1 Corinthians Chapter 1

Preface to the First Epistle to the Corinthians

Corinth (Κορινθος, Korinthos), a city located on the isthmus between mainland Greece and Peloponnese (known as the Isthmus of Corinth), was well situated for land and sea trade. This made it a very important ancient city. Today, it is a medium but busy metropolis stretched along the Gulf of Corinth. The ancient ruins lie about four and one half miles (seven kilometers) to the southwest of the modern city. Ancient Corinth was one of the oldest, largest, wealthiest, and most powerful cities of the ancient world. In those times, it was a much larger city that today. In the second century, it was home to about 300,000 residents. In AD 52, when Paul visited Corinth, it was the capital city of Roman Achaia. It boasted temples, fountains, shops, porticoes, baths and other monuments. Not only was Corinth known for its monuments, but also for its licentiousness. There are many recently excavated taverns, bars, and nightclubs, in the ancient ruins. These attracted prostitution, homosexuality, and all sorts of debauchery. Corinth was a large, wealthy, powerful and wicked population center, just like many large modern cities. Its attractions included its trade, wealth, and beauty, and a reputation for depravity. The city flaunted its sexual sins and many came to Corinth to take part in that depravity. It is amazing that such depraved sexuality is so attractive. Yet, it definitely is very attractive to the world. Additionally, bunko and confidence games were a staple. These confidence men fleeced many tourists to Corinth. Several cities in the world today have the same reputation. It was in this environment that Paul began the infant church at Corinth. He discussed much of the base nature of the city in his two epistles.

Venus was the main deity of Corinth. Of course, we know her as Aphrodite, Ishtar, Astoreth, Semerimus, etc. She was the goddess of love, sexual relations, and fertility. This added to the air of licentiousness and dissolution that pervaded the city. It was a depraved place, sunk to the very deepest depths of human wantonness. The worst that the world had to offer could be found at Corinth. Even among its business acumen and its splendor and its reputation for military and naval prowess, it was still one of the most depraved spots in the Roman Empire.

It was from within this decadence that God placed a church. This was proof that the power and grace of God and His Gospel can and does overcome the world. That a church could be started and could prosper in this environment is proof that there is not place in the world where a church cannot thrive. There is no city depraved enough, no country too pagan, or no government too powerful to overcome the Church of God in Christ. The gates of hell will not prevail against His church.

Apparently, Paul wrote this Epistle at Ephesus. That is the broad consensus, and it agrees with the account of Paul's movements written in the Acts of the Apostles. Chapter sixteen and verse 8 completely confirm that Paul was at Ephesus when he wrote the letter: "But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost."

Paul wrote the Epistle response to a letter the church wrote to him. The letter evidently had some questions, which he answered in this letter. 1 Corinthians 7:1a, "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me …" That it was from the whole church, or at least a majority of them is proven by Paul's use of the second person plural of the word rendered 'ye wrote', which is expressed in English by the pronoun 'ye', (the plural of 'you'). Paul addressed many of the things they asked him. He also addressed many of the things going on in the city around them. We need not summarize them here. Let us comment on these things as we come to them in the Scriptures. Let us begin.

Read Acts chapter nine for the account of Paul's conversion and calling. Paul writes about this in his own words in Galatians chapter one. Paul was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. It was the grace of God and the will of God for Paul to be thus ordained.

Sosthenes is the name of the chief ruler of the Synagogue at Corinth. The people of Corinth beat Sosthenes when Gallio dismissed the charges against Paul (Acts 18:12-17). It is likely that this same Sosthenes was converted and is the brother that Paul mentioned here. As for the two names mentioned here as ruler of the Synagoge, perhaps they are the same man. Or perhaps Crispus' term ended and Sosthenes replaced him. The latter is the more likely. Since Crispus believed, Sosthenes probably replaced him. Then Sosthenes had either believed or had sympathy for Paul. Thus the Jews blamed Sosthenes for Paul's teachings.

The Epistle is addressed to the church at Corinth, and to all Christians in every place (worldwide). Other churches circulated the epistle among themselves. That is how it came to be a part of the canon. Paul made the point that believers were sanctified (hegiamenois) through Christ, and were thus saints (hagiois). It is important to note that the saints were called by Christ to be saints. The word rendered 'called' is κλητοις (kletois), the dative case and plural of κλητός (kletos), called, invited, or welcomed. The word was originally used of those invited to a banquet or some other social gathering. Our belief in Christ sanctifies us and He welcomes us into his church as saints, or those sanctified or set apart from the world. The saints at Corinth were the same as saints everywhere. Those that call on the Name of Jesus Christ (which means they believe on Him) everywhere are Christians, just as those at Corinth. Christ sanctifies and welcomes all believers everywhere as saints. This is true in every place. It is true with those saints who are elsewhere as well as the ones at Corinth.

Grace and peace is the sign that Paul wrote this letter. He wishes the grace of God on all of us as well as the peace that such grace gives.

Notice that Paul prays for all those to whom he writes. In every epistle, Paul mentions his thankfulness for the recipients and the fact the he prays for them. It is our duty to pray for Christians everywhere.

There are two ways to understand this. Certainly, the most obvious is that Paul acknowledges that the Corinthians have been given the spiritual gifts of speech and understanding. Let us also remember that the two things Paul chastises the Corinthians for is their abuse of the gift of speech and the gift of knowledge. So here he congratulates them on having these two spiritual gifts, and later he takes them to task for abusing those gifts.

They are saved and because of that, they will not be condemned by the judgment of God at the end of the age.

What does faithful mean? The Greek word here is πιστὸς, (pistos), and it means what faithful does in English. It means worthy of trust, a person that can be relied on, a person who is sure, that is, you can be sure of him, of what he says, and of what he does. It apples to one who is true, that is to whom the statement, "what you see is what you get" can be applied. The English definition is "true and constant in affection or allegiance, loyal, firm in adherence to promises, oaths, or undertakings, firm and thorough in the observance of duty, conscientious, given with strong or solemn assurances. These definitions all fit God. He is worthy of trust; He can be relied upon; He is sure; He is true; He is constant; He is loyal; He adheres to His promises, oaths, and undertakings; He is firm; He is conscientious; we can be strongly and solemnly assured of Him.

God invited and welcomed us into the fellowship of Christ. Having done so, we have the assurance of His promises and His faithfulness. We can be sure that since he called us unto salvation, that this is binding on Him. He has bound Himself to His promises. He is faithful and He will not forsake us. He is dependable and we can rely upon Him. He has promised eternal life to those that believe on His Only Begotten Son, and He will perform His promise faithfully. We have the blessed assurance that He will fulfill what He has promised.

Paul assured them that he was speaking in Christ's name, that is, in His will, when he made this exhortation. We know from the next few verses, indeed, from the entire epistle, that there were definite divisions among the believers at Corinth. They had divided into groups based upon who had taught them. They gave allegiance to certain men instead of to Christ. These will be discussed when we reach them in the Epistle.

Paul exhorts them to be of one mind, and that is to have the mind of Christ and to do His will. When Paul wrote, "perfectly joined together in the same mind", he seems to have had in mind that they be joined together in an orderly and complete manner. This is reminiscent of Paul comparing the church to a human body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. However, because there were divisions (schisms-σχισματα, schismata) among them, there were not perfectly or completely joined together and therefore their fellowship needed to be mended. Paul implied that fact in His use of the phrase, κατηρτισμενοι εν τω αυτω νοι (katertismenoi en tow auto noi, "perfectly joined together in the same mind").

Being in the same mind indicates agreement of the basic doctrines of Christianity, and not perfect agreement on every nuance. It is not possible for a group of humans to agree completely on everything. Of course, with God all things are possible and we should strive to be perfected and Christ-like. One day (after our death or after Christ returns) we will be complete and perfect. Until then we should strive to be so.

We are also to be fitted together in the same judgment. The Greek word is γνωμη (gnome, no′-may), which may also denote opinion. We are to be of one mind and of one opinion or view of things. Our mind is to be the mind of Christ and our view of things is to be that of Christ and His will for our lives. Divisions among us will quench that solidarity.

The phrase, "by them which are of the house of Chloe", is literally, "by them of Chloe". There is no other mention anywhere in the scriptures of Chloe (clow′-ay) so we do not know who she was. There is no mention of her in secular history either. She was either a convert at the church of Corinth, or had visited Corinth and sent some of her household (children, spouse, or servants) to Paul to tell him of the divisions at Corinth. Certainly the brethren at Corinth knew her or at least knew of her. Why else would Paul have mentioned her by name? She was Paul's credibility when he said he knew of the divisions at Corinth. Contentions are strife, arguments, and rivalries. This strife could have manifested itself in outright fighting among the brethren.

"Now this I say" can be understood to indicate, "what I mean is this". Paul expands upon his last statement. Note that Paul uses the phrase "every one of you" (εκαστος υμων, hekastos humon). So it seems that every member of the church at Corinth was involved in one way or another in these divisions. He goes on to indict them of either following men like himself, Apollos, and Peter, or of having no teacher but Christ. Among the divisions were the Paul camp, the Peter camp, the Apollos camp, and the Christ only camp. None of them would come together. It would be like having three pastors at one church and each pastor leading a portion of the congregation, with each faction vying against the other. "Well, (sniff) Paul is the best teacher and I follow him," etc.

Some followed no teacher at all. Consequently, in our mythical church with three pastors, there is a fourth group that heeds no teacher whatever, deferring only to Christ. At first glance that sounds correct, but when we delve into it further we must remember that Christ sent us out to make disciples. He sent teachers and preachers out to teach His word. It is God's will that men lead and teach others in His doctrines. The church is to have leaders and teachers. When those folks bypassed all of Christ's teachers to be totally without one, they went against Christ's will.

Of course this is a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer. No, Christ is not divided, and no, Paul was not crucified for them, and no, they were not baptized into the name of Paul. They (as we are) were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son and, the Holy Spirit.

He states this as a preface his next statement. Crispus was the chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, and Paul stayed at the house of Gaius while there. Paul was telling the opposing factions that he was thankful he baptized none if them. This seems to exempt Crispus, Gaius, and Stephanas and his household from those factions. As far as Paul knew, he had baptized no others at the church at Corinth.

This does not say that Paul did not baptize, for we know he did from the previous verses. He did baptize occasionally but baptizing was not his main calling. Preaching or heralding the good news that Christ died for our sins was Paul's true calling.

Our job is also to proclaim the Gospel. As ministers or servants of Christ, the main thing we should be interested in is getting people saved. Our actions, speech, and doctrines should all have that end in mind.

Yet, we are not to make baptism the test of our work. Let us not baptize to tally up the score so we can have bragging rights for the number of baptisms we perform. It is a fact that we often do that in today's church in America. Some churches make the number of baptisms a test of a pastor's performance, basing pay raises and benefits upon the number of baptisms a pastor accomplishes. To try to set a record for the number of baptisms we perform is to accept the wisdom of the world. Worldly wisdom applauds men for great feats they perform in the flesh.

Certainly, baptism follows conversion, and we are to baptize those that believe. However, the baptism is not the object of our actions; it is merely the result. Baptizing is not a way to gain the praise of men; it is the outward expression of our faith in Christ. Paul did not place a premium on baptizing; he made his priority the spreading of the Gospel.

Paul's calling was to proclaim the Gospel-the good news that Christ died for our sins, God the Father raised him from the dead on the third day, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for our sins. Christ Himself ordained Paul to go into the world and tell that good news to the nations.

Paul did not philosophize when proclaiming the Gospel nor did he use grandiose arguments based on great rhetoric and persuasive speaking styles. He did not try to persuade others with eloquence, winning arguments, or elegant manner. He simply laid out the plan of salvation in the plainest of terms using the simplest language. Such proclamation was proof that the conversions were the work of the Holy Spirit, and not the work of a gifted and persuasive speaker. In other words, God received the glory and not Paul.

Paul also made the point that such oratory would have made the teaching of the cross ineffective. If Paul's eloquence persuaded men, then they would not have been saved. Salvation is the work of the Spirit, convicting and calling the sinner to repentance; it is not the work of a man's persuasiveness and charm. If men believed based upon Paul's rhetoric, then it would have been the knowledge of the head and not the belief of the heart. Such knowledge is not unto salvation. If you base your salvation upon the knowledge or wisdom of men, then other men might be able to persuade you that you have been duped into believing what the first man said and convince you that they are correct. Potentially, one could be swayed back and forth by different men, each more persuasive than the former. However, if your salvation is genuine, then it is because the Spirit of God led you to that belief. The arguments of men cannot shake such belief.

The truth of the matter is, many people feel that Christians are not very bright for believing in Christ. This has promoted much condescension from many "men of the world" toward the Christian community. Ted Turner, for example, stated, "Christianity is a religion for losers." The Washington Post made the claim that Christians are poor, uneducated, and easily led. The press regularly demonizes Christians as bigots, racists, homophobes, and evil. Now this is amazing. What other group can you think of in America that is fair game for negative generalizations like Christians are? Those wise in worldly knowledge consider believers to be foolish men and women.

Cast your mind back to the last major execution of a murderer. Let us take, for example the case of Ted Bundy. He was a notorious serial killer; one of his victims was a little girl. He was never repentant nor did he have any remorse for his murders. Other than a few anti-death penalty protesters, the majority of us breathed a sigh of relief that the Bundy saga had finally ended. Try to remember your own feelings about that occasion. Mine were that he was executed and he deserved to be executed. He was a dishonorable and thoroughly shameful character who deserved to die. His remains were interred somewhere, but I know not and care not where.

Now realize that the execution of Jesus the Christ was in the same manner. He was executed as a dishonorable and thoroughly shameful character that no one would claim. Even His closest friends forsook Him. His was an execution reserved for the basest criminals, for traitors, and for scalawags. At time, the world that considered the ignominy of His crucifixion with disdain. How could such a notorious character possibly provide them with salvation? That is how the world viewed His crucifixion.

Today the world disdains the supposed intellectually vapid mindset (of Christians) that would, 1.) Believe that such a thing as resurrection is possible and 2.) Believe something that happened so long ago is plausible. Such a thing must be merely legend or myth. Besides, it is scientifically impossible for a man to rise from the dead. The world is too smart to believe such a thing. How stupid a person is to believe such nonsense. If you are a believer in Christ that is how the world looks at you.

The world is filled with the perishing. They either are unbelievers or are opposed to the Gospel of Christ. Either way, they are condemned already and will perish. The perishing of this world think that the Gospel is utter foolishness.

However, those of us who are believers are saved and have been given eternal life. Christ took our sins upon Himself and cleansed us of all unrighteousness. Through that power, the power of His resurrection, which is the power of God, we have salvation.

Paul quotes (from the Septuagint) Isaiah 29:14. All the wisdom of the world, all of the scientific advances in the world, all of the terabits of stored information in the world, all of our understanding of the world around us, all of the knowledge of the universe we live in, and all of the combined learning of all the wise men that have lived throughout history cannot bring us to the understanding of the Gospel of Christ. In fact, all of those things chafe against Christ and His Gospel. According to the wisdom of the world, man should be able to rise above the mundane and reach God by himself in his own way. He should be able to pull himself up by his own bootstraps and become his own god. The wisdom of the world not only rejects the mystery of the Bible, but it rejects God Himself. According to the world's wisdom, God is a figment of man's imagination. In other words, according to the world, man made God in man's image instead of the truth that God made man in His image. The world's wisdom is like chaff in the breeze. God will destroy it. He will destroy both the world and its wisdom.

The understanding of the prudent is the knowledge of the intelligentsia, or the learned men and women of the world. The knowledge of all the wise men will also come to naught. Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, echoes the thought: "…all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Solomon tells us what the truth is about the world's wisdom. It is all emptiness, for that is what vanity means. The end of the matter is this: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Other than this, everything else in the world, including its wisdom, is folly.

The wise are the learned men and women. The scribe is the writer, secretary, or clerk. In Paul's day the scribes were like the lawyers-well educated in the law and in legal matters. The disputer is the wise debater. Paul asks these questions to bring us to understand that these men, the wise, the scribe, and the disputer, are all foolish in God's eyes. None of what they stand for is truly wise. True wisdom comes from God and the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The wisdom of the world disdains the fear of God and therefore it never seeks or finds true wisdom.

The foolishness of preaching is Paul's way of saying that preaching is foolish to the world. The foolishness we preach (which is truly great wisdom) is Christ crucified, raised on the third day, Who now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for our sins.

The Jews asked Jesus for a sign, that is, for a miracle, that He was the Messiah. He told that that the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah, who was three days in the belly of the fish. As Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish, so Christ was three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. Just as Jonah was spit out on the beach at Ninevah, so Christ would rise from the grave. They would receive no other sign. Because of that, many rejected Him. The Israelites fledged upon miracles, beginning with the ten plagues in Egypt. They always required some miracle before they would believe.

While the Jews sought after miracles, the Greeks were in search of wisdom. They were convinced that salvation for man lay in the building of much knowledge. Their philosophers were always keen on wisdom. Aristotle disdained the material universe, dwelling on the immaterial, on the great telos or the ultimate good. The Greek philosophers engaged in much talk, but little action as we can see by Paul's visit to Athens. "For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21).

The preaching of the Gospel gave great offense to the Jews, who would not believe their Messiah would be crucified. Therefore, because of His refusal to become their general and defeat the Romans, and because of His crucifixion, they rejected Him, stumbling over their preconceived notions of the Messiah.

To the Greeks, who were always seeking out some new thing or other to discuss, and who were into much wisdom, the Gospel is foolish to them. For them, it is too simple and uncomplicated to be true.

To all those invited and welcomed by God, including Jews, Greeks and people from all the nations, Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. Even though the world deems itself wise-wiser than God, truly the wisdom of God is the Gospel of Christ.

This is the reason why the foolishness of the world is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those called by God.

It should be noted that few of the wise of the world, the mighty, and those from highly placed families, that is, those of noble birth, actually get saved. It is because they will not reject their own wisdom and embrace the wisdom of God. They are too wise, to well off, and too good to do so. Broad is the path that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to life. Not many find it (see Matthew 7:14).

What are the foolish things of this world? For an answer to that question, we must understand what is wise in the world. As we have already discussed, to be wise in the world is to fill ourselves with much knowledge. It is to have an understanding of the physical things of the universe. It is to be able to communicate that knowledge to the world. It is to have prestige, power, and wealth. So to the wise in the world, to be foolish is to not have so much knowledge of worldly things, or at least, is to eschew such knowledge.

Spiritual things do not relate to natural things in the mind of the wise. Thus spiritual things, because they do not seem to follow natural laws, must not be real. At least they must be foolish. In other words, It is foolish in the eyes of the world to believe in Christ. Prestige, power, and wealth do not go along with the teachings of Christ, Who said to be the servant of all. You cannot be servant of all and have prestige and power. Jesus also taught us not to put our trust in wealth.

The world glowingly exalts wealth. Jesus told the rich man to go and sell all he had to the poor and to follow Jesus. That would have meant giving up his wealth. He would forsake his power and prestige if he took up his cross and followed Jesus. The rich man went away sadly for he would not give up what the world deems as wise.

God used the weaker things to bring us into a relationship with Him. That is, he used simple childlike faith, servitude, and humility to accomplish this end. God values humility, serving others, and disregard for worldly sophistication. He does not value worldly wisdom, wealth, power, or prestige. Those things do not impress Him.

Those things confound the wise, wealthy, powerful and famous. They cannot understand how we can really believe in Christ. It is utter foolishness to them for a person to shun wealth, power, prestige and worldly wisdom. Nevertheless, that is just what Christians do. Therefore, they are confounded for they will not give up their wealth, worldly wisdom, power, or prestige to put their trust in Christ. Because they will not put their trust in Christ, they cannot be saved. Consequently, the supposed foolish things of the world will remain foolish to them, thereby confounding them.

Common things, which the mighty scorn, are the things God has decided are important. He has chosen the lowly, common, and seemingly worthless things to render the existing things totally useless. An example of this is bringing salvation to the Gentiles. The Jews considered Gentiles useless and base. They despised them. They considered them less than dogs. Yet, by believing the Gospel, they were saved and that made the Jewish system useless. The Gentles were saved by faith alone through grace and not by circumcision, sacrifices, or obedience to the law, thus those things were brought to nothing. They were no longer effective; they completely lost their usefulness.

Why did God choose the foolish, the base, and the despised? So that no one could boast that because of his own righteousness, he could come into the presence of God and bring glory on himself. We are saved because God is gracious and not because we are worthy.

It is only because of God and His grace that He saved us. He pointed us to Christ. It is because of Christ that we have Spiritual discernment. We receive our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption from Christ. The Spirit gives us wisdom, we God credits us with Christ's righteousness, and we are sanctified and are redeemed by His blood.

This is from Jeremiah 9:23-24, "Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."

These things are true so that we will give God the glory for our salvation instead of congratulating ourselves for something we did.