Corinthians A.1.1

Paul's letter is very well organized and follows a very clear outline that is broken up, in my Bible's notes, into three distinct parts. Part 1, which begins in chapter 1 and extends through chapter 4, is written in answer to a report of divisions from the household of Chloe. Part 2 covers chapters 5 and 6 and deals with reports to Paul of fornication and other problems of relationships in the church body. Part 3 covers answers to their questions in a letter they sent to Paul and goes from chapter 7 to the end.

Chapter 1

After greetings of grace and a prayer of thanksgiving, he jumps right into the water in verse 10. They had splintered into personality cults around Paul, Peter, and Apollos. It seems like even then, people tended to align themselves with the speaker at least as much as what was spoken. It's not even about the denomination so much anymore but how "charismatic" or dynamic the leader is. Sure, you'd have to have a strong personality to manage a mega-ministry (if that's what God really wanted you to do), but Paul reminds them in and around verse 26 that God's ways are different. Look around you in Church some Sunday. How many movers and shakers do you see? How many rocket scientists sit next to you? Is the church full of leaders? The concept is almost ludicrous, because the fact is if you get to know some of the people in your congregation, you'll find they are just simple folk who love Jesus. The Kingdom of God is not built on our strength but rather our weakness so that God's strength would be pre-eminent. It seems almost a contradiction to build a ministry around someone simply because they have a strong personality, yet there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between those who want to follow and those who want to be followed. Paul says, in response to this, "Don't follow me: follow Jesus!"

Further, Paul points to three misunderstandings at the core of their divisions. First is their misunderstanding of the Gospel message. They are trying to fathom it through their intellect, but the Gospel is not about Earthly wisdom. It is Heavenly wisdom, and there is a distinct difference. The Greeks had two words for "word": most people are familiar with "logos." It's the word used by the Apostle John in his Gospel to describe Jesus as the "logos made flesh"; however, the second form is "rhema" or "revealed word." Romans 10:17 brings this out in a very familiar yet little understood passage, "So then faith (pistis) comes by hearing (akoe), and hearing by the word (rhematos) of God. The Apostle Peter, in his second letter, points this out in chapter 1, verses 19 through 21: "And so we have the prophetic word confirmed [or We also have the more sure prophetic word], which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, 'but holy men of God spoke [or but men spoke from God] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.'" Peter is comparing the written word to the voice he heard from Heaven when he was on the mountaintop with James, John, and Jesus at the transfiguration. He says the written word is more sure than that voice of God that he personally heard. Here's the second point from this: if "men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," what's the best frame of reference from which to interpret Scripture? If the Holy Spirit inspired it (Paul calls it "God-breathed" in his second letter to Timothy), then certainly the Holy Spirit is the best one to interpret it. When this happens, the logos becomes rhema which leads to hearing and hearing and hearing which leads to faith.