Paul has some interesting terminology here that is not at once apparent in our English translations but is more so in Greek and probably in the Hebrew terms that stand behind it. Paul says that he delivered to the Christians in Corinth that which he had received. Those two terms, “delivering” and
1 Corinthians 15 is the most comprehensive chapter in the New Testament on the resurrection. It joins Hebrews 11, which is the great chapter on faith, and 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. There are many other great chapters in the Bible, of course. But I think of those three together
Finally, Paul talks also of the benefit of this for unbelievers. It is interesting how he does it. He begins to talk about it in verse 22, saying that tongues are signs, not for believers, but for unbelievers; while prophecy is for believers, and not for unbelievers. What he means by that is that
Paul says that if you are really thinking about other people, if you are really concerned about them, and if you are beginning to exercise the kind of love about which he spoke in the thirteenth chapter, you will recognize that people are hurting. So in your worship services you will not be trying
As he talks about prophecy here, he does so in three areas. Prophecy is better than speaking in tongues for the church, the individual, and for the sake of unbelievers. In the first place Paul says that prophecy in this sense, that is, communicating the Word of God in a clear and applicable way is
Finally, at the very end of the chapter he gives this principle where he tells the Corinthians to “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (v. 39). You see, when you speak about all these difficulties or dangers in the practice of the gift, it might be our tendency to say, “Wel
Every part of the Bible is relevant and is helpful for us in any time of history or any period of our lives. But it is true that some parts speak to contemporary problems more than others. I suppose in some ways this fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that we come to now is one of those parts. R
That leads to our last point, which is where Paul himself is going. He has talked about the importance of love and the nature of love. And if we really understand these two things, it follows that love never fails. All these other things he mentions are going to fail. Prophecies will cease. Ton
In addition to knowing people who are patient and kind, there are also those who do not envy, those who do not boast, and those who are not proud. But the difficulty, you see, is in getting all of these things together. I know people who are patient, but they do not persevere. Or there are people w
The apostle John wrote his first epistle to reassure people who want to know they are saved. He gave them three tests by which they could know they were Christians. The first was to believe the right things about Christ, because if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, you
It is not a hard chapter to analyze. I think it is a hard chapter to preach on simply because it is so profound. There is a preface in the New International Version, which is carried over from the last chapter and printed properly with this one. Paul says, “Now I am going to show you a more excel
Sometime during the last half of the nineteenth century, a Scottish author and evangelist by the name of Henry Drummond wrote a classic sermon called “The Greatest Thing in the World.” It was about love and was based on 1 Corinthians 13, which is certainly viewed as one of the greatest chapters in
Let me tell you about the most unattractive body part I ever saw. I explain first that it was not a human body part. My wife and I were in France years ago, and it was one of our first visits. We were in Paris and had been there just a few days. We wanted to eat dinner, and we found a little res
Now in the next part Paul gives a great illustration of this unity with diversity. It is the illustration of the body and its many parts. He really develops this at length. I think the reason is that at this point in the context of this illustration, he introduces an idea which was not quite so ob
One of the problems we have with spiritual gifts is that when we have a spiritual gift, we naturally think that our spiritual gift is the primary one. You can get famous writing a book about your spiritual gift. Preachers do it all the time. They get something going in their church that flows from
As we look at chapters 12 through 14, if we approach them with the idea that what Paul is dealing with here is chiefly, or perhaps exclusively, the matter of speaking in tongues, what we are going to do is miss something which really should apply to every one of us. It may be that someone here or t
When we come to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we are beginning a section of this book that most people know about because chapters 12, 13, and 14 deal with this matter of tongues. In many people’s minds this is the chief question in 1 Corinthians. Now, a lot of people do not like tongues. W
Just as the man mentioned in yesterday’s devotional became a Christian by observing Christians taking communion, something like that also happened at Tenth Presbyterian Church before I was pastor. There was a man who was sitting in the back corner of the church in one of the communion services. He
The fourth view is that of John Calvin, who took something of a middle position between that of Luther and Zwingli. Calvin argued that Christ is present in the communion service, but not physically. In that respect, Calvin thought Zwingli was right. The body of Jesus is in heaven, where He has as
It is a great shame that the Lord's Supper and our interpretation of it have become such a cause of division within the Christian Church. The chief cause of trouble here is the Lord's statement that the bread is His body. There are four major ways in which this has been interpreted.It is a great s
Another problem, which is closely wrapped up with the first and seems to be Paul’s major concern, is that by conducting themselves in that manner they were actually producing divisions among themselves in the very midst of the observance that was supposed to indicate that the church, in all of its d
One of the wonderful things about the sacraments and ceremonies of the Christian Church is that when they are practiced properly, they recognize the equality of all men and women before God. None of us comes with any special privilege, but rather we all come as sinners in need of the grace of God,
Jesus spoke of Himself as the one who gives freedom, and it is the freedom that comes in the Gospel, of which we read in the written Word of God. As Jesus said in John 8, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (v. 32). The truth of God is what we find in passages like thes
As Paul moves from the end of chapter 10 to the beginning of chapter 11, we see how the theme of freedom continues with regard to how men and women relate within the church of Jesus Christ and also in marriage. Although Paul is certainly responding to concerns that had been brought to him by the Ch
