I Corinthians Research Paper
I Corinthians is thought to be the second letter Paul had written to the church at Corinth, in I Corinthians 5:9 Paul says I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. This is thought to refer to an earlier letter called the warning letter sent to the church at Corinth at some point before this letter. Then we have the second letter to Corinth which we know as I Corinthians. Now we move to Paul’s third letter some call Paul’s Severe Letter he refers to in II Corinthians 7:8 where he talks about making them feel sorry for what they were doing. This does not fit to what he was talking about in I Corinthians so we think that he is referring to what some call his “Letter of Tears” which we believe was II Corinthians chapters
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10-13.
Then we have his fourth letter which we believe to be II Corinthians chapters 1-9. Paul went to Corinth a city in Greece and established the church there on his second missionary journey according to Luke in Acts 18:1-8. Now when we get to his second letter to the church in Corinth he starts by dealing with some of the churches issues. One of his first things he tries is to unify the church which had become divided between the followers of Paul, Peter and Apollo’s instead of just following the teaching of Christianity as a whole. He is trying to redirect them to their original calling in which all the glory belongs to God and not to man, that He (God) would receive all the glory and not any man. Then he goes on to deal with the different type of people, the Natural man which he describes as someone who does not know God, the Carnal man as someone who knows God but is not being led by the Spirit of God but by his own flesh and the Spiritual man, as someone who knows God and is walking in the Spirit of God. He then told the Corinthians that they have become carnal, saying they know God but are not being lead by the
Spirit.
He goes on to remind them that the church must be built with Jesus Christ as its foundation not any man because only the things of God will last. Next he moves on to some of the moral problems in the church starting with the sin of fornication and how it brings the church body into union with sin. He is basically saying he can not believe what he is hearing, people are telling him of how some of the young men in the church are sleeping with there fathers wives. And at this point he tells them to not fellowship with any believer that chooses to live in sin. He explains how allowing even a little sin to remain in the church will affect the body as a whole. He uses leaven to explain this saying it only takes a very small amount of leaven to effect the entire lump of dough. He then moves on to other matters like marriage, and whether you should or should not marry. He talks about if you are unmarried then if possible he suggest you stay that way, he points out that if you are unmarried then you focus will be placed God first and everything else will be second. But he says that if you can not abstain from sin then it is better to marry than to burn. He tells them that if married then your focus is on your spouse first then the things of God. He then moves to some of the regulations that deal with marriage, like how the husband should put the needs of his wife first and that the wife also should put the needs of her husband first. And that they should submit to each other except for a time of fasting and prayer. Then he deals with divorce and how if you leave your spouse then you should remain unmarried, and just because your spouse is a non believer that is not an excuse for divorce. He tells them that the saved believer in the marriage relationship is the stabilizing force that keeps things together. He then talks about how that the head of Christ is God and the head of the husband is Christ and the head of the wife is her husband. Then he moves on to one of the ordinances of the church, the Lord Supper and how we should make sure our lives are free of sin in Gods eyes lest we become guilty of partaking of the Lords Supper unworthily. Because of this sin he shares that there are many among them that are weak, sick and some have even died prematurely because of this. He then talks about the spiritual gifts, he tells them that there are diversities of Gifts but all are given by the same Spirit. He goes on to explain the purpose of the gifts and what they are. The purpose of the gifts is to help in the building of Gods Kingdom. And then he list the gifts, The Word of Wisdom, The Word of Knowledge, Faith, The Gift of Healing, The working of Miracles, The Gift of Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits, Divers kinds of Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues. He then teaches on how the Spirit gives each gift to each believer based on the ability of that believer to use the gift. He tells them that the gifts are not a sign of power or of distinction, but all are given by God to each individual as He chooses. He moves onto the topic of Love, telling them that they can have all the Gifts in operation and if they do not have love then they are of no value to the body. He tells them what love is by saying that Love is longsuffering, Love is kind, Love is without envy, Love is not arrogant, Love is not prideful, Love does not think evil but rejoices in the truth, Love bears up under anything, Love believes the best of everyone, Love has hope in all things, Love endures everything without weakening and Love Never Fails. He tells them they are no longer children and should put childish thing away and abide in Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest of the three is Love. Paul then goes back to talking about prophecy and tongues. He tells them that prophesy is for the edification and comfort to the congregation and it will also bring conviction to the unbeliever. Then he tells them that tongues are for the edification of the person speaking and to just give thanks. He also tells them that tongues are only equal to prophesy if there is someone present who can and does interpret them. He goes on to tell them that all things are to be done in order and for the edification of God. He instructs them on how prophets should always speak one at a time so all can hear and learn and that if no one can interpret then someone speaking in tongues is to just remain quiet. Now he talks about the importance of the resurrection which is referred to over 1,000 times in the bible. He reminds them that the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation on which the church must be built. He tells them that we must believe and teach the resurrection because without belief in the resurrection then our preaching is of no value, our faith is useless and then our only hope would be in this life. He tells them that the only way we can have a life with Christ is to believe that he died and rose again for our sins. He finishes up I Corinthians with reminding them to be generous in there giving. Letting them know how there giving along with the giving of other believes will not only help in spreading the gospel to many other cities but how it also will be used to support some of the other churches that need help. Now we move onto II Corinthians where Paul has three major points, first he expresses joy at the favorable response to his ministry, and then he reminds them of the commitment of giving they had made. Then he finishes up II Corinthians with defending his apostolic authority. He starts by being thankful to God for all his mercies and grace as he comforts us. He also tells them how they should comfort each other in there own time of need. He explains to them how when we comfort each other it’s like sharing the problem which makes it easier to bare. He then reminds them of what he had told them in I Corinthians about all the open sin that was in the church. And how he had been praying for them and how they had broken his heart. Then after reminding them of the problems in the church he tells them that since the sinners had repented that they should let them back into the fellowship. He then finishes up the second chapter talking about a victory procession, he is referring to how after a winning a battle the priest carried incense with them as they walked and it was a sweet smell for the victors because it meant they would live. But it was the smell of death to the prisoners because it meant they would die. Saying that the victors were the believers and the prisoners were the unbelievers. In the fourth chapter he talks about us as treasures in clay pots, or as we say jars of clay. Now in those days people often kept there valuable things in jars made of earth or clay. These jars were not worth much being make of dirt but the things that were kept in them were of great value. This is saying that we are the clay pots but the power of God is what is in us that is of such great value. Paul says the people in general are weak and all will die in the end but God only uses weak people to show how powerful he is. Paul finishes up this chapter the same way he started it by saying that we do not lose hope, problems will come and go but this life is short when compared to eternity with God. In chapter five he talks about how we must all die and says that if we die in Christ the he has built a place for us in heaven. Then he talks about how we are all still going to be judged. He tells us that our good works will not save us but how God has saved us to do good works. That being said we will all be judged and rewarded on what we did for him in our life. He moves on to talking about the ministry saying that we all have the right to work for God but not to take his grace lightly. The grace God gives us is a free gift and we can not do anything to earn or buy it. He talks about how we will all suffer and have sorrow but with the grace of God we will make it. He goes on to tell them to be separate from this world, that we should not be unequally yoked. This meaning that if we team up with someone who does not believe the same as we do or have the same goals we have then we will not be able to accomplish anything because we will always be pulling each other in a different direction. Paul then goes on to talk about his joy in how they received him and that they have changed from their wicked ways. Then he moves onto giving reminding them of what he had told them in I Corinthians about support for the church in Judea. He tells them of how others have given even when they did not have it to give and that’s the reason the work is still going. Paul finishes this chapter by telling them how to gather the gift and that he was sending Titus to come and receive it for him. And he tells them that this gift will prove there love and shows them the reason he was proud of them. He then talks about sowing and reaping saying sowing in the ministry is like a farmer sowing seed, if you sow a small amount of seed then your harvest will also be small. But he who sows a great amount of seed also has a great harvest as his reward. He tells them that they do not have to give but when they do give to do if freely, in other words be a cheerful giver because God gives the reward to the cheerful giver. Paul then goes on to talk about the false teachers in Corinth that had opposed him, saying they were powerful and even had letters of recommendation. They had told them that Paul was weak so he tells the people at Corinth that they should just look at the facts to see if he is the man of God or if the false teachers were. Paul ends the book by warning them that he is coming to them and he had told them he would punish those who had done wrong. But that they would need two or three witnesses to speak to the matter of evidence. He ends the book with a final warning that he has been tested by them and now they should test themselves. That is unless they fail the test, but he says that no real Christian would fail this test. He said I have passed the test and I was weak, and the proof that I have passed my test is the fact they you have become Christians by my teaching.
References
King James Study Bible
Ryrie Study Bible
Course Syllabus and Notes
10-13.
Then we have his fourth letter which we believe to be II Corinthians chapters 1-9. Paul went to Corinth a city in Greece and established the church there on his second missionary journey according to Luke in Acts 18:1-8. Now when we get to his second letter to the church in Corinth he starts by dealing with some of the churches issues. One of his first things he tries is to unify the church which had become divided between the followers of Paul, Peter and Apollo’s instead of just following the teaching of Christianity as a whole. He is trying to redirect them to their original calling in which all the glory belongs to God and not to man, that He (God) would receive all the glory and not any man. Then he goes on to deal with the different type of people, the Natural man which he describes as someone who does not know God, the Carnal man as someone who knows God but is not being led by the Spirit of God but by his own flesh and the Spiritual man, as someone who knows God and is walking in the Spirit of God. He then told the Corinthians that they have become carnal, saying they know God but are not being lead by the
Spirit.
He goes on to remind them that the church must be built with Jesus Christ as its foundation not any man because only the things of God will last. Next he moves on to some of the moral problems in the church starting with the sin of fornication and how it brings the church body into union with sin. He is basically saying he can not believe what he is hearing, people are telling him of how some of the young men in the church are sleeping with there fathers wives. And at this point he tells them to not fellowship with any believer that chooses to live in sin. He explains how allowing even a little sin to remain in the church will affect the body as a whole. He uses leaven to explain this saying it only takes a very small amount of leaven to effect the entire lump of dough. He then moves on to other matters like marriage, and whether you should or should not marry. He talks about if you are unmarried then if possible he suggest you stay that way, he points out that if you are unmarried then you focus will be placed God first and everything else will be second. But he says that if you can not abstain from sin then it is better to marry than to burn. He tells them that if married then your focus is on your spouse first then the things of God. He then moves to some of the regulations that deal with marriage, like how the husband should put the needs of his wife first and that the wife also should put the needs of her husband first. And that they should submit to each other except for a time of fasting and prayer. Then he deals with divorce and how if you leave your spouse then you should remain unmarried, and just because your spouse is a non believer that is not an excuse for divorce. He tells them that the saved believer in the marriage relationship is the stabilizing force that keeps things together. He then talks about how that the head of Christ is God and the head of the husband is Christ and the head of the wife is her husband. Then he moves on to one of the ordinances of the church, the Lord Supper and how we should make sure our lives are free of sin in Gods eyes lest we become guilty of partaking of the Lords Supper unworthily. Because of this sin he shares that there are many among them that are weak, sick and some have even died prematurely because of this. He then talks about the spiritual gifts, he tells them that there are diversities of Gifts but all are given by the same Spirit. He goes on to explain the purpose of the gifts and what they are. The purpose of the gifts is to help in the building of Gods Kingdom. And then he list the gifts, The Word of Wisdom, The Word of Knowledge, Faith, The Gift of Healing, The working of Miracles, The Gift of Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits, Divers kinds of Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues. He then teaches on how the Spirit gives each gift to each believer based on the ability of that believer to use the gift. He tells them that the gifts are not a sign of power or of distinction, but all are given by God to each individual as He chooses. He moves onto the topic of Love, telling them that they can have all the Gifts in operation and if they do not have love then they are of no value to the body. He tells them what love is by saying that Love is longsuffering, Love is kind, Love is without envy, Love is not arrogant, Love is not prideful, Love does not think evil but rejoices in the truth, Love bears up under anything, Love believes the best of everyone, Love has hope in all things, Love endures everything without weakening and Love Never Fails. He tells them they are no longer children and should put childish thing away and abide in Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest of the three is Love. Paul then goes back to talking about prophecy and tongues. He tells them that prophesy is for the edification and comfort to the congregation and it will also bring conviction to the unbeliever. Then he tells them that tongues are for the edification of the person speaking and to just give thanks. He also tells them that tongues are only equal to prophesy if there is someone present who can and does interpret them. He goes on to tell them that all things are to be done in order and for the edification of God. He instructs them on how prophets should always speak one at a time so all can hear and learn and that if no one can interpret then someone speaking in tongues is to just remain quiet. Now he talks about the importance of the resurrection which is referred to over 1,000 times in the bible. He reminds them that the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation on which the church must be built. He tells them that we must believe and teach the resurrection because without belief in the resurrection then our preaching is of no value, our faith is useless and then our only hope would be in this life. He tells them that the only way we can have a life with Christ is to believe that he died and rose again for our sins. He finishes up I Corinthians with reminding them to be generous in there giving. Letting them know how there giving along with the giving of other believes will not only help in spreading the gospel to many other cities but how it also will be used to support some of the other churches that need help. Now we move onto II Corinthians where Paul has three major points, first he expresses joy at the favorable response to his ministry, and then he reminds them of the commitment of giving they had made. Then he finishes up II Corinthians with defending his apostolic authority. He starts by being thankful to God for all his mercies and grace as he comforts us. He also tells them how they should comfort each other in there own time of need. He explains to them how when we comfort each other it’s like sharing the problem which makes it easier to bare. He then reminds them of what he had told them in I Corinthians about all the open sin that was in the church. And how he had been praying for them and how they had broken his heart. Then after reminding them of the problems in the church he tells them that since the sinners had repented that they should let them back into the fellowship. He then finishes up the second chapter talking about a victory procession, he is referring to how after a winning a battle the priest carried incense with them as they walked and it was a sweet smell for the victors because it meant they would live. But it was the smell of death to the prisoners because it meant they would die. Saying that the victors were the believers and the prisoners were the unbelievers. In the fourth chapter he talks about us as treasures in clay pots, or as we say jars of clay. Now in those days people often kept there valuable things in jars made of earth or clay. These jars were not worth much being make of dirt but the things that were kept in them were of great value. This is saying that we are the clay pots but the power of God is what is in us that is of such great value. Paul says the people in general are weak and all will die in the end but God only uses weak people to show how powerful he is. Paul finishes up this chapter the same way he started it by saying that we do not lose hope, problems will come and go but this life is short when compared to eternity with God. In chapter five he talks about how we must all die and says that if we die in Christ the he has built a place for us in heaven. Then he talks about how we are all still going to be judged. He tells us that our good works will not save us but how God has saved us to do good works. That being said we will all be judged and rewarded on what we did for him in our life. He moves on to talking about the ministry saying that we all have the right to work for God but not to take his grace lightly. The grace God gives us is a free gift and we can not do anything to earn or buy it. He talks about how we will all suffer and have sorrow but with the grace of God we will make it. He goes on to tell them to be separate from this world, that we should not be unequally yoked. This meaning that if we team up with someone who does not believe the same as we do or have the same goals we have then we will not be able to accomplish anything because we will always be pulling each other in a different direction. Paul then goes on to talk about his joy in how they received him and that they have changed from their wicked ways. Then he moves onto giving reminding them of what he had told them in I Corinthians about support for the church in Judea. He tells them of how others have given even when they did not have it to give and that’s the reason the work is still going. Paul finishes this chapter by telling them how to gather the gift and that he was sending Titus to come and receive it for him. And he tells them that this gift will prove there love and shows them the reason he was proud of them. He then talks about sowing and reaping saying sowing in the ministry is like a farmer sowing seed, if you sow a small amount of seed then your harvest will also be small. But he who sows a great amount of seed also has a great harvest as his reward. He tells them that they do not have to give but when they do give to do if freely, in other words be a cheerful giver because God gives the reward to the cheerful giver. Paul then goes on to talk about the false teachers in Corinth that had opposed him, saying they were powerful and even had letters of recommendation. They had told them that Paul was weak so he tells the people at Corinth that they should just look at the facts to see if he is the man of God or if the false teachers were. Paul ends the book by warning them that he is coming to them and he had told them he would punish those who had done wrong. But that they would need two or three witnesses to speak to the matter of evidence. He ends the book with a final warning that he has been tested by them and now they should test themselves. That is unless they fail the test, but he says that no real Christian would fail this test. He said I have passed the test and I was weak, and the proof that I have passed my test is the fact they you have become Christians by my teaching.
References
King James Study Bible
Ryrie Study Bible
Course Syllabus and Notes