1 Corinthians Lesson 2
First Corinthians Chapters 2-3
Lesson 2
By Cindy Ketron
On The Edge of Eternity
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I want you to think about something. Since the beginning of time, God’s work in the world has been chronicled. We know what happened at creation. We know what happened when mankind sinned. We know about the lives of the patriarchs. We know about the destruction of the first temple and the exile of God’s people. We know about their coming back to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. We know about the prophesied Messiah.
Read 1 Cor. 2:1-2. The apostles had a new message to share that had never been shared with humanity after the ascension of Christ. What was that message?
2. This message was a mystery to those who had previously read Scripture. Read Eph. 3:3-6. How was this mystery made known to Paul?
3. Who was this mystery revealed to?
4.Why was this mystery revealed?
That last question is really THE question! Up until this time in history, the people of God were not evangelistic. The people of God were the Jews and they knew that they were God’s chosen people. They weren’t worried about bringing anyone else into the flock. There were others over the centuries who had converted to Judaism and learned about and accepted the one true God, but these people weren’t sought out by the Jews for conversion. The fact that Israel is chosen by God is one of the major reasons that people have been against the Jews. Since the days of Abraham, all of his descendants (the Jews) have known of their special status. So many people have been “rubbed the wrong way” because of this status. But when the Jews rejected Christ, the door was opened to all (the Gentiles) and the gospel was spread throughout the known world by means of evangelism so that the world could know Him and accept Him.
5. Unfortunately, for so many Jews, the reality of the gospel is still a mystery to them. Read 1 Cor. 2:3-6. How did Paul preach the “message”?
The older I get, the more I realize that it is not by my words that others come to know Christ. I think we’ve all been guilty of thinking “Well if I could just talk to this person or that person and tell them about my experience with God, perhaps they will come to know Christ.” And sometimes, we even browbeat people in our trying
to convert to Christianity. We hound them and hound them and hound them! I don’t think this is at all what Paul meant to happen. His reliance on the power of the Spirit of God meant that he didn’t have to stress over this. He only needed to share the good news and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work. This means stepping back and allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to take over.
Paul didn’t get himself into a situation where he was chatting about all sorts of things. He stuck with the main thing. And that’s what we need to be concerned with….the main thing! The main thing is the gospel.
6. Was Paul an intellect?
Paul was absolutely considered to be very intelligent, especially within Jewish circles. He was highly educated and his writings give us some insight into the fact that he could articulate complex intellectual ideas. He studied under Gamaliel, a prominent Jewish teacher in Jerusalem. It was this teacher who gave Paul a deep understanding of the Jewish Law and Scripture. Most people do not realize that he was fluent in multiple languages including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. This alone allowed him to converse with diverse audiences. And his logical reasoning skills were second only to Jesus Christ. With all of these incredible skills, Paul had no misconception of who he was. He knew that he was a sinner saved by grace and he knew that apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, all the smart words in the world would not matter.
And yet, with all of this, he didn’t flaunt his intellect. He communicated in a clear and concise way and he stuck to the main thing.
Read 1 Cor. 2:7-16. Verses 11-12 are the key verses in this chapter. Let’s look at this in kind of a flow chart.
God>>>>(sends) the Holy Spirit>>>>>the Holy Spirit illuminates the mind of man>>>>now we can know the things that God has given to us.
7. Is it even possible for a person to know and understand the things of God without the Holy Spirit?
8. Is there a difference in having the Holy Spirit and in being filled with the Holy Spirit? If so, what is that difference?
There is nowhere in Scripture where we are told that we have to speak in tongues to be filled with the Spirit of God. God’s power comes through the wisdom of God and that wisdom is revealed in Scripture. That’s why we can never rely on our experiences and feelings. Scripture is the Holy Spirit speaking to us. When we read the Bible, we are reading the God-breathed words and God continues to reveal Himself to us every time we read His Word.
9. What do you learn about the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:13-14?
10. What do you learn about the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18-20?
One of these verses is about possessing the Holy Spirit while the other one is about being filled with the Holy Spirit. You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit unless you already have the power of the Holy Spirit residing within you.
11. What happened in Acts 4:31 when believers were filled with the Holy Spirit?
The benefits of that filling are manifested through our boldness and eagerness to share Christ with others. The more submissive and yielding your spirit is with the Spirit of God, the greater will be your witness to a lost and dying world.
12. What was your spiritual condition prior to salvation?
13. How does Paul explain this in Romans 8:7-8?
Prior to conversion, Paul tells us that not only can we not understand the things of God, we are actually in a hostile relationship with God. Some of you may think that even prior to salvation you were a pretty good person. These verses totally annihilate that possibility! He describes our lives prior to salvation as a life whose mind is “set on the flesh”. A life that is not saved cannot submit to or “make itself subject to” the law of God. The miracle of this is that because God loved us so much, He put in motion a plan to rescue us from our sin.
Whenever you read the word mystery in the New Testament, it always means something that cannot be known and understood by the carnal, unregenerate man, but only by the intervention of the Holy Spirit can such mysteries be uncovered.
14. Is 1 Cor. 2:8-10 speaking of now, or later when we get to heaven?
In my work as a chaplain, I have done many funerals and graveside services. This is one of the verses that I frequently used. However, when I began studying for and preparing to write this study, I learned that these verses, while they are true of heaven, are also true while we are on earth. What Paul was trying to convey to the Corinthian church was that what they see and what they hear can be understood with human understanding, but the understanding of the Spirit-filled believer can perceive things that go far beyond one’s normal ability to see and hear, and we don’t have to get to heaven to gain this understanding.
One of the things that I do with children who are going through troubled times is to help them to read other people. For example, if someone has his/her arms crossed, that person might not want to have others intruding at that particular time. If a person is smiling, then that person is happy. If a person is crying, then that person is sad. Children need to understand these things so that they can accurately perceive the moods of others. As we become adults, we understand these things because our eye-gate and ear-gate takes them in. But what we can’t understand is anything that is spiritually discerned unless we have the Spirit of God.
15.What do you learn about discernment from Proverbs 18:15?
16. How is knowledge acquired?
To know the Word of God, you have to study the Word of God. And when you study His Word, He will illuminate your heart and mind to understand the message He wants to convey to you.
17. What does Hebrews 4:12 tell you about Scripture?
18. What is the difference between a living document and a dead document?
Examples of dead documents would be the Declaration of Independence,a court rendering, a book…..any book. These pieces of discourse are set. They do not change. They do not have any inherent power.
The Word of God, on the other hand, is described as active and living. It penetrates the heart and judges our motives and intentions. These words let us know that Scripture is active and not passive. These are all action words. If I share the Word of God with someone, I am sharing something that has power. But, if I share only my personal thoughts, my experience with God, and I leave out speaking the powerful Word of God, then there is no power in that.
I have a pet peeve. It is people who come up to me and tell me that God told them to tell me something and it does not involve Scripture. Any true word from God will come from the Word of God. Keep that in mind when people try to convince you that God spoke directly to them. Paul addressed this in 1 Cor. 1:12-13 when he said that some people say they are of Paul, or of Apollos, or of Cephas, or of Christ as if Christ had been divided.
19.Read 1 Cor. 2:11-13. How are we to know the thoughts of God?
20. Does God communicate audibly with us?
God’s audible voice was very rare in the New Testament. He spoke to lots of people in the Old Testament as the Old Covenant was being recorded. The voice of Jesus Christ is spelled out for us in the New Testament and it is recorded by the apostles for spelling out His redemptive plan in pen and ink. Once the Old and New Testament were completed, there was no need for God to speak audibly to us anymore.
21. What does Rev. 22:18-19 say about adding to Scripture or taking away from it?
Friends, the safest thing for us to do is to stick to the Word and not deviate from it. The Word of God will never return void because it will always accomplish what it needs to accomplish.
One thing we learn from these verses is:
The message of wisdom = the wisdom of God
All wisdom comes from God. And Paul desperately wanted to convey the deep spiritual things of God to this Corinthian church, but he was not exactly able to do so in the manner he wanted. Chapter 3 gives us the reason for this. We’ll get to that momentarily.
Go ahead and read the rest of Chapter 2. These last 3 verses really encapsulate the whole of this chapter.
Natural man (those who are not saved) >>>does not accept the things of the Spirit because he thinks they are foolish>>>>he cannot understand them
Compared to:
The spiritual man>>>>understands things in a spiritual way because he has the mind of Christ.
Want to know why we can’t seem to get a handle in this country on drug addiction, child trafficking, lawlessness, and pornography? Spiritual problems can only be addressed spiritually. None of these problems is addressed in our country from a spiritual standpoint and as such, none of them are fixed.
We can easily become offended by those who think us idiots because we believe the way we believe. Friends, it is supposed to be like this! There is no way an unregenerate man can understand the things of God.
The comparison is this: Those who are saved, filled with and led by the Spirit to those who are saved and not filled with the Spirit and thus not led by the Spirit of God.
I hate those commercials that appear to be Christian in nature and the theme is, “He gets you!”. We, as believers, “get it”, but the world does not get us. In 2022, a multi-billion dollar ad campaign began called “He gets us”. There are so many things that are wrong with this campaign, but perhaps the biggest problem with it is that the pictures of Christians marching and praying in front of an abortion clinic or opposing the homosexual movement, etc. are the ones demonized as being judgmental. And the pictures of those who accept this behavior are lauded and praised as the way we should be, because those who accept the behavior are the kind and non judgemental ones. The message is that we should accept everyone in every situation. This ad campaign might say, “He gets us”, but those who designed this campaign definitely don't “get Jesus”.
22. Let’s jump into chapter 3. Read 1 Cor. 3:1-9. This chapter expresses other spiritual problems that existed in the church at Corinth. What are they?
Assuming that those in the church at Corinth were saved, why was it that Paul could not speak to them as spiritual men?
We are introduced in this chapter to a 3rd category of men, the unnatural man.
Below are the 3 categories that we find:
1. The carnal man who is not saved and cannot reason spiritual things.
2. The spiritual man who is filled with the spirit and can reason spiritual things. 3. The spiritual man who is not filled with the spirit and cannot reason spiritual things. This makes this man an unnatural man.
The reason that this 3rd category of man is unnatural is because he is a Christian, but he is still living life in the flesh. It is this kind of Christian who gives Christianity a bad name. It is this kind of Christian who never grows. It is this kind of Christian who abolishes his/her witness to others who may be unbelievers. I had a friend years ago who came out as a lesbian and she entered into a homosexual relationship with another woman. When I spoke truth to her and encouraged her to turn from this wickedness and turn back to God, she told me that she was still going to church and that she was taking her “friend” with her because her friend was not a Christian. My response to her was this, “You haven't given your friend an accurate estimate of who God is, and as a result, you have destroyed any authentic spiritual influence you could have had in her life.” My friend hasn’t spoken to me since.
If we plant something in the ground, we expect the seed that we planted to sprout up eventually if we water it and make sure it has enough sunlight. I once planted some Iris bulbs. When they sprouted, only the leaves sprouted. Each Iris was “headless”. How weird is that?!! It is not supposed to happen this way. The same could be said of being a new believer. Something has been deposited into the life of a new believer. We expect to see something grow and when we don’t see any growth, then we wonder if anything was actually planted.
Paul gives the example of an infant. We don’t start out feeding our infants steak! We start out by feeding them milk because their little bodies can neither chew or process meat. And even when they do begin to eat meat, it must be ground up to a smooth consistency so that they can digest it. Bottom line….DIET MATTERS!!!
I used the word “unnatural” above. Sometimes we use the words “normal” and “abnormal” to define certain people. Normal is a strange word and the reason that it is strange is that there is never truly anything normal on this side of heaven. What is normal for one person and one family might be abnormal for another. Sometimes, normal is not healthy at all. I’ve had children in counseling before who were being abused by a parent or guardian. That is what they are used to. That is their normal. But that doesn’t mean that their normal is healthy. That kind of normal is very
unhealthy.
Normal in God’s economy is something that is consistent with His precepts. His precepts are not subject to change. Therefore, it would be normal for believers to be spiritually-minded and not fleshly-minded. When the believer in Christ is fleshly-minded, that is an abnormal Christian. In today’s culture, too many churches have this all backwards. Too many believers and too many pastors think that it is okay to live like the world and so to the world, they come to think of Christians who are liberal-minded, lovers of the flesh, and infant Christians to be what a normal Christian looks like because that is what they see most often. When Christians actually act like Christians should act, then we’re called radical!
23. What do you learn in 1 Cor. 3:4-6 about the work of believers? Are we all supposed to do our ministry in the same way?
There are people of faith who I admire. Sometimes, I wish I was gifted in ministry like them. I have a dear friend who is a construction missionary. His personality and his abilities to meet people where they are and make them feel like the most important person in the world is a trait that I long to establish within myself. I always walk away from him feeling loved and cherished. His physical abilities to do the work he does in construction is something that I could never do, especially in my current physical and medical condition. But you see, God doesn’t gift us all in the same way and because of this, we all have different spiritual chores to do. No one person is more important than the other within the body of Christ. Both Paul and Appolos were both saints who worked and built up the Church.
The only way that anyone can be successful in the work of God is if God alone empowers that person to do the work. It doesn’t matter who the preacher is. It doesn’t matter who the teacher is. It doesn’t matter who the organizer is. If God is not using that person, then there will be no eternal results. And because of this, God is the only One who is deserving of glory and honor.
24. According to 1 Cor. 3:9-11, what (or who) is the foundation?
25. Is it possible for us as believers to lay the foundation?
Several years ago, someone in my husband’s family had a house that fell into a sinkhole. It was a terribly frightening thing. Two of his family members were inside the house when it fell in and thank goodness, they got out alive and well. The foundation of that house was apparently built upon sinking sand. Matthew addresses this issue in his gospel letter.
26. How does he describe this in Matt. 7:24-27?
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Foundations Matter!!!! They matter in construction and they matter in the way we view the world and where we find our grounding! Funny thing, I googled what to do if you are in actual sinking sand. Here’s what I found:
1. Relax and don’t panic.
2. Drop everything to make yourself lighter.
3. If only your feet are stuck, try to take a few steps backward.
4. Lie on your back and swim if it is past your knees.
5. Roll onto firm ground when you reach the edge of the quicksand.
Let’s see if this translates to spiritual sinking sand.
27. What do the following verses tell you to do?
Psalm 46:10
Hebrews 12:1-2
Proverbs 4:14-15
2 Tim. 2:22
Psalm 40:1-2
It had been 4 years since the church at Corinth was established. They should have been further along in their spiritual journey, but they were still babes in Christ. Friends, what is your diet?
How long have you known the Lord? For those of us who have been saved for a while, our diet should be different from those who are babes in Christ. And if we’ve been Christians for a long time and we’re still eating only “milk”, then we are unnatural according to the words in this book.
In the city of Corinth, there were multiple schools of philosophy. Greek culture was impressed with knowledge and what they considered to be wisdom. But they were not wise by God’s standards. They were foolish. Paul didn’t want them to follow the cultural standards, but God’s standards. Have you ever worked in a rough environment? And by rough, I mean ungodly. I have worked in a few rough environments. And at times, I felt like I was being dragged into it and at other times, I felt like I was on an island all by myself.
It’s hard to swim against the current. But for these Corinthian Christians to swim against the current meant that they had to abandon the urge to engage in their own culture. It was not easy. It was not popular.
28.Read 1 Cor. 3:12-23. How will each man’s work be revealed and evaluated?
29.There are kinds of materials that we can use as we build our spiritual life. What are they?
If we build our spiritual lives on hay, wood, or straw, it's not going to be hard to destroy such a foundation. But, if we build our spiritual lives on precious stones, gold and silver, we can withstand the refiner’s fire. Did you know that the quickest way to grow spiritually is through suffering….through the fire?
For us to grow in Christ, He allows His fire to consume the “me” part of myself. Once we die to ourselves, Christ is more visibly manifested through us. If we allow it, brokenness can remove our flesh and reveal His strength.
30. Read Malachi 3:2. Who is it that endures to the end?
I love what Matthew Henry said about this verse in his commentary on the book of Malachai: 1
Christ by His gospel shall purify and reform His church, and by His Spirit working with it shall regenerate and cleanse particular souls; for to this end He gave Himself for the Church, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word and purify to Himself a peculiar people. Christ is the great refiner. He will purge them with fire, as gold and silver are purged, for He baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire, with the Holy Ghost working like fire. He will purge them by afflictions and manifold temptations, that the trial of their faith may be found to praise and honor. He will purge them as to make them a precious people to Himself.
By the way, if you do not have Matthew Henry’s commentaries, I highly recommend that you obtain the set. He was a 17th Century British Presbyterian minister. His first wife died of smallpox shortly after giving birth to their daughter. His daughter died 15 months later. He remarried 2 years after the death of his first wife. They had 3 children who died in infancy. All together, he had 4 children who died. Another 4 children were born and lived to adulthood. Matthew Henry knew what suffering was. The Apostle Paul knew what suffering was. Those people who have suffered and emerged faithful are the ones we should pay attention to, for they are the ones who have an authentic witness.
1 Cor. 3:15 is a little difficult to understand. Let’s break it down:
If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he, himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
“If any man’s work is burned up” - This is the work that the man did while in his physical body that was not built on the foundation of Christ. That kind of work is not true and authentic and it will not survive and be passed on.
“He will suffer loss” - He will suffer loss because what he did, all his works will be burned up. It will not make a hill of a beans of difference because those works are not done correctly and they are not based on a biblical foundation.
“But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” - This is the carnal Christian. Yes, he’s still a Christian, but he smells like he’s been smoking cigarettes because all his works were fruitless and useless and they’ve all been burned up.
All of this connects back to the 3 categories of men (and women):
1. The carnal man who is not saved and cannot reason spiritual things.
2. The spiritual man who is filled with the spirit and can reason
spiritual things.
3. The spiritual man who is not filled with the spirit and cannot reason spiritual things. This makes this man an unnatural man.
The carnal man is lost and headed to an eternal hell.
The spiritual man will desire to know the Word of God. He will have discernment because he has knowledge of God’s Word and is being directed by the Holy Spirit. This man’s “works” will withstand the refiner’s fire.
Do not expect a reward in heaven if you are a carnal or unnatural Christian. Those in this category (#3) do not know God’s Word and make no effort to study. Even when they come to church, they may use it more as a means of socializing than worshipping. They’d rather have a big ole party than a little Bible study.
31. According to 1 Cor. 3:16-17, what are we?
I’ve heard a lot of sermons and illustrations from these 2 verses. But rarely have I heard the true interpretation of them. The word you as it is used here is not a singular pronoun, but a plural one. Therefore, the use of the plural “you” is not a reference to an individual believer, but to the local church or the worldwide Church as a group of believers. And because the presence of God is supposed to reside within the local church, it is crucial that there be unity within the church.
32. Paul also emphasized this point to the church in Ephesus. What do you learn about this unity in Eph. 2:20-22?
33. When we talk about the church, we are not talking about a building. We are talking about the people who are in the building. How does Peter explain this in 1 Pet. 2:5?
When we get to 1 Cor. 6, we will learn about our individual bodies as temples. We’ll save that til later. We came to Christ at ground 0. We had nothing. He had everything! Building upon the Rock that is Christ is a reference to our good deeds. We will not be judged for our sin. God judged that on the cross. But we will be rewarded for the things that we did while we were in our physical bodies. The testament of our works is whether they last through the fire.
34. Read 1 Cor. 3:18-23. What do you think is meant by “the world’s wisdom”?
The morning after the inauguration of President Trump’s second term, he attended a prayer service. At this meeting was an Episcopal bishop referred to as The Right Reverend Marianne Budde. This is an oxymoron of the highest degree, because she was neither “right” nor did she meet the biblical qualifications of a pastor. She took the opportunity to use her platform to spread leftist propaganda and did not rightly speak the Word of God. There were so many people, even many pastors online who praised her for speaking truth.
Any true word from God will always agree with God. She did not know truth. And because she didn’t know truth, she couldn’t communicate truth. She followed the wisdom of the world that says, “LGBTQ is okay. Being transgender is okay. Breaking the law by illegally entering the country is okay.” Friends, none of this is okay in God’s economy. One pastor called her out by saying that she was committing spiritual malpractice! I couldn’t have said it any better.
The world’s wisdom = foolishness in God’s eyes
God’s wisdom = foolishness in the world’s eyes
35. In 1 Cor. 3:19, how does Paul explain those who possess the world’s wisdom?
This is another way of saying that they are deceitful and cunning. You should never trust someone like this. God knows the intentions of these folks. They are not getting anything over on Him.
36. What then should we glory in?
37. What belongs to us as believers in Christ?
Do you trust what the Bible tells you about the person and work of Jesus Christ? There are those religions that say that because the Bible was written by men, it cannot be trusted.
38. What does 2 Tim. 3:16 have to say about this?
39. . Romans 10:9 tells us how to be saved. What are those requirements?
Anything less than this will not get you into heaven. That road is very narrow and the older I get, the more I am convinced that the road is much more narrow than I might know. If Christ is not the rock, the foundation upon which your faith is based, then salvation does not belong to you.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When He shall come with with trumpet sound
Oh, may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand! Make sure that your foundation is solid!
Blessings…..
