessalonian letters. Paul is writing an epic letter to a church he founded, a church that had wandered from the way. He had given them a solid foundation, but they had departed from it—or built something new upon it.
Living here in Southern California, minutes from the beach, we understand drifting. You enter the water at lifeguard tower 5, and three hours later you're in front of tower 12. You didn't intend to drift, but a current pulled you. You have to make a determined effort to fight against it. The apostle Paul speaks of this in —this whole world has a certain course or current, and our adversary the devil directs it. If you do nothing, you simply drift along that wide road, whose end is death. The narrow way of Christ is contrary to the world's course, so following Him requires determined effort. The Corinthians were just drifting, and they ended up far from where God had called them.
The Rise of Factions
After Paul left Corinth, other teachers visited. Apollos, a Jew from Alexandria, had come to Ephesus and preached powerfully in the synagogue while Paul was in Jerusalem. Aquila and Priscilla took him aside, recognizing this great speaker did not fully know the gospel, and instructed him. He then went on to Corinth, where the people seized upon him, because Apollos was a great orator and Paul was not.
We forget that, because Paul's logic and power in his thirteen letters make us think he was an expert speaker. But in Corinth he told them, "When I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech... I came preaching Christ crucified." His message was simple, his delivery plain. When eloquent Apollos arrived, many drifted toward him—likely those of a more Greek background, for the Greeks loved wisdom and rhetoric.
Then the apostle Peter also came to Corinth. Imagine Peter—who stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, saw the risen Lord, and preached three thousand to faith in one day—coming to your town. It would be like Billy Graham, only greater. It seems Peter even performed miraculous works there, which Paul had not done in Corinth. So the church divided: "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas—did you see his miracles?," and "We are loyal to Paul." Meeting mostly in homes rather than one large gathering, whole house-groups aligned with one teacher against another.
Snobbery, Tolerated Sin, and Disorder
The church was also filled with snobbery. When they gathered for their agape feasts—love feasts where they observed the Lord's Supper, much like a church-wide potluck—they divided into social cliques. Corinth held people from Rome, Macedonia, Syria, and beyond, plus different economic classes: slaves and slave-masters, traders and the wealthy. Paul calls such division carnal and fleshly—and unloving.
That is striking, because the Corinthians thought themselves very loving, especially in being accepting and tolerant. As shows, a man among them was caught in gross sexual immorality, and the church did nothing—boasting of their tolerance. Church discipline was virtually nonexistent, and they prided themselves on allowing sin to remain in their ranks.
They had also become unruly and disorderly. They questioned the authority of their founder, even whether Paul was truly an apostle. Their unruliness spilled into the community: brothers sued brothers before the pagan courts of Corinth over trivial matters. The church had become chaotic, no longer functioning as God called it to.
1 Corinthians—or "1 Californians"
Do you notice how similar this is to churches in our day? Ray Stedman, a Bible teacher I respect who is now with the Lord, used to say 1 Corinthians could be titled "1 Californians." The problems Corinth faced mirror ours, which makes this study extremely applicable.
Why were the conditions so similar? Consider Corinth's location, on a narrow four-mile isthmus connecting the Peloponnesian Peninsula to the rest of Greece. Rome destroyed the old city in 146 B.C., but Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 44 B.C., recognizing its strategic value. No one could travel Greece north-to-south or east-to-west without passing through Corinth, because sailing around the dangerous cape was treacherous. Traders offloaded cargo at one port, carried it overland, and reloaded at the other; smaller boats were dragged across the four miles by slaves. Spices and silk from the east, silver from the west—all of it passed through Corinth.
As a result, Corinth gathered people of every tribe, language, and world view—pagan gods of Greece and Rome, strange practices from Babylonia, weird deities from Egypt, all mashed together. It sounds like our own nation. Talk to people about spiritual things today and they say, "I'm very spiritual—I like Confucius, Buddha was cool, Muhammad said interesting things, and that Jesus guy was a nice character." Ask about salvation and they say, "Just be real." Corinth was much the same.
A City Devoted to Immorality
Corinth was also deeply immoral. South of the city rose the Acro-Corinth, and atop it, two thousand feet up, stood the prominent temple of Aphrodite, goddess of sexuality, beauty, and love. It was said that over a thousand temple prostitutes came down into the city each evening, and the people worshiped her in carnal ways. At the base of that hill stood a temple to Apollo. If Aphrodite's worship was of female sexuality, Apollo's was of male sexuality. So the city was given to both heterosexual and homosexual immorality. Does that remind you of any nation?
The city was so devoted to wickedness that anywhere in the Roman Empire, to be called "a Corinthian" was to be called immoral, and to be called "a Corinthian woman" was to be called a prostitute. If you wanted to live it up, you didn't go to Vegas—you went to Corinth. What happened in Corinth stayed in Corinth.
And it was right there that God strategically planted a church. Some today believe the church should simply remove itself from places like San Francisco or Las Vegas—"to hell with them, let God sort them out." Not so. Escondido does not gather all its streetlights into Grape Day Park to make one bright spot; it places lights on the dark corners where accidents happen, where they do the most good. God desires to do the same, as His strategic planting in Corinth shows.
Saved Sinners Who Drift
But this was not a church with everything in order. It faced many problems, very much like the church in our day—throughout our nation there is, unfortunately, immorality and sin that finds its way into the church. Why? Because God saves sinful people. And when He saves us, He does not first say, "Go clean yourself up before you come." If He did, none of us, your pastors included, would be here.
So Paul writes this corrective, instructive letter, and some of it will be hard to swallow. Remember Al Menconi telling how his mother ground a pill into boysenberry jam to make it easier to swallow? Paul knew nothing of making things palatable. They had problems he would address, and we have issues he will address. I pray each of us will have an open heart.
God's word is not politically correct, nor does it cater to our self-esteem. The very concept of self-esteem was foreign to God in the Old and New Testaments; it is an invention of man that our nation has clung to over the last sixty years. So the church has removed words like "sin," because you can't call someone a sinner and have them feel uplifted. But if you were writing to a church drowning in such problems, how would you begin?
Beginning with the Foundation
I, and maybe you, would instantly zero in on every problem. But notice how Paul opens: "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints... Grace be unto you, and peace... I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything ye are enriched by him... so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul does not say, "You know who I am—I planted this church, I hear the rumors, you'd better shape up before I arrive or heads will roll." He did not function like a CEO. He did not immediately attack the symptoms, though he will. He started with the foundation. He reminded them of who he was: no longer Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee of Pharisees who once boasted, "Do you know who I am?" Now he is Paul, an apostle—one sent by Jesus Christ, ordained by God's will to bring the gospel.
He calls them "the church"—ecclesia, the gathering—reminding them they are one in Christ. Not "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas," "I am of Calvin," or anyone else. On the day of Christ Jesus, none of us will stand before God to talk about John Calvin. We are disciples of Christ.
Sanctified, Called Saints, Enriched in Christ
He writes to those "sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints." Note who sanctifies us—Christ. He cleanses and transforms us, and He calls us saints. Some hear "called to be saints" and think they must work harder, because we misunderstand the word. A saint is not what the traditions of men have developed; God's word reveals a saint is simply one saved by grace through faith. If you are a believer today, you are a saint—even though we don't always live like saints, which is why God is still sanctifying us. He called the Corinthians saints even though they were far from fully sanctified. I am thankful God sees the finished product, not the current condition.
He says they are saints "with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ"—no better, no different from any other believer. Then, "Grace be unto you, and peace." Every one of Paul's thirteen letters begins with grace and peace. says we are justified by faith and have peace with God; says "by grace are ye saved through faith... it is the gift of God." Grace brings justification, and justification brings peace.
To a church questioning whether he was even worthy to be called an apostle, Paul says, "I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you... that in everything ye are enriched by him." If you have anything to boast about, it is because you received it from Him. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Even this immoral church—and we, who often have sin in our own lives—have at our disposal every gift needed to live this life in a godly way, by God's divine power. If we are not, it is not because He withholds anything; it is because we have drifted, just as Corinth did.
Foundation Remains, Structure Torn Down
In these first seven verses, Paul brings them back to the foundation. God called and ordained him to bring the gospel; though they were defiled and lost, God redeemed them, gifted them, and called them saints, and He will one day return. Why doesn't Paul jump straight into the problems? Because all those problems were a structure they had built upon a good foundation, and the structure was in danger of collapse. Throughout 1 Corinthians there will be much bulldozing of that structure—but the foundation always remains.
When Israel's first temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, everything atop the foundation was wiped clean, but the foundation remained. When the second temple was destroyed in A.D. 70—"not one stone shall stand upon another," Jesus said—the corrupt structure was removed, yet the foundation endures to this day.
Many churches today have a good foundation but a skewed structure. John Wesley laid a good foundation, but the Methodist church today is out of order. The Episcopal church, where I grew up before coming to Calvary Chapel, has a good foundation—open the Book of Common Prayer and I challenge you to find doctrinal error—but a bad structure built upon it. The Lutheran church, and many denominations, are the same: good foundation, corrupted structure.
The Corinthian church had a great foundation, so Paul reminds them: "The foundation is Jesus Christ, and all this other stuff—Paul, Apollos, Cephas—scrap it." That is what our nation needs too. The world's greatest charge against the church is that it is full of hypocrites—and they're right, because what's been built is contrary to the foundation. So let's get back to the foundation. Back to basics. Scrap the rest.
Confirmed Blameless to the End
The last verse: "Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." There were genuine charges that could be brought against Corinth's account—Paul will show them clearly. Yet Jesus is the one working in us to will and to do His good pleasure, so that on the day of Christ we will stand before Him blameless. I am thankful that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it until that day.
I recognize every day that I am not perfect—usually fifty or a hundred times a day, more so since marriage and kids. If you're single, just wait. We are imperfect people, saved by grace and sanctified by the same grace, so that on the day of Christ we will stand before Him blameless. I'm excited to go through 1 Corinthians, because God is going to teach us much. I encourage you to read through it this week, a couple of chapters a day, and see what the Lord speaks to you.
Closing Prayer
Father, You are a good God, and we thank You that You work in us to will and to do Your good pleasure. We thank You that we can have this confidence: You will finish the work You started. Although we have work to do, the work is not dependent upon us. Lord, if any here this morning have been drifting, enable us by Your Spirit to put our feet down and walk forward—because if we are standing still, we are sliding back, for the whole course of this world runs contrary to You. Make us lights in a dark world, beacons standing in dark places, calling out the truth of Your word and the foundational principles of Scripture. Teach us what that foundation is, and if there is anything in the structure that we have built that is out of order, tear it down, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
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