Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

God as the Only Real Judge The thought and logic of this passage are clear, although in Greek much of Paul’s language is awkward. Any translation struggles to render Paul’s statements in a sensible and reliable way. These verses begin by informing the Corinthians how they are to regard Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and all other early Christian workers. They are merely servants and stewards who are cal...

2. Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

God’s Peculiar, Powerful Way This paragraph is crucial, both in the context of this particular letter and for the overall understanding of Paul’s theology. Here he delivers the heart and essence of the gospel he believed and proclaimed. Paul’s lines reveal that God works in a most peculiar way—first, God works in defiance of the standards of this world as they are understood or construed by human...

3. Divisions In the Church

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

This first major segment of the body of Paul’s letter forms a coherent reflection on the specific situation in Corinth in relation to and in the light of basic matters of Christian belief. Paul examines and explains the character of the gospel itself, so that the Corinthians are directed to evaluate their situation in the light of the gospel of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ and the implication...

4. Expel the Immoral Brother!

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The move from chapter 4 with its discussion of the ministry of the apostles to chapter 5 with the focused discussion of immorality may seem to be an illogical leap on the part of Paul. Quick shifts in focus such as this one have led a few interpreters to suggest that the document called 1 Corinthians is not a unified composition; but that reading of the text is an overreaction to the diversity of ...

5. Final Greetings

1 Corinthians 16:19-24

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Paul passes closing greetings in verses 19–20. Then, the last lines open with Paul’s autograph before issuing a quick series of energetic final declarations. These verses could be viewed as six or more separate but related statements, since Paul does not string the statements together with a series of conjunctions. Such a serial closing is not in strict keeping with the normal conventions of ancie...

6. Food Sacrificed to Idols

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Contrasting Knowledge and Love At this point in the letter to Corinth Paul enters into the discussion of an issue that will engage him, in one way or another, through 11:1. While the concrete concern that calls for his attention is the issue of “food sacrificed to idols,” at a theological level his focus is Christian rights and responsibilities, especially regarding “knowledge” and “freedom” in l...

7. Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues

1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The Practice of Prophecy The discussion returns to the direct consideration of spiritual gifts that was the explicit focus of Paul’s remarks up to 12:31a. One should notice at the outset that Paul’s general concern is with orderly worship, but there are bends and turns to the argumentation that are hard to follow and highly debated. Moreover, as later readers turn to this passage they sometimes f...

8. Idol Feasts and the Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Paul returns here to the topics he dealt with in 8:1–13. There he touched on two related items, eating meat from idol sacrifices and participating in pagan cultic banquets. At this point, however, Paul reverses the order of his discussion and takes up the Christians’ eating at the table in a pagan idol’s temple in 10:14–22 before returning to the issue of eating idol meat per se in 10:23–11:1. In ...

9. Lawsuits Among Believers

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Having raised the issue of the relations of Christians both to other Christians and to those outside the church, Paul’s mind seems to move to the matter of how Christians relate to one another outside the life of the church. His discussion focuses on the issue of Christians suing each other in pagan courts of law. One cannot determine how Paul knows about this problem; nevertheless, he discusses t...

10. Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

These verses are often referred to as an excursus on love, and there are good reasons for this description. Remarkably, in this extended meditation on love Paul does not write about loving: there is no statement here that X loves Y. Love itself is the actor or the object of reflection. This beautiful passage never attempts to offer an abstract definition of love; rather, Paul rehearses critical ch...

11. Marriage

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The seventh chapter of Paul’s letter to Corinth is a complex and challenging series of related observations and directions that have often lost or puzzled later readers of the epistle. Paul’s statements in these verses are more often misunderstood than grasped and appreciated for what they say. The commentary that follows will focus on smaller segments of the writing in an effort to elucidate and ...

12. On Divisions in the Church

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Paul’s teaching in this part of the letter is vivid and relatively straightforward. He begins by tying together what he has been saying since 1:17. The cardinal idea in these remarks is that the Corinthians are immature. Nevertheless, Paul does at least regard the Corinthians as “infants”; he does not deny they are persons of faith. The statements are insulting, as Paul repeatedly says the Corinth...

13. One Body, Many Parts

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

In three striking movements these verses introduce (vv. 12–13), develop (vv. 14–26), and apply (vv. 27–31) Paul’s best-known ecclesiastical metaphor: the body of Christ. Scholars debate the exact background from which Paul may have drawn inspiration for developing this memorable image for the church. Paul is likely to have encountered the thinking of Stoic philosophers, some of whom spoke of the c...

14. Orderly Worship

1 Corinthians 14:26-40

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Protocol for Practicing Spiritual Gifts Paul steps back from a strict focus on prophecy and tongues in verses 26–33a as he considers more generally the practice of Christian worship. Essentially, Paul delineates regulations for orderly assembly and worship. Behind all the particular instructions about worship practices, however, is the basic theme Paul sets out at the end of verse 26, “All of the...

15. Personal Requests

1 Corinthians 16:5-18

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

16:5 Paul sketches his future itinerary, indicating the intention to pass through Macedonia on the way to Corinth, which was in Achaia. This particular route meant that Paul did not plan to sail directly from Ephesus to Corinth, and from 2 Corinthians 8–9 one learns of the Macedonian Christians’ participation in the collection. 16:6 Paul’s reference to a possible stay in Corinth is simple. He int...

16. Propriety in Worship

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

This section of the letter takes up a disruptive situation in the life of the congregation at worship. Paul addresses the men and the women in the congregation concerning their manner of dress, although he comes to that point via a complicated route. While the issues are practical—dress and behavior at worship—Paul frames the matters in genuinely theological terms, not only mentioning God and Chri...

17. Sexual Immorality

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

These nine verses form a complex segment of the letter. One finds here quotations from the Corinthians and a citation of the LXX. The verses are largely cast in the diatribe style of popular Hellenistic philosophy. One also encounters traditional elements of early Christian doctrine. All of this material is woven together in service to Paul’s deliberate line of argumentation. Paul builds and argu...

18. Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The Nature of Enthusiasm This section addresses a new topic, namely, spiritual gifts (or the spiritual gifts of the spiritual ones). The modern reader of this passage may miss simple elements of Paul’s discussion because of the distance between the worldviews of the first century and the present day. No matter what one thinks about such matters at the turn of the twenty-first century, from what P...

19. Thanksgiving

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Letters in the Greco-Roman world had a fairly standard form. They would begin with a salutation, followed by a conventional thanksgiving (often in the form of a prosaic prayer). Next came the body of the letter, often followed by parenesis (concrete directions), and then the closing of the letter. The salutation itself normally contained three parts that first named the sender, then named the reci...

20. The Believer's Freedom

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Once again Paul broaches the subject of merely eating idol meat, but now he seems concerned with the eating of such previously sacrificed foods outside the confines of the pagan temple. The section is challenging to translators and interpreters because Paul writes in a vigorous style that takes abrupt rhetorical turns that can be and often are lost in the reading of the text. Identifying Paul’s li...

21. The Collection for God's People

1 Corinthians 16:1-4

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Paul almost certainly is responding to a pair of inquiries at this point, since the words now about (vv. 1, 12) identify topics that were brought to Paul’s attention by the letter or the delegates from Corinth. Paul discusses the collection he was assembling. He states some guidelines that the Corinthians may follow, and the principles inherent in his directions provide theological insight into Ch...

22. The Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Problems in the Assembling These few lines are vitally related to the verses that follow, verses 23–26 and verses 27–34, although the weighty traditional nature of the ensuing verses distinguishes verses 23–34 from verses 17–22 and suggests the separation of the discussion of the Lord’s Supper into smaller, more manageable parts. Paul’s words and his concerns are straightforward, nearly self-evid...

23. The Resurrection Body

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Comparing Bodies and Seeds These ten verses assemble a wide variety of materials as Paul continues to argue in behalf of the reality of the resurrection of the dead. Here, Paul offers a collage of data as he quotes the LXX, alludes to stories from Genesis, and develops analogies related to seed, flesh, body and glory, and Adam. The lines of the discussion open in the style of a diatribe with a di...

24. The Resurrection of Christ

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The letter moves toward its conclusion with a long, crucial defense of the truth of the resurrection of the dead and its intrinsic importance for all of Christian faith and living. The length and complexity of this reflection, coupled with its subject matter, make this portion of the letter important for understanding early Christian belief and practice, the foundational nature of resurrection fai...

25. The Resurrection of the Dead

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

Controversy in Corinth These verses move from the foundational issues to a controversy in the Corinthian church, and the verses articulate a tough-minded logic that proves the error of the position taken by some of the Corinthians. The problem was that some of the Corinthians said there is no resurrection of the dead. The statement as Paul reports it could mean that they said there is no resurrec...

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