In the Septuagint it is one of the words used to denote the people of Israel in their religious character as Yahwehs assembly. (Bruce in his. : A resurrected body is not a resuscitated corpse. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. Was Paul crucified for you? 4. The idea is that we have been purchased to permanent freedom. 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. describes the Christians marching orders at the rapture of the Church. Changes will take effect once you reload the page. They did not come behind any of the churches in any gift, v. 7. Paul tells them just what kind of apostle he is, a called apostle. Their problem with the resurrection also indicated the source of many of their moral problems. What message does a cruel, humiliating, unrelenting instrument of death have? It is better to bear trouble in this world, than to be miserable for ever. In His work, He communicates three things to those who are, means that we are legally declared not only not guilty, but to have a, speaks of our behavior, and how the believers are to be separate, by focusing on ourselves, but on Jesus, because Jesus, is a word from the slave trade. Lady Huntington, the rich and influential friend of Whitfield and Wesley, said she was going to heaven by an m: it isnt, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, : Looking again at the Corinthians, Paul can say you arent wise according to the world, you arent mighty, you arent noble but you are among, i. Yet, we can see by this that baptism is not essential to salvation. Nor does corruption inherit incorruption: The word corruption does not mean moral or ethical corruption, but physical, material corruption. God's Sufficient Grace. 2. But the best news ever is that we can be saved from the punishment we deserve from God because of what Jesus did for us. But he had no desire to compete with other apostles for the Most Valuable Apostle award. Paul knows that he is not one of the twelve apostles, but he is on par with them because, like them, he is chosen by God. (Robertson), 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. a. He recognizes that the gifts were not the problem, but wrong attitudes and beliefs about the gifts. : Its hard to understand what our resurrection bodies will be like, so Paul will use, Raised in incorruption raised in glory raised in power. e. Was Paul crucified for you? On all counts, the resurrection body wins! Their idolatry was to conceive of God as ultimate Reason, meaning of course what. Understanding the tension between the church and the city is important to understanding the letter of 1 Corinthians. . From the first Adam, we all are made of dust, but from the last Adam we can be made heavenly. Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? But the ancient Greek word for, i. ii. is perhaps mentioned in Acts 18:17, as the head of a Corinthian synagogue who was beaten because he protected Paul. We are following in the footsteps of no one less than Jesus Himself. This was the. Click to enable/disable _ga - Google Analytics Cookie. ! A strong church once inscribed these words on an archway leading to the churchyard. You must not only work, but you must labour put forth all your strength; and you must work and labour in the Lord under his direction, and by his influence; for without him you can do nothing. (Clarke). . There is much in 1 Corinthians that is unflattering to the Christians of Corinth. Einstein thought that their estimate was a little generous, but he replied: Is it possible that God exists in the 95% that you dont know?, d. Through the foolishness of the message: The Corinthians wanted to believe that the gospel itself was a sublime form of wisdom, as the Greeks considered wisdom (sophia). It may simply be unrecorded, or Paul may mean . 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). Paul doesnt only consider believers in Corinth to be. iii. , and the church also started preaching Jesus the Great Man and Jesus the Moral Example instead of Christ crucified. To remain willfully ignorant of the truth is. Verse 1 Corinthians 15:3. i. Were the ones really right with God! (Acts 18:24-25), : There was the Peter Party, who declared We are following in the footsteps of the man who is first among all the apostles. b. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world: Looking again at the Corinthians, Paul can say you arent wise according to the world, you arent mighty, you arent noble but you are among the foolish things of the world.. What about the widows son in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24) and Lazarus (John 11:38-44), among others? He is a life-giving spirit. b. But someone will say, How are the dead raised up? iii. a. 2. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. This danger was constantly on the mind of the apostle Paul, and should be constantly on the mind of any preacher or teacher. But God did not respond to the polling data. These bodies which are subject to disease, injury, and one day decay, are unsuited for heaven. 2. If there is no resurrection, and no future judgment, then we may as well have the best time we can right now and Paul was a fool for putting himself in such discomfort and danger for the sake of the gospel. a. i. Paul had an extensive history of contact with the city of Corinth, beginning with when he established the church in Corinth, coming there after Athens and staying a year and a half (Acts 18). In the Septuagint it is one of the words used to denote the people of Israel in their religious character as Yahwehs assembly. (Bruce in his Acts commentary). If there is no principle of resurrection, and if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the apostles are. Paul now will show why this is true of the cross and the message of the gospel. If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage. What will Paul boast about? We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Yet not it, but the grace of God which was with me. 15:20-34 All that are by faith united to Christ, are by his resurrection assured of their own. Understanding the tension between the, Those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called, : Paul continued his description of the Corinthian Christians. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain. Significantly, in the gospels, Jesus brothers are hostile to Him and His mission (John 7:3-5). Perhaps this same Sosthenes in Acts 18:17 is now with Paul, so Paul calls attention to the man with him whom the Corinthian Christians would know: Sosthenes our brother. He is describing them as they appear to the perishing man, the wise man of this age. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother. He was not shy about saying he worked harder than any of the other apostles did. For some, this would just be spiritual sounding talk, which showed more pride than humility. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. They got this bad thinking by associating either with Jews who did not believe in the resurrection (such as the Sadducees) or by associating with pagan, Greek philosophical types, who did not believe in the resurrection (Acts 17:31-32). Of the apostle's doctrine not a trace can be found in all the teaching of philosophers. The pursuit of human wisdom may bring an earthly contentment or happiness (though this is rare), but in itself, it can never bring the true knowledge of the true God. To remain willfully ignorant of the truth is sin. iii. He is, b. 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). But every man Shall be reanimated, raised, and glorified; in his own order Or in his own band, as more properly signifies, denoting a band of soldiers, a cohort, or legion; the word for order being rather . We shall rise in a full and perfect age, (as is generally thought) and without those defects and deformities which may here make our bodies appear unlovely. (Poole), ii. Because it was becoming a divisive issue, Paul was therefore grateful that he had not baptized very many in Corinth (lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name). also implies there were some people or some things which might want to snatch the true gospel away from the Corinthian Christians. How sobering this is! In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul declared the idea that the cross could, 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, sound kind of noble and religious to our twentieth-century ears. The Greek word has both a Gentile and a Jewish background. b. i. Some of them denied the reality of resurrection, while believing in a resurrected Jesus. : If these few Corinthians were right about the resurrection, then Jesus was still dead! Spiritual elitism is terrible, no matter whose name it is practiced in. As horrible as the physical suffering of Jesus was, this spiritual suffering the act of being judged for sin in our place was what Jesus really dreaded about the cross. The disunion is unnatural and must be cured.. Even if this is the case, the picture fits. : In the previous part of the chapter, Paul demonstrated beyond all doubt that Jesus rose from the dead, and the importance of that fact. vi. (1-2) Preface to the proclamation of Pauls gospel. Apparently, some of the Corinthian Christians (probably those of the Paul Party) made a big deal of the fact that, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. In this emphasis on Jesus, Paul promotes the sure cure for the problems of the Corinthians: getting your eyes off self and on Jesus. As noted above, in this chapter Paul deals both with Christ's resurrection (15:1-11) and with our own (15:12-58). iii. does not mean moral or ethical corruption, but physical, material corruption. iii. i. Who became for us: Jesus is not only wisdom for us; He is also righteousness and sanctification and redemption. , and each is suited to its own particular environment and needs. c. 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 being saved, this message of the cross becomes to them the actual power of God. Let every pulpit rightly say, we preach Christ crucified! A strong church once inscribed these words on an archway leading to the churchyard. Death has no power over the person found in Jesus Christ. ii. He recognizes that the gifts were not the problem, but wrong attitudes and beliefs about the gifts. Called to be an apostle is literally a called apostle. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, not the will of any man.. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. Is God supposed to do it or am I supposed to do it? This passage also makes it clear that the individual doing the baptizing doesnt really affect the validity of the baptism. Grace to you and peace: The greeting including grace and peace is typical of Pauls letters, and draws from both Greek and Jewish customs. d. Is Christ divided? a. (50-53) The need for the resurrection. And with what body do they come? The words, are inserted by translators. Can even this much be said about many churches today? 1. : The death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, is the center of the gospel. Many things made Corinth famous. These bodies which are subject to disease, injury, and one day decay, are unsuited for heaven. b. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. Paul quotes from an ancient, secular comedy play, Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God, : For Christians to resist Gods process of transformation by the renewing of our minds is to neglect the knowledge of God. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website. However, we learn something just from the meaning of the ancient Greek word apostolos, which has the idea of a special ambassador. Paul was a special ambassador of Jesus Christ to the world and to the church. He can be confident because God is faithful. Some mock the idea of resurrection. c. Not with wisdom of words: How did Paul preach in Corinth? Second, by faith put your soul through the whole process of death. This danger was constantly on the mind of the apostle Paul, and should be constantly on the mind of any preacher or teacher. iii. i. They had been enriched by him with all spiritual gifts. 4. i. Righteousness means that we are legally declared not only not guilty, but to have a positive righteousness. Whatever the preacher may mean in his heart, he will be guilty of the blood of souls if he does not clearly proclaim a real sacrifice for sin. (Spurgeon), vi. It is a new order of life that will never die again. There is nothing more uncomely, unlovely, and loathsome than a dead body; but it will not be so when it shall be raised again, then it shall be a beautiful, comely body. Were the ones really right with God!, vi. The growth of the ivy, covering the message, showed the spiritual decline. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is not some add on to a more important work on the cross. Probably, was Pauls scribe (or, more technically, his, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called, with a building where Christians meet. It may simply be unrecorded, or Paul may mean beasts figuratively, in reference to his violent and wild human opponents (as he faced at Ephesus in Acts 19:21-41). At the core of the gospel are things that. The Son glorifies the Father (John 17:4), the Father glorifies the Son (John 17:5), and the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son (John 16:14). So also is the resurrection of the dead. are significant. This is the sting of death to you, unconverted ones, not that you are dying, but that after death is the judgment, and that you must stand before the Judge of the quick and dead to receive a sentence for the sins which you have committed in your body against him. (Spurgeon). 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. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. For it is written: In this quotation from Isaiah 29:14, Paul shows that in spiritual matters, God opposes the wisdom of man. His boasting is both, (that is, in the Corinthian Christians) and, . In this emphasis on Jesus, Paul promotes the sure cure for the problems of the Corinthians: getting your eyes off self and on Jesus. i. Christ (Messiah) meant power, splendor, and triumph. i. In terms of what love "is not," Paul says it is not self-seeking, short-tempered, and offensive. Christ has obtained a victory over the law; he has stopped its mouth, and answered all its demands; he has been made under, and subject to it; he has obeyed its precepts, and bore its penalty, and has delivered his from the curse and condemnation of it, so that they have nothing to fear from it; it is dead to them, and they to that: he has also The first perfect man, Adam, gave us one kind of body. 6. Therefore, if Jesus is not risen, He is unable to save. In its Gentile sense it denotes chiefly the citizen-assembly of a Greek city but it is its Jewish usage that underlies its use to denote the community of believers in Jesus. iv. Crispus believed on the Lord with all his household (Acts 18:8), and was saved. The words sanctified and saints communicate the same idea, of being set apart from the world and unto God. Believers in Palestine are described this way (1 Corinthians 15:9), as well as the church at large (1 Corinthians 10:31-32). In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul deals more fully with what makes a person an apostle. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.". Paul thought, with all I have endured for Jesus Christ, if there is not a resurrection and a heavenly reward beyond this life, I am a fool to be pitied. Can we, in our super-comfortable age, say the same thing? It involves truth-telling, fortitude, constancy, and tolerance (1 Corinthians 13:4-5,7). And so it is written, [verse 1 Corinthians 15:45 ,] The first man Adam was made a living soul; but the last Adam [Jesus Christ] was made a quickening spirit ( 1 Corinthians 15:45 ). But largely, the smarter one sees himself, the less regard he has for God. He will. ? Over time, two things happened: the church lost its passion for Jesus and His gospel, and ivy began to grow on the archway. What of the dead in Christ before that day? For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdombut we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Some people think that Paul was disappointed by the results in Athens, and resolved to preach differently in Corinth. . d. Those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved: The verb tenses of are perishing and are being saved are significant. ii. b. It is important and useful for Christians to daily reckon themselves dead to sin with Jesus Christ (as in Romans 6:11. to support that truth is wrong, because in context Paul is writing about the danger to his physical life. We should work hard in everything now, working for the Lord, because, Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 8. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. You can check these in your browser security settings. At some point before He died, before the veil was torn in two, before He cried out, ii. (20-23) The resurrection of Jesus was the firstfruit of our resurrection. Sin is the ultimate cause of death (Romans 6:23, Genesis 2:17), and the, : This defeat of death is only possible for those who live. body, suited for life in heaven, not only life on this earth. (54-57) Resurrection is the final defeat of death. : In a single moment, Jesus will gather His people (both dead and on the earth) to Himself, for resurrection. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. (Messiah) meant power, splendor, and triumph. Click on the different category headings to find out more. I bless God that there are so many denominations. Were the ones really right with God!, iv. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Either the present dead in Christ are with the Lord in a spiritual body, awaiting their final resurrection body; or because of the nature of timeless eternity, they have received their resurrection bodies already because they live in the eternal now.. i. . It is a mysterious passage, and there have been more than thirty different attempts to interpret it. ii. But that the, : It would be strange and inappropriate for us to receive resurrection before Jesus. I speak this to your shame. After what has been said about the value of love only one admonition is in place: "Pursue love!" i. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. Paul doesnt only consider believers in Corinth to be the church of God. The growth of the ivy, covering the message, showed the spiritual decline. I am of Cephas: There was the Peter Party, who declared We are following in the footsteps of the man who is first among all the apostles. iii. Since every cell of my body contains the DNA blueprint to make a whole new body, God can no doubt take one cell of my dead body and make a glorious resurrection body out of that old blueprint. Jesus burial is also important because it fulfilled the Scriptures which declared. f. See how important the truth of the resurrection is! Paul came speaking plainly, without any attempt to dazzle with eloquence or intellect. e. Confirm you to the end: The Corinthian Christians had their strong points, and they had their weak points. Death has no power over the person found in Jesus Christ. He gives thanks for their conversion to the faith of Christ; that grace was given them by Jesus Christ. He kept to His gospel, because for those who believed it (both Jews and Greeks), Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. ii. So, even though our resurrection bodies come from our present bodies, we should not expect that they will be the same bodies or just improved bodies. a. A truly Christian minister will seek much more to do spiritual good to men's souls, than to get the greatest applause to himself. Grace isnt given because of any works, past, present or promised; yet it is given to, iii. For the grace which was given to you by Jesus Christ, : This was the specific reason for Pauls gratitude. I am of Paul: There was the Paul Party, who declared We are following in the footsteps of the man who founded our church, the apostle Paul. d. You come short in no gift: Paul thanks God for the gifts among the Corinthians, even though they were causing some trouble. after His death. The ancient Christians were for the most part slaves and men of low station; the whole history of the expansion of the church is in reality a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, until the emperor himself laid down his crown before the cross of Christ. (Alford, quoting Olshausen). Jesus was a unique case. The disputer of this age was the man who wanted to dispute every issue and solve it by human reason. (Mare). 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. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 2 Corinthians 4:10, Galatians 6:17. and (concrete, of felt necessity: , 50, abstract, of general principle) relate, as in 1 Corinthians 15:42 ff., to the present, living . Significantly, Paul did not say, we baptize for the dead, but asked, . We write a letter by saying who the letter is. While our present bodies are adapted for the environment of time and earth, our resurrection bodies will be adapted for the environment of eternity and heaven. It was bad enough that these associations had affected their thinking on an important matter like the resurrection, but this evil company could corrupt far more. The power of baptism is in the spiritual reality it represents, not in who performs it. Pottery and Corinthian brass (a mixture of gold, sliver and copper) from the city were world famous. The first trumpet meant, strike the tents and prepare to leave; the second trumpet meant, fall into line; the third and. They preached the resurrection of Jesus, and the early Christians believed the resurrection of Jesus. 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. : Whether Paul or one of the other apostles brought the message, the result was the same. iv. 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 ). Those baptized by the great apostle Paul had no advantage over those baptized by some unknown believer. We are not told much about this visit, but we can assume there was some special need for comfort and restoration in Peter that Jesus ministered to. Crispus is likely mentioned in Acts 18:8, Gaius in Romans 16:23. b. I thank God Christ did not send me to baptize: For Paul, preaching was more important than baptizing, though he was certainly not opposed to baptism. Used by permission. The ivy kept growing, and one could soon only read, . 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. For I delivered unto you first of all . i. ix. His replacement was a man named Sosthenes, who was beaten by the Roman officials in a bit of anti-Semitic backlash against the Jews who tried to persecute Paul. Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloes household, that there are contentions among you. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Enduring Word Info Sinners can have no peace with God, nor any from him, but through Christ. i. This speaks to the vital need described in Romans 12:2: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The answer is, Yes! God does it and we do it. Verse 1. Cephas is the Aramaic word for Peter. However, we never speak of the physical sufferings of Jesus to make us feel sorry for Jesus, as if He needed our pity. 3. 1 Corinthians 15:1-19 - The Gospel of Jesus Christ 1 Corinthians 15:20-58 - The Glory of the Resurrection 1 Corinthians 16 - A Collection and a Conclusion 1 2 Bible Commentary Quick Navigation Start Here! They are not lost; they are sown. (Spurgeon). They could not have known this unless God revealed it to them. g. So this corruptible must put on incorruption: Resurrection is a must for the Christians destiny. i. It is important to understand that when Paul says, . we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, mean that Paul predicted Jesus would come in his lifetime? In light of all this, how could the Corinthian Christians let go of such an important truth? The point is plain: There is no wise man, no scribe, and no debater who can do what Jesus Christ has done. 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.

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