The church in Corinth

The first letter to a congregation of Christians in the New Testament is probably the book of Romans. It is mostly an overview of major tenets of the Christian faith laid out by the Apostle Paul.

The second epistle of First Corinthians could be considered God's example to us of the typical practical problems of a typical local church. The letter deals with a number of problems. Christians could consider them [i]representative[/b] of the typical problems of a pretty typical Christian church founded by the early apostles.

I like to call First Corinthians subtitle as "Welcome to the typical New Testament church"

I will discuss SOME of the problems in Corinth which are very significant.
I do not care about complaints about authorship.
All those scrambling around to claim Paul did not write the Corinthian letter I will ignore.

So Welcome to the Typical New Testament Church. She certainly is no utopia. Yet she is still wonderful because Christ is there and Christ is the solution to all the varied problems candidly recorded under God's sovereignty for generations to read in the New Testament.

The first of a serious of problems with the Christians in Corinth is the mother of all Christian problems. It is perhaps the fundamental and most serious problem with the local church.

Paul deals with the most significant problem first.
All the other problems are related to the underlying problem.
The underlying problem renders the blessing of God limited and the Christians weakened.

The first problem Paul attacks is division.

"Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion. "

Division in Corinth among the brothers and sister Christians in Corinth, this is the first and perhaps the root problem of all the subsequent problems. So Paul attends to it first.

It is easy for people to think that Paul means every believer in Corinth should have exactly the same doctrinal opinions on every minute matter. But I do think Paul's remedy for divisions is deeper than just getting everyone lined up doctrinally.

Paul did not deal firstly with the false teachings about the resurrection in chapter 15. He dealt firstly with the tendency to exalt something or someone OTHER than the living Jesus Christ. And he dealt firstly with the failure of the believers to be under the cross of Christ which terminates the self and unites believers in Christ.

How can I demonstrate it? Christ's resurrection is indeed a serious doctrinal issue. Paul doesn't address that serious deviation of some of the Christians in Corinth until chapter 15.

Divisions among Christians in the city of Corinth -

"Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion.

For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of Chloe, that there are strifes among you.

Now I mean this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul ?" (1:10-13)

The believers were exalting in competition champions to the extent that neglected their union with the living, available Jesus Christ.

This is NOT about teachers are wrong in and of themselves.
This is about NO teacher no matter how useful or gifted or how blessed his or her ministry can replace Christ Himself.

I have not overlooked that the last name mentioned is Christ -

"Now I mean this, that each one of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, .... and I of Christ."


The last group of the divisive ones is the most subtle. What they mean, in Corinth, is that they are of Christ in an exclusive way and other Christians in Corinth are not of Christ.

It sounds good. But it too is divisive in terms of the one local church which should cover the whole city of Corinth.

"Paul, a called apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother, to the church in Corinth ..." (1:1)

The [singular] church in Corinth.

In Corinth there is one church. It is the truly local church - tied to the locality of the city Corinth. The Christians living in Corinth constitute the church in Corinth.

Paul firstly addresses the problem of the divisions in the practical unity of the local church.

Is Christ divided?

You brothers and sister in Corinth have to realize that YOU are Christ's mystical Body practically living in the city of Corinth.

Christ is IN Corinth in the Christians there. Christ is one. Christ is one divine life. And that life has been dispensed into you saints in Corinth. And that life is not divided but one.

"Is Christ divided?" In Corinth. in that locality, in that city Christ is not divided. So why are you saying -

Ie. "I am of Paul,
and I am of Apollos,
and I am of Cephas,'
and I am of Christ ?"

Or "I am of Christ but other Christians here are NOT of Christ." Very subtle.
In Corinth Christ in you all is not divided.

These were the proto-denominations. These were the proto divisions which would now be akin to the believers in Corinth or any city saying:

I am Lutheran.
I am Presbyterian.
I am Anglican.
I am Methodist.
I am of the Church of Christ in this city while other Christians in this city are NOT of Christ.

This was the proto-denominationalism of the early apostle's time.

In the city of Corinth - Christ is one and Christ is not divided.

Paul writes an God inspired epistle to the Chrisians meeting in the city of Corinth. And the first problem he addresses is the divisions among some of them.

"For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of Chloe, that there are strifes among you." (v.11)

Paul says, that some of the household of Chloe, a Christian in Corinth, have informed him -

IE. "Brother Paul, some of the brothers and sisters in this city are being divisive. They are exalting one against another heroes and the church here is being divided up ."

Originally posted by sonship
The first letter to a congregation of Christians in the New Testament is probably the book of [b]Romans. It is mostly an overview of major tenets of the Christian faith laid out by the Apostle Paul.

The second epistle of First Corinthians could be considered God's example to us of the typical practical problems of a typical local church. T ...[text shortened]... roblems candidly recorded under God's sovereignty for generations to read in the New Testament.[/b]

Jesus Christ distributed Himself into the believers in Corinth. That means they all possessed His actual divine life. Christ in His "pneumatic" form was indwelling them. They became a corporate body of Christ.

Every Christian in Corinth was a member of this living entity. They were "sanctified in Christ Jesus" and they could not be divided. For Christ is not divided.

The church was of God - "To the church of God which is in Corinth ..." .

Paul may have preached the Gospel in Corinth and produced many believers. But Paul could not set up a Pauline Church. The church in Corinth could not be his church, or the Church of Cephas, or the Church of Apollos.

It was no problem for gifted workers to labor in Corinth. It was no problem for Corinthian Christians to say "Cephas came through and we certainly wer eblessed by his teaching."

No problem. But they cannot set up a Church of Cephas, nor should there be Wesley's Church or Calvin's Church or Luther's Church in any city.

No servant of God can cause the church to be divided by attaching his name to it. Paul said that ALL the servants were theirs -

"So then let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas ... all are yours, But you are Christ's and Christ is God's." (3:21-23)

The first problem in Corinth was the temptation to divide the one body of Christ according to favorite servants of God -

Paul points to the divine life in the saints that has been planted and is growing because of God and God alone -

"What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one of them.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.

So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth." ( 1:5-7)

The building up of the local church was a matter of planting Christ the living Person into people. And then watering that seed of Christ that Christ may grow in those same people. God gives the growth because it is the life of God indwelling the Corinthian believers. And the life of God in them is not divided.

The local church does not belong to any servant of God no matter how useful or how gifted. Paul cannot establish a church. Paul is a great minister of God, as also was Cephas and Apollos. But it was the church of God which is in Corinth.

The subtlety of Satan in destroying the church was not first to tempt the Christians back into sinning. Rather it was to divide the church into these proto-denominations.

When you cut a body up you kill the circulation of life running through the body.

Christ is one life dispensed into all the believers in that city. Christ is not divided and the church in Corinth is not divided because they all possess one divine and available Spirit of Christ within.

"Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?" (1:13)

They were plunged into the name of Christ.
They were baptized into Christ.
They were put into Christ and Christ put into them.
Regardless of their varied taste in speakers, were one body "in Corinth" .

This principle of one city for one church was not to force the saints to accept poor or wrong teaching. It was not a matter of being magnanimus or foolish in receiving any teaching that came along.

But it was a principle that the divine life within them made them one - indivisible.

Satan's strategy against the Christians in Corinth was to chop the one body up into pieces according to human preferences.

There is no problem in saying " I prefered Cephas's teaching to Paul's teaching". There is a problem in attempting to divide the church in Corinth up into a Cephas Church and a Pauline Church. The church in Corinth was of God.

"To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours." (1:2)

This probably means that though Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, it is also for the benefit of those other believers in every place who share the same common faith - "who is theirs and ours".

This is like the sevenfold repetition of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3. Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Originally posted by sonship
This principle of one city for one church was not to force the saints to accept poor or wrong teaching. It was not a matter of being magnanimus or foolish in receiving any teaching that came along.

But it was a principle that the divine life within them made them one - indivisible.

Satan's strategy against the Christians in Corinth was to chop the ...[text shortened]... Christ in Revelation 2 and 3. Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Originally posted by rwingett
It is generally agreed that Paul wrote First Corinthians.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Is this a ranting monologue or do you actually intend on discussing some aspect from the book?

Originally posted by sonship
Robbie, your timing is right on where expected.

I can almost predict how many posts I or someone else will write before certain people make their entrance.

I expect a few others to meander in with their gripe after they get the lay of the land.

Go ask galveston what you need to know, why don't you ?
He'll tell you exactly what you want to hear.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Ok so its another ranting monologue, thanks thats all i wanted to know.

Originally posted by sonship
Robbie, your timing is right on where expected.

I can almost predict how many posts I or someone else will write before certain people make their entrance.

I expect a few others to meander in with their gripe after they get the lay of the land.

Go ask galveston what you need to know, why don't you ?
He'll tell you exactly what you want to hear.