Study in 1 Corinthians - Session 14
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What we have been learning
What we have been learning
We must study the scripture in context or we will misunderstand the meaning.
Paul is exhorting the believers that in their freedom always consider love.
Idol worship is a theme throughout the entire Bible.
Let’s Rejoin the Community of Believers in Corinth
Let’s Rejoin the Community of Believers in Corinth
Do you recall where we left last week? They had just been reminded of how the Israelites had wandered in the desert and grumbled and complained.
There was also a focus on idolatry.
17 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.
18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it.
19 For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.
We are seeing a hint into the past as to how people gathered to remember the Christ. These love feast are referred to in the Scriptures as Agape, but biblically only in two portions of the text. Other ancient writings do document these to a mild level, but these were meals participated in on a regular basis. Consider how society functioned and the feeding of the poor or widowed as you think through this.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Imagine people coming into these new meetings and simply wanting to experience a new religion or appease another god and creating a disruptive environment and causing the freedom in Christ to be once again nullified socially.
20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper,
21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.
Paul is admonishing them to really look at who is a part of their gathering and what is being taught. He wants them to examine themselves. He is writing to a diverse crowd. Can you imagine a group of followers being divided based on different people, teaching, leaders, and rituals being brought into their midst.
6 “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
7 ‘Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Before we look at these verses, lets look at what cups mean and the seder dinner.
https://youtu.be/Hc5SxQ-qTwY?si=dtzvhE-Y1XQjpfMq
https://www.chosenpeople.com/jesus-the-messiah-in-the-four-cups-of-passover/
I want you to read what Paul is about to write as if you were remembering a conversation Paul had with you previously in person when he was at Corinth.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
The key term here is unworthy manner. How do we understand the key concept of what is unworthy? Well Paul is prepared to tell us in his next text.
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
Somehow by taking of the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner we can actually cause harm to our physical and spiritual self.
30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
So how do we keep from this happening is the natural question we would have of Paul.
33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.
Paul is now going t shift topics and talk about something new.
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.
2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.
3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Somehow people in their “gifts” were laying curses upon Jesus and his holiness.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Effects here is meant to express the idea of different ways to go about doing something. These gifts are meant for the body of believers, not as something that benefits just a person.
8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Some people have the ability to use what knowledge they have experienced and allow it to inform future decision making or judgement calls and this then informs them to a reasonable belief of what a future outcome might be, wisdom.
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now there are many members, but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”