1 Corinthians (Program #19) – Growth in Life Needed (2)

In first Corinthians the apostle Paul confronts the difficult situation in the church there in a very wise way. He first identifies that their problems would due primarily to a shortage of the growth in the divine life. Although they had received the initial gifts of the divine life and the Holy Spirit they were still infants or babes in Christ.

He then unveils to them the marvelous progression of God’s economy. First they need to realize that they are all plants growing on God’s farms. Then the goal is to be built up together into a building and finally that this building is destined to become God’s dwelling place, His temple.

How about you and me? Have we received such a vision, such a revelation or are we like the Corinthians satisfied to remain in our spiritual infancy and hang on to personal preferences in our own traditions?

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1 Corinthians (Program #18) – Growth in Life Needed (1)

In the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul stresses one thing, Christ. This is his wisdom in pointing the believers’ in these problems laden church to the one unique solution to all the problems in the Christian life and in the church life.

But in chapter three he turned his focus to the church. Writing about the church in a marvelous way without even ever using the term, church. In this book his speaking related to the church is not according to the doctrine and teaching regarding the church life but according to the life and the growth in life.

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1 Corinthians (Program #17) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (2)

The believers in Corinth in the early church were rich in many things. They have received the initial gifts of the divine life and the Holy Spirit. They were enriched in all knowledge and they even have many miraculous gifts in their midst.  Yet Paul referred to them as infants or babes in Christ. How could that be with all that God had given them?   Primarily is because they neglect the mater of life and growing spiritually in the divine life. So, the apostle Paul points out to them in clear types and pictures the importance and necessity of the divine life.

Listen again as his words are so full of references to life and growth:

3:5-9 “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to beach one of them. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.  So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.”

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1 Corinthians (Program #16) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (1)

The first two chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians are very rich in their presentation of Christ. Paul clearly was doing all he could to bring the troubled Corinthians to Christ in their experience.

But in Chapter three Paul turns his focus to the church. Though not in shallow or superficial language rather he speaks in marvelous profound expressions referring to the church in types.  First as a farm growing, producing a rich crop. Then as a building and ultimately as a temple, a divine dwelling place, build out of priceless materials such as gold, silver and precious stones. Of course these materials are not literally either but types of the transformation work that the Holy Spirit is engaged in with all of us, God’s redeemed.

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1 Corinthians (Program #15) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (3)

Only the spirit of man knows the things of a man. And only the Spirit of God knows the things of God.

This is our third program in a row on this critical matter of the spirit of man.

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1 Corinthians (Program #14) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (2)

The church of Corinth was a church full of problems, perhaps more so than any other church in the New Testament. Yet the apostle Paul reveal more of God’s purpose to that troubled church than to any other.

We are going to see some of the precious matters in 1 Corinthians that are contrasted by the apostle Paul against such negative as division, incest and immaturity.

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1 Corinthians (Program #13) – The Spirit of Man and the Spirit of God Knowing the Things of God (1)

How can we know God and how can we know man?   The Bible tells us is only by the Spirit. But what is that mean? 1 Corinthians 2:11 says

“For who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way, the things of God also no one has known except the Spirit of God.”

A very particular life study program related to the two Spirits.

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1 Corinthians (Program #12) – Communicating Spiritual Things by Spiritual Words

Radio is all about communications. But what kind of communications are you receiving on the radio?  1 Corinthian 2:13 “Which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things with spiritual words.”

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1 Corinthians (Program #11) – God’s Wisdom in a Mystery, Christ as the Deep Things of God

God’s wisdom is hidden in the mystery and that mystery is Christ as the deep things of God.

The subject of today’s life study is “God’s Wisdom in a Mystery, Christ as the Deep Things of God.”

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1 Corinthians (Program #10) – Christ Crucified, the Focus of the Apostle’s Ministry

In studying the Bible, it’s critical to gain a window into the mind and the Spirit of the writer. The apostle Paul no doubt consider his words very carefully as he addressed his highly educated and philosophically trained audience in the ancient city of Corinth as he prepared his epistle to them.

The gospel contains much that could stimulate and intrigue these learned men, but instead of appealing to their great intellect through philosophy, he purposely just took the opposite approach. He spoke clear simple words of the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross even the crucified Christ as the power of God. He didn’t go on to exalt us as well as the Corinthians believers not to trust or utilized man’s wisdom, philosophy or eloquent words to present this crucified Christ to others.  Why was Paul so insistent of taking this way? And what is the message to us in our own presentation Christ to others?

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