May 16, 2014 Corinthians I Chapter 1

1 Corinthians Chapter 1

Originally posted July 7, 2008

1 Corinthians Chapter 1:1-9 Salutation and Thanksgiving

Paul uses the standard Greek literary style of salutation in all of his letters (Rom. 1:1). He opens with his credentials - he is an apostle of Christ Jesus "by the will of God." This mention will serve to remind the church of his authority to write on behalf of churches among the Gentiles and not just in Corinth. He notes his co-worker Sosthenes who is with him in Ephesus where the letter was written in 56/57 CE. Most of the names Paul adds are typically people known to the receiving church. This Sothenes may be the official of the Synagogue in Corinth who was converted during Paul's eighteen month mission in 50/52 CE (Acts 18:17). The recipient is the "church of God that is in Corinth." Paul did not establish disconnected congregations. They are all of one church, the Church of God, stressing the interconnectedness of all of them as one (very Methodist!). It is not merely the congregation as a unit that is joined with other congregations as if through its leadership. All Christians of the church are called to be saints "together with all those who in every place "call upon the name of our Lord."  Paul will frequently use this spiritual bond for inter-church collections for the poor in Jerusalem. Paul has established the churches as the body of Christ - as one body, not many. As we will read in this letter, and others, Paul strives to establish a sense of unity among the churches and especially among the local members where problems of disunity are most keenly felt.

Paul sends God's Grace, the sustaining soil in which they have been planted and in which they will be nourished and grow. He also sends God's Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Jesus used this word in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the Shalom makers, for they shall be called children of God." Shalom is the condition of unity ("nothing broken" in God's world), well being within human relationships with one another and with God. It is a powerful word not to be pronounced without conviction. It is no throw-away line such as "Hello, how are you?" To be a Shalom maker one works to make it so. It is not wishful thinking. Paul uses the combination of grace and shalom to ground the Christian in the larger sense of God's world and God's people. Thus this serves as both blessing and benediction.

The second part of the opening is the Thanksgiving. Paul is thankful for the grace given to the Corinthians and all this grace  has done to enrich their faith, especially with spiritual gifts which will serve them well and preserve them as blameless until the day the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed (upon his return).

1 Corinthians Chapter 1:10-17 Divisions in the Church

As with most of Paul's letters, this one is written in response to one or more issues of unity. This is what makes his letters so important. They clearly demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of church disunity. Paul opens with an appeal for agreement; that they "be united in the same mind." (There really isn't anything new under the sun.) There are divisions among groups in the church leading to disunity. Paul has heard from "Chloe's people," regarding the nature of quarrels occurring in the community. The fact that she has "people" who are in Ephesus indicates that (very much as was Lydia) Chloe was a person of some status, probably a business person who had slaves or servants representing her in other parts of the Empire. Whatever her position in the church, it was important enough that she understands the larger context of the issue of fractured alliances forming in the church. A number of "parties" have developed, each attached to a particular teacher or leader to whom they say they "belong," as if one had more wisdom than the other. Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter) and Christ seem to be the party divisions with the first three probably associated with their baptizing of new converts in Corinth. Paul rejects any idea of members belonging to anyone on the basis of baptism but Christ. The human agency of one's baptism is irrelevant to one's standing with Christ, for all were baptized in the name of Christ. He can barely remember who he did baptize during his stay in Corinth. As an apostle Paul's calling was proclamation of the Gospel and he has done that without "high talk" and wordy eloquence which could overshadow or lessen the power of the cross of Christ. For Paul the messenger was not important. It was all about the message and when anything got in the way of the message, failure of the community was at hand. Christ cannot be divided as if he were especially blessing one person over another. He was the one crucified for the Corinthians' justification by God, not Paul or anybody else.

The Corinthian problem was not that they couldn't agree on one person versus another to whom they would ally themselves as disciples. In the Greek world there was a natural desire to accommodate oneself to a particular philosophy - Stoic, Cynic, Epicurean or Pythagorean, to name a few. The problem was thinking that one messenger had a better, wiser, more sophisticated version of the message than the others, thus stripping the Gospel of its power.

1 Corinthians Chapter 1:18-31 Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

Paul follows his thread of thought regarding the power of the cross of Christ which is the focal point of his preaching. We should remember that it is not the cross itself that is the effective center of the Gospel it is the cross of Christ. Without this understanding Paul's "Theology of the Cross" would be meaningless. This message of the cross is foolishness to the unbeliever while to the believer the cross of Christ is recognized as God's power effectively working in the one who has faith. For Paul it is faith that releases this power of forgiveness and justification. Citing Isa. 29:14, 33:18 and 44:25(LXX), while Jews demand signs from heaven and Greeks desire wisdom, Paul proclaimed that which was a stumbling block to Jews (a powerless crucified Messiah). A crucified person was considered to be cursed by God. How could someone who is cursed be the deliverer? It was foolishness and folly to the Gentiles devoid of wisdom (a dead person resurrected as Lord). Paul's point is that it is indeed folly and a stumbling block which only faith can apprehend as God's power and wisdom at work in Christ. That is, after all, what faith is: the accepting (believing in) the unresolved paradox. The stumbling block of the cross is the sign from heaven and its absurdity isthe wisdom of God. Only faith can lead the way to what will not be understood and only when we abandon understanding will faith prevail.

Paul asks the Corinthians what their status was when called through the Gospel. By human standards most possessed no special wisdom, power or aristocratic heritage. They were mostly uneducated poor artisans, servants or slaves working at the bidding of others. Such as they were, God chose them to demonstrate that faith is greater than wisdom, status, wealth and power. All these are put to shame and "reduced to nothing" by a faith that believes the foolishness of what ought not to be believed. We will recognize this reversal of status in the Synoptic Gospels (MT, MK, LK) where the first shall be last and the last shall be first, where the blessings come to the poor, hungry, thirsty, meek, persecuted, reviled and in mourning.

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The Isaiah texts cited in vss. 19-20 are from the Greek Old Testament (LXX) which Paul used for all his citations. Below is a translation of these three texts from the Greek. It might be interesting to compare these with what is found in a typical translation such as the NIV and NRSV which are translations from the much later Hebrew Bible.

Vs. 19 - Isa. 29:14 "...behold I shall proceed to transpose this people and I will transpose them; and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and I will hide the understanding of the discerning."

Vs. 20 - Isa. 33:18 "Your soul shall meditate on fear. Where are the Academics? Where are the ones advising? Where is the one counting the ones being maintained?

Vs. 20 - Isa. 44:25 "Who other shall efface the signs of ones who deliver oracles and divinations from the heart, to turn the intelligent one unto the rear and their counsel [into] foolishness?"