1 Corinthians 1:1-9 “This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true. Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The pastor at our church in Anaheim, California started a new sermon series on the the book of 1st Corinthians. An Apostle of Christ, Paul wrote the epistle of 1st Corinthians in the year of our Lord 55-56 A.D. (Anno Domini) to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people, yet the similarities are found in southern California today, unbelievably striking 2000 years apart, with rolling waves breaking on pristine sandy beaches, and beautiful mountains in the near distance. It’s a bustling shoreline with harbors and ports with the best of entertainment, sports venues and dining. They have both the nightlife and the day-life with near-perfect Mediterranean climate conditions year-round. It is a premier destination and dream dwelling place though densely populated. They were similar, not only in the lifestyles, but also in the issues that the Christian church was dealing with there.
The goddess Aphrodite was the protector deity of the city of Corinth. She had at least three sanctuaries in the city; the Aphrodite temple of Acrocorinth was the most famous one. The Apostle Paul writes the sexual immorality in their midst and is still prevalent in our culture today. It boils down to issues about the spiritual wisdom of God, the Cross and the sovereign principles of the kingdom of God verses the foolishness of the world in First Corinthians; with love being the most powerful influence that a Christian has on our culture. It was obvious that the church in Corinth was divided and fractured by personal preferences and individual interpretations. In Acts 18:1-17, Paul planted this church.
The phrase “holy by means of Christ Jesus, all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace” set the stage for the repentant “born again Believer"; regenerated, saved and reconciled by the Holy Spirit, transformed with a new heart that discerns godliness and righteousness walking in the Spirit, abandoning them sinful and dead desires of the natural fallen flesh and now desiring the things of the living God. Grace and peace references how Believers, then and now, feel about the reality of their faith in Christ.
In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said that the greatest Commandment of God was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” from Deuteronomy 6:5. The first of God’s Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Per the Westminster Confession of faith, the duties required in the first Commandment are: the knowing and acknowledgement of God to be the only true God and our God; and to worship and glorify Him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, [reverentially] fearing of Him, believing Him, trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in Him, being zealous for Him, calling upon Him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to Him with the whole man, being careful in all things to please Him, and sorrowful when in anything He is offended, and walking humbly with Him. Thy will, not my will be done.
Romans 7:23 “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind [the law of God], and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
In the fallen world, the carnal mind of sinful humans does not love God. The Law of sin and dead, unbelief and self, reign and rule as their pride takes over their mind, will and emotions saying, we do not see or feel ourselves as creations in of an almighty Creator in the cosmos and therefore not obligated to make our thoughts, words or behavior conform with a set preexisting cosmic rules. They say that it is their creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe in which we live, move and have our being. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever ... right up until Judgment Day. Sin is outright rebellion against God’s sovereign authority, reign and rule. This is not self-actualization; it’s blasphemous suicide unto eternal damnation because the wages of sin and unbelief is death. Recognition of the sinfulness of sin and who is ultimately sinned against, realization of the just and deserved consequences of willful sin, the guilt, shame and remorse for rebellious lawlessness toward the just and holy sovereign Creator of Heaven and Earth, and conviction of our wicked sin unto repentance that leads to seeking the Savior of the world for forgiveness, redemption and salvation in Divine conversion and transformation at the foot of the Cross by the grace of God.
Let’s continue this message in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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