1 Corinthians 1:1 and an Introduction | Verse by Verse Bible Study

Thank you Father God for this time that we have to spend together to read and study your word rightly divided, in particular today this book of 1st Corinthians that we are beginning to study and learn from. Father I pray that we will truly learn from this book how to walk in the Spirit instead of after the flesh, to put aside all worldly wisdom and see the importance of really studying and believing your word rightly divided, which is the power of God. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus's name we pray amen. 

1st Corinthians 

To begin with, 1st Corinthians is a book of reproof (correction in behaviour and in thinking) written to a carnally-minded church. It also teaches us about 

• The power and wisdom of God in the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ. 

• The preaching of Christ crucified and risen.

• Order in the local church assembly 

• The purpose and then diminishing of the apostolic sign gifts 

• The diminishing of water baptism and more clearly understanding our baptism by the Spirit 

• Choosing God's word over worldly wisdom 

• Living a Holy lifestyle; walking in the Spirit instead of after the flesh 

• Paul also defends his apostolic authority, given to him by Christ 

• The rapture, judgment seat of Christ and earning rewards for the heavenly places 

1 Cor 1:1

Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

It's important to notice that the Apostle Paul begins all of his epistles with "Paul". The reason for this is that the Lord wants us to see which epistles are written specifically to the church the Body of Christ for us during the dispensation of grace. We can tell which ones are to us by Paul's name being clearly stated at the beginning of all of his letters because Paul specifically is THE Apostle for us today. 

Contrary to what most of Christendom teaches today, Peter is NOT our Apostle. Peter had to do with Israel's prophetic program and He preached the gospel of the kingdom.

Paul IS our Apostle and was sent by the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel of the grace of God. 

2 Timothy 1:11 says,

“Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”

Romans 11:13

“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:”

Acts 9:15

“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he [Paul] is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:”

Most of Christendom doesn't understand, teach or even want to acknowledge this simple truth. The reasons for this can vary but include them wanting to claim believing Israels future earthly blessings/promises for themselves today. You can't make God do something today that He's just not doing. God's very nature and character does not change, but His dealings with man has changed throughout the different dispensations.

It's also largely due to spiritual warfare where Satan doesn't want believers to understand the dispensational changes. In Romans 16 we read,

"Romans 16:25

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,”

When we truly "rightly divide the word of truth" and understand our own mystery dispensation better, it produces hope in us and we are able to serve God properly in what He is doing today; we also truly grow up spiritually which in turn also means earning rewards in heaven for after the rapture. Our Salvation now and then our rewards given to us in heaven leads to our heavenly careers in God's heavenly kingdom, replacing Satan and his fallen angels (they have corrupted the 1st and 2nd heaven as well as the earth; this is explained more in the book of Ephesians). Satan doesn't like that! In fact the whole mystery dispensation took Satan and his devils by utter surprise! They had NO IDEA that the cross would reconcile the Heavens and the Earth unto Christ! They had NO IDEA that we, gentile believers (and individual Jewish believers in the dispensation of grace) would completely takeover their governmental positions in the heavenly places one day! This must utterly enrage them, and so Satan spends a great deal of time and energy deceiving people from hearing anything about the revelation of the mystery. 

1 Corinthians 2:8

“Which none of the princes [Satan and his devils] of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

Colossians 1:20 - And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

2 Corinthians 4:4

4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

He knows that once the rapture takes place, he only has but a short time before the inevitable! So he tries to put it off as long as possible by keeping believers ignorant (and by trying to prevent people from being saved at all). When enough believers from the entirety of the dispensation of grace are properly edified in sound grace doctrine, that might be when the rapture takes place! "Enough believers", meaning, enough to replace all of Satan and his fallen angels positions in the heavenly places. 

Revelation 12:12 [taking place sometime after the church the Body of Christ is raptured out]

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

But the Corinthian believers, as we will learn, were not living according to the teachings regarding our mystery dispensation. They needed to be taught and re-taught the basics, the "milk" of the word. This included needing to understand how to live the grace life (holy, godly living), the order of the church and other basic things. We all need to have the basic understandings after salvation. The book of Romans teaches us basic foundational doctrine. But they had been saved for awhile and were taught by Paul personally, plus they had apostolic sign gifts at this time, so they should have matured in the word much more by now. They had divisions among themselves and were operating according to their flesh and worldly wisdom instead of walking by faith in God's wisdom (sound grace doctrine).

The church today is very similar to the Corinthian church except that many believers today have never even heard about our mystery dispensation at all. Satan has them blinded with worldly wisdom (religion, philosophy, psychology, science falsely so-called like evolutionary theory, etc) and they are consumed with their flesh, living to mostly just please themselves. They think thoughts like, 'Why read the Bible when you can play video games, scroll social media or binge watch Netflix all day?" 

But even after we have been saved and then established in basic foundational doctrines as taught in Romans, Corinthians is the next book for our edification process. 1st Corinthians is a book of reproof and we will ALL need reproof as believers at one time or another! The Pauline epistles are laid out perfectly for our edification. In fact, the whole King James Bible is laid out perfectly, and we should NOT try to rearrange any of it. God knows exactly what He is doing! He is the perfect teacher! 

Homework: Read 1st Corinthians chapter 1. Who is Paul writing to and what are the issues that they are having? 

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