Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians: What They Teach
The Corinthians argued over teachers, tolerated open sexual sin, and brought their divisions into worship. Some questioned Paul’s authority, and some denied the resurrection of the dead. Paul did not answer by flattering them or abandoning them. He kept bringing them back to Jesus Christ, who had purchased the church and had the right to govern its life. I want to follow how that conviction shapes both his correction and his efforts to restore them.
Christ Established a Church in Corinth
After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Paul arrived from Athens and worked with Aquila and Priscilla, fellow tentmakers who had recently left Rome. He reasoned in the synagogue each Sabbath and testified that Jesus is the Christ. When opposition hardened, he continued teaching next door in Justus’s house. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, believed with his household, and many other Corinthians heard, believed, and were baptized. They responded to the gospel before receiving baptism.
The Lord encouraged Paul in a night vision to keep speaking despite the opposition. Christ had many people in the city, and Paul stayed eighteen months to teach the Word. Acts later records an unsuccessful accusation against him before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of Achaia. The congregation Paul would later correct had received sustained teaching and care from its beginning.
Corinth was a commercial center where religious competition and social standing influenced daily life. That setting helps explain some of the pressures on the church, but the city’s reputation cannot tell us what every resident was like. Paul identifies the actual conduct he is correcting. We need to listen to those charges rather than explain everything by saying Corinth was a wicked place.
Paul’s relationship with this congregation involved more letters and visits than the two preserved books alone describe. In 1 Corinthians 5:9 he mentions an earlier letter about association with sexually immoral people. Reports from Chloe’s household and questions from the church prompted further instruction. In 2 Corinthians he refers to a painful visit and a letter written with anguish and tears. He sent coworkers, received news through them, and planned to visit again.
Some understand the severe letter mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2 and 7 to be 1 Corinthians; others place another letter between the two preserved books. Those references do not settle every step in the sequence. We can follow Paul’s continuing care without treating a proposed reconstruction as certain. Mentioning other letters does not establish that inspired Scripture has been lost, since not every communication Paul made was Scripture. God preserved these two letters for the church.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul answers reports of disorder and questions from the believers. In 2 Corinthians, he explains his conduct, rejoices over repentance, and urges them to complete a collection for needy believers. He also defends genuine apostleship against impressive but corrupt rivals. Both letters come from his continuing effort to teach and restore people he knew.
That greeting does not guarantee that every person attending a congregation has been born again. Paul also warns against deception and calls for a profession of faith to be examined. We need to learn those qualifications from the passages that teach them, rather than make the opening greeting say something its grammar does not say. Belonging to Christ gives the Corinthians a reason to accept correction, never permission to disregard it.
The first reported problem was a quarrel over the very servants through whom they had learned about Christ:
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Some identified themselves with Paul, others with Apollos or Cephas, and another group claimed Christ’s name. Even that claim could be used to despise fellow believers. Paul brought the quarrel back to the cross: he had not been crucified for them, and they had not been baptized in his name. No teacher had redeemed them or could claim the loyalty they owed to Christ.
Paul was not abolishing leadership. He recognized faithful teachers and instructed the church to receive them. Baptism also remained an act publicly identifying believers with Christ, but administering it did not replace his central commission to preach the gospel. Neither the minister nor baptism could take the Savior’s place.
A favorite preacher, denomination, or ministry platform has not shed sinless blood for the church. I can appreciate a teacher without treating criticism of his teaching as disloyalty to Jesus. Confidence does not prove a teaching true, originality does not establish depth, and charisma cannot establish godly character. Receiving help through human servants should lead us to test their words by Scripture and give Christ the loyalty that belongs to Him.
The factions revealed how readily the Corinthians admired impressive speech and social standing. Paul answered their standards of importance by preaching Christ crucified. Jews sought signs, while Greeks sought the wisdom their culture prized. A crucified Messiah offended those expectations, yet He is God’s power and wisdom to those who are called. Their contempt could not make His saving work weak or foolish.
Paul did not recommend ignorance or careless reasoning. He reasoned from Scripture and explained his message to the people listening. What he refused was manipulation and self-display that would make the gospel seem to depend on a speaker’s performance. The Spirit revealed God’s wisdom, and the apostles taught it in words He supplied. Eloquence could never give a message that kind of authority. The Corinthians’ quarrels showed how much they still needed to learn from that message:
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
Paul calls them brethren and babes in Christ while rebuking their carnality. The Greek word sarkikos describes fleshly conduct: envy, strife, and loyalty to rival parties were controlling their relationships. They had received teaching but continued to behave like immature believers. I cannot soften the rebuke, but neither can I make it say that everyone Paul called a babe in Christ had never belonged to Him.
Paul is not giving us permission to treat lifelong rebellion as a normal, acceptable form of Christian living. He calls the Corinthians away from conduct that contradicts their confession. Romans 8 distinguishes people in the flesh from those indwelt by the Spirit; here he confronts believers acting in fleshly ways. We need to distinguish their spiritual standing from their present conduct while refusing to use their standing as an excuse for sin.
Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase. The two teachers served the same Lord in different assignments, and each would answer to Him for his labor. The congregation belonged to God, as a field or building belongs to its owner. Neither teacher could claim it as his own. Christ will expose hidden motives and assess faithful service, so we need neither idolize a leader nor assume that every leader is corrupt.
Holiness Belongs in the Church and in the Body
The divisions were not Corinth’s only failure. The congregation was tolerating a sexual relationship it should have mourned:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles–that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
A man had his father’s wife, and the church was puffed up when it should have mourned. Paul commanded the assembled congregation to remove him. Putting him outside their fellowship would expose him to the severe consequences of his rebellion instead of continuing to shelter it. Paul described this as delivering him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, with the aim that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That aim did not give the congregation certain knowledge of whether the man had been born again.
Discipline requires established wrongdoing and action under Christ’s authority, with no place for gossip or revenge. The congregation must protect its fellowship and uphold Christ’s name while seeking the offender’s repentance. Paul’s earlier warning about association had not meant avoiding every immoral person in society; doing that would require leaving the world. He was addressing someone who bore the name of brother while persisting in conduct incompatible with Christian fellowship.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul’s warning about those who will not inherit God’s kingdom reaches beyond sexual sin to idolatry, theft, covetousness, drunkenness, verbal abuse, and extortion. Then he tells the Corinthians, “such were some of you.” They had been washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ’s name and by God’s Spirit. Sanctification sets people apart to God, and justification means being declared righteous before Him. They had received a new standing and a new life, not a religious name under which to remain enslaved to sin.
The warnings expose an empty profession and confront believers tempted to return to former conduct. They do not make moral performance the price of salvation. A settled refusal to submit to Christ gives reason to examine someone’s claim to belong to Him; a believer who falls into sin needs confession and correction. A Christian label cannot establish genuine new birth, which changes our relationship with sin and gives us reason to obey.
Paul specifically forbids union with a prostitute because a believer’s body belongs to Christ. God will raise that body, and the Holy Spirit already dwells in it. Joining it to sexual immorality dishonors the Lord who bought it. We flee that sin because we belong to Him, without treating the body or marital intimacy as shameful.
Chapter 7 answers questions about marriage and singleness amid sexual pressure and what Paul calls “the present distress.” Husband and wife have a mutual responsibility toward one another in marital intimacy. Temporary abstinence requires their agreement for a limited time of fasting and prayer, after which they should come together again. I understand Paul’s concession to permit that abstinence, rather than make the surrounding apostolic instruction optional. Rejecting sexual immorality gives us no reason to treat marriage as unclean.
Singleness can allow concentrated service, especially amid distress, but Paul does not impose it on everyone. Each has a gift from God. Marriage is the covenant union of one man and one woman, and believers must not pursue divorce as a way to become more spiritual. His counsel to remain in one’s present condition directs people to serve faithfully where they are, without forbidding every appropriate change of circumstance.
If an unbelieving spouse is willing to remain, the believer should not leave. Paul does not treat the marriage as defiled by the unbeliever’s presence or its children as unclean outsiders. The household is set apart through the believer, but that does not mean everyone in it is automatically born again. If the unbeliever departs, the believer is not bound to force continued cohabitation. Paul upholds the marriage covenant while calling believers to peace.
Love Must Govern Liberty, Communion, and Spiritual Gifts
Questions about meat offered to idols required the same attention to other people that Corinth’s factions had neglected:
Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
An idol is not a real deity, and food cannot improve our standing before God. Paul names the Father as the one God and Jesus Christ as the one Lord, through whom all things exist. He is not denying the Son’s deity or describing two gods. Yet knowing the truth about an idol does not excuse wounding someone whose conscience still associates that food with former worship. Seeing a Christian eat in an idol’s temple could embolden him to act against his conscience.
The believer who understands the truth must consider that spiritual harm instead of congratulating himself on his freedom. I may need to give up something permitted so I do not draw another person into what he believes is sin. His conscience needs instruction, but violating it will not teach him to obey God. Care for him does not give a weaker conscience permanent control over every Christian choice.
Paul develops this responsibility in chapters 9 and 10. He surrendered a legitimate right to financial support to avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel. Israel’s wilderness failures also warn against presumption: God’s promised help in temptation gives no permission to enter into idolatry. Sharing in the Lord’s Table cannot be combined with demonic worship. Meat itself is not a deity, but participating in the worship of an idol is forbidden, regardless of someone’s claim to knowledge.
Corinth’s own shared meal also exposed a failure to care for one another:
Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
Some ate their own food ahead of the others, leaving one person hungry while another was drunk. Those who had nothing were humiliated at a gathering that should have expressed their fellowship in Christ. Paul said that, in gathering this way, they were not eating the Lord’s Supper. They were despising Christ’s people at the very meal that proclaimed His death for them.
We eat the bread in remembrance of Christ’s body, and the cup represents the new covenant in His blood. In sharing the meal, the church proclaims His once-for-all death until He comes. The elements do not become Christ, and taking them does not repeat His sacrifice. We remember a saving work He has already completed.
Eating in an unworthy manner concerns how someone participates, rather than restricting the Table to people who have never sinned. Paul tells believers to examine themselves and discern the Lord’s body. In Corinth, they needed to abandon their contempt and wait for one another. Their conduct was so serious that the Lord had disciplined them through weakness, sickness, and even death. Grace gave them no excuse to dismiss His correction or continue mistreating His people.
Paul’s instruction about gifts continues his concern for a church whose members need one another:
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free–and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
The same Spirit distributes different gifts, the same Lord governs different ministries, and the same God works through them. Paul directs attention to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acting in unity. Every gift the Spirit gives is meant for the good of the whole body, so no member can use one to claim a higher spiritual rank or compete for attention.
All were baptized by one Spirit into one body. At salvation the Spirit unites a believer to Christ and His church; this is not a later achievement reserved for unusually gifted Christians. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free people, receive the same indwelling Spirit. Their different gifts cannot divide them into superior and inferior kinds of Christian.
A foot does not cease to belong because it is not a hand, and an eye cannot dismiss the hand as unnecessary. Less visible members still need honor and care. God composed the body so that its members would suffer and rejoice together. If a congregation values people according to how much attention they receive, it is disregarding the way He has joined them.
Paul names words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation. I believe the gifts of the Spirit continue to work in the church. That conviction gives no approval to manufactured experiences, staged claims, or doctrine established by someone’s experience. Every claim must be tested by Scripture, and gifts must serve the church under its direction. The study on spiritual gifts considers these questions more fully.
Chapter 13 belongs between Paul’s explanation of gifts and his instructions for ordered worship. Without love, remarkable speech is noise and impressive knowledge amounts to nothing. Even sacrificial acts bring no spiritual profit to the person performing them. A gifted person can still be proud and careless toward others, so Paul makes the Corinthians consider how they treat the people they claim to serve.
Love is patient and kind toward other people, refusing envy, self-display, rudeness, and the determination to have its own way. It does not keep an account for revenge or rejoice in wrongdoing; it rejoices with the truth. Such love endures and remains ready to hope without becoming gullible or permitting sin. It keeps us from dismissing people cynically when they need patient, faithful care.
Our gifts operate while our knowledge is still partial. Love abides with faith and hope and is greatest among them. I cannot separate God’s holy concern for people from truth or patience: correct doctrine does not excuse cruelty, and warmth does not excuse falsehood. The love Paul describes governs how we speak to one another, including when we gather for worship.
In chapter 14, public speech must build up those who hear it. I understand tongues to be actual spoken languages, with no requirement that every believer speak them. Incoherent utterances do not establish that the Spirit is at work. Without interpretation, a tongue cannot instruct the congregation. Prophecy must be weighed, and speakers must take turns. God is the author of peace, so claiming the Spirit’s work never excuses disregarding these apostolic instructions.
Paul’s words about women’s speech must be read alongside chapter 11, where he recognizes women praying and prophesying while honoring God’s order of headship. I therefore do not read chapter 14 as forbidding every form of spoken ministry by a woman. Paul requires orderly, submissive speech within the broader apostolic teaching that reserves authoritative teaching office for biblically qualified men.
Christians differ over whether the silence here concerns disruptive questions, the authoritative evaluation of prophecy, or a more general restriction. I would distinguish that disputed scope from the authority of the command itself. It remains apostolic instruction, which rules out treating gathered worship as unlimited self-expression. Scripture maintains the distinction between the sexes while honoring the genuine service the Spirit gives women. Qualified male leadership does not make their contribution less valuable.
The Gospel Stands on the Bodily Resurrection
Some Corinthians denied the resurrection of the dead. Paul answered by reminding them what he had preached and what they had received:
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose on the third day. He appeared to Cephas, the twelve, more than five hundred at once, James, the apostles, and finally Paul. The gospel concerns events witnessed by real people. Christ’s resurrection is essential to that message, rather than a private symbol of renewed hope. His appearance to Paul also established an apostleship Paul owed to grace instead of personal achievement.
Paul’s call to hold fast tests their adherence to the gospel he preached, including Christ’s resurrection. He is not teaching that moral effort keeps us saved. A claim to faith that denies the apostles’ message is empty. The Corinthians could not preserve the Christian faith while denying the event on which its hope rests.
If the dead cannot rise, Christ has not risen either. The apostles would then be false witnesses, their preaching empty, and Christian faith futile. Believers would remain in their sins, and those who died in Christ would have perished. Paul insists instead that Christ truly is risen. He is the firstfruits, the beginning of the resurrection harvest that guarantees the rest will follow.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Our present bodies cannot inherit the kingdom while remaining subject to corruption and death. Paul describes their transformation: what is mortal must put on immortality. The dead will rise incorruptible, and living believers will be changed in a moment at the trumpet. Through Jesus Christ, death will be swallowed up in victory.
Because that future is certain, Paul tells the Corinthians to remain steadfast and abound in the Lord’s work. Death will not make their labor in Him pointless, so they have reason to continue serving faithfully. The study on Jesus’ resurrection and ascension develops this hope further.
Grace Shapes Ministry, Repentance, and Generosity
In 2 Corinthians, Paul blesses the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, on whom he had depended in severe affliction. In Asia he had been under such pressure that he despaired even of life. He describes a sentence of death that taught him to rely on the God who raises the dead. The Corinthians shared in his deliverance through prayer, and the comfort he received from God equipped him to comfort others.
Christian comfort does not require denying suffering or promising an immediate escape. Paul could tell the truth about his weakness while directing people to God’s faithfulness. Through their prayers and shared endurance, the Corinthians could help the very man who had taught them. His suffering gave them reason to care for him, not accuse him of lacking faith.
Paul also explains why he changed his travel plans: he wanted to spare them another painful visit. They should not mistake that delay for fickleness or manipulation. A change in his plans did not make the gospel uncertain. God’s promises are Yes in Christ, and He establishes believers and seals them by His Spirit, guaranteeing their final redemption.
In chapter 2, Paul calls for forgiveness and comfort toward a man who had received sufficient punishment and risked being overwhelmed by sorrow. This may have been the man from 1 Corinthians 5, but Paul does not identify him explicitly. Whether or not he was that man, the church needed to restore him rather than prolong his misery. Refusing open evil and receiving a repentant person both seek his good.
Paul refused to peddle God’s Word or establish his authority through self-commendation. The Corinthians’ changed lives were a letter Christ had written through the Spirit. God enabled the apostles to minister the new covenant. Paul contrasts the greater glory of the Spirit’s life-giving ministry with the condemning ministry of Moses’ law, which was engraved on stone. He is not disparaging the inspired Old Testament. When someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, and believers are transformed as they behold His glory.
Paul describes the gospel as treasure carried in earthen vessels, so people can recognize that its power belongs to God. He could be hard-pressed without being crushed, persecuted without being forsaken, and struck down without being destroyed. His endurance showed Jesus’ life at work in a frail man, and his affliction was preparing an eternal weight of glory. He was explaining how Christ sustained his ministry through suffering, without treating pain itself as a virtue.
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Christ’s love compelled Paul because One died for all. Those who receive life through Him should live for the Lord who died and rose for them. In Christ a person becomes a new creation and is reconciled to God, brought into peace with Him through His saving work. God entrusted His servants with that message, and they plead as ambassadors, “be reconciled to God.” Christ died for the whole world, and the appeal calls for a real response to God’s sincere offer. People can resist His grace and refuse Him.
Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin and without sin. Being made sin for us did not make the One who knew no sin morally sinful. He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His atonement rests on His perfection and voluntary sacrifice, through which we are reconciled to God. Wicked men tortured His innocent body and killed Him. His saving work through His shed blood and death was complete before He was buried, and He then rose bodily. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son acted in perfect unity.
Everyone who repents and believes in Jesus is forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer, who remains eternally secure in Christ. Regeneration means genuine new birth, beyond merely taking a Christian name or agreeing with Christian statements. Neither that birth nor the Spirit’s seal is earned through religious achievement. New life should become evident in conduct, but obedience neither purchases salvation nor keeps us saved.
Paul’s difficult correction of Corinth served that ministry of reconciliation. He wanted them to turn from wrong, not merely to feel wounded by his letter:
For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
Paul regretted causing pain, but he rejoiced when the Corinthians’ sorrow led to repentance. He took no pleasure in the hurt itself. They became diligent about the matter, indignant at the wrong, and ready to see justice done. Their grief led them to change their response instead of remaining in regret.
Paul distinguishes godly sorrow, which leads to repentance and salvation, from worldly sorrow, which produces death. Strong emotion alone cannot tell us which kind a person has. Someone may weep over a damaged reputation or lost comfort without agreeing with God about the sin. Godly sorrow accepts His judgment and turns from the wrong, including putting right what can be put right. Those actions are fruits of repentance, never payments for forgiveness.
When considering restoration, a church needs truth and a changed direction. Tears alone cannot settle the question, but perpetual suspicion should not become the price of returning either. Paul wanted the Corinthians to deal with evil and then comfort the person whose repentance called for restoration. Correction had a purpose beyond causing sorrow.
Grace also shaped the collection for poor believers in Jerusalem. In chapters 8 and 9, the Macedonian churches gave generously amid affliction and poverty because they had first given themselves to the Lord. Paul did not require an equal amount from everyone. He accepted a willing gift according to what a person had, without demanding what the person did not have.
Though rich, Jesus became poor for His people so they might become rich through His poverty. Paul presents His redeeming grace as the pattern of self-giving. He is not promising that a donation to a ministry will make someone wealthy. The collection met need, expressed care between believers, and produced thanksgiving to God.
Paul entrusted the gift to reliable companions and took care to handle it honorably before people as well as God. Financial safeguards protected the work and those giving to it; they did not express unbelief. A ministry should take the same care with others’ gifts and refuse to coerce people into giving. God loves a cheerful giver. His grace calls us to give willingly and handle what others entrust to us faithfully.
In the final chapters, false apostles boast of appearance and status. Paul answers with the cost of his service and the weakness in which he depended on Christ. The Lord did not remove his thorn, the persistent affliction he describes, but supplied sufficient grace. His authority rested on Christ’s commission and message, without requiring a display of invulnerability.
I need to receive these letters as correction addressed to Christ’s people, rather than simply read about someone else’s difficult church. A favorite teacher or spiritual gift cannot establish my faithfulness. Christ has authority over my relationships and sexual conduct, my use of money, and the way I participate in worship. Neither social position nor an old grievance gives me an exemption from His Word.
When Scripture exposes wrong, protecting appearances will not put it right. I need to agree with God and turn from the sin. The same desire for repentance should make me willing to restore someone wisely when he turns, rather than keep punishing him. Discipline and forgiveness serve the good of people Christ calls His own.
Examining whether our faith is real does not mean trying to earn eternal life. The apostolic gospel directs us to the crucified and risen Savior, whose new life should become evident in those who trust Him. A believer’s failures call for confession and growth, but they do not break the Holy Spirit’s seal.
My Final Thoughts
Paul’s firmness with Corinth came from serving the Lord who had redeemed them. He confronted sin and sought restoration because he wanted these people to live faithfully together in Christ. The cross gives us no reason to boast in ourselves, while the resurrection gives us reason to continue serving. I want to receive correction in that spirit and offer repentant fellow believers the comfort Paul urged this church to give. Christ’s authority calls for both honesty about sin and love for the people He is restoring.