1 Corinthians

Church Discipline

Friday: A Happy Ending

June 12, 2026

I want to look at 2 Corinthians 2 because there we learn how this particular situation concluded. By the time Paul writes 2 Corinthians, a period of time has gone by. The purpose for which Paul had the church deliver this offender to Satan has been accomplished. The man has realized the loss and pain of being separated from the body of Christ. He has demonstrated sorrow and has repented of his sin. Now, when we come to 2 Corinthians, Paul tells the church that he wants them to forgive him and restore him to their fellowship once again.

The Litigious Church

Monday: Problems in Corinth

June 15, 2026

Well as unfortunate as it is that so much litigation happens in the secular world, when this attitude passes into the Church of Jesus Christ it is a great shame. It is not just that we live in a litigious society; we associate with a litigious church. This is the third problem that Paul is dealing with in this very interesting and helpful letter to the church at Corinth.

The Litigious Church

Tuesday: Suing One Another

June 16, 2026

But while there is a legitimate role for the courts, from 1 Corinthians 6 we see that it is quite wrong when such legal appeal takes place in the Christian community against one another. There are several things that were wrong. Paul deals with this problem by talking about the item that was the most evident, and then he traces it back to its cause. Then he takes that cause and traces it to a still further cause. In order to see how he does this, we will start with verse 8 and work in reverse.

The Litigious Church

Wednesday: Giving Up Our Rights

June 17, 2026

Now let me enter a qualification at this point. I believe there is a difference between what you will endure as an individual in this area and how you would approach it on behalf of someone else. When you are the one being cheated it is better to allow such injustice to happen and trust God for the outcome, rather than to pursue it in some way. Count it as a loss and move on in a righteous way from there. That is an entirely appropriate behavior in that case. But if somebody else is getting cheated by another, it is not right for me to stand by and allow it to go on and not try to help the situation get resolved in a correct way. In that case I should enter into the fray in order to try to get justice for the Christian being harmed.

The Litigious Church

Thursday: The Role of the State

June 18, 2026

Pilate recognized that Jesus’ kingdom was in a different sphere. Pilate was not threatened by a kingdom of truth, and so he went out and said to the Jews that he found no fault in Him. But then the religious leaders shifted the complaint by saying that Jesus still ought to die under the Jewish laws against blasphemy because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God (19:7). That statement affected Pilate.

The Litigious Church

Friday: How Christians Must Live

June 19, 2026

But what does Paul say? He expects something so much better of the Corinthian church. He knows that is the sinful background of some of them. He knows that is precisely what some of them were. But by the grace of God they have now been changed and made members of the church. Paul says at the end of verse 11, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Everyones Doing It

Monday: Accommodation

June 22, 2026

In 1984 Francis A. Schaeffer published a book called The Great Evangelical Disaster. It was disturbing to see how evangelicals, even if at times unconsciously, are, nevertheless, tragically compromising some of the great standards of the Word of God. The word Francis Schaeffer uses for it is “accommodation,” which serves as something of the theme of the book. In what areas does Schaeffer observe this accommodation? He mentions a number of areas.

Everyones Doing It

Tuesday: Changes in the Culture

June 23, 2026

The world does not have any objective standard for right and wrong. The world suppresses, and in some cases is ignorant of, the fact that God has given a moral law which is embodied in the Scriptures and does not change. Consequently, it is no wonder that the world shifts from one moral viewpoint to the next. But that accommodation was not present in the Church then as much as it is now. What is a tragedy is when the shifting takes place in the Church of Jesus Christ, who knows there is a God who has revealed Himself in the Bible and who does have an objective moral standard that is true for all people at all times and in all places.

Everyones Doing It

Wednesday: How People View Themselves

June 24, 2026

The second area is in regard to how people view themselves. Before these revolutionary changes, even in countries where most certainly not everyone was a Christian, there was at least something of a Christian ethos. Within that ethos, mankind was seen as the creation of God made in God’s image—and therefore responsible to God and unable to exist and function properly without some relationship to this God who had made him. But when God got pushed out of the picture, people asserted their self-sufficiency, believing that they are a law unto themselves and therefore able to establish their own righteousness without reference to anybody else.

Everyones Doing It

Thursday: Harmful Consequences

June 25, 2026

Our passage from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 deals with sexual immorality, but I gave this background because we cannot understand properly what is happening in the Church unless we understand that the Church is simply at this point reflecting the culture around us. Jesus said that the Church is to be salt and light in the world (Matt. 5:13-16). But in saying that He acknowledged the possibility that the salt can lose its saltiness or that the light can be hidden. That is what has happened as the Church has reflected the world’s values.

Everyones Doing It

Friday: Honoring the Lord

June 26, 2026

Having made these two points—the first being that not everything we can do is beneficial, and the second being that we should not allow sinful things to master us—Paul then takes them and begins to relate them to God. Sin, specifically sexual immorality, is not only harmful to myself and other people; it also ruins my relationship with God, who is the ultimate point of reference.

Marriage and It's Many Problems

Monday: Paul’s Answer Concerning Marriage

June 29, 2026

In the last chapter we saw how the spirit of our times has made the matter of sexual immorality particularly problematic for us, not least because of the many ways in which that sin can be committed. Another area that is also of great concern, to which we come now in 1 Corinthians 7, is that of marriage. For this subject as well, it is another case of the church picking up the mindset and values of the world. Just as we have been seeing how the world was influencing the Corinthian church, so we also know that the same thing happens today. Too often the church reflects the changing patterns of the world around her, rather than acting as that holy city on a hill.

Marriage and It's Many Problems

Tuesday: Each Belongs to the Other

June 30, 2026

The question, therefore, that Paul places before us is simply this: What is that to which God has called you? As I read 1 Corinthians 7, I suspect that there was a division in the church between a Jewish mentality and what we would call a “super spiritual” Greek mentality.

Marriage and It's Many Problems

Wednesday: Separation and Divorce

July 1, 2026

The second category of problems that he deals with are those involving separation. Whereas Paul talks about marriage as good, separation is something that is bad, though there are times when it may be necessary. In verses 10 and 11 we read, “To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.”

Marriage and It's Many Problems

Thursday: Marriage to an Unbeliever

July 2, 2026

But suppose the non-Christian leaves because he or she does not want to be married to a Christian. What do you do then? That is what Paul answers in verse 15 when he says, “But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.” If the non-Christian decides to go and seeks a divorce, there is nothing the other one can do about it. Divorce becomes inevitable in that situation, and the Christian is no longer bound to that marriage.

Marriage and It's Many Problems

Friday: Being Content

July 3, 2026

What you have to begin with is the will of God and serving Him. You have to recognize that you are not your own, but you have been bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ. If He calls you to a single life, you should count that all joy to serve Him in a single life. If He calls you to a married life, you should count that all joy to serve in a married life. You need to look at everything from the framework that God is able to use you to bring the fullest measure of blessing in the lives of other people.

Monday: Making the Right Decision

July 6, 2026

If at some point in my past I had had training as a sociologist, or even in statistics or accounting, I perhaps would have made up a list of the different kinds of questions I have been asked over the years as I have spoken in a variety of places. I would have tried to make an analysis of those questions in terms of their frequency to determine what really are the chief problems that concern Christian people. I think if anybody would ask me what is the number one question in whatever form it has been asked, I would say that it is about the will of God.

Tuesday: To Eat or Not to Eat

July 7, 2026

The issue for the Corinthian Christians was whether or not a Christian could lawfully before God eat meat that had been sacrificed to one of the heathen idols. There was a system by which the priests and priestesses were supported. Sacrifices were always part of the worship system in the ancient world. When a worshiper would come with one of these sacrifices and offer it, the basic formula is that the sacrifice would be divided into three parts: one part would go to the priest; another part would be sacrificed and burnt on the altar; and the third part would be sold in the market place, which would also support the priesthood by producing currency they could use for other things. That portion sold in the marketplace would get bought by all kinds of people, just as what happens when anyone can go to a supermarket and buy meat.

Wednesday: The Importance of Knowledge and Love

July 8, 2026

When we talk about knowing God’s will in doubtful situations, that involves a couple of key ideas. It involves, first, the idea of knowledge. What does it really mean to know something? Is it simply a matter of intellectual awareness, or does true knowing involve more? Second, knowing God’s will involves the idea of the situation. What is really going on? What is the background to the issue, and what are the factors involved?

Thursday: Three Necessary Principles

July 9, 2026

Once again he lays down some principles. The first one is that an idol is nothing. It is just a piece of wood or stone or some other material. But in terms of anything spiritual, it is nothing at all. Paul gets this idea, of course, not from the so-called knowledge of the pagan academies, but from the Old Testament. In Isaiah 44 the prophet Isaiah is quoting God, who is challenging the idols of the heathen. The observation is made of a man who cuts down a tree. He uses half of it to build a fire and cook his food, while the other half he dries out and carves out an idol, which he proceeds to fall down and worship. This is utter foolishness! This god cannot do anything.

Friday: Loving Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ

July 10, 2026

What we do affects others, and part of being a Christian is knowing how your brothers and sisters in the Lord are going to take your activity. Now that does not mean that nobody can ever eat any meat that has ever been offered to any idol. Those with weaker consciences cannot use their weakness as a club over those who regard this as a matter of freedom in the Lord. On the other hand, Paul also has some directions for those who feel free to eat. In verse 9 he says, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” He is not saying that you can never exercise your freedom, but be careful that your freedom is not used in such a way so as to offend Christians with weaker consciences.

Monday: Giving Up Rights

July 13, 2026

There is a connection between this subject in chapter 9 and what he was talking about in chapter 8. In that chapter he was answering their question about whether or not to eat meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. He said that because an idol is nothing, eating or not eating such meat is really a matter of indifference as far as your Christian life is concerned. But where other people are involved, it may well be that for them, it is not a matter of indifference because of the meat’s association with a pagan temple.

Tuesday: The Reality of Rights

July 14, 2026

Paul, however, makes a distinction between the rights and the exercising of them. This is where the emphasis of Mabel Williamson’s book comes in. It is a question of laying these aside, of waiving our rights for the sake of something which we believe by the instruction of God is of far greater importance. Here is the way Paul develops it in this chapter. First of all, he talks about himself as an apostle because that is what he has to establish. He wants to show that because of his calling, he has been given certain rights to which he is entitled.

Wednesday: The Rights of an Apostle

July 15, 2026

From other references we understand that two qualifications needed to be met in order to be an apostle. First of all, he had to have seen the Lord. From Acts 1 we see that an apostle was to be a witness of the Lord during the days of His ministry from the time of the baptism of John until His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. The second qualification is that an apostle needed to be chosen specifically by Christ Himself. And in the case of Matthias, who replaced Judas, he was numbered among the apostles through the casting of lots, which was used to discern the Lord’s will in the selection.

Thursday: Paul’s Reasons for His Rights

July 16, 2026

Paul gives a number of reasons why he has a right to be supported in his missionary work. First of all, in verse 7 he deals with what I would call a universal principle, which is simply that the laborer is worthy of his reward. He illustrates it in different ways. He talks about a soldier who is serving and therefore has a right to be paid. Next, he talks about a man who keeps a vineyard, and who therefore has a right to eat of its grapes when the harvest comes. Finally, he talks about a shepherd, who has a right to some of the milk of the flock. If an individual is working for a company, that individual has the right to the wages that are commensurate with that job. It is the same in Christian ministry.

Friday: When to Lay Our Rights Aside

July 17, 2026

Of course, that is not at all what Paul is doing. He is certainly not trying to work a situation to his financial benefit. His emphasis is entirely on the other side. Although he has these rights, he has willingly laid them aside in order that he might have the privilege of taking the Gospel to the Corinthians without cost. He does this because he does not want anybody to misunderstand his motivations.

Monday: Dealing with Temptation

July 20, 2026

I do not know of any book of the New Testament that is more practical than 1 Corinthians, at least in terms of the range of subjects that it addresses. Through the first nine chapters Paul has dealt with pride, sexual immorality, marriage, divorce, lawsuits, and how Christian freedom functions in the context of love. But of all those practical matters that are handled in this letter, I suppose the most practical and far-reaching of all is this matter of temptation, which Paul discusses in chapter 10. That is because it affects everybody in a way that the specific issues mentioned above may not. Temptation is an all-inclusive category, and therefore concerns absolutely every person in the human race.

Tuesday: The Necessity for True Identification

July 21, 2026

We need to talk about some of the imagery Paul uses in verses 1-5 because it is both interesting and helpful. The matter of baptism in verse 2 has led to a number of interpretations by commentators.

Wednesday: Israel’s Example

July 22, 2026

And yet, at the very time Moses was up on the mountain receiving the law, recorded in Exodus 32, the people were down in the valley breaking that very commandment. They were making the golden calf, and falling down and worshiping it. At this point, even though they were identified with Moses in the exodus and were numbered visibly among the people of God, they committed adultery and were judged for their sin. The sin of the golden calf led to the sin of sexual immorality because the worship of false gods always leads to a false or debased morality.

Thursday: Temptations Common to All

July 23, 2026

Another thing we need to remember is what Paul tells us in verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” This is a verse you should memorize and get in your mind early in the Christian life.

Friday: Resisting Temptations

July 24, 2026

What do you do with sins that come from the world? Paul talks about this in the opening verses of Romans 12, where he writes that we are not to be conformed to the world, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This means that you have to live close to God in the Scriptures, as you grow in the Christian life and allow God to enable you to think increasingly as God thinks rather than as the world thinks. For this to happen we need to draw near to God and allow the Holy Spirit to do that kind of transformation which makes us different people as the new life of Christ comes to fruition within us.

Free to do What?

Monday: Limited Freedom

July 27, 2026

The difficulty with freedom, of course, is that when we try to define it, we discover it is not such an easy thing to do. When most people talk about freedom, they probably have in mind the ability to do anything we want to do. If I have freedom, I should be able to do anything I want. If in some area that desire is restricted, then in that area, at least, I am not free. The difficulty with that understanding is that life is filled with things just like that.

Free to do What?

Tuesday: Fulfilling God’s Purpose for Us

July 28, 2026

In yesterday’s study we concluded by saying that Roger Nicole used a number of illustrations to show what happens when something that has been created for one purpose takes it upon itself to exercise supposed freedom in another area.

Free to do What?

Wednesday: Four Principles

July 29, 2026

For these areas that are a matter of indifference, we cannot go back to the Ten Commandments and point out the particular commandment that tells us what we either should or should not do. For matters of indifference we need to think about the principles that are involved for the specific issue, and recognize that people’s consciences might approach a subject differently, and both are correct because the Bible does not pronounce on what they must and must not do in that case.

Free to do What?

Thursday: Men and Women in the Church

July 30, 2026

As Paul moves from the end of chapter 10 to the beginning of chapter 11, we see how the theme of freedom continues with regard to how men and women relate within the church of Jesus Christ and also in marriage. Although Paul is certainly responding to concerns that had been brought to him by the Christians in Corinth, he is linking his answer with what he said in chapter 10 about freedom. There are restrictions that apply in how each other uses this freedom.

Free to do What?

Friday: True Freedom

July 31, 2026

Jesus spoke of Himself as the one who gives freedom, and it is the freedom that comes in the Gospel, of which we read in the written Word of God. As Jesus said in John 8, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (v. 32). The truth of God is what we find in passages like these, where we see that we will not be free when we say to ourselves, “I must be able to do what I want to do, and whenever I want to do it.” Rather, true freedom is found when we can say, “I want above all things to have God glorified in my life.”

Until He Comes

Monday: Problems at the Lord’s Supper

August 3, 2026

One of the wonderful things about the sacraments and ceremonies of the Christian Church is that when they are practiced properly, they recognize the equality of all men and women before God. None of us comes with any special privilege, but rather we all come as sinners in need of the grace of God, and that we must come equally and be received equally on the basis of what Christ has done.

Until He Comes

Tuesday: Three Time Elements

August 4, 2026

Another problem, which is closely wrapped up with the first and seems to be Paul’s major concern, is that by conducting themselves in that manner they were actually producing divisions among themselves in the very midst of the observance that was supposed to indicate that the church, in all of its diverse parts, was actually one.

Until He Comes

Wednesday: “This Is My Body”

August 5, 2026

It is a great shame that the Lord’s Supper and our interpretation of it have become such a cause of division within the Christian Church. The chief cause of trouble here is the Lord’s statement that the bread is His body. There are four major ways in which this has been interpreted.

Until He Comes

Thursday: Our Spiritual Response

August 6, 2026

The fourth view is that of John Calvin, who took something of a middle position between that of Luther and Zwingli. Calvin argued that Christ is present in the communion service, but not physically. In that respect, Calvin thought Zwingli was right. The body of Jesus is in heaven, where He has ascended and has given gifts to men. But that is not the only way Christ could be present. Calvin maintained that Christ is present spiritually, which he believed was far more important than a material presence. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is with us in a spiritual way by the Holy Spirit, He can say in Matthew 28 that He is with us even to the very end of the age (v. 20).

Until He Comes

Friday: Taking Communion Seriously

August 7, 2026

There is the future element because we do not just look to the past, to a Christ who died on the cross for our sin and rose again. Rather, that same Jesus who died and rose again ascended to heaven, and He is coming again. He said to His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). The same Jesus whom we look to in the past is the Jesus we look to in the future.

Spiritual Gifts

Monday: For Building Up the Church

August 10, 2026

He lists the gifts at the very end of this twelfth chapter, and every time he does that, whether here or elsewhere where he mentions tongues, he always puts tongues at the end of the list. That is a subtle way of communicating what he goes on to say as he gets to the very end of the chapter about desiring the better gifts. Paul is saying that if God gives you tongues, that is fine. It is a gift and should be used. But if you are concerned for anything, let your concern be for love, which is what he is going to talk about in chapter 13.

Spiritual Gifts

Tuesday: Unity and Diversity

August 11, 2026

As we look at chapters 12 through 14, if we approach them with the idea that what Paul is dealing with here is chiefly, or perhaps exclusively, the matter of speaking in tongues, what we are going to do is miss something which really should apply to every one of us. It may be that someone here or there is given this gift of tongues; but that is a minority, I would think, by the very fact of the multiplicity of the gifts. What we fail to see is that Paul is actually dealing with gifts, not just the gift of tongues.

Spiritual Gifts

Wednesday: A Healthy Church

August 12, 2026

So, if you are concerned about your gift, and thinking about what it is, the place to start is with these lists. Look over them and ask yourself what gift you have. Pray and ask God to show you what your gift is. And when you come to know this, remember that your gift is needed in the particular church where you are.

Spiritual Gifts

Thursday: The Body and Its Parts

August 13, 2026

When he talks about the body having many parts, we remember that in Pauline theology (and you find it very strongly in the book of Ephesians) the body is not simply the church as if it were our body collectively considered, but the body of Jesus Christ, with Christ Himself as the head. By this image he links it all together. What gift we have, and how we use it, matters because in all our diversity we together belong to Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Gifts

Friday: Honoring God the Giver

August 14, 2026

Let me make three applications. The first is to be content with what you have been given. If you are not content, what are you telling God? You are telling God that you know better than He does. The second is not to exalt one of God’s servants over another. If there is anything we are guilty of in the Church of Jesus Christ, it is that. What do we have but what we have been given? If God gives us talents that put us in a place where people see it, well, it is all from God. And if God gives us talents that put us in a job where nobody sees us, that, too, is from God. Let us not exalt one Christian over another.

The Greatest Thing in the World

Monday: A Life of Love

August 17, 2026

Sometime during the last half of the nineteenth century, a Scottish author and evangelist by the name of Henry Drummond wrote a classic sermon called “The Greatest Thing in the World.” It was about love and was based on 1 Corinthians 13, which is certainly viewed as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. If people know anything at all about the book of 1 Corinthians, this is probably the chapter that comes most to their mind. In any collection of great chapters, this is one that must necessarily be included.

The Greatest Thing in the World

Tuesday: The Importance of Love

August 18, 2026

It is not a hard chapter to analyze. I think it is a hard chapter to preach on simply because it is so profound. There is a preface in the New International Version, which is carried over from the last chapter and printed properly with this one. Paul says, “Now I am going to show you a more excellent way.” Then he has three points which are easy to follow. He talks about the importance of love in verses 1-3. Then he talks secondly about love’s nature in verses 4-7. The third point is love’s permanence, which you have in verses 8-12. Finally, he wraps it all up with the very last verse about faith, hope, and love.

The Greatest Thing in the World

Wednesday: The Nature of Love

August 19, 2026

The apostle John wrote his first epistle to reassure people who want to know they are saved. He gave them three tests by which they could know they were Christians. The first was to believe the right things about Christ, because if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, you are no Christian. The second was to obey God’s commandments and live a righteous life. The third test was that of love. Do you really love the Lord, and because you do, do you really love the brethren?

The Greatest Thing in the World

Thursday: The Perfect Standard of Love

August 20, 2026

In addition to knowing people who are patient and kind, there are also those who do not envy, those who do not boast, and those who are not proud. But the difficulty, you see, is in getting all of these things together. I know people who are patient, but they do not persevere. Or there are people who are kind, but they are really not very hopeful. When you begin to ask if there is anybody like that, we conclude that there is no one who meets that standard from which we all fall short except for Jesus Christ. Isn’t this a portrait of Christ?

The Greatest Thing in the World

Friday: The Permanence of Love

August 21, 2026

That leads to our last point, which is where Paul himself is going. He has talked about the importance of love and the nature of love. And if we really understand these two things, it follows that love never fails. All these other things he mentions are going to fail. Prophecies will cease. Tongues will be stilled. Knowledge will pass away. All these things are partial. But love will not pass away. He concludes this chapter by saying that faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love. Even when our faith falters and our hope disappears for a season, the love of God for us in Christ abides.

Is God Among You?

Monday: Foundational Principles

August 24, 2026

Every part of the Bible is relevant and is helpful for us in any time of history or any period of our lives. But it is true that some parts speak to contemporary problems more than others. I suppose in some ways this fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that we come to now is one of those parts.

Is God Among You?

Tuesday: An Important Contrast

August 25, 2026

Finally, at the very end of the chapter he gives this principle where he tells the Corinthians to “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (v. 39). You see, when you speak about all these difficulties or dangers in the practice of the gift, it might be our tendency to say, “Well, a gift like that which produces obvious disruption in the church and which is attended by so many dangers of misunderstanding probably should not be practiced, and might even be invalid. But Paul does not do that. He has far more balance and judgment than we do.

Is God Among You?

Wednesday: Benefiting the Church

August 26, 2026

As he talks about prophecy here, he does so in three areas. Prophecy is better than speaking in tongues for the church, the individual, and for the sake of unbelievers. In the first place Paul says that prophecy in this sense, that is, communicating the Word of God in a clear and applicable way is better than tongues because it helps the church to grow.

Is God Among You?

Thursday: Benefiting the Individual

August 27, 2026

Paul says that if you are really thinking about other people, if you are really concerned about them, and if you are beginning to exercise the kind of love about which he spoke in the thirteenth chapter, you will recognize that people are hurting. So in your worship services you will not be trying to call attention to yourself as so many people do. But rather you will seek to do that which is helpful to them.

Is God Among You?

Friday: Edification and Order

August 28, 2026

Finally, Paul talks also of the benefit of this for unbelievers. It is interesting how he does it. He begins to talk about it in verse 22, saying that tongues are signs, not for believers, but for unbelievers; while prophecy is for believers, and not for unbelievers. What he means by that is that tongues is a miracle, which is something that the unbelieving world will notice, whereas in the experience of Christian people, it would not get their attention in the same way.

The Gospel Core

Monday: Denying the Resurrection

August 31, 2026

1 Corinthians 15 is the most comprehensive chapter in the New Testament on the resurrection. It joins Hebrews 11, which is the great chapter on faith, and 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love. There are many other great chapters in the Bible, of course. But I think of those three together because at the very end of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). I think 1 Corinthians 15 fits into that list well because the resurrection is the essence of the Christian hope.

The Gospel Core

Tuesday: Delivering and Receiving

September 1, 2026

Paul has some interesting terminology here that is not at once apparent in our English translations but is more so in Greek and probably in the Hebrew terms that stand behind it. Paul says that he delivered to the Christians in Corinth that which he had received. Those two terms, “delivering” and “receiving,” to us sound like just incidental verbs. But in the language of rabbinic literature, those two terms were important because they describe what was the essential duty of a disciple of a master.

The Gospel Core

Wednesday: Put to Death, Buried, and Raised

September 2, 2026

Now, it is important when Paul points out that Christ did not merely die, but that He died for our sins. If he had said merely that Christ died, somebody could very well reply, “Well, so what? Everybody dies.” But when he says that Christ died for our sins, he puts that in a different category altogether. People die for different reasons, such from old age or an illness. Some might even die in a heroic fashion on behalf of somebody else. Or we might die as a martyr for some noble cause. Jesus did not die in any of those ways. He died for our sins, which means that He died in our place, as our substitute.

The Gospel Core

Thursday: Evidences for the Resurrection

September 3, 2026

I think it is interesting that, although Paul’s concern in this chapter is to talk about the resurrection, nevertheless, when he gets to this point and mentions the fact that Jesus Christ appeared to him last of all, Paul immediately thinks of the grace of God to give such a revelation and entrust such a Gospel to a person like himself.

The Gospel Core

Friday: Where the Gospel Core Leads

September 4, 2026

That is what the Gospel core leads us to. If you do not think in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for your sin, being buried, and then being raised on the third day according to the Scriptures to declare in a public way that God has accepted His sacrifice on your behalf, then you are like Paul before his conversion. You will boast in your supposed good works and think God has to take note of that.

Speaking Sense

Monday: God’s Gospel Made Known

September 7, 2026

In last week’s devotional we looked at the first eleven verses of this chapter. We saw that Paul was dealing with a situation in Corinth on this subject. There were people who apparently did not believe in resurrection. You cannot tell exactly from these verses whether they discounted the resurrection of Christ as well—probably not from the way he argues. But they were certainly willing to discount the resurrection of believers.

Speaking Sense

Tuesday: Consequences of Denying the Resurrection

September 8, 2026

As I read verses 13 through 19, I find that every verse except verse 16 has a consequence in it. This is no doubt because verse 16 is simply a repetition of a consequence that came earlier. Thus, every single verse talks about something that is bad if you deny the resurrection. In verse 13 Paul writes, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.” There is where he starts because the first great problem, if you are going to deny the resurrection in general, is that in order to be consistent you have to deny the resurrection of Jesus as well.

Speaking Sense

Wednesday: Further Consequences of Denial

September 9, 2026

Paul had preached the Gospel of Jesus’ resurrection to the Corinthians, and they had responded positively to his preaching. They believed what he had taught them. So Paul has to tell them that if they follow the philosophical mood of their day and deny the resurrection, they must understand that they are then saying that the apostles, including Paul, who came to them with this Gospel were lying about Jesus’ resurrection. Do the Corinthians really want to go to that conclusion?

Speaking Sense

Thursday: The Resurrection in Cosmic Perspective

September 10, 2026

The essence of the flow of history and where it is going, and also how we as Christians fit into it, is based on the resurrection because we are united to Jesus with our whole being—body, soul, and spirit. Moreover, one day even death itself is going to be destroyed. We are going to be part of the victory as we stand with Christ in our resurrection bodies.

Speaking Sense

Friday: But Christ Has Been Raised

September 11, 2026

Paul is saying that there really is a resurrection. Christ has been raised, and, moreover, His resurrection is the firstfruits of those that sleep. Christians who are now dead, and will go on to die before Christ returns again, are one day going to rise because Christ has risen. All those united to Him in saving faith will follow. What happens to Christians after death is not some vague and meaningless existence. Rather, we look forward to a genuine resurrection of our bodies in a new and glorified way. We are going to be raised up and made like Jesus Christ in His resurrection body. That is our destiny, if we belong to Jesus Christ.

Death Swallowed Up

Monday: How Are the Dead Raised?

September 14, 2026

In the twenty-second chapter of Matthew and also in Luke’s gospel, there is a story about the Sadducees’ coming to test the Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of the resurrection. It was one of a number of tests because people were trying to attack Him on different subjects. They had asked Him about the law and what was the first and greatest commandment. There was also a question about taxes, hoping to catch Him on His views concerning the relationship between one’s obedience to God and to the Roman government. Then the Sadducees came with their question about the resurrection.

Death Swallowed Up

Tuesday: Correcting False Ideas

September 15, 2026

The Corinthians’ difficulty with the resurrection grew naturally out of Greek philosophical thought. The Greeks basically had a great difference between mind and matter in the sense that everything that was of the spirit or the mind was good, and everything that was of matter was evil. They would have said that the problem is not that we are sinful human beings—including our minds and our spirits, which is what the Bible teaches. Rather, they believed that the problem is that we have bodies, which are the cause of our evil desires and bad behavior. These bodies tend to drag us down, while there is something within us, the mind and the spirit, that aspires to go upward to God.

Death Swallowed Up

Wednesday: The Nature of Our Resurrection Bodies

September 16, 2026

Once we move into the second half of chapter 15, Paul still needs to deal with other areas surrounding the idea of resurrection. At this point, the Corinthians might have come to acknowledge that the resurrection of Jesus is true, and that because we are united to Jesus by faith, we too will one day experience our own bodily resurrection. Nevertheless, they still had a question about the nature of this resurrection body. How is it possible, a Greek would argue, that a material body can inherit an immaterial, heavenly existence? Everybody acknowledges that God is spirit and that the realm of heaven has to be a realm of spirituality, not materiality. So how can you talk about a resurrection of the body?

Death Swallowed Up

Friday: The Reality of the Resurrection

September 18, 2026

When Paul gets to the end of this chapter, he has a great conclusion, but the conclusion has weight only if the resurrection is as real as Paul says it is. When Paul gets to the end, he encourages the Corinthian church, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (v. 58). If there is no real resurrection, our labor in the Lord is in vain, because there would be no forgiveness of sins and peace with God. But if Jesus rose, as the Bible says He did, then it is also true that He will return to reward those who trust in Him.

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