Introduction: First Corinthians is the Apostle Paul's first epistle (letter) to the church in Corinth. In it he answers several questions posed by the Corinthians that were causing dissension in their carnal congregation.

1 Corinthians 1:10 — The formidability of the church as a force for Christ in this fallen world is  forfeited when it fails to present a united front on the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

“In essentials unity. In nonessentials liberty. In all things charity.” (Augustine)

1 Corinthians 1:17 — It is not by the eloquence or persuasive power of the preacher, but by the extraordinary saving power of the cross that true converts are truly won to Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31— God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways, so that they don't get the credit, but He gets the glory.

There is no limit to what God can do through someone who doesn't care to get any credit, but only wants God to get all the glory.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 — God normally chooses to use the ordinary, not the extraordinary, so that His ordinary servants won't get the credit, but He will get the glory for His extraordinary work.

1 Corinthians 1:30 — God has made Christ all we need, and us in Him into all He is! He is wisdom, and in Him we are wise. He is righteousness, and in Him we are righteous. He is sanctification, and in Him we are sanctified. He is redemption, and in Him we are redeemed.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 — Christ does not make us wise and righteous, He is our wisdom and righteousness. He does not give us sanctification and redemption, He is our sanctification and redemption. Therefore, we have nothing to glory in or to boast about but Him, who is everything for us!

1 Corinthians 1:31 — There is no glory to God in our praising of ourselves.

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 — No man is saved by the power of human persuasion, but only by the power of God’s Spirit.

Converts to Christ are never won by silver-tongued and clever clergy, but by the power of the Spirit, through the simple preaching of the cross.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 — The power of man’s persuasive speech may produce outward reformation—a change of man’s habits—but only the power of God’s Spirit can produce inward transformation—a change of man’s heart.

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 — The only way to understand the truths of the Holy Scripture is to have them taught to you by the Holy Spirit. The Bible, like any book, is both most preferably and most precisely interpreted and explained by its Author!

Make no mistake about it; there is no understanding of the Holy Scripture apart from the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14 — The one who is neither devoted to the Son nor indwelt by the Spirit is dumbfounded by the Scripture!

1 Corinthians 2:14  — There is no way to understand the Holy Scripture apart from the Holy Spirit. Only those taught by its Author can understand the truths of the Bible.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 — The foundation of salvation is Christ alone! Those saved can work in their strength for Christ or permit Him to work in His Spirt through them. The former will prove to be of no lasting significance, but the latter will prove to be of eternal consequence.

1 Corinthians 3:16 — Almighty God abides in His saints in the person of His Holy Spirit, making each saint His holy abode. Truly, this amazing scriptural affirmation should leave every saint absolutely awestruck!

1 Corinthians 3:16 — Christians are corporately and individually the temple of God in the world today. Corporately, as the church, we are God’s holy habitation, but individually, each of us is a temple of God ourself, within whom God’s Spirit dwells. (2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-22)

As God’s temple in Christ’s day ceased to be a building and became the physical body of Christ, so in our day it has ceased to be the physical body of Christ and become the spiritual body of Christ—His church!

1 Corinthians 5:7 — As God's former judgment of Egypt passed over His people because of their faith in the blood of multiple Passover lambs, God's future judgment of the earth will pass over His people because of their faith in the ultimate Passover Lamb. (Exodus 12:1-13) 

For the salvation provided by the paschal lamb to be personally appropriated it had to be both applied personally and partaken of personally. Likewise, for the salvation provided by Christ, our Passover Lamb, to be personally appropriated it too must be applied personally and partaken of personally. 

 

The pascal lamb was to be partaken of with bitter herbs, loins girded, shoes on one’s feet, one’s staff in his hand, and in haste, so as to symbolize the swiftness by which all partakers of the pascal lamb would be delivered by God from the bitterness of bondage. 

 

1 Corinthians 5:9-11 — Christians are to be in the world, but not of the world. While we cannot help but have contact with sinners, we must not covenant with them. They may be converted to Christ by our company, but we must never be conformed to the world by theirs.

 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — No forgiven saint can be his or her former sinful self, since no one who is justified and sanctified can any longer be putrefied.

If you’ve never changed, you’ve never been converted, for no one can come to Christ and not be changed by Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:17 — To be coupled with Christ is for His Spirit to see through your eyes, to think through your mind, to touch through your hands, to speak through your mouth, to love through your heart, and to live through your life.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — The bodies of Christians have been bought by the blood of God’s Son as abodes for God’s Spirit. Having taken possession of us as His property, we are legally obligated to relinquish our property rights and render ourselves to God’s use for His glory!

To see the temple of God today, the Christian needs only to look in a mirror.

1 Corinthians 6:20 — God’s Shekinah dwelt in the temple and in the tabernacle before it. Today, however, it dwells in the bodies of believers, who serve, individually and corporately, as God’s temple in this world. Therefore, Christians are to always glorify God in their bodies.

1 Corinthians 9:16-17 — The God-called preacher doesn’t choose to preach, but is divinely compelled to preach, and can never be content doing anything else. Therefore, he can take no credit for carrying out his God-given commission under such divine constraint.

1 Corinthians 9:23-27 — If athletes commit themselves to do whatever it takes to win temporal tributes and corruptible crowns, like an Olympic medal or Super Bowl ring, shouldn't Christians commit themselves to do whatever it takes to win immortal souls and an incorruptible crown?

 

1 Corinthians 10:13 — While Christians are not immune from life’s typical testings, we are divinely insured against them, being guaranteed by God of His enabling of us to endure and escape them.

 

God has promised, in spite of the fact that you may suspect at times He is thinkingly too highly of you, to never let you be tempted or tested above what you can bear.

 

1 Corinthians 10:13 — Temptation is not a crime against God, but common to man. Christ has not saved us from temptation, but from sin. He has not ousted temptation from our lives, but enabled us to overcome it in our lives! 

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 — The Christian should follow the example of others only to the degree that they are following the perfect example of Christ.

 

1 Corinthians 12:13-14 — Christians are not baptized in or of the Holy Spirit, but by or with the Holy Spirit into the church of Christ, which is one body made up of all Spirit imbibed and indwelt believers. 

 

1 Corinthians 13 — The Greeks had three words for “love.” The first, “eros,” meant “self-love.” The second, “phileo,” meant “brotherly love.” The third, “agape,” meant God’s love.” The Greek word used for "love" in this, the Bible's famous Love Chapter, is “agape."

 

After the world witnessed a new kind of love in Christ, the world had to come up with a new word for love—“agape.”

 

1 Corinthians 13:1 — The silver tongue of an unloving heart is a but a sounding gong or a clanging symbol.

 

Just as cymbals without an orchestra are sound rather than symphony, words without love are meaningless rather than meaningful.

 

1 Corinthians 13:2 — If I could foretell the future, figure out every mystery, and had the faith to move mountains, but had zero love, I’d still be zilch. 

 

A life void of love is a life lived in vain.

 

1 Corinthians 13:3 — Without love as your motive, it’s meaningless to the Lord for you to give up all your means for the sake of the poor or even yourself as a martyr for the sake of Christ.

 

Works without love are worthless to the Lord.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4a — Impatience is incompatible with love.

 

True love will hold out for others, not give up on them.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4b — True love is kind, not always compliant, but always considerate.  

 

When kindness speaks even the deaf can hear it and when it is shown even the blind can see it.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4c — True love can no more envy others than a loving mother can her beloved child.

 

True love is never within the grasp of the green-eyed monster.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4d —True love is never self-flattering, but always self-forgetful.

 

True love never blows its own horn!

 

1 Corinthians 13:4e — True love is never puffed up with pride, but always unpretentious and humble.

 

True love never looks down contemptuously on others or up conceitedly at itself.

 

1 Corinthians 13:5a — True love is never rude nor ill-mannered, but always polite and courteous.

 

Whereas true love may be confrontational, it is never coarse nor crude.

 

1 Corinthians 13:5b — True love is never selfish, but always selfless. 

 

True love doesn’t have “I” trouble; that is, it’s not so nearsighted that it can only see itself.

 

1 Corinthians 13:5c — While true love is not imperturbable, it is neither quickly nor easily perturbed.

 

True love is not short-fused!

 

1 Corinthians 13:5d — True love never holds a grudge.

 

True love has no axes to grind.

 

1 Corinthians 13:6a — True love is never glad about sin, but always grieved over it. 

 

To true love, noble ends never justify nefarious means!

 

1 Corinthians 13:6b — True love rejoices in truth and is repulsed by lies.

 

To true love, half-truths are whole lies and white lies are black-hearted.

 

1 Corinthians 13:7a — Rather than publicly blowing the whistle on wrongdoers, true love privately bears up whenever done wrong.

 

While true love may suffer to be done wrong, it is not reluctant to right wrong nor to reprove wrongdoers.

 

1 Corinthians 13:7b — True love believes men innocent until proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

Although true love is always willing to give others the benefit of the doubt, it is never dewy-eyed about the doubtful.

 

1 Corinthians 13:7c — True love ever clings to hope, even in a seemingly hopeless situation. 

 

True love never loses hope.

 

1 Corinthians 13:7d — True love endures; it always knuckles down and never knuckles under.

 

True love never gives in and never gives up!

 

1 Corinthians 13:8 — Prophecies are fulfilled, languages cease to be spoken, and knowledge becomes outdated, but love is impervious to irrelevance!

 

Whereas prophecy, languages, and knowledge are all temporal and fleeting, love is eternal and forever.

 

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 — Unlike God’s love, which is both ideal and infinite, prophesy and knowledge are incomplete, imperfect, and impermanent. 

 

In the midst of the imperfect and earthly, there is the perfect and eternal—God’s forever love in a fleeting and fallen world.

 

1 Corinthians 13:11 — We are presently infantile in infinite love, but in the maturity of infinity we will become masterful at it.

 

In eternity, our spiritual infancy will end and our spiritual maturity will begin.

 

1 Corinthians 13:12 — We presently see eternal things in the dim mirror of time, but we will see them exactly and in their entirety in eternity.

 

We will no longer have faulty perceptions of eternal things, but see them precisely as they are once we are freed from seeing them through the filter of our fallen flesh and the prism of this fallen planet.

 

This verse appears to answer in the affirmative the often asked question of whether or not we will know one another in Heaven as we have known each other on earth.

 

1 Corinthians 13:13 — Faith fixed in Christ, hope founded on Christ, and wholehearted love for Christ, comprise the ever-abiding trio that the Christian can tote from time into eternity!

 

Our faith and hope in Christ, as well as our love for Christ, are interminably inalienable!

 

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 — A belief in the Gospel that is not retained is proven to be in vain.

 

Corinthians 15:1-2 — A faith not held onto is a faith never really held at all.

 

1 Corinthians 15:10 — Many supposed recipients of God’s grace raise their hand today in the worship of God, but refuse to lift a finger in the work of God.

 

1 Corinthians 15:13-19 — The crucifixion of Christ is the crux of the Christian faith, but Christ’s resurrection is the hinge upon which it swings, as Paul said, “If Christ be not risen, then our faith is vain.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ authenticates the Christian faith as the world’s only true faith in the one and only true God!

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