Read part 2 here – 1 Corinthians – Christianity Gone Mad (part 2). Feb 2025
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church has had an enduring impact on our world. It contains within it (at least) two passages that have now passed into modern society:
“My body is a temple” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” (1 Corinthians 13:4)
It also has a few challenging passages that create a lot of debate and division within the church today (e.g chapter 11 about women and head-covering or chapter 14 on speaking in tongues).
It is rather amazing to think that a letter that was written 2000 years ago still makes such an impact on us today.
Are the Corinthians even Christians?
The overarching impression one gets is that the Corinthian church has gone completely off the rails – Christianity has gone mad – so much so that one wonders whether we might be tempted to disqualify them as a Christian Church. Paul however, despite all their failures and wildness, addresses them at the start by saying:
“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people” (1 Corinthians 1:2)
Unlike other letters of Paul, 1 Corinthians doesn’t have one main argument. That is because the letter is broken down into lots of different issues that Paul is wanting to deal with from reports that he has heard (chapters 1-6), and matters the church wrote to him about (chapters 7-16). These issues are far ranging:
- Division based on different styles of leaders (chapters 1-4)
- Flagrant sexual immorality & embittered internal lawsuits (chapters 5-6)
- Confusion over marriage, singleness, divorce & remarriage (chapter 7)
- Division over how to engage with pagan culture and the food sacrificed to idols (chapters 8-10)
- Unwieldy, divisive and out of control church meetings (chapters 11-14)
- Doubt about the doctrine of the resurrection (chapter 15)
- Uncertainty on how to donate and handle money (chapter 16)
These are not small and insignificant things. The church was very divided, mainly because it was very proud. Paul carefully, patiently – yet clearly – starts to untie the knots in the church as he renews their minds and nurtures their hearts with the gospel of grace and truth. Gordon Fee puts it well:
“As former pagans they brought to the Christian faith a Hellenist worldview and attitude toward ethical behaviours. Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them, emerging in a number of attitudes and behaviours that required radical surgery without killing the patient. That is what 1 Corinthians attempts to do.”
1 Corinthians for today?
For two terms (spread over two years) we are going to go verse by verse through the whole book and consider how to apply God’s word to our context. The issues that Paul was dealing with seem as relevant as ever:
- How to handle power, authority and big personalities
- How to articulate and practise the unique Christian sexual ethic that is so at odds with our culture
- How to live faithfully and contentedly for God regardless of our relationship status – single, married or divorced
- How to engage with a culture that is increasingly post/anti-Christian, and how to love one another when we come to different conclusions about that
- How to structure church meetings so as neither to stifle nor become disorderly
- How to keep the gospel as of ‘first importance’ and be willing to remain united when we disagree on secondary issues
- How to donate and handle money so the gospel can continue to grow and churches continue to be planted
January – Easter 2024 Preaching Series
Here is how we’ll break up the coming term, with a summary sentence from the passage for that week:
- 7 Jan – To the church of God in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)
- 14 Jan – The message of the cross is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:10-25)
- 21 Jan – Not many of you were wise by human standards (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5)
- 28 Jan – But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6-16)
- 04 Feb – Don’t you know you’re God’s temple? (1 Corinthians 3:1-23)
- 11 Feb – For who makes you different from anyone else? (1 Corinthians 4:1-21)
- 18 Feb – Your boasting is not good (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
- 25 Feb – You were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:1-20)
- 03 Mar – I would like you to be free from concern (1 Corinthians 7:1-40)
- 10 Mar – Knowledge puffs up but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1-13)
- 17 Mar – Though I am free, I make myself a slave (1 Corinthians 9:1-27)
- 24 Mar – Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:1-33)
We’ll finish off 1 Corinthians 11-16 in 2025.
If you’d like to join us as we explore ‘Christianity Gone Mad’ in the book of 1 Corinthians, here are the options:
- CCC South – 10.30am at Oatlands Primary School (Stillorgan)
- CCC Central – 4.30pm at Synge Street Secondary School (Portobello)
- City Groups – various times and locations throughout the week – do contact us if you want to join one.
For any who want to read a bit deeper into 1 Corinthians, or read alongside in their personal devotions we recommend 1 Corinthians For You by Andrew Wilson.
Series Part 2 of 1 Corinthians – Christianity Gone Mad Part 2
