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1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul spends considerable time in 1 Corinthians on the topic of food. Chapters 8-11 all look at the use and abuse of such a humble human necessity when it provides a symbolic means of dining with the divine. This week's epistle text lies midway through his discussion. In chapter 10 Paul begins by reaching back into Hebrew history to show how the fickle tendencies of the human spirit can undo the ex...

2. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

3. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's conversations with the Corinthians take on various tones throughout his letters. At times he harangues, sometimes he pleads; elsewhere he criticizes, cajoles or convinces. In today's text, Paul is continuing his response to the questions some Corinthians had posed previously about eating meat that had been offered to idols. Paul has already urged the Corinthians to be like athletes (9:25) a...

4. 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

From the very outset, Paul straightforwardly asserts what continues as a major theme throughout his first Corinthian correspondence - his plea for unity of "mind" and "purpose" among some quite combative Christians. Paul has heard disturbing reports about the extent to which bickering and backbiting have begun to threaten the stability of the Corinthian community. Scholars posit that "Chloe's peop...

5. 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Anyone who has ever faithfully tried to be "pastor" to a congregation knows instinctively the true subtitle for the Corinthian correspondence: How Not to End Up on Family Feud. Paul felt the pull of love and compassion for his new converts. Yet a "greater love" kept pulling Paul back out onto the road, moving him from place to place to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ as widely as possible bef...

6. 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Some of the fiercest rivalries take place in the back seat of the family car. Even with built-in, high-tech entertainment units packed into vehicles, any long excursion with kids is likely to bring out squabbles, then screams: “I play first!” or “That one’s mine!” or “I get the remote control.” Every parent here has heard their children battle over who has priority, who gets the best seating, who ...

7. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Paul continues to offer his view of essential Christian unity amid myriad claims to the exclusivity of certain groups and their ideas. While verses 10-16 dismissed any special claims that Corinthians might make based upon their loyalty to any one individual leader, Paul now turns to the even more insidious divisiveness suggested by those who touted one form of theological...

8. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's letters to the church at Corinth present some of the most pertinent, preachable ideas available to pastors. Perhaps this is because the Corinthian church sounds so much like a typical modern congregation - squabbling amongst itself, undecided about its path and purpose, theologically confused, at times enthusiastic but rarely in agreement over what to be enthusiastic about, and generally st...

9. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In this week's epistle lesson, Paul continues to deal with a series of specific questions the Corinthian church has posed to him. He prefaces each of these responses with a characteristic phrase, peri de, "now concerning." Previous questions concerned marriage (7:1), the married state versus that of singleness (7:26) and the issue of meat offered to idols (8:1). Having addressed those, Paul now mo...

10. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

11. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Among all the disputations and misconceptions that plagued the prickly Corinthian church, Paul took extreme care with one in particular: the spiritual gifts phenomenon. New Christians encounter within the faith community varieties of spiritual gifts. Part of the difficulty with the Corinthian Christians was their inability to see the substantive differences between living as a Spirit-based Christ-...

12. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The United States likes to think of itself as a “great melting pot” - a place where people from all different countries and cultures have come together for over two centuries to form a (somewhat) coherent new whole, a new national identity. But the “E Pluribus Unum” or “Out of Many, One” model was initiated and perfected two millennia ago in the first century, when the creative new entity known as...

13. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's admonitions, advice and arguments before the Corinthian church serve not only to reveal what was wrong in that community, but also to celebrate what was right. By straightforwardly dealing with the contentious claims and competing camps, Paul can give us the impression that he was frantically involved in just keeping this church from self-destructing. We forget what the Corinthians were doi...

14. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Does anyone doubt we live in a celebrity-crazed culture? Remember the “balloon boy,” whose seemingly frantic parents claimed their child had been playing with a huge mylar flying saucer-shaped balloon when it suddenly whisked aloft and sailed away with him. After hours of live TV coverage and the efforts of dozens of rescue responders, the balloon was found to be empty, even of hot air, and the li...

15. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Here we have probably the best known words Paul ever wrote. Paul has just spent the last chapter convincing the Corinthians that spiritual gifts come in many forms, and that each form is as valuable and worthy as any of the others. Using his famous "body" analogy, Paul has made a strong case for the interdependence of all manifestations of the Spirit. Suddenly, as though afraid the Corinthians mig...

16. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

17. 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's Epistle text, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, is Paul's preface or proemium to his entire letter. Typical of his letters the apostle begins by specifically identifying his audience (verses 1-2), and then formally greeting them with his own unique "Christianized" format. In verse 3 instead of a simple Greek greeting Paul focuses on the most distinctive action God has taken in human lives: grace. T...

18. 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week our epistle reading again starts with another of Paul’s signature greetings, this time to the church at Corinth. The apostle adapts the typical Hellenistic salutation to create an utterly Christocentric greeting. Instead of just “greeting” (“chairein”) Paul offers “grace” (“charis”) along with the Hebrew “shalom” (“peace”). Most importantly Paul emphasizes the source of all the “grace” a...

19. 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's opening salutation to, and expression of thanksgiving for, the church at Corinth opens our epistle reading. It is typical of the Pauline epistles that their opening sections, as stuffed as they are with flowery introductions, do not lead nowhere. Rather, in these few verses, Paul turns his thanksgiving into a thumbnail sketch of the most basic issues confronting the Corinthians. Even the ty...

20. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The entire section of this week's epistle text serves as kind of a warm-up speech for Paul's later focus on the particulars of resurrection. In these first eleven verses of the 15th chapter, however, Paul takes pains to create the atmosphere of a coalesced community, bound together by firm faith, despite the fact that they may still be confused about where that faith may be taking them. Paul begin...

21. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

22. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's vigor and vision was intimately tied to his life-altering Damascus road experience. All his letters to the fledgling churches, struggling to understand their new Christian identity, were composed within sight of Paul's own conversion story. So it is that while this week's epistle text speaks explicitly of resurrection, we must keep in mind the miracle of conversion sealed by baptism that Pa...

23. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

24. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's epistle reading is a portion from Paul's discussion with Corinthian Christians about marriage. Throughout this section Paul carefully responds to the Corinthians' querulous questions about issues of marriage and sexuality. The Corinthians, as their statement in 7:11 suggests, held celibacy and asceticism to be the preferred state for Christians ("It is well for a man not to touch a wom...

25. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Pauline theology is such an integral part of the history of the Christian faith that it is virtually impossible for us to imagine Christianity without Paul. But today's Corinthian text suggests Paul's ability to direct and mold the contours of early Christianity might not have always been so sure. The debate over eating meat previously offered to pagan idols is familiar territory. Yet how many of ...

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