An In-depth Study of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Unit 1 An Introduction
Unit 2 Opening Arguments against Factionalism
Unit 3 Thanksgiving for God's Gracious Gifts
Unit 4 The Appeal to Unity in Jesus Christ
Unit 5 An Excursis on Denominationalism
Unit 6 A Theology of Weakness
Unit 7 The Hidden Wisdom of God
Unit 8 Liberty, License, and Church
Discipline
Unit 9 Headship and Head Coverings
Unit 10 Spiritual Gifts
Unit 11 The Resurrection of the Dead - Foundation of the
Gospel
Unit 12 Baptism for the Dead and Concluding
Remarks
“WE ARE NOT OUR OWN”
An In-depth Study of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Unit 1: An Introduction to I Corinthians
At the out-set of this study, let me acknowledge that one of my primary resources to the composition of this study is Dr. Gregory J. Lockwood’s fine commentary on I Corinthians, from the Concordia Commentary Series from our Concordia Publishing House. Much of what we will discuss will be based on his work as well as that of others, as we examine the letter of St. Paul to a troubled congregation experiencing many of the same influences that our congregation’s today also face.
I. A VERY PERSONAL LETTER THAT MIGHT JUST AS WELL BEEN WRITTEN TO OUR CONGREGATION TODAY!
A. Corinthian society at the time of Paul’s writings was very much like our own:
1. It was a prosperous culture and society.
a. It’s geographic location placed it in a good position to be a city of trade and commerce.
b. It had a population of 100,000, the largest city in Greece at the time.
c. Corinth was a regional seat of Roman Government with many public buildings and the employment that came with being a capital of a Roman senatorial province.
2. Corinth was a culture and a city of infamous moral decadence.
a. Aristophanes had coined the phrase, “To live like a Corinthian” which was to describe, in a negative fashion, a fornicator.
b. Geographer Strabo claimed that 1,000 temple prostitutes were employed at the temple of Aphrodite.
c. Aristeides, (an author of the 2nd Century), wrote:
“Clearly, her beauties, her passions, and her erotic pleasures attract many, as all are bound by pleasure, and all alike are kindled by her to find love, passion, companionship, and allurements. She beguiles their spirit and the wits from them…with the enchantments of the goddess (Aphrodite), for clearly this is Aphrodite’s city.”
3. Corinth was a culture and a city of great religious pluralism:
a. Not only was she a city renowned for sexual promiscuity, she was also known for her religious promiscuity.
b. Corinth was often described as a “very religious” city, hosting sanctuaries and statures honoring Apollo, “Black Aphrodite”, Athena, Zeus, Poseidon (Neptune), Tyche, the healing god Asklepios, Demeter and Kore, Dionysus, the Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis, and, of course, the imperial cult.
c. In the midst of all this religious tolerance, the Corinthian Christians found it difficult to adjust to the exclusive claims of their new faith and were tempted to lapse into syncretism.
4. Corinth was heavily influenced by philosophies centered on the importance of self-centered individualism and self-indulgence.
a. Epicureanism: A prevalent philosophy which encouraged the pursuit of pleasure and tranquility, the avoidance of pain, and especially the fear of death, claiming that death need not be feared because it simply meant that one ceases to exist.
b. Stoicism: Stoics taught that humans could achieve freedom and autonomy by living in a rational manner consistent with the nature of the universe greatly prizing self-sufficiency, and autonomous individualism.
B. Does all this sound familiar?
1. Are we not a society which is economically prosperous with all the blessings and spiritual challenges that come with prosperity?
2. Are we not also a society who moral decay is more than a bit evident to all?
a. Do we not tolerate language and behavior in public forums that would have been totally condemned only 40 years ago?
b. Is not the divine institution of holy marriage not completely misunderstood, seen as a product of man’s origin and therefore subject to change by means of whatever norms are currently prevalent?
c. Is it not true that pornography is more available, growing worse and worse in its content and is frequently defended as virtuous under our society’s view of “freedom of speech”?
3. Hasn’t our tolerance of all religious thought rivaled that of the Corinthians?
a. We have “temples” for Christians, Muslims, Jews, Universalists, Satanists, Athiests, Agnostics, Buddhists, Shintoists, Taoists, Janes, Hindus, Pagans, Druids, New Age religions, and many, many more.
b. Have we not gone beyond accepting that all people have a right to believe what they please (Freedom of Religion) to insisting that all religious ideas must be tolerated as equally viable and that not to do so is to be a religious “bigot”?
4. Is it not also true for us that our society is heavily influenced by philosophies centered on the importance of self-centered individualism and self-indulgence?
a. Stoicism and Epicureanism still hold sway in our own culture.
b. This is strongly a part of our Post-Modern view of life:
c. At many a high school graduation Stoic philosophy is often heard in the recitation of “Invictus” by W.E. Henle
Out of the night that
covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
B. Surely, as St. Paul writes to the Corinthian congregation, he is also writing to us in our own cultural situation today!
II. THE CORINTHIAN QUEST FOR SPIRITUAL POWER.
A. Whether is manifested itself in the manipulation of gods, the pursuit of pleasure or self-sufficiency through philosophy, or of personal acclaim through rhetoric and secular status symbols, Corinthian society – like ours – was characterized by the feverish quest for power.
1. To the Corinthians, the gift of the Spirit offered by the Christian faith was easily misconstrued, in the sense of pagan enthusiasm, as the offer of personal spiritual power.
a. To the pagan Greeks and Stoics, the “spirit” was a divine or cosmic force inspiring and infilling certain persons.
b. This “inspiring spirit” was perceived as “full of god”, and in this heightened emotional state of ecstasy, he was pulled along by the “spirit” and would give vent to ecstatic and prophetic utterances.
c. The infilling with the “spirit” was perceived as liberating the person, making him or her “a winged and light being” who is caught up “out of the usual orders of life.” (This is pure Platonic philosophy.)
2. By contrast, the New Testament never suggests that the gift of the Spirit is given to satisfy anyone’s personal quest to become a “winged and light being” so powerfully possessed by God as to be beyond life’s normal misfortunes.
a. Instead, the true Spirit is never to be cut loose from the Jesus who died on the cross, in fact, the only “job description” of the Holy Spirit is to point to the crucified and risen One!
b. The Christ the Spirit points to us the one crucified in “weakness”, and His
people also struggle in our weaknesses under the shadow of the cross.
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“WE ARE NOT OUR OWN”
An In-depth Study of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Unit 2: Opening Arguments Against Factionalism
I. THE APPEAL TO APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY: WHY SHOULD THEY LISTEN TO PAUL?
A. In the midst of disunity and differences of opinion about theology, the temptations of prosperity and moral decadence, religious pluralism, and competing philosophies, why should the Corinthians give Paul a hearing?
1. After all aren’t the differences in theology just a matter of interpretation?
2. Isn’t the matter of one’s personal moral life their own business?
3. And doesn’t everyone have their own personal philosophy that shouldn’t be anyone else’s business but their own?
4. In our own quest for spiritual power, can’t we be our own final authority?
B. In the very first verse of I Corinthians, Paul has carefully designed every detail of his case for an authority outside of the individual: ( v. 1)
1. To a congregation in which everyone is doing “their own thing”, Paul proclaims that he is doing God’s “thing”, not his own.
a. He did not appoint himself…God called him to be an apostle.
b. He is therefore, God’s appointed envoy to the Corinthians.
2. Therefore, no one in the congregation could lay claim, “I belong to Appollos,” or “I belong to Cephas” (1:12), it this meant he would have nothing to do with Paul!
C. While Paul saw himself as the least of the apostles, this does not stop him from asserting his apostolic credentials.
1. He had seen the risen Lord. (9:1)
2. The Lord had designated Paul as His chosen vessel to be the apostle to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:15, Rom. 11:13)…Including Corinth.
3. Paul disdained any notion that he should create a “Paul faction” within the Corinthian congregation.
4. His aim was to establish that authority never comes from within any person, but always comes from outside a person, from God…and he is the prime example.
D. Paul is here to redirect attention away from factions toward Jesus Christ.
1. There is no coincidence that Christ is mentioned ten times in the first ten verses of the Epistle!
2. Despite Paul’s standing as a called apostle, he never operated in a solo ministry.
a. At times Paul was associated with Mark, Barnabus, Silas and Timothy.
b. Here he notes that his partner in ministry is Sosthenes.
3. Sosthenes is probably the same Sosthenes who had been serving as synagogue ruler during Paul’s first visit to Corinth. He had been beaten by the Jews in front of Gallio’s tribunal. (Acts 18:17)
a. It is possible that Sosthenes served as St. Paul’s “secretary”, actually penning the words of I Corinthians under the direct supervision of the apostle.
b. Paul is still the primary human author while the ultimate author is God, whose Spirit inspired the writing of all Scripture. (II Tim. 3:16, II Peter 1:21)
c. The exact method and circumstances of the human authors in no way compromises the divine authorship of the Scriptures.
II. THE CHURCH IS GOD’S CHURCH AND BELONGS TO NO MAN. (V. 2)
A. Paul’s address to the Corinthian congregation drives home the point, “To the church of God in Corinth.”
1. The congregation does not belong to Paul, Appollos, or Cephas…it belongs alone to God!
a. Paul is trying hard to lift the sights of the Corinthians above any limited conceptions of the church as a merely human institution, or an arena for human power plays…for the church is a divine institution.
b. Here’s the vision for the church:
1.) “…sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…”
2.) “One with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours.”
2. Taken together with verse 1, we see the church: “…one holy catholic and apostolic church (Nicene Creed), of which the church in Corinth …and in Pagosa Springs…is a manifestation!
a. No congregation is an island unto itself, we are always a part of the larger context of the universal church.
b. Many are the individuals who see themselves as not needing the church at all, in fact, they frequently view the church as a corrupt place and will not be a part of it. What’s wrong with this picture?
c. Many are the congregations that see themselves as islands unto themselves who often view other congregations as inferior to them and the church at large as corrupt and unwise. What’s wrong with this picture?
B. Again and again Paul reminds the Corinthian congregation that they are not their own, but are connected together with all in the congregation and all beyond the congregation who, “…call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours…”
1. This is but the beginning of a theme that will be oft repeated by Paul…they are a part of the body of Christ, and cannot consider themselves separately from other Christians either in Corinth or throughout the world!
2. This unity is multi-faceted:
a. It is unity in doctrine.
b. It is unity in moral conduct.
c. It is unity in our mutual salvation through Christ Jesus.
d. It is unity at the Lord’s Table.
e. It is unity in the midst of a diversity of God-given gifts, talents, skills, and abilities.
f. It is unity in purpose: To build up the body of Christ!
III. GOD GRACIOUSLY CONFERS HIS MANY GIFTS ON THE CHURCH. (V. 3)
A. Grace:
1. The highest blessing and gift from God, His free favor and forgiveness to an undeserving people.
a. Grace is the state of being reconciled to God. (Rom. 5:1-11)
b. Having received grace, God’s people are to live in a forgiving manner with their fellow members of the household of faith.
2. Grace, then, becomes the source of the next gift…peace.
B Peace:
1. Peace is the state of living in the reconciliation with God.
a. How very sorely does the strife-torn Corinthian congregation need this blessing of peace!
b. Every congregation that has endured a period of such strife, knows the value of such peace
2. Often God’s peace also bears fruit in a sense of inner peace, though this feeling” is not essential.
3. The objective condition of a peaceful relationship with God through Jesus Christ is paramount in Paul’s concept of “peace”. (Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:14-18)
“WE ARE NOT OUR OWN”
An In-depth Study of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Unit 3: Thanksgiving for God’s Gracious Gifts (1:4-9)
I. THE IRONY OF GIVING THANKS FOR THE VERY BLESSINGS THAT ARE BEING ABUSED BY THE CORINTHIAN CONGREGATION.
A. An attitude of individual possession of the blessings received by individual’s in the Corinthian congregation is being contrasted by the apostle Paul with an attitude of thanksgiving for the very same blessings they have received.
1. Is it not always true that whatever blessings we may receive may be used well with a thankful heart, or abused with a self-centered ideas that such blessing belong to us and are for us.
a. This potential abuse of blessings does not in any way say that there is something wrong with the blessings we have received, but rather that we have abused those very same blessings.
b. Therefore, Paul begins by saying how thankful he is that the Corinthian Christians have received so very much from the hand of God. (v. 4)
2. Then notice the description of the blessings for which Paul gives thanks:
a. The blessings of speech: Speaking in unlearned languages.
b. The blessings of knowledge: Interpretation of languages, prophesy, discerning of prophesy, teaching, composing of hymns, eloquent speech.
B. The nature of these gifts:
1. The gift of speech flowed from the gift of their God-given knowledge.
a. This knowledge was comprehensive including their understanding of the wisdom of the cross, their appreciation of all God’s gifts, their ability to exercise spiritual judgment, and the specific gift of prophetic knowledge. (2:6-16; 13:2; 14:6)
b. This same thought is echoed in Romans 10:9.
2. Paul makes certain to point to the source of these blessings…God.
a. This is the viewpoint essential to Christian living.
b. If we have blessings, then they are on loan from God.
3. In the Greek, all of these gifts have a specific name: karismata or karismata or charismatic gifts.
a. This is a critical word in understanding Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.
b. This word means, “spiritual gift” or simply “gift”, but since it comes from the Greek root word, karis (grace) would add to the meaning by insisting that a more complete translation would be, “gift of grace” or “gracious gift”.
c. Paul employs this very special and specialized word to describe:
1.) The whole gift of salvation (Rom. 5:15; 6:23)
2.) Specific gifts and mercies given to Christian people which would include those (but not only) of prophecy, tongues, or healing (I Cor. 12-14).
3.) Additionally this word describes less spectacular gifts like an encouraging message (Rom. 1:11), or a special blessing or favor (II Cor. 1:11)
4.) The very same word also describes the gift necessary for the work of pastoral ministry. (I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:16)
5.) This word even describes the gift of grace to live as a celibate or as a married person. (I Cor 7:7)
C. Part of the problem in Corinth is that some in the congregation were letting the gifts they had received go to their heads as though they had acquired them through their own efforts or brilliance.
1. Have any of us ever seen that phenomena occur in our own congregations?
2. What Paul is doing right from the beginning is praising God for the Corinthian’s giftedness in “all speech and knowledge”.
3. Additionally, he is signaling that these gifts (speech and knowledge) will be receiving special attention in his epistle to them.
4. Throughout the epistle everything Paul says will be aimed at correcting distortions and developing the right understanding of Christian speech and knowledge.
II. THE GIFT OF FAITH BRINGS SPIRITUAL GIFTS FOR THE CHURCH…NOT FOR OURSELVES.
A. The gracious gift of faith, (karisma) (1:7), is the original gift from which flows the additional blessings of God which are also His gifts.
1. This gift of faith originated with the apostolic testimony giving witness to Christ crucified and risen.
a. This is a means through which faith happens: The proclamation of the Gospel bring conversion.
b. This is explicitly not of human will or cooperation of human will. (Eph. 2:8-9)
2. From this gracious, charismatic gift of faith, all other blessings flow and serve as confirmation of the first gift. (v. 6)
a. Unbelievers, therefore, cannot exhibit any gift that would edify or build up the Church in a spiritual way.
b. Unbelievers can bless the Church materially, but never spiritually.
B. God, through the giving of charismatic gifts, does provide to the congregation every needed gift.
1. No congregation can say that God has failed to provide anything for the accomplishment of her mission.
a. Here is a “guarantee” of sufficiency for the congregational family.
b. What can go wrong is the failure of individuals in the congregation to employ their gifts for the benefit of the whole, but reserve such gifts for self-edification.
c. To deny such provision to the congregation is to consider the blessings of God to be for our own use, rather than recognize the reality that we are not our own.
1.) This happens when people just want to be “spectator” members in a congregation…result: gifts denied to the Body.
2.) This happens when people fail to adequately provide from the financial gifts God gave them to finance the work of the congregation…result: gifts denied to the Body.
3.) This happens when individuals refuse to serve as officers or board members of a congregation…result: gifts denied to the Body.
4.) This happens when people refuse to serve as Sunday School teachers when they are gifted to do so…result: gifts denied to the Body.
5.) This happens when people refuse to sign up to care for others, refuse to take their turn to clean the church, refuse to come to congregational social events, etc…result: gifts are denied to the Body.
2. Fundamentally, such failure to acknowledge that we are not our own, is to misunderstand the nature of God’s congregation’s…they are one Body, not a collection of individuals!
a. The God-given nature of the congregation is CORPORATE, not individual!
b. Essentially, our very giftedness lulls us into spiritual complacency and spiritual self-centeredness.
c. Like the Corinthians we can succumb to the self-centered intoxication with our own gifts, so that Paul must say to them and to us, “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings – and that without us!”
3. They’ve lost touch with the eager anticipation of Christ’s second coming. (v. 7)
a. Such gifts as have been received are but a mere “down payment” of a much greater inheritance to come!
b. How often are we preoccupied with the present age and its gifts?
c. Is it not critical to keep a proper “apocalyptic” perspective so that all our lives are lived in the shadow of eternity?
III. OUR FAITHFUL GOD CALLS INTO AN ETERNAL FELLOWSHIP OF HIS CHURCH.
A. In contemplating the Second Coming and our readiness for that cataclysmic day Paul offers the comfort of knowing that in God we find both our strength and our blamelessness.
1. Not that we are morally perfect, (we all know better than that!), but our hope is in knowing that no charges can be preferred against us. (Rom. 8:33)
2. The reason for this assurance is not found in us, but in the death and resurrection of Christ, and the righteousness He gives to us as one of His gracious, charismatic gifts. (I Cor. 1:30)
B. The reason for our hope in Christ is the promises of God connected with His Son.
1. God is always faithful to keep His every promise and cannot lie. (Titus 1:2)
2. For this reason, we are confident that our place in heaven’s eternal fellowship is assured.
C. This eternal fellowship (koinwnia) is not merely for the future in heaven, but for here and now!
1. Koinonia also carries far more freight than merely “fellowship”. It is the communion of those who hold the holy things in common and expresses an actual participation together in Christ Jesus.
2. Koinonia expresses a union together in Christ beginning at our baptism into His Body, so that our bodies are now in a mysterious way members of His Body (6:15; 12:13)
3. This deep communion/participation was constantly nourished by the Gospel and Christ’s true body and blood in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. (9:23; 10:16)
D. From the very outset of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he is reminding us t hat their “communion” (koinwnia) in Christ rules out all factionalism and individualism (1:10-11).
1. Paul would have no time for the modern attitude that, “my Christianity is something between me and my God.”
2. The apostles would never stand for such sentiments as, “That’s your interpretation, but I see it differently.”
3. He would not have patience with those who would strive against each other with respect to worship but would expect all to worship exactly alike and in harmony with each other.
4. He would completely insist that in our koinonia together, there would be no sense of division or of doing our “own thing”.
“WE ARE NOT OUR OWN”
An In-depth Study of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Unit 4: The Appeal to Unity in Christ Jesus
I. THE FIRST BIG ISSUE DIVIDING THE CORINTHIAN CONGREGATION WAS DISUNITY.
A. In Corinth the congregation had become divided into different parties with vocal loyalty to the particular “party” each one belonged to.
1. First, there was the Paul party.
2. Second, the Apollos party.
3. Third, the Cephas (or Peter) party.
4. Fourth, the Christ party.
B. How did this come to be?
1. The Paul Party:
a. Since Paul was the founding “father” of the congregation, it seems that some in Corinth determined that they were “honoring” Paul and his one and a half year long labor among them by elevating Paul above the others.
b. It seems, however, that the Paul-people are not motivated by concern for the truth of the Gospel, but by their own selfish purposes.
c. They are putting themselves on a “pedestal” with Paul as being superior to the other groups of people and their leaders.
2. The Apollos Party:
a. Apollos was a gifted and eloquent Alexandrian who came to Corinth and assisted the congregation to grow in the faith they had received by the grace of God.
b. There are only positive things accorded to Apollos and it would seem completely incongruous of Apollos to have advanced himself as a “leader” in the parish. (Acts 18:27, I Cor. 3:6)
c. He was, however, quite a charismatic speaker as opposed to the more plain-spoken Paul and for that reason may have been elevated by others to a pedestal as had Paul.
3. The Cephas (Peter) Party:
a. The Peter party is a bit puzzling to account for.
b. It is possible that Peter may have made a personal visit to Corinth accompanied by his wife (I Cor. 9:5)
c. There was also a contingent of Corinthians who were Jewish and could have been baptized by Peter.
d. However, there is not even a tiny hint (as some theologians have suggested), that the Cephas group was a Judaizing faction within the congregation.
4. Finally, there is the Christ party:
a. What seems clear is that the Christ party was simply reacting against the other three parties.
b. While not advocating a particular doctrine at variance with the others, they may have been people who proclaimed themselves to be weary of the bickering, and saying in a superior fashion, “..a pox on all your houses.”
c. What does seem certain is that the “Christ” faction had a critical attitude toward their faithful pastors and therefore saw themselves as a particularly “spiritual” group, claiming to have direct access to Christ apart from humanly mediated tradition..
d. In their pride they seemed particularly prone to a “theology of glory” in which there was little room for the crucified Christ and cruciform pastors.
e. But one cannot belong to Christ while rejecting the apostolic ministry instituted by God Himself.
C. Listen to the strong direction Paul gives to this divided congregation:
1. “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (v. 10)
a. In our day and age of pluralistic theology and religion this sounds like a “pipe dream”.
1.) “All should agree with one another? Come now!”
2.) “No divisions? That just can’t be achieved!”
3.) “Perfectly united? Get real!”
b. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod has been echoing Paul’s cry for over 150 years, and many choose to scoff at the idea!
2. What seems clear is that parties among the Corinthian congregation , proud of their intellectual ability, delighted in debating with one another, taking a variety of positions on issues like sexuality and marriage, food laws, spiritual gifts, and the role of women in worship.
a. Paul’s exhortation to them to agree with one another is literally, “to say the same thing.”
b. Saying the same thing is not at all saying just believe what you like and get along. (Rom. 15:6, Eph. 4:3, Jn. 17:17-21)
c. The doctrine of the Church is not flexible, but set in stone.
1.) The word “divisions” in the Greek is schisma, and means to “tear a garment”
2.) To rend the perfect garment of doctrine is to divide the Church.
d. There is not even the slightest hint here that we can continue in our different doctrines and just “get along”.
3. The apostolic urgency here is to restore to its former condition the congregations view on all of the disputed doctrines...why? Because Christ and His Church cannot be divided!
II. TO UNDERSCORE THE REASON FOR DOCTRINAL UNITY AND MORAL UNITY SAINT PAUL ASKS THREE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS:
A. Is Christ divided? NO!
1. The very notion that anything could possible be a disunity in the person of Christ is a complete absurdity.
2. Could it even be conceivable that there would be divisions between what Christ taught and what His apostles taught?
a. To even consider such a circumstance would be to deny verbal inspiration to the apostles!
b. We do not have “first class” words spoken by Jesus in the Bible and “Second Class” words spoken by the apostles in the Bible...for all are God’s Words!
c. When we rise for the reading of the Gospel Lesson on Sundays, we are not saying that these words are more important than the words that preceded them, we rise simple in honor of the fact that it is our Lord who spoke the words of the Gospel Lesson.
3. When we confess in the Nicene Creed that the Church is, “...one, holy catholic and apostolic”, we are saying that the Church is “seamless” in its teaching.
4. Some have written that this section of I Corinthians is a diatribe against the existence of denominations.
a. In what ways are denominations “bad”?
b. In what ways are denominations “good”?
c. Is it denominations or is the problem false teaching?
B. “Was Paul crucified for you?” NO!
1. To say that Paul was crucified for you would be blaspheme!
a. Here Paul points to the pivotal issues of crucifixion.
b. Therefore, in the light of their faith in Christ crucified, how could they make so much of Paul or any other minister of the Gospel?
2. Had they been purchased by the blood of Paul?
3. Were they Paul’s property?
4. No! We were all bought with a price of Christ’s crucifixion and shed blood and the One who has redeemed us is Christ, the crucified!
C. “Were you baptized into the name of Paul? NO!
1. Just as it is Christ crucified who enables us to come into the presence of the Father, it is holy baptism that is the means by which that faith is initiated.
a. It is no coincidence that in many liturgical churches the baptismal font is located near the entrance of the sanctuary.
b. It is no coincidence that baptism occurred immediately following confession of faith by adults.
c. It is no coincidence that faithful parents bring their infants to the font of holy baptism to receive this entry into the Church.
2. Paul is strongly arguing that we who have been made one in Christ through the “washing of regeneration” which is baptism cannot now be divided in Christ!