1 Cor 1 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 Cor 1:1-3

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. Find Out:    

1. How does Paul identify himself? v.1a
2. Why was he that? v.1b
3. What 2 groups of people does he write to? v.2
4. What 2 descriptions does he give of those in Corinth? v.2
5. How does he describe Jesus? v.2c
6. What blessing does he pronounce on them? v.3

B. Think:

1. What does Paul’s description of himself indicate about his manner of writing this letter?
2. What do his descriptions of his readers indicate, do you think, about what might be coming later in the letter?

C. Comment:

In Paul’s letters, his opening words and descriptions reflect something of what is coming. This is quite natural for he knows what is on his heart to write, and therefore even in his earliest words, there will be clues as to what is coming.

First, his DESCRIPTION OF HIMSELF: he writes as an apostle, one sent by Jesus to establish and build churches. There is a certain measure of fatherly authority in this. He reinforces it by saying his calling is from God. That is his authority. He comes to speak with authority into this church at Corinth.

Second, his DESCRIPTION OF HIS READERS: he gives three clues through three words. First “sanctified”, which means called and set apart by God to be different. Hint: this is what you should be like. Second, “holy”, which means set apart for God, to be like God and to be available to God. Hint: are you like God in your character? Third, “their Lord and ours”, a reminder that Christ is not merely Saviour, but he is also Lord, the one who owns, the one who commands, the one to whom we are called to be totally submissive. Each of these descriptions indicates the sort of church Paul expects them to be. They aren’t!

D. Application:

1. We are called to be like God, holy. Are we?
2. We are called to be different from the world. Are we?

Passage: 1 Cor 1:4-9

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

A. Find Out:

1. Why did Paul thank God for them? v.4
2. For what had happened to them? v.5
3. What had happened, as Paul saw it? v.6
4. What didn’t they lack and for what did they wait? v.7
5. What would Jesus do and with what result? v.8
6. And of what could they be sure? v.9

B. Think:

1. How would you describe the Corinthians from this passage?
2. What of the Lord’s plans and purposes is revealed in it?
3. How would these words encourage them?

C. Comment:

If Paul is going to do some telling off in this letter, it’s going to come in an attitude of love. He lets them know from the outset that he’s thankful for them, and that should make them feel good. He is aware of the extent of God’s grace that has come to them. In what they say and in what they know it is clear that they have received much from the Lord. What the apostles testified, about the salvation of the Lord, has been proved in them. They have been blessed in abundance by God and they have in their church many spiritual gifts from God.

Yet there is also a hint that the Lord hasn’t finished with them and they are only part way along the path in their walk with Him. Whether Jesus being revealed is a reference to the Lord’s return or to Him being made manifest through His church is not made clear. Whatever it is, it is clear that it hasn’t happened yet, but God will keep them and continue to bless them and make them strong in Him so that they will not fall and will not sin, and so will be blameless when they do eventually meet with Him, for He is faithful and will keep them. Even if they have areas of failure, He hasn’t given up on them. Us too?

D. Application:

1. When we have to correct someone, do we do it in an attitude of love whereby they know we appreciate and love them first?
2. Are we aware that we are only part way along the path and that Jesus wants to bring changes to us?

Passage: 1 Cor 1:10-17

10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

A. Find Out:

1. What did Paul ask, with what 2 consequences? v.10
2. Who had told him what? v.11
3. What had people been saying? v.12
4. What did he ask? v.13
5. How did he disassociate himself from this? v.14-16
6. What was he sent to do, how and why? v.17

B. Think:

1. What had Paul heard had been happening?
2. What was his overall plea?
3. And how did he argue against it?

C. Comment:

The first of the problems that Paul addresses in Corinth is one that has come to his hearing through someone actually there in Corinth . Later (chapter 7) he will respond to a letter they have written to him as a church, but for now he deals with what has been passed on, presumably by some who had come to him (16:17), who he had met in their travels.

The problem is that of partisanship, of having favourites in the church. In a day when we have access to speakers through TV, videos and audio tapes, the Christian community is still prone to this. God does not want us to follow “big names”, only Christ! It becomes akin to idol worship when an individual or organisation becomes more the source of an individual’s excitement than Christ does!

Paul is horrified. Count me out of this “favourites race” is basically what he says. I baptized hardly any of you, don’t look to me as a great name, don’t squabble over me! No, says Paul, I’ve only been sent to preach the Gospel, and that not in any great eloquent way so that the glory won’t be taken away from Christ. It wasn’t to be the abilities of a man by which people were saved! God forbid!!!!

D. Application:

1. Do WE elevate Christian speakers or leaders to a position where we herald them? Repent, they are merely servants of the Most High!
2. Do we allow allegiance to people or denominations to separate us as the body of Christ? Repent, we are all one!

Passage: 1 Cor 1:18-23

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ 20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

A. Find Out:

1. For whom is the Cross foolishness and what to who else? v.18
2. What had God said previously? v.19
3. What has God now done? v.20b
4. What wasn’t the world able to do through wisdom? v.21a
5. Yet how does God save people? v.21b
6. What did Jew & Greek want & how did they respond? v.22,23

B. Think:

1. How does this passage flow on from what’s gone before?
2. Why hasn’t man’s wisdom helped him find God?
3. How is the Cross apparent folly to the worldly-wise?

C. Comment:

Remember Paul has been speaking about the need for unity and the folly of arrogantly and proudly declaring for different leaders. He ended with reference to the Cross, and now he is moving on to show the weakness and humility of the Gospel message, with the inference that that is what needs to be at the heart of each of us.

He makes a number of assertions: first, that the message of Christ dying on the Cross is foolishness in the eyes of proud, intellectual men, for in their self confidence they can see no need for it.

Second, for the person who is aware of their state, aware that they are lost, it comes as a straw to be grasped by the drowning man.

Third, he observes that God has not revealed Himself to man through their searching for wisdom, for that is so often a self-centred quest. God has revealed Himself and that not through clever logical reasoning, it has to be received by faith.

Fourth, the preaching of the Cross is THE way that God has designed for men to come to Him and be saved.

Fifth, that Jews want to know through supernatural signs and Greeks look for clever thinking, but the simple fact of the Cross upsets the Jews (who don’t see how it fits in with their understanding of their religion), or is rejected by the Greeks who can’t see the sense of it.

D. Application:

1. Jesus’ death on the Cross is the heart of the Gospel to be believed.
2. It is only received by those who are aware of their need.

Passage: 1 Cor 1 :24-31

24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’

A. Find Out:

1. What is Christ to those who are called by God? v.24
2. How is God compared to man? v.25
3. What does Paul then point out about them? v.26
4. Who did God choose for what purpose? v.27,28
5. What has Christ become for us? v.30
6. How does all this limit us? v.29,31

B. Think:

1. How do you think the Cross reveals the power & wisdom of God?
2. Why do you think the Cross is folly to the strong?
3. Why is the Cross so good for the weak?

C. Comment:

When we speak of “the Cross” we are using shorthand for “the death on a cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ”. In those hours of history two things were revealed: first the power of God as He raised His Son from the dead and, second, the wisdom of God as He revealed His means of making unrighteous men righteous. God’s ways in all this leave man’s puny intellect reeling. We couldn’t have dreamt this up and indeed we even struggle with it when we’ve been told it!

The fact is that God chose a method of salvation that does not rely on a person being clever or strong, in fact being clever and strong often means a person is more self-reliant and finds it more difficult to surrender to God. It is weak people, poor people, who so often recognise their need first, these are the people who come gladly to embrace the Cross and who are changed. There is no room for anyone to boast about how they’ve achieved their own salvation, for it is a matter of receiving what God says about the Cross, and that only comes through an act of humility!

The wonder of the Cross is that through it Jesus has brought a way for

a) our sins to be forgiven and us to be declared righteous,

b) us to be brought into relationship with God and thus declared holy, and

c) us to be bought from the jaws of eternal death, i.e. redeemed

D. Application:

1. Belief comes when we acknowledge our need of salvation.
2. The strong and the wise find that very difficult to do.