I’ve been asked to write some lesson materials on 1 Corinthians for my church’s fall quarter adult Bible classes. I’ll try to offer some insights into what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians, especially on questions that are important to today’s church. The lessons should naturally flow from understanding the text.
And 1 Corinthians is very much a book for today’s Churches of Christ. It addresses disfellowshipping a member, the role of women, tongues and other gifts of the Spirit, submitting to the scruples of the “weak” brother, and most importantly, love within the congregation, unity, and the gospel.
In fact, one important feature of 1 Corinthians, rarely commented on, is Paul’s consistent use of the gospel to answer all sorts of practical church problems. When the question of prostitution comes up, Paul doesn’t declare himself inspired and the knower of all answers from God (although he was). Rather, Paul explains how the gospel compels us to flee prostitution.
You see, Paul was not only answering questions put to him, he was showing his readers how to answer questions for themselves. After all, the number of problems that might arise in congregational life is essentially infinite, and Paul knew he wouldn’t be around forever.
Hence, 1 Corinthians is also a great book on hermeneutics. Over and over, Paul not only answers questions, he reveals his reasoning to show us how we can answer other questions for ourselves. And so we should take this opportunity to study Paul’s methods for finding answers in the gospel.
Authorship
Scholars are nearly unanimous in crediting 1 Corinthians to Paul the apostle.
Date
Paul wrote this epistle from Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:8, 9, 19) while on his third missionary journey. It was probably written in the spring of 54 CE as is evident from the following data: (1) The letter was written some years after Paul’s first visit, since Apollos had ministered there (Acts 18:26-27; 1 Cor. 1:12) and Timothy had also been sent there (Acts 19:22; 1 Cor. 4:17). (2) This letter was written sometime after his first letter (cf. 1 Cor. 5:9) and probably not in the last year of his ministry in Ephesus. He mentions that he intends to spend the next winter with the Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:6), a visit which, nevertheless, is not to be identified with the three-month stay of Acts 20:3. This latter visit (Acts 20:3) reads as though it were at the end of Paul’s Ephesian ministry, while it is doubtful that 1 Corinthians was written at the end because otherwise the chronology does not fit with data in 2 Corinthians. (3) This letter was written in the spring because Pentecost is just around the corner (1 Cor. 16:8).7
(emphasis added).
The fact that there is an earlier letter (making 1 Corinthians actually 2 Corinthians, I suppose) throws a lot of Christians off — but we can surmise that if God cared for us to have this earlier letter, we’d have it. The Corinthians had obviously misunderstood it (1 Cor 5:9-11), and so Paul repeated and explained his earlier instructions in 1 Corinthians.
Occasion
Paul was working in Ephesus when he received word that the members at Corinth had some questions — and were dealing with some serious problems.
The occasion for the writing of this letter then gives us a great deal of help in deciphering the method of compilation: the first six chapters are written as a response to the report from Chloe (including both the correction of the Corinthians’ misreading of Paul’s first letter and specific problems raised by Chloe’s people); chapters 7-16 are written as a response to the questions raised by the congregation itself in their letter to Paul brought by Stephanas and friends.
This should be interesting !!
Corinthians. Where worship to God was offered in private homes, and not a dedicated buildings a.k.a. “Churches.” These private homes had kitchens to serve the “agape feast” with the Lord’s Supper.
George,
You’re quite right. Kitchens. And living rooms/dining rooms. Indistinguishable from a fellowship hall.
Amazing how we read our culture and circumstances into the text, assuming “church” meets in a building designed for the church and owned by the church.
There were no dedicated church buildings until Constantine, 300 years after Jesus.
We also have members apoplectic over the prospect of small groups meeting in homes — not realizing how very closely this follows the NT pattern. The only wayto get closer would be to sell the building and meet in homes, meeting maybe quarterly as a full congregation in rented space.
This is not to suggest that this is yet another “pattern” that must be followed. As soon as Constantine allowed the use of public buildings for churches, the churches gladly accepted the offer. You can imagine how tired the women were of cleaning house for a church gathering every single week!
Jay, you indicated that it had come to Paul’s attention that the church in Corinth had some questions.. This is going to come up later !!