Bible Study, 1 Corinthians

Well, I have drug my heals about this for a couple days--actually this is the 3rd day. I started going through 1 Corinthians 3 days ago. And the last few times I have studied this book--or even discussed it with someone else--I come away with an overriding concern or thought:

More and more churches or even small home groups seem to pattern themselves after the Corinthian church. Now they don't call themselves the "Corinthian Church of [whatever]." So the imitation or intentionality is not as obvious as, for example, "The Berean Baptist Church," or the "Berean Sunday School Class," in which presumably the attendees take as their example a group who diligently studied the Word. Nevertheless, more and more churches seem to justify their practices because Paul talks about it in the Cornithian letters.

Well, I just have this to say about that:

At least in 1 Corinthians, everything Paul says is written in a spirit of correction. He does not name a single thing about which the Corinthians can pat themselves on the back. In fact, that is one of his issues with them: They have already done too much patting of themselves on the backs.

Even his opening greetings, in which he gives thanks to God for the Corinthian believers, is laced (it seems to me) with sarcasm or at least a hint of warning of the corrections to come. "...you have been enriched" and "you do not lack any spiritual gift" jump out at me. Add those phrases to the fact that in the opening 9 verses Paul mentions Jesus Christ 9 times in 9 verses. And (again it seems to me) that he makes a special point of using the phrase "the Lord Jesus Christ" to hammer home that their church and their faith and their religious practices are not about the Corinthians. It is all about "the Lord Jesus Christ."

Having given this brief "thanksgiving" (such as it is), he launches into the first of several points of correction: Boasting. I won't go into all the things about which they boasted; you can read that yourself. But clearly these people gave more attention to what they were doing, or to their own spiritual superiority than to what God was doing and His supremacy.

So the next time you're reading or studying 1 Corinthians, keep this in mind: Everything he says there is written in the spirit of correction. Their worship patterns were not something Paul commends: It brought (and brings) pride, boasting, licentiousness, permisiveness, and division.

What do you think?