The aim of the local assemblies, aside from reaching out to the lost is to be able to present men to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. God‟s primary tool for building believers and making good Christians out of us is His word. Prayer, fasting, fellowship, and church attendance are beneficial, nevertheless His primary tool to accomplish the aim set out above is His word (2 Tim 3:16-17, 1 Pt 2:1-2, James 1:21).That is why the teaching of God‟s word in church cannot be downplayed. It is the key to making disciples of men.
There are two things the word of God will do” (1) it will save the unregenerate; and (2) It will build believers. No other thing can do that. However, for it to be accomplished, it has to be the gospel. Even in respect to being a good and effective minister, the word of God is integral. Some have the wrong idea that only the teacher needs to be grounded in doctrine, and that a prophet does not need such grounding. However, from God‟s word it does not matter if the person is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, or ministering in some other capacity in the Body, the man of God must be well grounded in doctrine – that is the way to be EQUIPPED unto every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17,2 Tim 2:15). The so-called five-fold ministry are meant to uphold God‟s word and through it to achieve the goal of building the Body (Eph 4:11-12).
2 Tim 3:16-17 gives us different facets of how God‟s word builds up a believer – (a) doctrine (b) reproof (c) correction (d) instruction in righteousness. Doctrine means “teaching” in this context. The word of God is beneficial for teaching believers. Reproof in this context, does not mean to admonish someone. The word, „reproof‟ is from the Greek word “elegchos”, which means conviction, evidence or proof. It is the same Greek word that is translated “evidence” in Hebrews 11:1. God‟s word is the key to conviction. Where we doubt we can always go back to God‟s word again and again for proof, assurance, evidence, and conviction of the reality of things spiritual, the Person of God and His word. When we are discouraged is not the time to run away from God‟s word. Church is not meant for people who “feel spiritual” alone, it is also for people who are downcast, depressed, weary, and in need of conviction or reassurance. God‟s word is useful for achieving that. The usefulness of God‟s word in “Correction” means that His word shows us what the wrong thing is, so we can desist from walking such path. While the usefulness of God‟s word in “instruction in righteousness” means His word is useful in showing us the right path or conduct so that we can walk in it. The cumulative outcome of these four operational dynamics of God‟s word is that the believer is thoroughly furnished unto ever good work. In the light of the foregoing, exploring the book of 1 Corinthians would be immensely beneficial to us as believers.
The book of 1 Corinthians contains several lessons for believers. It has issues on personal lives, ministry, relationship with believers, marriage, etc. The city of Corinth was in Achaia (in modern day Greece), which was then a Roman province. At that time, the Roman Empire ruled the world –they were in Africa, Europe, Israel, etc. Corinth was diverse, cosmopolitan and highly populated. It was also a city filled with depravity, like the modern day Las Vegas in America which has been called “Sin City” in some quarters. The modern day Las Vegas has acquired notoriety for gambling, prostitution, drugs and other vices. Corinth had its fair share. It was a city filled with idolatory, immorality, unscrupulous business dealings and prostitution.
Of the several heathen religions practised in the city of Corinth, it was well known for the worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, whose temple was built on the most prominent part of the city, called Acrocorinth and which housed a thousand “temple prostitutes”. Part of the worship of Aphrodite was to sleep with the priestesses (temple prostitutes), and it was not considered a sin. It was also the place from which the modern day Olympics (the Isthmian games) evolved. This was the Corinth of Paul‟s day.
Paul preached the gospel at Corinth, helped by Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:1-18), and with an attitude of reverence towards God (fear and trembling [1 Cor 2:2]). Despite the fact that the city was a terrible place, the best way God deemed fit to affect lives was for men to preach the gospel. That was why Jesus encouraged Paul to keep at it despite opposition (Acts 18:9-10). Paul did not go to Corinth with words of human wisdom; Greece was a centre of Philosophy, and they had Philosophers in abundance with enticing words of man‟s wisdom. He came simply to proclaim the gospel of power (1 Cor 2:5), which was a different brand of wisdom – God‟s wisdom (1 Cor 1:24). This yielded fruit as people got saved and the Corinthian church was established. Given the background of Corinth, the Church in Corinth had manifold problematic issues.
The Corinthian church had issues bordering on divisions, factionalism, strife, fornication, disorder in worship, disorder at communion, fornication, spiritual manifestations, lawsuits, and all manner of carnality. They also had questions on whether to eat meat offered to idols, on the resurrection, on marriage, on exercise of Christian liberty and other questions, which Paul addressed in some portions of the epistle.
Paul commenced the epistle my identifying himself as an apostle (1 Cor 1:1). An apostle is a “sent one”. A person is not an apostle because he is given a title, but because he has been given a specific work to accomplish by God. Generally all believers are “sent ones”, but it does not mean all believers are apostles. An apostle is someone sent for a particular task, and is backed up with the tokens of an apostle - awesome manifestations of God‟s authority/power in great dimensions (2 Cor 12:12). Paul also had to commence the epistle with it, because he needed to validate his apostleship in view of doubts in some quarters in the Corinthian church about his apostleship.
He went further to mention Sosthenes as a brother. This is quite significant in the light of what Bible reveals of Sosthenes in the book of Acts. Paul‟s style of reaching out anywhere he went to preach was to start from a synagogue (Acts 18:4) which was prevalent in many gentile cities. Sosthenes was the chief ruler of the synagogue in Corinth (Acts 18:17). The Jews in Corinth felt Paul was preaching heresy by bringing the gospel/Christianity. Therefore, they seized him, and presumably led by Sosthenes their chief ruler, brought him before Gallio. When Gallio refused them favourable audience, they turned on Sosthenes, their chief ruler and beat him up. Sosthenes was a man of religion, a “church leader”, but was not bornagain/ Christian at the time of the incident. The lesson that can be learnt here is that it is possible to be a leader in a church and yet be in danger of eternal perdition because salvation has not occurred! Years later, Paul addressed him as a brother (1 Cor 1:1). Sosthenes had become a Christian through faith in the gospel.
Paul went on to address the believers in Corinth as those “sanctified in Christ called saints”(1 Cor 1:2). There is a wrong conception of who a saint is in our contemporary world. The idea of saints that has been sold to the world by the catholic “church” is some dead persons who were Catholics while alive, who lived a good moral life (though not saved or born again through faith in the gospel of Christ), and after death are beatified and have a number of miracles happening because of prayers made to them. Based on it, MEN confer sainthood on them! However, while that is the picture presented in the world; it is not the picture presented in the word! Bible refers to those born again/Christians as saints! It refers not only to Christians who have died, but EVERY Christian who IS ALIVE! Paul addressed members of the church in Corinth as saints. This is mind-blowing considering the degree of carnality and sinfulness in their midst. He called members of the Body of Christ ( the church of God) in Corinth „saints‟ from the onset of the epistle, before he even began to address their sinfulness. The Body of Christ is not a Body of sinners, but a Body of saints, every single one!
The word, “church” means the assembly of the “called out ones” – those who through the gospel have been called out of the world (1 Pet 2:4-10). It is also called the Body of Christ. It is a misnomer to belong to the Body of Christ and claim not to be a saint, because it is exactly those who are members of the Body through faith in the gospel that are called saints! A person is not called a saint because of what he did, but because he obtained mercy. The problem we have is the mentality of works which fosters a sense of inadequacy and the mindset that we are not deserving. However, God does not confer sainthood based on merit, or the scale of works, but the basis of the blood of Jesus and on the platform of grace. That was why despite against the background of carnality and sinfulness of the Corinthian church, Apostle Paul could still address them as saints! He pointed them back to their true identity as saints – washed, sanctified and justified (1 Cor 6:9-11), as foundational to a saintliness or walking as a saint.
Paul went on to recognize the grace of God at work in their lives (1 Cor 1:4-5), manifested in the fact that they came behind in no gift (1 Cor 1:7). The Corinthian Christians were given over to great spiritual manifestations. He commended them for it, though he went on to address the disorderly dimensions of it ( 1 Cor 14:26). Despite the fact that they were not walking saintly, he did not deny the fact that they were saints. He did not doubt their salvation, instead Paul affirmed it. First, he affirmed it by declaring that the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them (1 Cor 1:6), and that by virtue of their faith in the gospel. Secondly he expressed his conviction of their blamelessness in the day of Christ (1 Cor 1:8) – which in essence speaks of the security of their salvation. What a platform we stand upon as believers!
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