1 CORINTHIANS

(Answers)

 

(Updated 02/2024)


CHAPTER 1

  1. There were contentions among the people because some thought they were more secure or superior than others because of who may have taught them or baptized them.
  2. God did not choose many wise, mighty, or noble to do His work but chosen the foolish, the meek, and the base so that no flesh can glorify them.
  3. Jesus came to teach and show us the mind of God. He received this word and knowledge from God.  He became wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption over death and sin.

CHAPTER 2

  1. Paul preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
  2. Paul used no persuasive words of wisdom but was led by the power of the Spirit.
  3. We have like spirits and know the nature of man by our human spirit in each of us.
  4. By God's Spirit, which He gives us, we will know the things of God. The Spirit helps us to learn and obey God.
  5. The natural spirit of man cannot understand the spiritual things of God.

CHAPTER 3

  1. The solid food are teachings that sanctify a believer and make him more like Christ. The teachings of milk are general in knowledge and are good for conviction and conversion to Christianity.
  2. The servants of God plant the word while God will give us the understanding and growth.
  3. We are rewarded according to the type of work we do for the Lord. One will ready the field; another may plant the seed; while another will maintain the field or teach the church. Each has their purpose.
  4. We should be careful in what we teach. It must be true (not a man-made doctrine) and useful for growth of the believer.
  5. These are the different levels and accuracy of teachings. The gold being the deepest and most valuable teachings for the growth, faith, and strength of the believer. The wood, hay, and straw are the more shallow teachings or are from human wisdom and will not help the believer grow in sanctification and maintain a righteous walk.
  6. One who builds on the foundation will either have believers who remain strong and faithful and produce fruit in the kingdom or they will have believers who are fruitless in the kingdom (and who may stumble and fall or even reject their faith).
  7. a. One who teaches false doctrines or avoids the absolute truth of God that would help believers to avoid sin or remove it from their life is destroying the temple of God. b. God will destroy those who try to destroy the place He now dwells in by His Spirit.

CHAPTER 4

  1. Paul wanted to be viewed as only servants of the word of God. Paul also did not want to be judged as good by them. They did not know his heart as well as God. God would judge him at the end.
  2. As a steward of God we must be devoted and faithful in the faith, doing what God wills and living as God wills.
  3. The church had become arrogant and self-confident in their cliques.
  4. The Corinthians never faced the persecution and suffering that Paul and the other apostles went through.
  5. Paul brought the word to them first and instructed them in the ways of the Lord. He was their spiritual father.
  6. Paul sent Timothy who would remind them of Paul's ways in Christ. He would lead them back a humble mind so Paul would not have to speak and discipline them harshly.

CHAPTER 5

  1. Sexual immorality was in the church.
  2. The church is to shun the sinner from the church so that he may fall into misery because of his sin and so, perhaps his fleshly sinful desire would be destroyed and his soul could be saved.
  3. a. The church felt excluded from the sin because it was someone else sinning, not them. b. Paul included them in the sin because they let the sin stay in the church. A little evil has made them all evil because they have not removed it from among them.
  4. Anyone who claimed to be a believer but was committing or passionate about a sin, we should not associate with them.
  5. We can judge a brother if they are in sin. We must admonish them first (James 5:19,20; 2 Thes. 3:14,15). Then if they still will not repent of the sin we are to shun them from our association.

CHAPTER 6

  1. We should settle disputes between ourselves or before other believers.
  2. The souls of the lost will be justly judged by the lives of the saints.
  3. All things are lawful for us but not profitable (vs.12). We should accept a wrong done to us since we have wrong others ourselves. God will be the ultimate judge and righter of wrongs. However, brothers and sisters in Christ should be able to reconcile their differences between themselves.
  4. Homosexuals have no part in the kingdom of heaven
  5. We should dedicate our bodies to God. We were bought at the price of His son. God's Spirit is in us. We should not defile His Spirit by adjoining any immorality to our bodies.

CHAPTER 7

  1. To avoid sexual immorality due to lustful inclinations we should have our own spouse.
  2. a. A spouse is not to withhold their body from the other. b. When a couple commits to a time of fasting and prayer for the Lord they can deprive themselves of sexual activity.
  3. A husband and wife must not depart from each other but remain married. If they do depart they must remain unmarried and try to reconcile.
  4. Do not divorce the unbelieving spouse. You sanctify the unbeliever because you are one flesh and your children will be sanctified also.
  5. You are not in bondage or do not have to submit to an unbelieving spouse. Let them depart to avoid fights and contention and perhaps to have a chance for reconciliation. If they afterwards commit adultery you will not be bound to the marriage.
  6. An unmarried person will care more about the things of the Lord and how they may please Him.

CHAPTER 8

  1. Believers should not let their knowledge and liberties in the Lord become a stumbling block for the weaker brother. They should consider the conscience of the less knowledgeable.
  2. We must consider the level of understanding of the less knowledgeable brother and do not do things in front of him he may consider wrong. He may believe it is permitted to do things because he is following your example.

CHAPTER 9

  1. Paul defended their liberty and privilege as an apostle.
  2. The teachers should be able to receive material needs if they have sown the spiritual needs of the people. Those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
  3. Paul can boast he preached the gospel willingly and for free.
  4. They who ministered in the temple ate of what was brought to the temple. (The same principle applies to the teacher and the people.)
  5. a. Paul was free but enslaved himself to others to teach them the gospel and never sought any form of payment. He worked with the level of their beliefs and knowledge whether Jew or Gentile. b. Paul did not make the Jews forsake the law nor force the Gentiles to follow the law.
  6. Paul’s reward would be nothing if he preached unwillingly. It would then be out of obligation.
  7. Our race is to discipline our lives for salvation and consider the interests of the weaker brother. The prize is a saved soul.
  8. a. Paul disciplined his body and brought it into subjection to God’s will. By proper example he walks the walk that he teaches. b. Paul feared he could be disqualified. C. Paul was afraid that he should be disapproved, rejected, cast off; that it would appear, after all, he was unfit to enter into heaven. (Because of the cliques and liberties of the Corinthians, Paul implies he must have earnest, self-denying watchfulness over himself, even with all his labors for others, to make his own calling sure, so much more the same is needed by the Corinthians, instead of exercising their liberties and establishing cliques).

CHAPTER 10

  1. a. Israel followed Moses and did as he instructed because he had the spiritual food and drink of God. b. The wording in the Greek is 'the spiritual food and drink followed the Rock'. c. The Rock was Moses who (like Christ) was the anointed messenger of God. He had the words and authority given to him by God to lead and instruct the people. They followed that ‘Rock.’
  2. The things that happened to Israel were written for our instruction. We learned what God expects and what happens when we do not obey, depend on, and honor Him. We should be wiser in our walk with God.
  3. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We must be guarded against sin for we could be tempted or influenced into sin causing us to fall from righteousness. 
  4. God does not allow you to be tempted by more than you can resist or overcome. He will also provide a way to escape the temptation.
  5. Seek the well being of others. A knowledgeable believer must be careful not to partake of anything that a less knowledgeable believer may think is sinful. You may weaken him or cause him to sin.

CHAPTER 11

  1. a. God is the head of Christ. b. Jesus is the head of man. c. A man is the head of a woman.
  2. a. A man dishonors Jesus by not living by the will of Jesus. He is not submissive to the Spirit of Jesus. b. A woman dishonors a man when she is not submissive to the authority of a man. c. Man has authority over a woman because a woman was made from man and for man. Also, the ministering angels react to the leadership of the man, not the woman.
  3. Man is the image of God because he was made in the image of God. Woman was made from man, she is the image and glory of man.
  4. We should be holy and reverent when observing the Lord’s Supper. We must not be looking for a meal or eat like gluttons or drink as drunkards. It is not a feast but a memorial of Christ.
  5. God chastens us so we will be corrected and not condemned with the world.

CHAPTER 12

  1. The manifestation of the gifts of the believers is for the benefit of all.
  2. The believers and their gifts make up the whole body of the church, which is the body of Christ.
  3. The body is one and has many (diverse) members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. They become a unified body of Christ.

CHAPTER 13

  1. The gift of love given to one another makes one perfect.
  2. Other gifts are temporary and can be forgotten by those who receive them. The gift of love has the potential to have a permanent effect. When you show love to someone it is not easily forgotten. It is a gift that comes from the heart and goes to a heart.
  3. Each gift is not given to every person. Each person has his own gift. Even at our best we are only given what God wills us to have.
  4. The gifts are temporary but the perfect gift is love. God’s love for all people should be in each of us for others. As we mature we will grow to love others with the love that God has.
  5. We are still seeing and knowing as a child. However, when we have at last attained to "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 3:14) we will know how to love with God’s love just as we know He loves us.

CHAPTER 14

  1. a. Prophesying is better thaan speaking in tongues. b. By prophesying, others are edified and comforted and the church is built up.
  2. No one will understand or learn from what one speaks in tongues.
  3. The purpose of tongues at that time was to reach people outside the church (in their language) to convince them of the reality of God.
  4. An unbeliever will hear and understand prophesying. He will be convicted and convinced.
  5. a. Two or three at most, should speak in tongues publicly and then one at a time. b. An interpreter should speak for the person speaking in tongues or that person should also interpret his words.
  6. Women were to keep silent and learn from their husbands (or fathers) at home.

CHAPTER 15

  1. a. We should hold fast to the gospel of Christ. b. If we accept the gospel only temporarily or only in part we will have believed in vain. We will miss out on eternal life.
  2. Some Corinthians were saying there was no resurrection of the dead therefore making their faith and hope empty.
  3. We believe and hope that we will be raised from the dead just as was Christ.
  4. The resurrection from the dead began with Jesus, then those who die in Christ, after that, those who are His when He returns.
  5. a. All things are in subjection to Christ. We especially are subject to Him b. Jesus is in subjection to God.
  6. Some were keeping company with those who did not know the gospel and were being corrupted by them.
  7. Our bodies will be raised an incorruptible spiritual body
  8. a. At the sound of the last trumpet when Jesus returns a second time. The dead will rise first then we who remain shall be taken (1 Th. 4:16-17).  b. In a moment, like the twinkling of an eye, we will be taken.
  9. If we are not to be resurrected then there is no reason to spread the gospel!

CHAPTER 16

  1. According to how each one prospered they were to store up a gift at the beginning of the week for the saints in Jerusalem.
  2. a. We should still give today. b. We should give to any church or saint in need.
  3. Pricilla and Aquila held church in their house.