Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• The “Love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 is written for the context of a church which was envying spiritual gifts for their own selfish pleasure.
  • It didn’t matter how amazing the gifting was (No matter how “cool” or “spiritual” we might look), if we don’t utilize what the Lord has gifted us to do with love, it’s pointless.
  • Our gifts are given to us for the benefit of others.
• To get the full effect of what verses 4-7 are teaching, insert the opposite terms and consider how the church (And other relationships) would change for the better or worse with love and with selfishness.
  • e.g. Selfishness is hasty and rude; selfishness envies and boasts, etc.
• Spiritual gifts are needed for a time (And some of them only lasted for a short time), but all of them are only exercised rightly when they are motivated by what will outlast them all, love.

Questions to consider:

1. How did God commend (Or show) His love toward us (Romans 5:8, John 15:13)?  How do we find the example and the motivation to give of ourselves sacrificially to others (1 John 4:19)?
2. What are some specific benefits of a church that loves one another?  How have you loved others?  How have others loved you?  Why can we thank the Lord for the church?
3. What point do you think Paul was making with the illustration of thinking like a child, then becoming a man and giving up childish ways?  What has that progressive sanctification looked like in your life?  What spiritual maturity (In fullness) are you looking forward to when you see Jesus face to face?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Helpful thoughts:

• Bodies have members and members make up the body.  Every member is needed.
• When a member of the body is hurting or not functioning, the rest of the body is impacted in appropriate ways.  When a member of the body is fit and active, the rest of the body is impacted in appropriate ways.
• Members of the church at Corinth wanted the same gifts (Or the same gift) because of what they thought it would do for them personally.
  • When enough individuals want everything to work for their own benefit, it ends up killing the body…and eventually there will be nothing left to benefit the individual.
  • Every member of the body needs to do their part, then everyone benefits.

Questions to consider:

1. What was the “benefit” those in the Corinthian church were looking for?  How would a healthy serving Christian redefine what the “benefits” of church membership and service are?
2. How have you been blessed by the ministry of others in various aspects in the church?  How have you been a blessing to others?  What does this passage look like (How is it exemplified) in our church?
3. There are passages like this in scripture which speak to service in the church, and others that appear to speak about ways we can be salt and light by serving in the community.  How do you balance serving in the church (Serving fellow church members) and living out your faith in the community AS the church?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• The Holy Spirit doesn’t lead people to blaspheme God.  He leads people to worship and follow Jesus.
  • This statement should sound obvious to us. But from the perspective of these former pagans, the idea of being controlled by the Spirit made them think of some strange things.  Those strange experiences resulted in misunderstandings concerning gifting from the Spirit for Christian service.
• Spiritual gifts are not given to us for our own enjoyment or to promote ourselves.  They are gifts given for “the common good” (Verse 7).  We get them to give them for the benefit of others to the glory of God.
• The gifts listed in this passage are not an exhaustive list.  There really isn’t an exhaustive list anywhere in the Bible.
  • The point of spiritual gifts is not to discover what special tool we have been given and then declare it publicly or pigeon hole ourselves in a way that restricts or limits our service to just one area of ministry.
  • The point of the gifting of the Holy Spirit is that when Christians serve Jesus and one another, the Spirit works through us in special ways.  From what I can tell, there may not always be a special name listed in Scripture for the myriad of ways Christians love and serve others.
• As is still often the case today, many in the Corinthian church preferred gifts that were flashier than others so as to have the “superior” gifts to flaunt.  Their consumeristic mindset also tainted their view of spiritual gifts.
  • Many gifts were exercised during the early years of the church (Sometimes called the Apostolic age, the Apostolic gifts) for the purpose of validating the word being proclaimed.  Once the churches were established and the Gospel had spread, those gifts ceased to be seen or reported.  They did not “appear” to be in use again until the charismatic movement began in the early 20th century.

Questions to consider:

1. What appears to be the purpose of the Spirit’s gifting of believers?  Who are they for?
2. In what ways have you been especially blessed by the Christians around you?  In what ways have you seen the Lord blessing your service of others?  Thank God for it!
3. If you are wondering what ways you might be gifted, how would serving and talking with other Christians about it help you?  Where are you serving?  What things motivate you to serve and to serve well?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul rebukes the church for misusing the Lord’s Supper as a self-centered feast instead of observing the body of Christ, the church.
• The selfishness in the Corinthian church in their misuse of the Lord’s Supper was so severe the Lord chose to discipline people in the church for it (Hebrews 12:5-11).
• It isn’t wise to avoid conflicts at all costs.  “There must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” (Verse 19)
  • Those who are not genuine in their faith are able to stay under the radar when a church is not willing to have weighty conversations.
• Two instructions are given for the heart of every believer who participates in the Lord’s Supper:
  • Examine yourself (Verse 28) – Am I right with God? Is there sin to confess?
  • Discern the body (Verse 29) – Are we right with one another?  Is there unity?
    • In both instances, a “no” answer ought to spring us to action, to repentance and reconciliation.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way was the Corinthian church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper just a symptom of a greater heart issue in the church?  Who has this church appeared to be all about?  What does “doing church” just to please ourselves ultimately result in (Verses 32 & 34)?
2. For whom do we conduct our services and the ordinances?  Who are we to aim to please?
3. If we design our services around the pleasures of the flesh, we will always want more.  What we have will never be enough or satisfy.  If we truly desire the greatest joy and satisfaction in this life, whose desires should we care about most?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Helpful thoughts:

• Today’s passage deals with roles in the relationship between men and women (Specifically husbands and their wives).
  • The specific objects Paul references were particular to the culture at the time.  If this passage were written today, there would be other objects mentioned.
    • The biblical principles still apply…to require the specific objects would become legalistic.
• Christ is fully God.  He is not less God than the Father.  Yet, there is an order within the Godhead.
  • Woman is fully human.  She is not less human than her husband.  Yet, there is an order within marriage.
    • Biblical leadership and submission is not a form of oppression.  God designed it and called it good.
    • Not everyone who tries to give leadership is doing it biblically.  Not everyone who tries to submit is doing it biblically.  Poor examples of leadership and submission out in the world (Or even in the church) only give evidence that people exercise it wrongly…not that the command is wrong.
• When men abdicate their role of loving leadership, they are not doing what is best for women.
  • When women seek to eliminate gender distinction, they are not increasing their glory.  Instead they are robbing glory from themselves, then from their husbands, and then from God.
• Men who dress up like (Or try to be) women are robbing the glory that belongs to women (Verses 14-15).  It is a disgrace and rebellion against God.
  • Women who dress up like (Or try to be) men are robbing themselves of their own glory and vacating the role which would give them their greatest joy and fulfillment.
• Head coverings for women in Corinth communicated they were married.  Women in the church who wanted to remove their head covering were communicating that they were not under the leadership of their husband.  It ended up communicating they were “available,” which is why Paul likened it to shaving off their hair (Which was the practice of prostitutes and feminists in that culture).

Questions to consider:

1. Would people keeping up to speed with the cultural trends in our day have any trouble with the content of this passage?  What does the fact that Paul had to write this out for the church almost 2,000 years ago tell us about human nature after the fall?  Is there anything truly new under the sun?
2. Why do people struggle with gender specific roles and characteristics?  How has sin made leadership and submission hard and distasteful?  In what way(s) is your view of gender really a result of who or what you worship?
3. How is Christ equal with the Father?  How did Christ submit to the Father?  How did Christ’s willing submission result in our salvation and in his glorification?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1

Helpful thoughts:

• We live in community.  Everything we do has an impact on others.  Everything we do is seen by God and is to be done for His glory.
• Other people’s consciences do not redefine law (What is right or wrong).  But in love, we are willing to sacrifice temporal pleasures (Like eating a specific kind of food) in the presence of another who has a weak or misinformed conscience.
  • The fear of man causes us to refrain so that we won’t be judged by people.  Paul does not commend this!
  • The fear of God and love of neighbor compels us to sacrifice for the sake of one another.
• When we think of the well-being of others over our own temporal pleasures, we are imitating Christ!

Questions to consider:

1. How can your eating and drinking be to the glory of God?  How might looking at everything you do in a day change your perspective and motives?
2. In what way is this passage simply an application of the greatest commandments (Mark 12:28-31)?  How can these commandments be applied to some of the hot-button issues of our day and culture?
3. How did Jesus Christ put our well-being over his own temporary desires?  What did He pray in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39)?  How then does the gospel inform our love of others?

Today’s passage: 1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Helpful thoughts:

• As an overall principle (And a fairly obvious one) Paul tells the church to flee from idolatry.
  • They had questioned whether it was ok to eat meat offered to idols.
• Here is a modern day church-centered picture which I think reflects what Paul is writing in this passage:
  • There is a often a bottle of grape juice in the refrigerator at church.
  • Most often, people drink grape juice from that bottle after it has been poured into little cups and distributed during our church services (The Lord’s Supper).
  • Sometimes, people might drink grape juice out of that bottle in the kitchen from a regular cup, on some other day of the week, because they’re thirsty and the bottle is almost empty.
    • Same bottle of grape juice, different reasons/occasions to drink it’s contents.
  • It could be entirely appropriate to offer an unbeliever some grape juice from that bottle on a Saturday if they’re thirsty.
  • It would not be appropriate for an unbeliever to drink that same grape juice on a Sunday from a little cup during our church service (The Lord’s Supper).
    • One of these uses is simply to quench thirst and enjoy the taste.
    • The other use is identifying with Christ and the Church.
• In the same way, for the church at Corinth, if there was left-over meat from the practice of idolatry that was taken to the market and sold the next day, that meat could be usable for a Christian if their conscience was not violated by eating it.
  • But, if a Christian were eating that meat the night before, having participated in the idolatrous worship, that would be participating in and identifying with idolatry…a betrayal of the Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. What do you think Paul is communicating when he says, “Flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people…”?  Was this whole issue of eating meat offered to idols supposed to be difficult?  From what we have read so far in this book, why did this issue get to be such a big deal?
2. If someone in Corinth were to read this passage and continue to ask, “But what if…?” what might be the bigger issue at hand?  If our hearts are constantly searching for what we are permitted to do or how far we can go without actually sinning, what could be wrong in our worship?  How does love for God and love for others help us to reason through our choices in life?
3. What important aspects can we learn about the Lord’s Supper through these verses?  What is the purpose of communion?