The next several articles are from 1 Corinthians, and I encourage you to read the first chapter of that book in your Bible to learn from it directly, even before you read what is written on this site about it. After all, God’s Word supersedes my words, any day of the week.
For any part of the Bible that we read, it’s often helpful to get to know about the book before we dive in. The first verse of the book tells us that this is from Paul, and someone named Sosthenes.
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
1 Corinthians 1:1 NIV
Searching a couple Bible translations for the name Sosthenes shows one other instance, in Acts 18:17, where Sosthenes is the name of the synagogue leader in Corinth, who gets beaten by the crowd. I don’t know if this is the same Sosthenes, perhaps now traveling with Paul. Maybe leading the synagogue ended up being too brutal after the earlier beating, and Sosthenes decided to take up a different line of work. Or, maybe Sosthenes chose to follow Jesus, and the Jewish leadership removed him from his post. That’s just speculation on my part, though. It’s also possible that the two references to Sosthenes in the Bible are for different men with the same name.
The second verse of 1 Corinthians tells us that this book of the Bible (which is actually a letter) was written to the church in Corinth, but its message also seems to be meant for everyone who believed in Jesus.
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
1 Corinthians 1:2 NIV
As a result, this seems to be a valid letter (or “epistle”) for us to study, even if we don’t live in first-century Corinth.
By the way, although we call this book “1 Corinthians”, verses 9-11 in chapter 5 indicate that Paul had written to the Corinthians before. So, this is the first letter to the Corinthians that we have in the Bible, but not the first letter that Paul wrote to them. To avoid confusion, though, let’s still refer to it as 1 Corinthians.
Per a commentator [Oster, p.14-15], based on a reference in Acts, it seems that this letter was written around A.D. 55, putting it about 20-25 years after Jesus returned to Heaven, 40 days after His resurrection.
The NIV Introduction to 1 Corinthians says the following:
Corinth was “a wealthy and cosmopolitan commercial center.” “…the Corinthians wrote to Paul (in a letter we no longer have) with some key questions. The Corinthians had adopted the common Greek idea that physical things are bad, so they wanted to free the human spirit from the body.”
While this series of articles doesn’t necessarily address the value of the physical world, it’s probably good to mention early on that God made the world (along with human beings) and pronounced it “very good” (see Genesis 1:31). Jesus was both God and human, and had a physical body. So, since He was sinless, the physical world that we live in cannot be inherently evil. Yes, the earth was cursed because of human beings’ sin and it is definitely broken because of us, but it is not all bad, having been created – on purpose – by a perfect God.
After the introduction, 1 Corinthians continues with some blessings from Paul, which bring us to verse 10…
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Corinthians 1:10 NIV
We could probably have an entire lesson on just this one verse. I suspect that some preachers and teachers have done exactly that.
Instead, though, here’s a quick question: Is the church today “perfectly united in mind and thought”, without any divisions? Of course, we know that the answer is “no”. Those who follow Jesus are fractured into denominations and have seen countless schisms throughout the last two millennia. Even within a church, individual members don’t just disagree – sometimes they are downright disagreeable about it.
However, this wasn’t just a passing comment in the letter, but an appeal in Jesus’ holy name. That’s pretty serious! So, over the next few articles, let’s take a look at what can help us come closer to that goal today. In the meantime, I encourage you to read this first chapter of 1 Corinthians in its entirety (if you haven’t already done so), and maybe read chapter 12, too.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for March 3, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, March 3, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians, by Richard E. Oster, Jr. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 