1 Corinthians Lesson 2

I Corinthians

Lesson 2

Hi! Welcome back to this study of 1 Corinthians, a letter written by Paul to the Church in Corinth, Greece.

In Lesson 1, you'll recall that we learned about the city of Corinth, its culture, and the immoral conditions that saturated and influenced the lives and actions of its populace.

And, if any of you have not yet done Lesson 1, please do it now before you begin this lesson. Why? Because the lessons in this Bible Study are designed to BUILD upon what you learn in the preceding lessons. So, if you leave any lesson out or skip around in the course, you will not get the full impact of what is being studied.

Well, with that said, let's continue on

As I was saying, in Lesson 1, we not only learned about the city of Corinth and the corrupt, wicked, and godless conditions that were the "norm" of that city of over a half a million inhabitants, but we also discovered that Paul, the writer (author) of this letter (book), had come to Corinth approximately 3 years previously, while on his Second Missionary Journey. While working there as a tentmaker, he had preached and witnessed about Jesus Christ. As a result of Paul's ministry during his 18 month stay in Corinth, many of the Corinthians had believed the Gospel message he was preaching and had put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Also during that time, Paul and this group of believers had founded a Church. It is to this church and its members that Paul is writing this letter.

You will also recall that in Lesson 1, as one of your assignments, you were to imagine that you, as one of the founding (charter) members of that church, had been asked to read this letter from Paul to the Church.

And, indeed, in Lesson 1, you did begin to do this and you read 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. These 9 verses served as an Introduction and Greetings to the letter and as you read those verses you discovered that Paul had written this letter to (1:2) ______________________ in Corinth and you also discovered that Paul affirmed that the members of this Church of God in Corinth were (1:2) ________________and (1:2) __________________________________ . Then Paul proceeded to thank (1:4) ____________ for these "saints" who had been "called to be holy", because they had been (1:5) __________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

because they had believed (1:6) ________________________________________

about (1:6) _______________________________________________________.

This showed us 2 things:

1. That they were (circle your answer)

........................................Believers (Saved, Christians).................. Lost (Unsaved)

and

2. That Paul was their _______________________ since his witness had brought them

to a saving understanding of Jesus.

And, because Paul was their "Spiritual father" and because he knows of the evil and difficult conditions in which they lived and worked, he is now writing this fatherly letter to them.

So, with all of that in mind, you are surely wondering WHY Paul is writing this letter to them. Is there some particular REASON for this letter? Or is he just writing to say "Hello, How are you? Hope you are doing well." Well, as you might suspect, that is NOT why he is writing them. And, yes indeed, there is a specific REASON WHY he is writing them now, at this particular time in the life of their church. Something has precipitated the need for him to write them.

So, to find out WHY Paul is writing them now and to find out WHAT he is writing

about, you guessed it -- it is time for another assignment.

So, Your assignment now, should you choose to accept it, is to read 1 Corinthians 1:10 through 7:1. And, as you read these verses, when you see a subject (or topic or thing) that Paul is specifically talking about, underline in Black (or a color of your choice) the word or phrase that introduces the subject or topic and put a circle around the word that is the main subject (or topic or thing.)

For example, in 1:10 you will read, "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."

In that sentence I underlined "agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you" and I put a black circle around the word, divisions.

As another example, in 1:11 you will read, "My brothers, some from Chloe's household

have informed me that there are quarrels among you."

In that sentence, I underlined the phrase "there are quarrels among you" and I put a circle around the word, quarrels.

Ok, you know what to do and how to do it. So, it's time for you to begin reading. Remember, you will be reading from 1 Corinthians 1:10 through chapter 7 verse 1.When you have finished this assignment, return here and we will continue with some questions, based on what you have read. So, pay attention (as I know you will) to what you are reading and marking.

******************Pause while you do this assignment:****************

Read 1 Cor. 1:10-7:1 and underline and mark as indicated above

Finished? Great! And, wow, that really was some "fatherly advice", wasn't it!? Yes! And I guess you noticed that Paul covered quite a few topics and had a lot of advice, warnings, corrections, and rebukes for them. Apparently all was not well in the spiritual life of this church and its people!

But, before we look at some of the specifics of what Paul told them, you probably noticed that this letter is actually divided into 2 MAIN sections. The first section begins at 1:10 and goes through the end of chapter 6. The second section begins at Chapter 7 and goes to the end of the book.

With that in mind, let's now discover about what these 2 main sections are. And, there is actually an opening statement or phrase at the beginning of each of these 2 sections that alerts us to them.

In Chapters 1-6, the opening statement is found in 1:10. Write it in the space below:

__________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

And the second section begins with a phrase. You found it in the first half of the firstverse of Chapter 7. Write that phrase here:

7:1a _____________________________________________________________

Hmmmmm. Very Interesting.

So, in the first 6 chapters of 1 Corinthians, you have discovered that Paul is writing to them because he has heard that there are, gasp!, DIVISIONS in the Church!!!

In fact, you saw that there are a whole host of problems, difficulties, and things over which they were troubled and divided (things which you underlined and put circles around as you read the first 6 chapters of this letter.) We will look at some of those divisions, problems, difficulties, misunderstandings, and errors in doctrine in more detail in the next lesson or 2, but for now, we just want to be aware that ONE REASON WHY Paul is writing this letter to them is because reports have come to him that THERE ARE DIVISIONS AMONG THEM which must be addressed and corrected.

The SECOND REASON WHY Paul is writing to them is given to us in 7:1a. There we read, "Now concerning the matters you wrote about:...." In other words, apparently the church had several specific questions that they were wondering about (and probably were also divided over and arguing about) and they had sent a letter to Paul asking for his advice. Paul is now, in this letter, going to respond to some of their specific questions.

We don't have the letter they wrote to him, so we don't know the actual questions they had asked, but we can pretty well guess at what the questions and the topics were by the answers Paul gives and the way he introduces each new topic. So, let's do that now. And, Yes, it is time for another assignment, which is:

Look at the following verses in 1 Corinthians and, in the space provided, note the topic or subject that Paul is going to talk about as he answers each of their specific questions. You will notice that Paul begins each of these new topics with a phrase such as "Now Concerning...." or "Now for the matters you wrote about..." or "Now...." or some other similar introductory phrase. When you see that phrase, Circle it in your Bible with a Blue Circle (or a color of your choice) and write what it is that will be discussed in the margin of your Bible AND on the chart below:

The "Now Concerning's" in Chapters 7-16

7:1

8:1

12:1

15:1

16:1

Great! I see that you have finished your assignment. And even though there are many chapters (7-16) in the second part of Paul's letter, he basically only will cover 5 MAIN Topics as he answers their questions. And, I assume that you discovered that those topics will be: Marriage, Food Sacrificed to Idols, Spiritual Gifts, the Gospel, and The Collection (offering) for God's people.

Of course, Paul does talk about other things within each of these 5 main topics, but this in a nutshell is what the second part of his letter covers.

We will look at each of those 5 topics in more detail in separate lessons as we progress through this course.

But, for now, the MAIN thing for you to know is that in this letter from Paul to The Church at Corinth, the main reason WHY Paul is writing this letter is twofold. And those 2 reasons are:

Yes, you are correct. The first reason Paul is writing is to address some very important divisions in the church. And the second reason is to answer some specific questions that the church had written to him requesting that he tell them "what to do about...."

So, this is the way I answered the question of WHY Paul is writing this letter:

1. Section 1 of the Letter = Paul has heard that there are Divisions in the church and he is writing to give them advice, warnings, correction, rebuke, and instructions concerning these problems.

2. Section 2 of the Letter =The "Now Concernings....." in which Paul answers specific questions about various things the church has written to him for advice.

Well, now we know WHY Paul is writing this letter to the Church in Corinth. And you have a big picture of what this letter is about. In the next lessons we will look in some detail at many of these problems and the "now concernings...." But, for now, let's call it quits and bring this lesson to a close as you think on these things.

See you in Lesson 3!

Scriptures unless otherwise indicated are taken from

International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers.

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