The Story of God: 1 Corinthians

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Title: Bedlam, Body, Belief

 

“Beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul exhorts his readers to apply the teachings they had received from him for proper order in the churches. No doubt, the Corinthians had failed to exhibit proper order through submission to Christ and to one another (11:1-16). This resulted in self-centered divisions and offensive conflicts even in the observance of the Lord’s Supper (11:17-34)—a celebration meant to display the church’s unity. In keeping with this factious spirit, the Corinthians also exercised spiritual gifts in ways that highlighted their selfish ambition, though their demonstrations of the gifts of the Spirit should have displayed humility and deference for one another (12:1–14:40)."  - Swindoll

 

1 Cor. 12:13-27 ESV

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit." 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 

 

“We are members of a body, not only when we choose to be, but in our whole existence.”

 

“Every member serves the whole body, either to its health or to its detriment.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

1 Cor. 13:1-7 MSG

13:1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

 

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

 

3–7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

 

1 Cor. 15:1-2 ESV

15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 

 

“More profound amazement is ours when we consider that the church is composed of sinners, albeit forgiven, still sinners. In her own eyes, the church is full of spots and blemishes and is, in fact, sometimes disgusting to behold. Paul says that only at the end of the age will the church be presented to Christ “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:27). Yet Christ draws our attention to his bride here and now, not for veneration, but that we may be astonished and lost in the wonder of his love and sacrifice on her behalf. 

The church is beautiful because the lens through which Christ regards her is his cross—the focal point of blood, righteousness, forgiveness, union, justification, regeneration, and grace. His cross makes her beautiful. His perfection makes her beautiful. It is his sacrificial, substitutionary, sinless blood that washes her garments as white as snow. The cross of Christ makes her beautiful not only inwardly by justification but also outwardly through sanctification. From giving second birth to final glory, the righteousness of Christ creates a beautiful church.

His perfect righteousness fashions a loveliness so shocking and captivating that in the same sentence he repeats his admiration twice: 

 

Behold, you are beautiful…;

Behold, you are beautiful. (Song 1:15)”

                                                                  - Dustin Benge