First Day Patrick Cooley

Chapter Five (CSB)
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? 3 Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Paul begins this part of his letter expressing his disappointment in the Corinthians stubborn refusal to fully embrace a righteous life in Christ—as Paul had established in them when he laid the foundation. Perhaps these Gentile just prefer shoddy construction. But here, the congregation’s choice to approve sexually immoral behavior that sinks below even Roman sexual mores: in this case, a son having a sexual relationship with his stepmother, is simply too much for the apostle. In both Galatians 5:19 and 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Paul as already in his letters pointed out the porneia is incompatible with the righteousness that God demands. Here in Corinth it is a social issue that may even threaten the reputation of the Church if allowed to continue.
Paul would likely have in mind Leviticus 18:8, “You are not to have sex with your father’s wife; she is your father’s family.” (CSB) It was against Jewish and Roman law for a man to marry his step. The act is condemned in multiple places in the OT; Deuteronomy 28:20 is an example: “’The one who sleeps with his father’s wife is cursed, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed. And all the people will say, “Amen.”’” According to Leviticus 18:29 those guilty of the act are to be cut-off. 
This is the second time in as many chapters where Paul uses the word arrogant to describe the Corinthians. The first use is in 4:6 in reference to leaders in the congregation favoring some members over others. Also, it appears that they are adding stipulations and conditions to what they have received from Paul. “’Nothing beyond what is written.’” Maybe the Corinthians thought that they knew better—that this isn’t something that is all that bad (They’re both consenting adults.), or maybe they tolerated this because of who was doing it? Regardless, both possibilities arise from Paul’s concern that the Corinthians are refusing to sacrifice their old way of life for the one that they received in Jesus Christ. 
Paul has confidence that they know what must be done with the man because he is with them in spirit. He reminds them that they must cut the member off. “…hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The only hope that this man has to receiving salvation on the day of the Lord is for the congregation to remove him from their midst. 
R.F. Collins draws a parallel to Job’s dealings with Satan and his travails where Satan, “appears as an apocalyptic source of temptation, is God’s agent, not God’s enemy.” (Sacra Pagina, Vol. 7, 212) Acting as God’s agent, Satan’s impact on this man, Paul may believe, will force him to return to Christ’s righteousness. He isn’t suggesting that man’s physical body needs to be destroyed but, rather, the deeds and works of the flesh. Remember, Paul has already told the Corinthians that whatever house they build will have to stand the test. 
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 8 There

Chapter Four (CSB)1 A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. 2 In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful. 3 It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself. 4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.
Paul continues to address the Corinthians’ attempts to distinguish themselves form one another. He begins by declaring both Apollos and he are merely servants of Christ—subordinate to Him—and have been given the “mysteries of God” to share with others. Since they have been made stewards of the gospel they must remain faithful to it. Numbers 12:6-8a focus on one such steward.
“He said, ‘Now hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the form of the LORD.’” (New Jerusalem Version)
Moses receives from God because he faithful “in all [God’s] house.” His faith permits him a deep relationship with God and one that is uncluttered by riddles: God speaks to him plainly. Paul and Apollos get the straight dope from the LORD, and apostle wants the Corinthians to do the same. They struggle to understand the gospel because they are not deeply committed to God. This is why Paul has had to resort to feeding them only milk. They must grow in their faith, in their trust in the God. 
Paul then acts like most us when we hit our fifties and distinguishes himself from the Corinthians. In verse three he tells the congregation that he doesn’t care what they or any person or human authority thinks of him. Their opinion of him doesn’t matter to him. This is a product of faith. The stronger our trust in the LORD, the easier it is to disregard the negative impact that other people’s opinions have on us. The Corinthians care what others think—even their brothers and sisters in the church. Paul seeks no validation for the live of faith that he is building on the foundation of Christ. In fact he doesn’t even seek to validate himself. He just continues to build the strongest building that he can in the best way that he knows how. 
“4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.”
He doesn’t judge himself because even he may have some things in his heart that are so darkened that only Christ can reveal them. Here Paul is speaking about the motivations of the human heart. We really don’t know anyone’s true motivation for the things that they do and say—why they are building the house that they are. So often we jump to conclusions and assumptions that would be best if we ignored. Note that Paul is not contradicting the first three chapters by giving the Corinthians this command: to not prematurely judge because by their own admission they judge themselves and others by worldly standards to be better or worse They should know better based on what Paul taught them when he was with them. 
6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another. 7 For who makes you so

PART II (CSB)
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
Although in the preceding verses Paul is speaking to each Corinthian about being careful what is built on the foundation of faith that he established, here in sixteen Paul is referring to the whole church when he asks, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” A good way understand this shift between actors is to see each Corinthian as a subcontractor expected to contribute to the completion of the whole building project; this building is the temple of God. And this is probably why Paul pronounces dire consequences to anyone who would destroy the temple. 
The Greek word translated as destroy is phtheiro. It is used later in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians to mean ruin or the infliction of severe damage. By using it, Paul here is not referring to the annihilation or utter destruction. “If anyone ruins the temple, God will ruin that person.” It is important for the Corinthians to know why this is the case, “because the temple of God is holy, and that is what [they] are.” The lives that each of them are building merge to make one common life for the congregation, the temple of God. It must be holy, so its parts, too, must be holy. 
18 Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written: “He is the one who catches the wise by their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless.” 
He Paul reminds the Corinthians of what he told them already in this letter: that to keep one’s mind on earthly desires—to scheme—prevents a person from even the ability to understand who God is and what God wants. If they want to keep up the Corinthian practice of climbing to the top, they are in for a rude awakening. “…he must become foolish,” because Jesus’ life was foolish in everyone’s eyes. Paul says here that there is no middle ground: The world’s wisdom is foolishness to God, and God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world. I mean, what’s more foolish than turning the other cheek?
21 So then, no one is to be boasting in people. For all things belong to you,22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Finally, Paul tells the Corinthians if they don’t want to be deceived, they must keep the proper perspective. They are “boasting in people” because they believe that is way you receive. None of these things: Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, and the future are important: only Christ is. Those who focus on Paul believe that they are the only ones who will receive, while those who focus on Apollos believe likewise about themselves. To give ourselves over to any one of these perspectives or realities thinking that by doing so we might gain the world is wrong. 
Paul tells the Corinthians that their efforts to differentiate themselves from one another is a waste of time since “all thing belong” to the Paul faction, the Peter faction, etc. Who makes them who they are, who gives them “all things” are none of the these things, no worldly leader or idea. Everything belongs to all of you, not matter if you think your party is the first and best one, Paul says, because you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God—who owns everything. So by grounding their identity people other than Christ and building their lives and actions around anything other than the gospel that Paul had implanted in them, the Corinthians were risking everything. 

PART I (CSB)
1 And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? 4 For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people?
What was that I said in the last episode about how we Western Christians look to Christians from other parts of the world? 
In the preceding chapter, Paul informs the Corinthians that it is only through God’s Spirit that people can discern wisdom—that they can know the truth. He tells them that this understanding is given to the spiritually mature believer. Now he begins chapter three by informing the Corinthians that they are not mature and have not been given the ability to discern all things. And why is this? Because they haven’t remained in the Spirit; they have taken their hearts off Christ and placed it on the things of the world, the stuff of their old lives. What you focus on—what is most important to you—shapes your life; so by focusing on fleshly things, on the wisdom, ways, and desires of the world, the Corinthians are living their lives just like everyone else, like “ordinary people.” Because of this, Paul calls them children. And the first proofs of this immaturity are the jealousy and strife separating the congregation. So Paul gave them “milk to drink, not solid food; [why} for you were not yet able to consume it.” Even from the start, the Corinthians were of two minds; one was upon God in Christ Jesus and the other was on the lives they lived before hearing the words Jesus Christ. Sadly, even though some time has passed they are still unable to eat real food. (Perhaps all they had was a faith of platitudes and maxims.) 
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
The divisions that the Corinthians are using to distinguish themselves one from the other are evocative of something that we will soon see in chapter nine of the gospel of Mark when the disciples argue among themselves about which of them is the greatest. We hear Paul’s “Oy vey” in verses 5-9. I picture it, like Jesus’ response to His disciples in Mark, accompanied by an eyeroll. The Corinthians are placing great emphasis on who has baptized them into the church as a means of claiming higher social standing—again, a practice de rigueur for their city. The apostle tells the congregation that this should not be, that he and Apollos, though called to differing tasks, are merely servants to the same God: Paul was sent to establish their church and Apollos to sustain it. As far as Paul is concerned, both men are the instruments through whom God is building His Church. So although they both have different purposes, they work together as one. What good is it to plant if there is no water to sustain it? And without plant, aren’t you just wasting water? 
Apollo was a contemporary of Paul’s, a fellow Jewish Christian who hailed from Alexandria who played a part in establishing the church here in Corinth as well as in Ephesus. Some believe that he had a unique way of speaking that set him apart from Paul. This seems reasonable to me since, being from Egypt, he would have likely been exposed to Philo. Some scholars even think that he was the author of the letter to the Hebrews—ev

Chapter Two (CSB)
In chapter one we learn that the Corinthians, despite the odds, had come to believe the gospel that Paul preached to them. After he assures them of God’s ongoing faithfulness to keep the church “blameless until the end”, Paul brings up the first problem that we was told the Corinthian congregation is facing: Its members have become balkanized, indicating to Paul that the cultural tendencies of the city—and Rome—are beginning to hold sway over the peoples’ hearts. They’ve started doing what they know by jockeying for position. 
Paul reminds them at the close of the chapter that the gospel they heard and accepted is unlike anything that had known before. It not only offers them a new way of living but also a salvation that they would never be able to achieve though any effort—neither as a patron or a client. The gospel brought them life and a purpose not through strength or wealth or social standing or political influence but though self-sacrifice, weakness, service, and trust. In fact, Paul says, I didn’t even bring you this gospel in the ordinary, expected way. He carries this thought into chapter two. 
1 And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I also was with you in weakness and fear, and in great trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of mankind, but on the power of God.
How unlike the usual way of doing things. Paul’s gospel is not what anyone expected! As he writes in chapter one, “…God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong…” The Corinthians would have had frequent contact with orators who would make their living moving their listener’s minds and hearts. In fact, they would charge admission for those wanting to hear their rhetoric. Paul’s message, on the other hand, was offered without charge. Based on his description he would have likely had to pay them to get the Corinthians to listen. So not only is the message foolishness by the world’s estimation but so is the delivery. The very fact that the Corinthians did listen may well indicate the divine hand at work. 
In verse two Paul provides his motivation for sharing the gospel in Corinth. He “determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” This is his rationale for not making his message eloquent as someone with “superior…speaking ability or wisdom” would. Paul removes himself from the equation so that the gospel message of the cross can be heard clearly. How different would the Church be today if its messengers would take this practice to heart? This is not unlike a message that he shared with the Galatians when he reminded them that he did not share the gospel with them to have them like him but did so only for the sake of obedience to his calling. 
What’s more, if Paul could remove his influence on the message, then when the message takes root and produces fruit, he would be able to see the result of Christ’s work clearly and the Corinthians would know that they were in the presence of God’s Spirit and power. 
I remember a time when news reports did just this—reported the news with no editorializing or attempts to influence. And in a way, Paul’s m.o. makes even more sense when we, again, consider the world in which the members of this congregation have been raised in and live: patrons and clients peddling themselves for their own advantage and nothing being given to others without a selfish motive. On the contrary, Paul’s message to the Corinthians was given for its own sake and nothing more! Shouldn’t that be

PART II (CSB)
Now that Paul has reminded the Corinthians of the fact of their calling and that God has and is keeping them safe and has provided them with the spiritual gifts necessary to prove His divine presence in their lives, here in chapter one verse ten the apostle jumps headlong into addressing issues facing the congregation—most of which are ones that their forgetfulness and pride have helped to cause. 
Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians because they were willfully laying aside the gospel of Christ’s faithfulness in order to take up the practices of the law of Moses, in spite of the effort that Paul has put in to plant the church. To put this another way, the Galatians are abandoning salvation through faith. His letters to the Thessalonians were to help them remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ while being surrounded by other religions and people telling them to abandon their faith. 
Here, Paul is writing to the Corinthians to tell them to get their acts together—to pay attention to what they are doing to and how they are treating one another. We see this from the very beginning:
“10 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers and sisters, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one would say you were baptized in my name! 16 But I did baptize the household of Stephanas also; beyond that, I do not know if I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made of no effect.”
I guess that there is nothing new under the sun. Paul doesn’t make this a command; he doesn’t tell the Corinthians that the only allowable response are the words, “How high?” The apostle appeals to them by the authority that has been given to him by Jesus to choose to be of one mind and seeking a common goal. 
We discover that Paul is aware of the situation because of a report from “Chloe’s people.” The Corinthian congregation has become divided into factions that are based upon the person who performed any particular baptism. Paul tells the church that these divisions are dangerous because they will result in “the cross of Christ [being] made of no effect.” And indeed, this is the same risk we face even today. 
But what’s the big deal about caring who baptizes someone? I mean who wouldn’t want to be baptized by Billy Graham? Well, I guess Paul, because for him the importance of the act itself—and by extension who performs it—isn’t nearly as important as what results from it: unity of—or being made completer in—mind and judgement. This unity is key to the Corinthians’ ability to remain faithful to the life of Christ Jesus. 
Hear me out. 
Paul wrote to the Galatians that his life was no longer his. He had died with Jesus on the cross, had been buried with Him in the tomb, and had risen with Him on the third day. “I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” In short order, Paul will pen his letter to the Romans in which he will expend plentiful, expensive ink explaining to a factioned church the purpose of Christ’s cross—that is: Jesus died to overcome death which had entered the world because of Adam’s pride. 
The First Man sin was that he made life about himself, about his identity, wants, and needs; it was no longer about the Creator and source of life. The Roman church will d