The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle (adapted from sermons)

1 Corinthians is a remarkable epistle because of its tremendous scope. You can look at the different epistles and say they are notable for this or that doctrine, warning, correction, or encouragement, but 1 Corinthians stands out for its sheer scope. There are probably more issues dealt with in it than in any other epistle. It is very often regarded as primarily practical, but it is also intensely doctrinal. There are many wonderful devotional passages stirring the heart. And of course there are many practical passages, on church order and conduct, and on sanctification.

This letter is a testimony to the astounding power of God because of the recipients, because of the Corinthians. Corinth was 45 miles west of Athens, in those days it was the capital and the administrative centre of the Roman province of Achaia, which was most of Greece. It was more important in authority therefore even than Athens, and ahead of Athens in many respects. Greeks, Romans, Jews: all lived in Corinth. It was a magnificent city, utterly destroyed by the Romans in a notable battle in the year 146 BC, and it was left in a state of total waste for exactly a century. Then it was rebuilt by Julius Caesar. Caesar sent them a small colony of freed men from Rome, notable ex-soldiers and others, who had bought or earned their freedom, and so the city was rebuilt and resuscitated; that was 46 BC. The new city was therefore nearly a century old when Paul arrived there. There were about 90,000 people there at the time. But it was a unique city, a very large city right on a major trade route, and was thronged constantly in those days by visitors, trades-people, and, of course, people visiting the great games. There were two distinct sets of Greek games held in Corinth. As a Roman colony it had been greatly enlarged by Greeks coming in, merchants, tradesmen, and by Jews also; there was a great synagogue there. And so the city had built up enormously to be one of the wealthiest cities. What had been for nearly a century just a marble quarry, a waste area, had become one of the most wealthy and significant cities of the day.

But Corinth was an evil city, and its evil ways were justified by the most remarkable ideas. It is well-known that in those days in the Greek world ‘to corinthianise’ meant to fornicate, or to be with a prostitute. It was known in the ancient world is ‘carnal Corinth’. Not that it was a disorganised, chaotic or violent city; but it was so permissive. There were many other evils too. It was a proud city, very proud of its Greek culture and its philosophers, and its supposed wisdom, very proud of its oratory. Their love of philosophy made them think they were superior to everyone else. They had their own rival games to the Olympic games; in those days, we are told, very often bigger and more significant, and the very best athletes were Corinthian. Its tradesmen were the wealthiest, and if you were a resident of Corinth you were in the greatest place, and you considered yourself a superior person. There was nobody like you. Pride was the whole basis of your life and accomplishment.

So in such a place, where you would think the reception to the gospel would be one of antagonism and hostility, but into that city came the apostle, initially alone, in A.D. 49. Paul founded the church there on his second missionary journey and the record of its founding is in Acts 18. Paul stayed there 18 months preaching, we believe, on a very rocky hill to great crowds of people. There, by the power of God, a great church was quickly established. Hearts were moved by the preaching. We read in Acts how he went into the city and discovered the home of a Jewish believer, Aquilla, who was a tent maker, which was Paul’s secondary occupation, and he joined him and his wife Priscilla and worked with his hands. He went into the synagogue and reasoned with both the Jews and the Greeks about Christ. He was under way before he was joined by Timothy and Silas, his key helpers, but they soon joined him and then he really began to preach in earnest. Hundreds, we believe, possibly even thousands, were truly converted. The Jews very quickly excluded him from the synagogue, but there was a house adjoining the synagogue into which he went, belonging to one who believed his word, and so he continued there, and of course in the open air.

Crispus, one of the chief rulers of the synagogue, was saved through his preaching, and Paul had a vision. Stay here, said God in a vision. ‘Be not afraid … for I have much people in this city’, and so he continued to preach there for a year and a half. Following that there was trouble, persecution, and he was dragged before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of the region of the city. Gallio would not hear the case that the Jews brought against Paul, but nevertheless, the Jews assaulted some of the leaders of the church, a man named Sosthenes, probably or possibly the very same man as mentioned in this letter. So the church was founded in Corinth, and it was a wonderful company of people.

By the time of this epistle a few years have passed. Paul was in the city a year and a half, maybe up to 2 years; he may have stayed a little longer than the one and a half years which is mentioned in Acts 18. He then went to Ephesus and on to other places. Later he came back to Ephesus, and was there for three years. Towards the end of his time in Ephesus he writes this letter. So it is five or six years after the foundation of the church that 1 Corinthians is written. He wrote this letter from Ephesus. Don't take any notice of the ascription in small type at the end of the epistle, nor that which is joined to other epistles. They not part of the inspired word of God. It is very curious that the King James Version includes them, because nobody agrees with them. In fact they are quite crazy in places. So take no notice of the subscriptions at the end of the epistle in small type. They were added by Catholic hands and are highly inaccurate. From within the epistle it is very obvious.

He probably dictated the epistle, probably writing only what is the first verse in his own hand. That maybe why Sosthenes is mentioned. ‘Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother.’ He may very well be the person who was once the chief ruler of the synagogue in Ephesus, and opposed the gospel, but came to Christ. And now he is with Paul on a journey to Ephesus and he is most probably mentioned here, not because he is a preacher or part of the apostolic band, but because he wrote the epistle to Paul's dictation. Most of the congregation were Greeks – we are told in chapter 12 that there were mainly Gentiles – but there were Jews in their midst.

Now there were problems in the church of Corinth and they come out in this first epistle. But the problems in the church of Corinth should not be exaggerated. It was a wonderful church. Some people – and I think this is very sad and rather shallow exegesis – sail in, guns blazing, and they say, ‘Corinth was a wicked church, it was a bad church. This was wrong, that was wrong, something else was wrong.’ But that is not in line with the information, the data that we are given in the New Testament, in Acts or in 1 or 2 Corinthians. It is clear that this is a church, which is highly commended by the apostle. We see this in the opening verses. So the fault that Paul deals with should not cause us to say that these problems were characteristic of the whole church.

There were some people did not believe in a bodily resurrection of Christ; but we must assume they were a minority, because otherwise Paul could not possibly give the strong commendations that he does concerning this church. Their big fault was that they never dealt with it; there were people who had quite the wrong teaching about an essential, fundamental doctrine of the faith, and it had not been dealt with. That was the big problem, not the number of people who were wrong. There was immorality in the church, and it had not been disciplined. The fault of the church is – they had not exercised discipline towards some people who were walking wrongly and immorally. It should not be viewed as though most of the people in the church at Corinth were like that. Then there were other problems. There was a party spirit had developed. People said, ‘O we follow this preacher’, and others, ‘We follow that preacher’. This spirit is reproved in the epistle, but basically the people were very earnest, and very devout, and very concerned for the truth. So Corinth represents a good church, a fine church, which nevertheless has to be corrected on certain things. And that is true of every church. We all need the constant correction and instruction of the Scripture. But it is so important not to run down the church at Corinth.

Yes, there were problems. There were some people – we do not know how many – who thought, ‘What a brilliant idea. When we were idolaters, and we worshipped the god of love, Venus, and other gods at those temples, we had a great thing going. We used to have great feasts at those temples. Now we are Christians, why don’t we bring feasting like that into the church?’ and they had to be reproved. Some of them got it all mixed up with the Lord's Supper. It had to be dealt with. Well, that happens today. How often do we hear people, they are saved, or they say they are, they come in from the world and they want to bring worldly things into the church? The same problem manifests itself today. There was also disorder in the worship, in that some people – probably gifted people, because the gift of tongues still operating in those days; real languages were still being spoken by the gift of God. But some people were so carried away with this, they did it in a rather disorderly way and they wanted to hog the services. That has to be restricted, and order has to be imposed.

But this letter is full of wonderful instruction for us today on such teaching as the resurrection, the last things, the coming of Christ. Do you want to know the place of apologetic reasoning in evangelism, how much we should use, how useful it is? It is in this epistle that the place of apologetic reasoning is dealt with, and principles laid down. Do you want to know about stewardship, and the support of Christian workers? It is all here, primarily, in this epistle. Do you want to know about discipline, about marriage and divorce, about love and what it is, and how it should be expressed toward God and in marriage? Do you want to know about sanctification? And quite differently, do you want to know how to interpret the Bible? Some of the most magnificent lessons on how to interpret the Bible are in this very epistle: how we should handle the great parallels that are given to us in the Old Testament, and the types and shadows. The most sophisticated instruction for the seminary student is in this epistle: how we should go about the Lord's Supper; how we should go about mutual ministry to each other, and other issues besides.