Paul’s closing comments to the Corinthian church are a bit of a mixed bag. In responding to those who seem to be swayed by the false teachers in their midst who have questioned Paul’s authority, he defends his apostleship in relating how God gave him a vision some fourteen years earlier, in which Paul was…
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What’s happening here is Paul is addressing the matter of a false preacher in their midst who had been saying that Paul was not who or what he said he was. And this false preacher was trying to bring false teaching into the church. Remember, the church was still very young. This was only a…
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Our first chapter today, Chapter 7, began with the word “Therefore”. In studying the Bible, it’s a good practice to, whenever you see that word, ask yourself, “What’s the therefore there for?” Let’s look again at the first sentence of the chapter. Paul writes, “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends…” What promises? We…
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Today I’m going to focus on the seventh verse, which just happens to consist of only seven words: We live by believing, not by seeing. You know, there comes a time in each person’s life where they just have to make a decision. Given the facts that can be known, and accepting that there are…
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In the beginning of chapter three, Paul talked about letters of reference. And then he said, “You yourselves are our letter.” What he was saying was that they were the evidence of his work. Nothing more was needed to validate what he was doing. What kind of monument do we build with the work we…
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Do you remember the first issue that Paul talked to the Corinthians about in the last letter? There was a man in the church who was in the midst of sexual sin. In fact, it was incest. He told them that they must discipline the person and not let the sin continue or condone it….
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As Paul closed his letter to the church in Corinth, he found several ways to gently try to move them in the direction of unity within their ranks. As he opened, he mentioned that they should give in the same way as he had encouraged the Galatian church to give, in a way challenging them…
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In this chapter Paul addressed the most important aspect of the Christian faith. Jesus was raised from the dead. All other major religions have a founder who is dead. But the tomb of Jesus is empty. The unthinkable happened. Jesus’ tomb only held its occupant for three days. The reason that this is important is…
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Here we are again discussing spiritual gifts. And, once again, we see that people haven’t changed much since Paul wrote these words. The Corinthians seem to be having disputes over what is the best spiritual gift to have, and it appears that speaking in other languages, or as we say today “speaking in tongues” is…
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Today we’ll read two of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. Of course, if you’ve been listening to the LSFB for long, you know that I have several favorite chapters, right? Let’s discuss both chapters just a little. In chapter 12, Paul is addressing another issue that is bringing this argumentative Corinthian church another…
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