Straight to the Heart of 1 & 2 Corinthians: 60 bite-sized insights

By Phil Moore

If you think that 1 and 2 Corinthians are somebody else’s mail, then you need to think again. Paul wrote them for you and he wrote them for me. Right from the outset, his goal was far bigger than the city walls of Corinth. He copied them to “all the saints throughout Achaia” and to “all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They are God’s message to believers in any local church in any place at any time. They describe the kind of church God can use.

God inspired the Bible for a reason. He wants you read it and let it change your life. If you are willing to take this challenge seriously, then you will love Phil Moore’s devotional commentaries. Their bite-sized chapters are punchy and relevant, yet crammed with fascinating scholarship. Welcome to a new way of reading the Bible. Welcome to the Straight to the Heart series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Release date: Oct 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9780857212177

Phil Moore

Phil Moore leads a thriving multivenue church in London, UK. He also serves as a translocal Bible Teacher within the Newfrontiers family of churches. After graduating from Cambridge University in History in 1995, Phil spent time on the mission field and then time in the business world. After four years of working twice through the Bible in the original languages, he has now delivered an accessible series of devotional commentaries that convey timeless truths in a fresh and contemporary manner.  More details at www.philmoorebooks.com

Book preview

In taking us straight to the heart of the text, Phil Moore has served us magnificently. We so need to get into the Scriptures and let the Scriptures get into us. The fact that Phil writes so relevantly and with such submission to Biblical revelation means that we are genuinely helped to be shaped by the Bible’s teaching.

– Terry Virgo

Phil makes the deep truths of Scripture alive and accessible. If you want to grow in your understanding of each book of the Bible, then buy these books and let them change your life!

– PJ Smyth – GodFirst Church, Johannesburg, South Africa

Most commentaries are dull. These are alive. Most commentaries are for scholars. These are for you!

– Canon Michael Green

These notes are amazingly good. Lots of content and depth of research, yet packed in a Big Breakfast that leaves the reader well fed and full. Bible notes often say too little, yet larger commentaries can be dull – missing the wood for the trees. Phil’s insights are striking, original, and fresh, going straight to the heart of the text and the reader! Substantial yet succinct, they bristle with amazing insights and life applications, compelling us to read more. Bible reading will become enriched and informed with such a scintillating guide. Teachers and preachers will find nuggets of pure gold here!

– Greg Haslam – Westminster Chapel, London, UK

The Bible is living and dangerous. The ones who teach it best are those who bear that in mind – and let the author do the talking. Phil has written these studies with a sharp mind and a combination of creative application and reverence.

– Joel Virgo – Leader of Newday Youth Festival

Phil Moore’s new commentaries are outstanding: biblical and passionate, clear and well-illustrated, simple and profound. God’s Word comes to life as you read them, and the wonder of God shines through every page.

– Andrew Wilson – Author of Incomparable and GodStories

Want to understand the Bible better? Don’t have the time or energy to read complicated commentaries? The book you have in your hand could be the answer. Allow Phil Moore to explain and then apply God’s message to your life. Think of this book as the Bible’s message distilled for everyone.

– Adrian Warnock – Christian blogger

Phil Moore presents Scripture in a dynamic, accessible and relevant way. The bite-size chunks – set in context and grounded in contemporary life – really make the Word become flesh and dwell among us.

– Dr David Landrum – The Bible Society

Through a relevant, very readable, up to date storying approach, Phil Moore sets the big picture, relates God’s Word to today and gives us fresh insights to increase our vision, deepen our worship, know our identity and fire our imagination. Highly recommended!

– Geoff Knott – former CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK

What an exciting project Phil has embarked upon! These accessible and insightful books will ignite the hearts of believers, inspire the minds of preachers and help shape a new generation of men and women who are seeking to learn from God’s Word.

– David Stroud – Newfrontiers and ChristChurch London

For more information about the Straight to the Heart series, please go to www.philmoorebooks.com.

STRAIGHT TO THE HEART OF 1 & 2 Corinthians

60 BITE-SIZED INSIGHTS

Phil Moore

Copyright © 2010 by Phil Moore

This edition copyright © 2010 Lion Hudson

The right of Phil Moore to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Monarch Books

an imprint of

Lion Hudson plc

Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England

Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

www.lionhudson.com/monarch

ISBN: 978-0-85721-002-9

e-ISBN: 978-0-85721-217-7

First edition 2010

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan and Hodder & Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.

Lyrics on The Grace of God upon my life by Judy Pruett, copyright © 1990 Judy Pruett/kingswaysongs.com Adm. by kingswaysongs.com for Europe & The Commonwealth excl. Canada [e-mail]

British Library Cataloguing Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Alamy

This book is for everyone at

Queens Road Church in Wimbledon.

I count it a great privilege

to lead people such as you.

Truly, you are the kind of church

God can use.

CONTENTS

Cover

Praise

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

About the Straight to the Heart Series

Introduction: The Kind of Church God Can Use

1 CORINTHIANS, PART ONE: REMEMBER WHOSE CHURCH IT IS

Seeing God Amidst the Mess (1:1–9)

Your Call (1:2)

Divided We Fall (1:10–4:21)

Sin is Not a Flesh Wound (1:17–2:5)

Lessons from a Mongoose (2:2)

God’s Secret Wisdom (2:6–3:4)

Sarah Connor (3:5–10)

How to Save Your Church from Subsidence (3:10–17)

The Simon Cowell Moment (4:3–5)

The Kind of Leader God Can Use (4:1–21)

1 CORINTHIANS, PART TWO: SEX IN THE CITY

Mighty Aphrodite (5:1–7:40)

Cancer (5:1–13)

Power (5:4)

How to Shout at Non-Christians (5:9–6:8)

What Some of You Were (6:9–11)

The Temple at Corinth (6:12–20)

Sex, Singleness and Stickability (7:1–40)

1 CORINTHIANS, PART THREE: REMEMBER WHOSE WORLD IT IS

Contagion (8:1–10:33)

So Others May Live (9:1–23)

The Prize (9:24–27)

Behind Enemy Lines (10:1–13)

The Demon-Gods of Corinth (10:14–33)

1 CORINTHIANS, PART FOUR: CHURCH IN THE CITY

Any Given Sunday (11:1–14:40)

Girls Are Different from Boys (11:1–16)

Bread, Wine and Poison (11:17–34)

Ignorance is Not Bliss (12:1–14:40)

Jesus’ Other Body (12:12–31)

Love in Its Context (13:1–13)

The Gift of Prophecy (14:1)

The Gift of Tongues (14:18)

Triple Vision (14:20–40)

Stubborn Things (15:1–11)

… And Why They Matter (15:12–58)

The Trumpet (15:51–52)

Paul’s Passionate Plea (16:1–24)

2 CORINTHIANS, PART ONE: REMEMBER WHOSE MISSION IT IS

Still Seeing God Amidst the Mess (1:1–2:4)

Victory Wounds (1:3–11)

No Passport Required (1:11)

Celestial Navigation (1:12–2:13)

Satan’s Schemes (2:5–11)

Triumph (2:14–17)

Paul’s Other Corinthian Letter (3:1–18)

God’s Light Switch (4:1–15)

Payday is Friday (4:16–5:10)

Two Paddles (5:11–6:10)

The Yoke of Yokelessness (6:11–7:4)

What Every Parent Needs to Know (7:5–16)

2 CORINTHIANS, PART TWO: CASH IN THE CITY

Corinth’s Other Idol (8:1–9:15)

Membership Matters (8:5)

Eyes of Men (8:16–24)

2 CORINTHIANS, PART THREE: REMEMBER WHOSE POWER IT IS

Sent Ones and Went Ones (10:1–13:14)

Weapons of Mass Destruction (10:1–11)

God’s Tape Measure (10:12–18)

How to Avoid a Hangover (11:1–4)

Fruitful Means Like Jesus (11:5–33)

God Wants You to Get Naked (12:1–10)

Choose Your Weapons (12:11–13:4)

The Reward of Seeing God Amidst the Mess (13:5–14)

Conclusion: The Kind of Church God Can Use

OTHER BOOKS IN THE STRAIGHT TO THE HEART SERIES

About the Straight to the Heart Series

On his eightieth birthday, Sir Winston Churchill dismissed the compliment that he was the lion who had defeated Nazi Germany in World War Two. He told the Houses of Parliament that It was a nation and race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.

I hope that God speaks to you very powerfully through the roar of the books in the Straight to the Heart series. I hope they help you to understand the books of the Bible and the message which the Holy Spirit inspired their authors to write. I hope that they help you to hear God’s voice challenging you, and that they provide you with a springboard for further journeys into each book of Scripture for yourself.

But when you hear my roar, I want you to know that it comes from the heart of a much bigger lion than me. I have been shaped by a whole host of great Christian thinkers and preachers from around the world, and I want to give due credit to at least some of them here:-

Terry Virgo, David Stroud, John Hosier, Adrian Holloway, Greg Haslam, Lex Loizides and all those who lead the Newfrontiers family of churches. Friends and encouragers, such as Stef Liston, Joel Virgo, Stuart Gibbs, Scott Taylor, Nick Sharp, Nick Derbridge, Phil Whittall, and Kevin and Sarah Aires. Tony Collins, Jenny Ward and Simon Cox at Monarch books. Malcolm Kayes and all the elders of The Coign Church, Woking. My fellow elders and church members here at Queens Road Church, Wimbledon. My great friend Andrew Wilson – without your friendship, encouragement and example, this series would never have happened.

I would like to thank my parents, my brother Jonathan, and my in-laws, Clive and Sue Jackson. Dad – your example birthed in my heart the passion which brought this series into being. I didn’t listen to all you said when I was a child, but I couldn’t ignore the way you got up at five o’clock every morning to pray, read the Bible and worship, because of your radical love for God and for his Word. I’d like to thank my children – Isaac, Noah and Esther – for keeping me sane when publishing deadlines were looming. But most of all, I’m grateful to my incredible wife, Ruth – my friend, encourager, corrector and helper.

You all have the lion’s heart, and you have all developed the lion’s heart in me. I count it an enormous privilege to be the one who was chosen to sound the lion’s roar.

So welcome to the Straight to the Heart series. My prayer is that you will let this roar grip your own heart too – for the glory of the great Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Introduction: The Kind of Church God Can Use

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy.

(1 Corinthians 1:2)

If you think that 1 and 2 Corinthians are somebody else’s mail, you need to think again. Paul wrote them for you and he wrote them for me. Yes, I know he wrote to tackle very real issues in a specific local church, but right from the outset his goal was far bigger than the city walls of Corinth. He copied them to all the saints throughout Achaia and to all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.¹ They are God’s message to believers in any local church in any place at any time. They are a detailed description of the kind of church God can use.

A few weeks ago, I happened to be in the city where I lived as a toddler. On a whim, I went back to visit my old house, which I remembered as a sprawling mansion with a massive front garden. When I reached the address I had to double-check the number. It was a tiny house with an even tinier garden, but which years of fond nostalgia had made much larger in my memory. We can do the same with our view of the early Church, if we’re not careful, which is why God has given us Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.

The Lord preserved these two letters to remind us of how bad the early Church was. Many Christians assume that the unstoppable advance of the New Testament Church was due to her pure and unadulterated passion for Jesus. God tells us in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t. Parts of it were full of quarrelling, infighting, litigation and false teaching. Some of its members frequented prostitutes, committed incest and got drunk on communion wine. Some of its Sunday services were so disorderly that the apostle Paul concluded that Your meetings do more harm than good.² Nostalgic views of the early Church are not just false, but also self-defeating, so God gives us these letters to show us the reality. They remind us he has always advanced his Kingdom through struggling, sin-ridden churches like our own. No matter what problems may exist in our own churches today, these letters insist that they are still the kind that God can use.

The Lord also preserved these letters to remind us of how fruitful the early Church was. He wants to free us from the shallows of undersized ambition by showing us what happens when everyday people take his promises seriously. Corinth was the fourth-largest city in the Roman Empire, with a growing population of two thirds of a million. It was the capital city of the province of Achaia, and effortlessly rich through simple fact of geography. The rocky seas off the southern coast of Greece were treacherous, but sailors could bypass them by taking an overland shortcut across the Corinthian isthmus. They could transport their cargoes along its six-mile-long diolkos, a trackway that joined the Adriatic to the Aegean, and in doing so they turned Corinth into a wealthy world trade centre. It became a sailor’s city, a peddler’s paradise, a haven for vice, which was well-fed and arrogant. There was a reason why Paul arrived at the city in late 50 AD on his second missionary journey full of weakness and fear, and with much trembling.³ It was about as unpromising a location for a new Christian church plant as any other town in the whole Roman Empire.

Yet, against all odds, Paul’s mission was successful. When the Jews opposed him, he converted not just one synagogue-ruler but two, and one of them, Sosthenes, sat with Paul as he wrote 1 Corinthians.⁴ When the sophisticated Gentiles scorned his message of the cross, he persisted until it won over thieves and drunkards and playboys and prostitutes. Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth until early 52 AD, by which time the Corinthian believers were reaching other cities too.⁵ The very fact that Paul can copy his letter to all the saints throughout Achaia is a reminder that Corinth was a mighty success story. For all its faults and failings, it was still the kind of church God could use.

There was a reason why this church was so bad and yet so fruitful. The Lord also preserved these letters to remind us of how much grace he pours out on the Church through the Gospel. The early Church didn’t conquer the ancient world because of its own inherent godliness or purity. It did so because grace turned sinful people into the church of God, the field of God, the building of God and the temple of God.⁶ It did so because grace made them the body of Christ, the aroma of Christ and a letter from Christ which the world could not ignore.⁷ Paul tries to capture this paradox here in verse 2 when he tells his readers that they are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy.⁸ In spite of their sin, God had declared them to be flawlessly holy through the death and resurrection of his Son. Now they must learn to live in the light of this fact by faith.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus in early 55 AD in response to troubling news which was reaching him from Corinth.⁹ He told his readers to remember whose church it is (chapters 1–4), and to live according to God’s teaching about sex in the city (chapters 5–7). He told them to remember whose world it is (chapters 8–10), and to live a holy lifestyle as God’s church in the city (chapters 11–16).

Sadly, the letter was not enough. He was forced to pay them an emergency visit shortly afterwards. He returned to Ephesus in tears, having stretched their relationship to breaking point, and he wrote 2 Corinthians from Macedonia that autumn to renew his appeal and repair their relationship. Once again, he urged them to remember whose church it is (chapters 1–7) and to demonstrate their faith in God through their generous use of cash in the city (chapters 8–9). He ended with a warning to remember whose power it is (chapters 10–13) because he never stopped believing they were the kind of church God could use. In the end, this second letter won over the Corinthians.

I have written this book to help you to see the early Church as it really was: a church full of failings but even more full of grace. I want to rid you of any spiritual nostalgia which glosses over the reality of the first-century Church. Because if God painted brushstrokes of grace on a cracked and dirty canvas like the church at Corinth, we have reasons to be confident despite the weaknesses which plague our own.

So let’s walk together through the message of 1 and 2 Corinthians. Let’s read Paul’s description of the kind of church God can use.

1 Corinthians

Part One:

Remember Whose Church It Is

Seeing God Amidst the mess (1:1–9)

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

(1 Corinthians 1:4)

Two of my relatives are former church leaders who have stepped out of ministry and turned their backs on the Church. If you heard their stories, you probably wouldn’t blame them. They saw church life at its worst, and the disappointment crushed their spirits. Someone once said, To dwell above with saints we love, well that will be such glory; but to dwell below with saints we know, now that’s a different story! If you have ever found hurt instead of healing as part of a local church, you will know that it takes more than a sense of humour to survive.

That’s why the first verses of 1 Corinthians are so surprising and so challenging. Paul doesn’t begin his letter with complaint or rebuke or disappointed finger-pointing. Instead, he tells the wayward Corinthians that I always thank God for you.

Hold on a minute. Always thank God for you?! Always thank God for the sinful bunch of rebels who had betrayed his trust in Corinth? Thank God for the church that was riddled with division, pride and puffed-up human wisdom? Thank God for Christians who were suing one another in the law courts and shocking even their non-Christian neighbours with their acts of sexual perversion? Who were disorderly in worship, dishonouring the gifts of the Spirit, and drunk at the Lord’s Supper? Who were led astray by false teachers and had started doubting the reality of Jesus’ resurrection? How on earth can Paul begin his letter by telling the Corinthians that I always thank God for you? He explains in the second half of the verse: because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

I am not very good at Magic Eye pictures. Frankly, they look like a jumbled-up mess to me. My wife, on the other hand, can do strange things with her eyes and can always see a beautiful three-dimensional picture hidden behind all the mess. Paul did the same when he looked at the sinful church at Corinth. Instead of feeling angry and giving up in disillusion, Paul saw God’s grace at work amidst the mess.

Paul wasn’t just a wishful thinker. He didn’t try to pretend that the Corinthians were doing better than they really were. I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches, he tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:28, and his intense concern is what makes these two letters so passionate. He looked sin full in the face within the messy church at Corinth, but then chose to focus his eyes upon God’s gracious 3D picture. He learned to dwell on God’s grace more than he did on human failure, and he let the truth of the Gospel save his heart from disappointment.

The Gospel reminded Paul of God’s work in the past, and this more than offset the bitter pill of the present. Every single one of those believers had once been dead in their sins and enemies of God, until God’s grace sought them out and raised them to life through his Spirit.¹ They had not become church members because Paul convinced them it might help them to pray a sinner’s prayer, as Paul stresses by filling these opening nine verses with a series of passive verbs. They had been called by God’s initiative, sanctified through the shed blood of Jesus and given grace in spite of their sin. They may look like a sorry bunch of washed-up, has-been Christians, but in truth they had been enriched through the Gospel. Paul had learned to focus on God at work amidst the mess, and he refused to write off anyone whom the Lord had written in.²

The Gospel also reminded Paul of God’s promises for the future. He must have felt punch-drunk when he listened to Chloe, Stephanas and a long line of other visitors with bad news from Corinth,³ but one great fact kept him buoyant through it all. God, who has called you… is faithful, he rejoices in verse 9, confident that this means he will keep you strong to the end. The same God who had called the Corinthians to follow him in the past would also keep them following him right until the end, because human unfaithfulness does not nullify God’s faithfulness.⁴ That’s what stopped Paul from giving up at the start of 55 AD, from giving up in the spring when his emergency visit ended in heartbreak, and from giving up in the autumn when he wrote to them again. Ultimately, it was because Paul kept sight of God’s future grace for the Corinthians that he won them to repentance and helped them to see it too.

The Gospel also helped Paul to see God’s work in the present. Fault-finding is easy but grace-spotting requires faith. Paul needed it to see God’s fingerprints at Corinth, still at work amidst the mess. In spite of their sin, the Corinthians were still calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, and no one ever does that but for the working of God’s grace.⁵ Compared to their out-and-out paganism less than five years earlier, the changes to their speech and knowledge were living proof that the Gospel had saved them.⁶ Even the disorderly way in which they exercised the gifts of the Spirit bore testimony to the fact that God was present in their midst and had not given up on them. It is easy to focus on the negatives and disappointments, but those who understand the Gospel can see God at work in the midst of the mess.

Magic Eye pictures may not come naturally to you, but make sure that you see the 3D picture of God’s grace in the Church. If you don’t, you will find yourself complaining, church-hopping and falling out of love with the Bride for whom Christ died. Your heart will eventually grow cold towards God’s People, and your joy in Christian ministry will begin to falter and die.

But if seeing God at work could give Paul strength to love, persevere and give thanks for the troublesome Corinthians in 55 AD, it is more than able to give us strength to cope with our own setbacks and disappointments today. I am amazed at how Paul won back the church at Corinth when they realized that he was more aware of God’s grace than he was of their failure. I am still amazed at the potential released in churches today whenever people learn to see God at work amidst the mess.

Your Call (1:2)

To the church of God in Corinth… together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours.

(1 Corinthians 1:2)

Paul never uses the word Christian in his letters. It’s not just that the word was used as a label of contempt back in 55 AD.¹ He had a theological reason to avoid it as well. Paul understood that a noun like Christian was simply not enough to convey what it means to follow Jesus. It means far, far more than deciding to tick a box on a census return or an evangelist’s response card. Paul needs a verb to describe what following Jesus really means. It means calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was not stating anything new here. Right from the very first chapters of Genesis, the followers of Yahweh were those who called upon the name of the Lord.²