Chapter 1

1.  The first thing Paul does is establish his apostolic authority. He is an apostle because God chose him. There were some in Corinth who doubted his apostleship because he wasn't one of the original 12 and as a result they didn't think his words had authority. Paul works quickly to establish his divine authority because if we don't believe the word of God is the word of God than were not going to pay attention to what it says. 

If the word of God is not the word of God then it has no authority which is why one of Satans tactics over the years is to undermine the inspiration of the Bible. 


2.  The Bible says we are sanctified in Christ Jesus. To be sanctified means to be holy and set apart for God. Sanctified in Christ Jesus means that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ none of us could possibly be acceptable to God. Even a decent person cannot be decent enough to be accepted by God through their own merits.  We must be sanctified by Christ Jesus. 


3.  Grace is God giving us something good that we do not deserve. We do not deserve to be forgiven. We do not deserve heaven. We do not deserve to be accepted by God. 

God does not give us what we deserve; in Christ he gives us good things that we do not deserve.


4.  God had been very generous to the Corinthian Christians as far as spiritual gifts are concerned. Paul thanked God for what he did for the Corinthian's.

It is good to be happy for God's blessings on other people. A Christian who is walking in the spirit will be happy for the good things God has given to others.


5.  The church in Corinth understood many spiritual truths, and they had many who could speak well. They were abundantly equipped to do the work of God.

If God wants you to do something then He will equip you to do it. Sometimes the equipment is there and it has to be prepared by practice or study but it's there.  If God wants to use us then he will give us what we need to do his will


6.  The evidence of Christ's presence, and power was clearly seen in the Corinthian church. They were taking a public stand for Christ in a very sinful city and no one does that unless they're filled with the Holy Spirit. 


7.  They had all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they had the means to do the will of God, and the work of God. They had plenty of spiritual equipment to do everything God wanted them to do as they waited for the return of Christ.

Again God gives His people all they need to do all He wants them to do for as long as He wants them to do it.  If you want to do something and you don't have what it takes at this time then God doesn't want you to do it, at least not right now.


8.  God says he's going to keep the Corinthian's safe and blameless which means that salvation has to be by grace, and not based on human effort because there was a lot of sin in the Corinthian church, and they were nowhere near good enough to be considered blameless by their own merits.

By the way, God never promises to keep us sinless in this life although that should be our goal because if you don't aim for something you won't even get close. God doesn't promise to make us sinless however He does promise that He will keep us blameless. In other words, in Christ He won't blame you for your sins. He says, You did wrong but I'm not going to hold it against you. 


9.  God invites us to be reconciled to him through his son Jesus Christ. God's grace draws sinners, his grace saves them, and his faithfulness keeps them.


10.  Through his apostolic authority Paul says: do not argue, and be considerate of each other.

Truth should never be watered down in order to get along with those who oppose it. However for the sake of harmony there should be grace and flexibility among Christians concerning nonessential teachings, that is, things that are not crystal clear in the word of God.


11.  Paul is upset because the Corinthians were arguing and yet he still calls them brothers. The apostle is being kind even as he deals with their sin.

God wants Christians to be kind to each other and if there's a disagreement disagree in a loving way; disagree over the issues but try to respect one another.


12.   In other words, the Corinthian Christians were picking sides, following human leaders, and then arguing about which human leader was best.


13. The apostle Paul did not die for anyone's sin. No one was baptized into the name of the apostle Paul. Paul had nothing to do with saving anyone from hell so why were some of the Corinthian's following him, or any other human being for that matter?

It is wrong to be identified with a man as a Christian. I would be ashamed if someone identified me as being a follower of another human being. I want my identity to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't follow anyone and I don't want anyone following me. 

We need to listen to good Bible teachers and measure everything they say by the one that we should follow and that's the Lord Jesus Christ and the written word of God.


14,15.  When the apostle says I thank God that I baptized none of you he's not downplaying the importance of water baptism as some would suggest. He simply saying that he is glad that he did not personally baptize them because they would probably think that that would be a reason to follow him.

Whenever the focus is on a human being, even a faithful servant of Jesus Christ instead of on Jesus the focus is wrong.


16. As he is discussing the issue of baptism the apostle remembers someone else that he baptized. 

Sometimes talking about an issue helps to clarify our mind on that particular issue. That's in part what is meant when the Bible says iron sharpens iron. As we talk with other Christians about the Bible God can crystallize truth for us. 


17.  The Apostle kept his teaching simple. His teaching was very plain; he didn't want big words and high sounding ideas to distract listeners from the simple message of the cross. He didn't want anyone to be impressed with his vocabulary or his intellect. 

The focus should never be on the preacher but on Jesus and the word of God. And anything said or done to draw attention to self should be confessed as sin because that's what it is.


18.  The idea that Almighty God would send his son and that his son would volunteer to come and die on the cross to pay for our sins is a silly stupid idea to those who are on their way to hell. As far as they are concerned it is a waste of time to listen to such nonsense. And that is also why they are on the way to hell.


18.  The cross is the power of God for salvation because that's where Jesus paid for our sins.


19.  The intellectual crowd who like to use terms like: I think-I believe-may I suggest to you-and through those words communicate their own made-up plans of salvation, completely ignoring the cross, will see all their plans fail. 

God ignores the ideas that people devise as a means to eternal salvation.


20.  The best plans on how to obtain eternal life that the scholars and the debaters of this world come up with are pure nonsense to God. They are nonsense to God because that's what they are, and someday everyone will know it, when it becomes clear that none who follow them made it to heaven.


21.  God did two things: he made sure no one would escape hell by devising their own plan no matter how sophisticated it seemed, and he came to man's rescue himself by saving everyone who would believe his word and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.


21.  God saves people by the preaching of His word.  Preaching is boldly proclaiming the written word of God. Preaching is speaking the truth with authority. 

People don't like to hear preaching today. Especially in evangelical churches, people do not want to hear it; they roll their eyes, and snicker;  it's too old fashioned. Truth be known, its not too old fashioned, they're too luke warm and so the straight forward word of God makes them uncomfortable. People want their Pastor to "share" the word of God with them. People want their Pastor to tell stories, impress with big words, or entertain them by being cute. But very few will tolerate a preacher who opens the Bible and says Thus says the Lord God!  

If the word of God is not spoken with authority no one will get upset but no one will get saved or sanctified either. 


22.  The Greeks were the intellectuals and they wanted to be saved by understanding high sounding, complicated, philosophical ideas. Their attitude was: the first one to come up with a complicated plan using big words that no one understands wins. On the other hand the Jews always wanted a fresh miracle to prove that Jesus is the Savior.


23.  There's nothing complicated about God's plan of salvation and here it is in a nutshell: Jesus died to save us from hell. But the Jews and the Greeks didn't believe the word of God. It offended their pride to think that their only hope was for the creator to become a man and die a horrible death on the cross to pay for their sin. 

There are some who refuse to believe that there isn't a system that will get them into heaven, without being so degrading to them. But there is no plan, no system, no complicated intellectual ladder that will get anyone into heaven.  The death of Jesus on the cross which paid for our sins is the only plan. Repent and receive Christ as Lord and Savior or die lost. 


24.  The death of Christ on the cross that paid for sin is a foolish idea to a lost soul whose next stop is hell if they don't repent. But it is not foolish to those of us who see the truth. We understand that Christ is the power of God to save us, and because we understand, we appreciate Him. 

Jesus, not some fancy speaker who talks in circles; Jesus, not some preacher who thinks he's a comedian; Jesus, not some pulpit entertainer; Jesus, not some great intellectual; Jesus, and only Jesus is the focus of God's wise plan to save sinful man. Jesus and His atoneing death on the cross is the only thing that should be proclaimed for salvation and should be the center of every teaching. 


25.  The so-called foolish, unsophisticated, plan of God to save people through Jesus Christ is actually much wiser than the best plan of any great thinker, why? because it works. And God who allowed himself to appear to be weak on the cross is stronger than any man to save a soul from hell.


26.  There were few Christians in Corinth who had important places in society;  most were everyday people; many were slaves.

God is not against the sophisticated, intellectual crowd, he just isn't impressed by them. He will save anyone who repents, but he won't save anyone who thinks they're sophisticated enough to come up with their own plan of salvation.


27.  God decided to use a plan that the big thinkers in the world considered foolish, and worthless. He chose to use the cross at least in part to shame the arrogant big shots who are so good at impressing the world, but so pitiful at impressing God.



28.  God decides what will and will not work, and there is always a holy reason for his decisions. God doesn't do anything on the basis of random choice, or personal whim. He chose a plan to save man through the death of his son on the cross because it would satisfy his justice. He chose a plan to save man that the world thinks is ridiculous. Ridiculous to the world, foolish to the world which is why it cuts arrogant people who think they're so smart down to size by being the only plan that works.


29.  No one in heaven will be bragging about how their goodness or intelligence caused them to get there apart from the cross. So if anyone out there is trying to do that I would say quit because you're going to fail. If human effort is your plan of salvation you better stop because God tells you in advance that no one who thinks they have earned salvation will receive it.


30.  All that we have including good desires, holiness, wisdom, righteousness, redemption, and purity comes to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus makes us right with God. 

Our right standing with God plus any good we do or even desire to do comes from Jesus Christ our Savior who lives inside of us. This is precisely why Jesus said, "apart from me you could do nothing."


31.  No reason for any of us to glory in self no matter what good things we do. We have no reason to be proud of ourselves because everything that we have is a gift from God through Jesus Christ. If were going to be proud of someone then be proud of God and how He is able to work through a worthless sinner that He has saved by grace, and give Him all the credit. 

The Bible is so crystal clear on this one: if we're going to boast, then we must only boast about God who saves us, who makes us holy, and who gives us any wisdom that we may have.


Chapter 2


1.  Paul didn't try to impress anyone with his big vocabulary or a polished speech even though he was well educated. He didn't try to impress anyone with a high sounding philosophy which really was all the rage in Corinth in those days.

Today many evangelicals would've used things like that just as they use rock music and other worldly things to build a so-called Bridge to the unsaved. Paul didn't know about any bridges to the unsaved except the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which when proclaimed clearly will be used by the Holy Spirit to create faith in those who want to repent.


2.  Paul knew that clever words and fancy speech would draw attention to himself and away from Christ. As a result, he talked about Jesus, and his death on the cross, and that's it. It was Jesus that Paul pointed to, and he did it with simple words.


3.  Paul didn't fear for his own safety, but he certainly was concerned about teaching the word of God in the sin capital of the Roman Empire. It was an enormous assignment and he wasn't confident in his own ability to get it done.


4.  The power of the Holy Spirit worked through the words that Paul spoke because he spoke the plain, simple, word of God. He didn't use words that no one understood in an attempt to impress them.


5.  When we keep the message of God's word simple the Holy Spirit is able to convince people that it is true. When the Holy Spirit convinces people that the word of God is true he begins to develop faith in their hearts which is how people are saved and sanctified.


6.  The wisdom of the word of God doesn't appeal to the damned, but Christians love  it. And the more mature we are in the Lord the greater appreciation we have for the wisdom of God's word.


7.   God planned his work of salvation for sinners long before Genesis 1:1. Before the world began God determined that he would come to earth to rescue every sinner who wanted to repent and be forgiven.


8.  If the world would not have been willfully ignorant of who Jesus was, if they would not have been so in love with their sin, and so opposed to the word of God they would not have killed God's son. But their stubborn hearts gave them no capacity for the wisdom of God so they murdered him. They murdered Jesus, they murdered God's son, and they refused to repent and in the process sealed their eternal doom.


9.  God has prepared great things for those who love him. No one knows what they are; no one has ever even imagined them, and as we have seen they cannot be discerned by human intelligence. They must be revealed to us by the spirit of God working through the word of God.


10.  The Holy Spirit understands everything about the infinite God because he is the infinite God. The Holy Spirit understands the thoughts and ways of God even those that are the most difficult for people to understand.


11.  We cannot know what someone else is thinking, or what they want, or their motives; we know those things about ourselves but we do not know them about anyone else. Our spirit knows things about us that no one else could imagine. It is the same with God. Only God really knows God. Only God's Spirit knows God completely.


12.  The reason Christians understand God's plan to rescue people from hell through the cross is because they have the Holy Spirit in them. We understand it, we see it, and because we get it we appreciate it. There's no way to understand the things of God apart from the Holy Spirit showing them to us.


13.  In other words, we should use the Holy Spirit's words to teach the truth found in the word of God.

It is important to use biblical words to describe what the Bible teaches. Replacing biblical terminology with human terminology removes the power of God's word to teach, convict, and transform.


14.  If I do not understand the language that a person is speaking they may be proclaiming the truth, but it will seem like nonsense to me. Which is why the unsaved who do not have the  Holy Spirit to give them understanding consider Biblical doctrines to be Babel, utter nonsense.


15.  An unsaved person does not understand the reasoning of a saved person who is being led and taught by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit helps us to know right from wrong, and causes us to understand that we should make choices with eternity in mind. The unsaved person who is without the Holy Spirit lives for today; they make choices based on what they can get in this life. That's why a person who is led by the Holy Spirit makes no sense to them at all.


16.  It is remarkable to consider that Christians have the thoughts of God in them. It is exciting when we understand that we control how many thoughts of God we have in us. The more we read the Bible, the more we know God's word, the more thoughts of God we will have in our mind, and the greater our discernment will be. How much of these things we have is entirely up to us. 


Chapter 3


1.  The Corinthian Christians were not following Jesus the way they should have been. They were allowing their own feelings and desires to lead them instead of Jesus and the word of God.

Anytime we allow our desires that oppose the word of God to direct us we are carnal Christians. Actually we go from being a spiritual Christian to a carnal Christian the second we commit sin, and we go from being a carnal Christian to a spiritual Christian when we repent and confess. We may not feel spiritual because we just finished sinning followed by repentance and confession but we are spiritual; in the eyes of God we are, and that's the only thing that matters. We need to quit looking at ourselves and judging ourselves according to our feelings and instead judge ourselves according to what the word of God says.

We are carnal as long as we walk in the flesh following the desires of our sin nature; we are spiritual as long as we let the Holy Spirit direct us, and that can change second by second.


2.  The difference between spiritual milk and solid spiritual food isn't one doctrine versus another, or one Scripture versus another. The milk of any teaching is its basic truth. The meat is the rich, in-depth meaning that can be pulled out of that basic truth.


3.  Christians who envy others, or demand their own way are spiritual babies no matter what their physical age may be. In behavior they are no different than the unsaved; they are spiritual toddlers sucking their thumb and throwing a tantrum when they can't do what they want.


4.  They were lining up with human leaders instead of focusing on Jesus. And then after taking sides they would argue about which human leader was the best.

The Holy Spirit never leads Christians to focus their attention on church leaders, or Christians, or preachers. He leads people to focus their attention on Christ. Jesus said when the spirit of truth comes he will speak of me. 

If you're not thinking about Jesus then you're not being led by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus isn't your surpream motive for doing whats right then you are not being  led by the Holy Spirit. 


5. Ministers are servants; that's what the word means, and that's what they're supposed to be, and nothing else. A minister is a servant of Jesus Christ and that means live every moment of every day to please God. It means dying to self and doing what Jesus wants even if it leads to hardship, poverty, or death. No one cares what a slave wants and a slave shouldn't care what he wants either. A slave of Jesus is to be concerned about what Christ wants and that is it. 


6.  No preacher or teacher is wise enough or eloquent enough to convince someone  else to become a Christian or to convince a Christian to live like Jesus. It doesn't work that way. A good teacher will proclaim the word of God so that the Holy Spirit can take that word and lead the people to repentance and faith in Christ. That's why teaching the pure word of God and nothing else is the mark of a good minister.


7.  You can do a good job plowing, planting, and watering your garden; you can pull out the weeds, but if God doesn't add his blessing to the crops they're not going to grow. Likewise someone can teach the word, but even if that someone is the great apostle Paul, if God doesn't add his blessing then no one will repent and no one will learn.  If you get anything out of my teaching it is only because God has blessed His word and therefore He deserves all the credit.


8.  I don't know why the Christians in Corinth were taking sides with Paul or Apollo's because they were not competitors they were on the same team. Both were working for Christ, and both will be rewarded for their faithfulness, and God will judge how much reward they get. It was foolish for Christians to argue about which one was the greatest because that's God's job to determine.


9.  The Corinthians were God's garden. Paul, and Apollo's worked as farmers in the garden. They were coworkers, drafted by God to teach the word and as a result help his people grow spiritually. 

Each one of us is a plant in God's garden and when we listen to solid Bible teachers we are watered and fed and because of that we grow in holiness.


10.  Paul was in Corinth for 18 months, and he laid the foundation for the faith of the Christians there. Meaning: he told the facts about Christ which caused many to repent and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Other teachers followed who helped the Christians grow spiritually.And as Pauls says here "let every man take heed how he builds thereupon." In other words if a man of God is going to build up someones faith then He has to teach and preach the word of God because otherwise it isn't going to happen. 


11.  The foundation is the cross of Jesus Christ. The foundation for salvation is the cross of Jesus Christ and God will not accept any other plan. Any plan that excludes the cross or adds human works to the work of Christ of the cross is rejected by God.

Jesus Christ, who he is: the sinless son of God, and what he did: died on the cross to pay for our sins is the foundation of the church, is the foundation of salvation.


12,13.  We will all stand before Jesus Christ, and our works will be judged. That judgment will reveal if we accomplished anything for God after we were saved, and it will reveal what, if anything, we did for his glory. That judgment will determine the level of rewards we will receive in eternity in addition to our salvation. What this means is that our actions, words, and motives will all be examined by Jesus Christ after we die and we will be rewarded accordingly in addition to  salvation which is a gift to us through Jesus.


14.  The good things Christians do: big or small will be rewarded. God doesn't overlook anything; nothing that we do for Jesus is insignificant in the eyes of God. 

Salvation is a gift, but the degree to which we will enjoy that gift of salvation throughout all eternity will be determined by how much we do, give, and live for Jesus before we die.


15.  If we die in right standing with God through Jesus Christ because we are trusting Him for our salvation, but we pretty much wasted our life doing meaningless things then we will make it to heaven, but eternity will not be anywhere near what it could have been for us. The criminal who died on the cross next to Jesus is in heaven but he's not enjoying it to the degree that the apostle Paul is.


16.  A temple is designed to show off a god. A temple is designed to put a god on display. With the Holy Spirit in us Christians are God's temple. We remain here on earth to show the world that the real God is holy and good. We are to live in a way that shows off God; we are to live in a way that puts God on display.


17.  Bad behavior by Christians stops the work of the Holy Spirit, and it ruins God's temple. God says He will destroy those who would ruin his temple. It doesn't say how, and to be honest, I don't need to know how. I just know I don't want to be a part of that sort of thing. I don't want to deface God's temple through an ungodly lifestyle, and I don't want to be judged by God for doing it.


18.  I guess you would call it intellectual pride that God speaks of here. Whatever, it was causing a lot of problems in the Corinthian church. Instead of focusing on Jesus, and the cross, and the Scriptures, they were trying to outdo each other intellectually. That's why Paul tells them to become foolish; that is: become humble enough to learn and quit trying to act like you are superior and that you know everything.


19. The wisdom of this world is foolishness. It is foolishness because it can't save a single soul from hell and it doesn't satisfy our deepest spiritual needs either.


20.  The wisdom of man, no matter how many degrees they earn, cannot produce real, long-term, from the heart, lasting solutions to sinful behavior; it cannot produce solutions that glorify God. 

The wisdom of man, the philosiphies of man, the programs and technics of man do not work. You say, but some of those things line up with the scripture. Yes and every now and then you can find a decent piece of bread in a garbage can but it's still foolish to look for food there when you have a refridgerator full of things to eat. 

The Bible is a refriderator full of spiritual food, directions, and the power to carry them out so why dig through all the trash of human ideas to maybe find one little morsel that might be right when you have a Bible that never misses?


21a.  Let no man glory in man. Why? Because the Bible says that we are dust; we are unworthy servants of God. You say, "I don't like that kind of talk" then quit listening to Bible teachers who fill your mind with foolish high sounding ideas that appeal to mans pride, and start listening to Jesus because He said that even after you have done everything God expects you are still an unprofitable servant.  That's why God says do not glory in any man.


21,22.  The Corinthian Christians were actually limiting themselves by following one man of God because by doing that they were wasting the other teachers that were in Corinth. 

Every human writer of Scripture, and every Orthodox Bible teacher is a gift to the church from Jesus Christ. They are a gift from Jesus but they are not to be the focus as if they were something beyond a servant of God. Every one of us is a servant of God and should be seen as an instrument to help the spiritual growth of Christians, not to be put on a pedestal.


23.  In other words, all of us Christians are subject to one leader: Jesus Christ. Just like Jesus was the Father's servant while he was on earth so we are to be the servants of Christ. None of us are great; we are all servants, and nothing more. Jesus is the only one who is inherently good; Jesus is the only one who is great.


Chapter 4


1.  A Steward is a manager; their job is to submit to the owner of whatever it is that they are managing. Managers usually have a measure of freedom to use whatever technics fit their personality, but their freedom must stay within the boundaries of the owners will. Likewise we Christians have freedom as God's servants and stewards; we are free to serve God in our own unique way according to our personality, but only within the boundaries of Scripture. We cannot stray outside our owners will or we get in trouble.


2.  Loyalty is what God desires from us. Talent, education, ability are not important to God; he doesn't need our talent, he doesn't need our ability, and he doesn't need our education. God doesn't need us; God doesn't need a crutch; God doesn't need any help with anything. Which is why an untalented, uneducated Christian who is faithful to Jesus is much greater in the eyes of God than someone who is loaded with ability but is unfaithful.


3a. Some Christians didn't like what Paul said or how he taught. Paul didn't care what their opinion of him was; he could not care less. 

Any preacher who is concerned about other people's opinions of him or his sermons is going to be a coward behind the pulpit and better get filled with the Holy Spirit before he preaches his next sermon.


3b,4. Paul didn't judge himself because he was honest enough to know that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and so we can feel satisfied with ourselves even though were not what we should be.

We can talk ourselves into believing that we are wonderful Christians very easily  because it's what we want to hear; it makes us feel good; it makes us feel happy; it makes us feel superior to that "wretch" down the street. Sinners are too biased in favor of themselves and way too prone to justify their sins to be accurate Judges of themselves.


4.   I could never judge a fashion show because everything looks good to me. You're looking at a guy who wore stripes, plaids, and Paisley altogether back in the late 1960s early 1970s. My favorite color for a house would have been bright green with red trim; my taste is warped so I'm not qualified to judge what looks good, and I'm certainly not  qualified to judge fashion, and in the same way none of us are qualified to give ourselves a passing spiritual grade. By ourselves we have a warped sense of judgment.

Our sin nature gives us a propensity to sin and also skews our judgment. Which is why most people go with the idea that if it feels right then it is right. We are not qualified to judge unless we're using the word of God as the measuring stick.


5.  We really do not know how faithful people are to God because all we see is the outward. But when Jesus judges then we will know how loyal everyone has been. When Jesus judges he will reveal the true motives behind the actions of his people and then everyone will have the praise that they truly deserve.


6.  Remember the people in Corinth were taking sides with different Bible teachers such as Paul, Apollo's, and Peter and then arguing about which one was the greatest. Paul continues to drive home the point that they are not the issue, that human teachers are not the issue. God is telling us not to put any human teacher on a pedestal or be a follower of any man because they will disappoint you.

In other words, it is good to honor the true ministers of God because of their position but don't give them more honor than the Scriptures allow; don't go beyond what is written. God deserves all the credit for anything good that we may do and any real servant of God wants it that way. 


7.  No one has the right to boast because everything we have and everything that we can do comes from God. A spoon cannot take credit for the good soup you are enjoying because all it is is an instrument. Almighty God should be applauded and thanked for everything good in our lives and we shouldn't even think about applauding ourselves because all we are is instruments in His hands. Jesus said: apart from me you could do nothing.


8.  Paul is being sarcastic; he is trying to jolt the Corinthians out of their arrogance. They really think they are something special. They think they have arrived spiritually. Actually, there pompous attitude revealed that they were spiritually pathetic.

It takes a very immature Christian to think that they have arrived spiritually. The more mature one becomes in the Lord the more they realize they don't know very much at all and consequently they have a lot to learn.


9.  Roman prisoners of war were made a spectacle and used as entertainment before they died. Crowds would come and watch them be forced to fight wild animals. The apostles were like those prisoners; that is how the world was abusing them.

We are reminded from this that the true message of Jesus will never appeal to the masses and draw huge crowds. It doesn't appeal to most people because the message of Scripture involves repentance; it denounces sin, and it proclaims God's wrath for sinners who refuse to repent.


10.  Many Corinthian Christians thought they were wise and that Paul was foolish because he believed the simple message of Scripture. In their minds he was not wise because he didn't use lofty language. They were very proud of themselves because they had complicated religious ideas. They thought people admired them for that and many did but most of all they admired themselves. Their big words and complicated human ideas were an attempt to put themselves on a pedistal which is why although people may have admired them God was disgusted with them. 


11.  Which means that material or physical blessings are not always a measurement of God's approval today.

Our temporary happiness isn't the most important thing; our obedience and our faithfulness to God is the most important thing. We shouldn't avoid happiness, but we shouldn't make it our top goal either. Happiness is a modern-day idol. Obey God and enjoy whatever happiness he brings your way and you'll be okay.


12a.  There were some Greek Christians who thought it was shameful because Paul did manual labor to support himself. To those people I would say, the shame isn't in Paul's hard work; the shame is that you didn't support him and his ministry so he was forced to work. Paul had to work so that he could eat in order to have strength to teach these same people who did not support him and yet said it was shameful that he was working.


12.  When people hurt the apostle Paul he endured it patiently and even prayed that they would be blessed. Like Jesus Paul forgave those who were bad to him; even those who refused to repent.

We don't have to like those sorts of people, but we do have to forgive them, and we are commanded to pray for them.


13. The off-scouring refers to the bottom of a frying pan that gets scraped into the garbage.

The world will always see holy Christians as off-scouring. When the world starts admiring a church or a preacher too much they're in trouble because they're compromising truth and holiness. That's what Jesus meant when he said "woe unto you when all men speak well of you."

If you're popular with the world then you're not calling sin sin and you're not telling them that heaven is exclusively for those who belong to Jesus Christ and hell is for everyone else, even though Jesus is the one who said, "unless you believe in me you will die in your sin;" even though Jesus is the one who said, "I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me;" even though Jesus is the one who said, "he who has the Son has the Father also and he who does not have the Son does not have the Father." If you're popular with the world you're not saying that Jesus is the only Savior. 

If you're popular with the world  you're saying things like the Muslim God and the Christian God are the same person, even though they are commpletly different in thier charector, personality, and what they say is the way to eternal life; ya other then that they are the same person, just like Hillery Clinton and Donald Trump are the same person. If you are popular with the world then you're saying that all religions lead to heaven. Or maybe if you're really feeling bold you might say, Jesus is my way to heaven but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't have a different way. That all sounds very broad-minded and loving but you are conveying a warped definition of love because it's never loving to tell someone a lie to make them feel good when heaven and hell are hanging in the balance.

If your church is popular with the world then it emphasizes entertainment instead of the pure word of God and it's been so long since you've heard the words hell, devil, sin, and repentance that that you've forgotten that they are words. And if you're supporting a church like that, shame on you! Support a ministry that is getting out the word of God not one that is popular with lukewarm Christians, and the unsaved because that escalator to hell called a ministry isn't popular with Jesus.


14.  The apostle Paul has been blunt with the truth, but his motives have been good. I never want to be anything but faithful to the word of God and sometimes that means being blunt with the truth. I don't want to go beyond what is written, but I don't want to ignore anything that is written either. God tells us several times do not add to my word and do not take away from my word.

Sometimes feeling bad is the only way people will wake up, repent, and start doing what is correct. If we care about someone then sometimes we must make them feel bad; it isn't fun, but many times it's the only way. God's word often makes us feel bad before it makes us feel good.


15.  Paul calls himself their spiritual father and that's because they came to Christ through his ministry. Like a father he was concerned about them and like a father he felt responsible for them which is also why he's been very straight forward with the truth. 

If you care about someone then you will not hide truth from them just because it might make them feel uncomfortable.  


16.  The apostle Paul was dedicated to Jesus Christ, and holiness, and that's what he wants the Christians in Corinth to be like.

No one should expect others to be like them unless they are like Christ. No one should say, "listen to me" unless they are listening to Christ.


17a.  Timothy had learned from the apostle so he was like an extension of Paul to the Corinthian's. Paul knew he could trust Timothy and that's why he sent him.

Trustworthiness opens up doors of opportunity for God's people.


17.  Paul's teaching was the same in every church and that's because he taught the word of God.

God's truth is not fluid. It doesn't change to accommodate the desires of different people; it is what it is; people either have to conform or go to hell.


18.  The false teachers in Corinth had slandered Paul and they actually thought that their slander would intimidate and prevent him from coming for a visit. I suppose slander could affect some people, but not someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit like the apostle Paul.

If you love God you will do what's right no matter who likes it or doesn't like it and no matter what you might lose in the process.


19.  The apostle will stand up to these false teachers not because he wants to come across as being a big tough guy, but because of his concern for the people. His holy life and his use of Scripture will knock them off their self-made pedestals; at least it will knock them off in the minds of those who love the Lord.


20.  Anyone can use Christian language, but the true test of faith is seen in the power of a holy life and a holy character. How do you know if one is saved? How do you know if Jesus is precious to them which is how God defines those who are saved? You do not know it by their pious words or the christian clichés that they use; you know it because of their holy life and character; you know it because they make tough decisions that sometimes cost them friends and money and other things of the world because they're not willing to live contrary to the Bible.


21. No good parent wants to punish their children, but sometimes they have to do it in order to train them. Paul isn't talking about physical punishment against the Corinthians, but he will excommunicate troublemakers if they don't repent and that would leave them vulnerable to Satan and as a result wide open to terrible things. He would discipline because it is correct and because sometimes it's the only thing that can bring a sinning Christian back to their spiritual senses.


Chapter 5


1.   The Roman world was morally depraved, but even it was not depraved enough to tolerate the type of sin that some Corinthian Christians were tolerating.


2.  The church didn't seem to care that there was a terrible sin being committed in their midst. They should've expelled those who are committing that sin rather than tolerating it.

Since the guilty parties were willfully turning their back on Jesus they should've been kicked out of His church. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has standards and if someone doesn't abide by them then they should be kicked out. 


3.  The apostle pronounced judgment. Someone says: but the Bible says we shouldn't judge doesn't it? Not by our standards we shouldn't judge, but when the word of God judges something to be sinful that judgment needs to be proclaimed and carried out because we owe that to God. This whole thing isn't about us, it's not about making some pathetic sinner who refuses to repent feel comfortable; it's about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He wants.


4.  The following will not be pleasant to hear, but it is the will of God.


4,5.  Our soul is more important than our body. Consequently, maybe if this man suffers enough physically he will come to his senses and repent which is more important.

If a person repents their soul will be saved even though it may be too late to salvage their body which was ruined because of sin or God's discipline.


6.  In other words blatant, willful sin committed by a Christian and done in public cannot be allowed to continue on or it will spread. Like yeast sin diffuses itself. What starts out as an isolated sin often spreads and affects many if it's not dealt with in a Biblical manner. 


7.  In Scripture Leven represents sin. The Lord speaks to his Apostle and says: clean up my church; get rid of the sin.

Christ was sinless; if we are His than the very least that we can do is not live in sin; the sin that Jesus died to deliver us from. We should not sin, but if we do then we should repent and confess right away, and receive forgiveness rather than stay in it as if it isn't a big deal.


8. God says celebrate the festival with holiness. In other words, remember how Jesus suffered on the cross for you, and let that memory inspire you to suffer in the flesh by saying no to its sinful desires. Celebrate what Christ did by displeasing your sin nature and pleasing Christ.


9.  In other words, Christians should not associate with people who practice sexual sins. Often we become like those we spend time with which is why we should choose our company carefully. If we are careless in our associations then we gamble with our immortal souls.


9,10. God doesn't insist that Christians be so separate from the world that they don't have any non-Christian acquaintances or contacts. Casual association with the lost is important. Continual association to the point where you are tempted to sin like they do must be avoided.


11. A lifestyle of sin in one form or another is the norm for non-Christians so don't be shocked to see them behaving that way. But anyone who lives like that and still calls themselves a Christian should be avoided.

By fellow shipping with a person like that while never confronting them over there sin we will appear to condone their ungodly lifestyle. Worse, we suggest that Jesus condones it.


12.  Paul is concerned about keeping Christians on the right path not reforming those who don't belong to Christ. The church's job has never been to reform the world, but rather to tell the world about Christ so that He can transform them from the inside out.


13.  The day of judgment is coming. It is not our business to judge the world or try to reform them. If they don't repent then God will deal with them on Judgment day. However, if a Christian is determined to live in sin then the Bible teaches they should be confronted and possibly excommunicated to keep them from dragging other Christians into the spiritual gutter with them.


Chapter 6


1.  The Judges in civil courts were heathens. According to the Bible it is bad for disputing Christians to fight it out before an unsaved Judge. It is bad because that Judge will not be governed by either the fear of God or the word of God so why would any child of God look to them for a decision?


2a.  The saints shall judge the world in this sense: this refers to the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ where Jesus will be similar to our Supreme Court today, and we Christians will be like the lower courts under his jurisdiction. That's about all I can tell you because that's about all the word of God teaches; anything else would be speculation.


2. Even a poorly educated Christian who has the Holy Spirit and is familiar with the word of God is more qualified to decide disputes between believers than a highly educated person who doesn't know the Lord or the word of God.


3.   The Bible doesn't say in what way we will judge angels; it doesn't matter, the point is, if God will entrust something like that to Christians, then Christians sure shouldn't look to the unsaved to settle matters of right and wrong between them today. 

Any Christian who loves Jesus and doesn't have any unconfessed sins in their life, and has a working knowledge of the word of God is qualified to make decisions between right and wrong.


4.  Even Christians who aren't Bible scholars are better qualified to decide matters of right and wrong than those who haven't repented and received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and consequently do not have the Holy Spirit or the ability to understand the word of God. A new Christian who's walking with the Lord has more spiritual discernment than an unsaved genius.


5.  What kind of church was in Corinth that they couldn't find anyone among them who could settle disputes? It was a church that lived from one emotional buzz to another rather than living by the word of God. That's why it was in such disarray.


6.  It was and is an embarrassment to Jesus Christ for two Christians to go before non-Christian Judges to have them settle their disputes. Two Christians with a Christ focus should be willing to accept whatever a spiritually qualified third Christian decides is correct according to the word of God. I'm talking about binding arbitration with the word of God as the final Judge.


7.  Better off being the loser when it comes to material things, and absorbing unfair treatment, then to demand your rights before an unsaved Judge. Better off trusting God to deal with the issue fairly in the long run, because he will; he'll do it either here or in eternity, but he certainly will do it. 

The Bible tells us to crucify our old self with its passions and this would be a way of applying that command; don't demand your own way but rather suffer loss if need be to avoid being a poor testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.


8.  Instead of being satisfied with the decision of a third Christian the Corinthians were taking each other to secular court and actually taking it one step further; they were attempting to squeeze out a bigger settlement than they had coming. These disputing Christians were not concerned about fairness or justice; they were defrauding each other.


9,10.  The proof of salvation is a changed life and I don't care what anyone says that's what the Bible teaches. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God! You can call yourself a believer but if you continue to practice sin and you don't repent and you don't confess and you really don't care then the Holy Spirit says you're not saved no matter what you claim.


11.  "And such were some of you;" meaning: before you were saved this is how you were. "But you are washed" and that refers to the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing a sinner from their sin. 

It is a given, a biblical given that Christians do not live in sin. That old lifestyle is said to be in the past; it is said to be over for those whom God has justified through Christ.


12.  "All things are lawful unto me" that speaks to the fact that Christianity is not a religion of rules and regulations; Christianity is not about legalism. "All things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient." Meaning: not everything profits me. "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." In other words don't confuse God's grace in which he doesn't hold our sins against us for a license to sin. Grace is not a license to sin it is the freedom to live a holy life.


12.  Anything that isn't sinful is okay for Christians. However, even okay things become a problem if they turn into a habit. Jesus said we can't serve two masters. Nothing should rule over us except the Lord Jesus Christ.


13.  "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats." In other words, the kind of food we eat doesn't affect our spirits. "But God shall destroy both it and them." In other words, don't make a God out of your appetites, don't make a God of what you eat because they are temporary.

Food is made for the body to satisfy our appetite and God doesn't care what kind of food you eat. Sexual desire is another appetite. However, fornication is not the right way to satisfy that appetite. Food is made for our body, but our body is made for God's glory not for sexual sin so satisfy that particular appetite in the only prescribed Biblical manner which is marriage between a man and a woman.


14.  Death isn't forever. Sadness, and missing someone is not forever. In Christ everything will be okay, and we who know Jesus will be reunited with our friends and family who also know Him. 

The Bible teaches that God owns our body as well as our soul and spirit and so God will raise our body because he doesn't want something that he owns to be dead.


15. Jesus, by his Holy Spirit lives inside of every Christian. Which means that we include Christ in everything that we do whether we realize it or not. When we sin we drag Jesus with us; when we do what is correct Christ is doing it with us. Jesus in us accompanies us wherever we go and whatever we do, and we feel what Jesus feels while we are doing it. When we do good the joy of the Lord spills over into our soul which is why we feel good. When we do wrong the grieving of Christ spills over into our souls and we feel terrible. That's one of the things that separates a real Christian from someone who is not a Christian. A real Christian will not sin and be happy about it; he simply can't be.


16.  In God's sight when two people are joined in the physical act they become one person physically. The man becomes a part of the woman and the woman becomes a part of the man and since Christ is in Christians he then becomes a part of whoever that Christian is joined to sexually.


17.  Husbands and wives are one in the flesh, that is, in body. Individual Christians are joined in the spirit to Christ. We who have received Jesus Christ are one in spirit with Him. The union of a husband and wife is a picture of the spiritual union of Jesus Christ and Christians.


18a.  "Flee fornication." This is a command from Almighty God; God says stay away from any type of sexual immorality. If it's not sex between a husband and wife then don't do it because it is sin.


18.  Other sins affect the body such as drunkenness, and drug abuse, but those types of sin affect the body by the use of something outside the body. Sexual sins involve using the body in a perverted way to sin against the body as well as the soul. That's not the purpose for which God gave us our bodies.


19.  Our body used to be exclusively the home of our soul. It's no longer just our home; it has become a duplex with another resident. The Holy Spirit lives inside of our body along with our soul. Our bodies do not belong to us. Jesus saves us when we ask him to come into our life as our Lord and Savior. And he takes us up on that offer; he literally moves in and takes over ownership of our body as well as our soul and spirit.


20.  We would not go to Jesus's house, walk in the door, and throw trash all over the place. Our body is his home; we should not use it to do anything that is displeasing to him.



Chapter 7



1.  In other words, marriage is good, but so is being single under the right conditions as we will see.


2.  It is better to be married than to commit sin because you're not married. And notice that marriage is God's way to avoid sexual sin. Living together apart from marriage or any other kind of sexual arrangement is not of God.


3.  To withhold what rightfully belongs to a husband or wife is sin. It is sin, and it is cooperating with the devil whether the person realizes it or not. It is sin because it is setting their marriage partner up for another sin: sexual immorality.


4.  Once a person gets married their body belongs to their spouse as well as to them. Within the boundaries of love, respect, and of course holy Scripture their bodies belong to each other.


5.   Husbands and wives should not refuse each other physically except for a short time, if both agree, so that they can devote themselves to God. But it's supposed to be a short time, and it's supposed to be something that they both agree on, and then they are to get back to a normal relationship. If that doesn't happen then you are drawing a target on your back and handing the devil a rifle.


6.  In other words no Christian is commanded to marry nor are they commanded to be single. It is whatever is best for that individual. Whatever works out best for them, and for their walk with the Lord is what they should do.


7.  Marriage is a gift from God, and being able to handle singleness is also a gift from God. Actually according to the Bible being single has some advantages because there are less obligations and therefore more time can be spent with God and doing his work.


8.   If you can handle being single like the apostle Paul that's great; you have more time for Jesus.

Lesson: do not get involved in anything that might slow down your work for the Lord or hinder your walk with him. Paul is saying: if you are single and you can handle it than stay single and live for Jesus apart from the concerns of family life.


9.   Being single and content is the best if you're a Christian. Being single and constantly fighting off temptation is bad. Better to marry than to struggle with sin all the time.


10. Some Corinthian's were being taught that in order to show complete devotion to Jesus they had to divorce their husband or wife. Some were thinking: I have to get a divorce so I can spend more time doing things for Christ.  God says no, stay married if you are married. A Christian can still live for Jesus being married. 


11.  If a couple separates without biblical grounds then they should stay single or return to each other. Actually contrary to what some Christians believe, separation or divorce is not a sin, it is never a sin, God doesn't like it, but the divorce itself is not a sin. Remarriage to someone else if there's been no biblical grounds for the divorce is the sin. And even that sin is forgivable if one confesses; it's no different than any other sin, again contrary to what some Christians believe and how some Christians behave.


12,13.  If a non-Christian spouse is willing to live with their Christian spouse than the Christian should be willing to do that. That assumes however that the Christian is living for Christ and doesn't compromise in order to keep the non-Christian husband or wife happy.


14.  A little holiness in the family is better than none. One God-fearing parent is better for a child then no God fearing parent. That's why the Christian husband or wife should not divorce their non-Christian partner simply because they're not saved. The prayers and the holiness of the Christian in the family will have some sort of positive effect on the child and perhaps even on the unsaved partner.


15.  If the spouse of a Christian doesn't want to be married to their Christian partner anymore than God tells the Christian go ahead and get a divorce. It is better to be separate and have peace than to be together and at each other's throats.  God does hate divorce but there are times when he makes exceptions because he loves his children.

We read in the gospels that Jesus set aside the letter of the Sabbath law in order to be compassionate to people. And God is also willing to set aside the letter of the law of marriage (which he wants to be permanent) in order to be compassionate to his people. He wants us to be at peace and sometimes divorce is the lesser of two evils. 

In baseball it is never good for a pitcher to walk a batter because it puts a runner on first base. However in certain circumstances intentionally walking a batter is the lesser of two evils because he might get a key base hit or a home run and so the pitcher walks him even though a walk is never a good thing. It's never a good thing but sometimes it's the lesser of two evils; it's better than giving up a walkoff home run. Divorce is never good but sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. And just in case you haven't learned this yet, many times in this fallen sinful world we have to choose between bad and worse; not every choice is between good and bad.


16.  Someone says: I can't divorce my husband because maybe he will get saved through me. Yes, and maybe he will not, and then you will end up with a miserable life and all for nothing. God has plenty of people that he can use to bring someone to Christ he doesn't need you so badly that you have to stay in a bad marriage.


17.  Serve Christ in the situation you are in and do the best you can. If you can change for the better within scriptural parameters then do it. If you can't then play the hand you have been dealt.


18.  Back in those days some Jews who had been circumcised because they were Jewish were becoming Christians. Some Gentiles who were not a part of the Jewish religion and therefore had not been circumcised as a religious rite were becoming Christians as well. The Jewish Christians were trying to force the Gentile Christians to get circumcised saying that they needed to go through that religious ritual in order to be saved. God is saying quit trying to shove someone in your little mold; if I've accepted them through my son Jesus Christ and I have, if they have received him as Lord and Savior, then just leave them alone; they don't have to be like you.


18,19.  Circumcision was part of the law that Christ did away with on the cross. The important thing today is not going through an old testament ritual. The important thing today is pleasing God by loving Jesus and keeping his commandments. Many people focus on things that do not matter. The Bible says that the important thing is faith working through love.


20.  If the Lord has received you because you have received his son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then who is man to question that and try to make you to be something different than you are. Be content with who you are in Christ. Jesus accepts you so accept yourself and don't try to be like others and don't let others tell you that you have to be like them because you don't.


21.  God says that we are to be content no matter what state we are in so contentment is a command, but that doesn't mean we can't try to improve our situation. Advancement is fine as long as advancement doesn't become our God. Change is fine as long as we don't allow change to become our God.


22.  Our position in Christ and our relationship with him transcends all personal situations. In Christ we can experience inner freedom even if we are in bondage to terrible circumstances.


23.  Put Jesus first. We have no right to allow ourselves to become slaves to anything in this godless world. We have no right to allow ourselves to become slaves even to good things. Jesus bought us out of hell by his death and so we should be his servants forever.


24.  Change your situation if you're able to improve it. By all means change your situation if it is sinful. However don't make a God out of change and don't worry about things that you can't change. We have Christ and he will help us to endure.


25,26.  In other words, I'm about to make a distinction between good, better, and best in the context of what I'm talking about here.

The larger principle that we can glean from this verse is that we should never settle for good when we have an opportunity to experience better or best.


27.  Time is a very valuable gift for Christians. Change often complicates things and complications can take our attention off of Jesus. Therefore, Paul says, if you are married, that's fine. If you are not married, that's fine, do not rush around trying to find someone to marry. Put God first, focus on him, and everything else will fall into place.


28.  Marriage can be wonderful, but it sometimes comes with complicated problems. That's why Scripture says if you can handle being single stay single; your life will be much simpler.


29.   If you are married be the best husband or wife that you can be, but, make sure God is more important to you then your spouse. None of us are given a lot of time to work for Christ so consequently none of us can afford to put anyone or anything before Jesus.


30.   Don't let happiness, or sadness drive a wedge between you and Christ. Good times, bad times, prosperity, and poverty can easily consume Christians. If that is allowed to happen it becomes a wedge between us and our Savior; It's important to be on guard so that it doesn't happen.


31.  Make good use of the world; enjoy it the best that you can. Just don't become attached to it. Don't live for the things of this world because this world will pass away one of these days or we will die one of these days. Either way we won't have it and so it is smart not to invest too much energy into something that we are bound to lose especially when we can invest it in something that we will never lose.


32a.   It is good to carefully consider our options and make choices that will result in the fewest complications. The simpler we keep our life the more freedom we will have to serve Christ.


32. A married man is able to serve the Lord but it is different than being single. A single Christian can devote more of his time to Jesus and keep his focus on Christ with fewer distractions than if he were married.


33.  And that's a good thing because a husband should please his wife and care for her. Caring for your wife and doing what is in her best interest is also serving the Lord. So a man can serve Christ being married, but not in the same way and not with the same freedom as if he were single.


34.  God expects a Christian wife to please her husband and that is also what a Christian wife will want to do if her relationship with Jesus is what it should be. 

Like the husband, a Christian wife can be dedicated to Christ but not in the same way and not with as much freedom as a single woman.


35a.   God has said these things to help us, not to keep us from being married. He just wants us to do what is fitting for us and along with that enable us to serve him best.


35.  It's good to be married, as we have seen. However, reality is: a married person usually has many more things to juggle than a single person. They often have to cram in a few minutes with God between cooking, cleaning, dishes, changing diapers, work, shopping, spending time with their husband or wife and the children and all the other things that go along with family life. Personal time with Christ is sometimes hard to find for a married person.


36.  In other words, if a man and a woman really like each other to the point where spending time together is like playing with fire then they should marry. Either that or stay way from each other. 


37.  In other words, if you can stay single, control yourself, and serve God that's great. It's good to be able to put a life for the Lord above everything else and not have many distractions.


38.  If marriage is not a real need for you then it doesn't make sense to marry. Why put up with the hassles if you can stay single and serve the Lord. 

Christians shouldn't think that everything would be wonderful if they were only married because that's not the case. There's an upside and there's a downside and it's important for each Christian to seek the Lord for what he has for them.


39.  Christians must only marry Christians. God limits our choices in order to limit our troubles. I ministered as an interim pastor for six months at a church in which every major problem that I dealt with, including a gruesome murder, could be traced back to the sin of a Christian marrying a non-Christian.


40.  Sometimes a person is happier just living with the memory of a deceased husband or wife and using the extra time they have to serve the Lord.


Chapter 8

1a.  Back in those days meat offered to idols was divided into three parts. One part was eaten by the offeror, one part was burnt to the Idol, and one part was given to the pagan priest for his services. If the priest didn't want it he could sell it at the market and take the money. The Corinthian Christians apparently asked Paul if it was okay for them to buy meat that had been offered to an idol.


1.  Knowledge makes some people arrogant. Christian love makes people humble and caring. It's good to have knowledge, but it is also good to balance that knowledge with Christian love. If we have both then we will use our knowledge to be helpful to others and not to show off.


2.  When a person thinks they know it all they don't know as much as they think they do. When a person thinks they have an answer for everything they may not realize it but they show their ignorance. Everyone seems to notice it except them because they're too full of themselves.


3.  To be known by God here means to be known personally by him; it means to have a personal relationship with him. That's important because that's the thing that'll get you into the kingdom of God. You say well that's fine but how do I know if I have it? You know if you have that personal relationship if you like to talk to him and you like it when he talks to you through the Scriptures and you obey him because that's what you want to do and you confess when you fail; that's how you know if you have a personal relationship with Christ.


4.   When people offered their sacrifices to idols they believed that their gods would go into the meat and then enter their body when they ate it. Of course that would never happen because the idols are not real to begin with but that's what people believed.


5.  There are many "gods", they're not real but people have many gods; people actually invent their gods. They invent gods that fit their lifestyle. Some even call their homemade God, Jesus, but none of it is real except in their little, sin darkened mind.


6.   There is one God and he made everything. The Father and the Son of the source of all things.
The idea that in the beginning there was nothing, and no one, not even God, and then there was a big bang when all that nothing exploded became everything is insanity. That nonsense is not only contrary to Scripture but is contrary to simple logic.


7.  Not everyone knows that there is just one God. Some of the Corinthian Christians were still thinking that idols were real and that food offered to them was offered to a real "god". That's why they refused to eat food that had been offered to an idol. It bothered their conscience because they thought that they were ingesting the god of the Idol.


8.  A person will damn their soul to hell by worshiping an Idol but God doesn't care if Christians eat meat that was offered to one. Food is food as long as it's not poison. What we eat doesn't determine our relationship with God.


9. In other words, even if something is technically okay we shouldn't do it if it will cause another Christian to fall into sin or hurt their faith in some other way.


10.  Let's say that we are strong Christians; we know that an Idol is nothing, so we eat the good meat that was offered to an Idol, and we know that God is okay with that. The apostle writes: be careful lest a Christian with a weak conscience sees you eating that meat and he eats it even though he doesn't think it's the right thing to do. At that point he commits a sin because any time we go against our conscience we sin.

Whether we realize it or not each one of us are an example to someone who needs an example. That's why we have to be careful how we use our Christian freedom.


11.  If we are not careful and willing to give up our freedom we could be responsible for causing spiritual damage to a vulnerable Christian. It is important to be sensitive to others who may think that something is wrong when it isn't.


12.  If we hurt a fellow Christian we hurt Jesus. If we in any way contribute to the sins of others then we sin against God. If we sin against others we sin against God. That is why it's so critical to be good to others and to avoid doing anything that would harm them spiritually or physically.


13.  And we get back to the idea that the things of this world just aren't that important. The spiritual Christian is willing to voluntarily, in love, deny themselves in order to avoid hurting someone else.


Chapter 9

1.  There were some bad people in the Corinthian church who were putting the apostle Paul down; they were calling him a second class apostle because he wasn't one of the original 12 and they said he never saw the risen Christ. Actually that was wrong because Jesus appeared to Paul at his conversion. Paul met the criteria of an apostle of Jesus Christ because he saw the risen Lord. Paul is defending his apostleship and with that his divine authority.

And speaking of divine authority, when we tell someone that something is spiritually and morally true or false we better be able to back it with God's word because that's the authority.


2.   False teachers may have doubted Paul's apostleship, but the church in Corinth did not have to doubt. If it wasn't for Paul being sent by Jesus to Corinth they would all be bound for hell. He was certainly an apostle to them because he brought them the gospel of Jesus Christ and was sent directly by Jesus to do that.


3.  The false teachers in Corinith who were slandering Paul were rebelling against God, but Paul who was a servant of God would defend his apostleship and he will, starting right here.

Satan has always attacted the authority of God's word, he attacked it by attacking the Apostle who was delivering it and he attacks it today by casting doubt on the written word of God or offering a substitute suggesting that God's word is not enough. 


4.   The apostle is saying that his physical needs should be supplied by the people that he served with spiritual things.


5.  Paul could've had a wife, but his work for Christ was rough and a wife and family would have held him back. 

Jesus wants us to be willing to sacrifice certain things that would be nice and to do it because of love and devotion for Jesus Christ.


6.  Paul had the right to be supported by the Christians who he taught, but when they didn't support him he didn't demand it or complain about it. You say why did he bring it up then? Because He is giving them the word of God  including God's will concerning giving.


7.  In other words, your employer or the people that you serve should pay you. Scripture is clear that it's not God's will for a minister who teaches his word to have to furnish his own living by secular employment. This goes back to old testament days when the ministers were paid from the things that were offered at the temple. God says that the worker is worthy of their pay. Even people in the world recognize that it isn't right to expect someone to work for nothing. The Corinthian Christians should have been treating Paul better than they were.


8.  There is no doubt about it: ministers and their families are to live off the gifts of the people that they serve; that's a command from God. Of course a minister should be willing to live a humble life being satisfied with the basics. The ministry should not be looked at as a lucrative career but as a service to God and to his people and the people ought to give out of appreciation for the Lord and for the work that that minister is doing especially if he labors in the word because that's what the Bible says.


9.  A hard-working ox was able to eat some of the grain that he worked to crush. He was rewarded for the labor that he performed. Now if it is true for a beast then it is certainly true for a human, including a minister.


10.  If you work as a farmer then you should earn your living as a farmer, says God. There are no free rides, and no one should expect one. If you work then the person you work for should pay you because if they don't they will answer to God for neglecting their duty. We shouldn't expect something for nothing from anyone unless of course it's understood to be a gift.


11.  They needed to support the ministers who were teaching them the word of God. No one buys a car from a Chevy dealer and writes out the check to the Ford dealer down the block. No one gets their groceries from pick n save but sends a check to IGA. And yet many people who are fed the word of God by one minister give their money to a cold dead church that doesn't feed them. It wasn't right for the Corinthian Christians to be fed spiritually by Paul and then not support him financially.


12a.  Some preachers sell the word of God and that's not right; I know of one preacher who came to town and sold tickets to come and hear him preach. Jesus said: freely you have received, freely give. There are many religious rackets in the world and God will judge them in his time. But if someone is simply teaching the word of God for the glory of God they should be supported by those who benefit; it just isn't right to be a spiritual freeloader if one is able to give something.


12.  Paul wasn't demanding anything for himself; he was just teaching what God says about supporting those who teach  the Bible. He doesn't want to come across as being self-serving and yet it's his job to teach the whole word of God so he did. I don't like talking about money but whenever the subject comes up in the word of God I teach it just like anything else because I go through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and I'm not going to leave anythig out.


13.  The idea of a minister getting paid for their spiritual labor is as old as the beginning of God established religion in the Old Testament.


14.  If a Christian is right with God and is being fed the word of God then they will give to the one who teaches them once they understand that God expects that.


15.  The apostle Paul wasn't fishing for sympathy or an offering. He was just teaching the word of God as it regards giving. 

There is always a risk that we may be misunderstood when we speak the word of God or when we do what the word of God says but we still must do it no matter who may misunderstand.


16.  A man who is called by God to preach the Scriptures is miserable if he doesn't do it. Teaching the word of God is a calling; it is not simply something that a person decides he's going to do.  That's why there are no grounds for boasting about being a teacher of God's word.

No Christian is happy if they're not doing what God wants them to do.


17.  Paul didn't volunteer to be a preacher, he was told by Christ himself that he would preach the word. He was simply doing what he was told to do; he will be rewarded for his work but the reward will not be for volunteering  because he was just following God's command.


18. The happiness Paul experienced from obeying Christ at all times which included getting out the word of God for free, was a reward. Giving up his rights for Jesus made him happy.
Lesson: if we are sad than a good thing to do is to set aside our rights and do something for the good of others and do it without expecting anything in return. Giving makes us feel better.
START

19.  I quoted Robert Goodloe Harper sometime back and I'll do it again here, in 1798 as the chairman of the committee on Ways and Means he said: "millions for charity but not one penny for tribute." In other words we should give voluntarily when there is a need but we shouldn't be forced into giving by an overbearing central government. That principle applies in our life with Christ as well. 

The apostle was free from all men. In other words, he wouldn't bow to any human being or be manipulated or strong-armed into doing anything. He wouldn't bow to any human being simply because they could sign his paycheck or dangle any other shiny object in front of his nose. He wouldn't be a slave to any man and yet he volunteered to be a servant to all people in order to help them in their relationship with Jesus.

We should never be enslaved to any human being. As Christians we must only have one master and that's Jesus Christ. However we should voluntarily serve others for the glory of our master Jesus and for their spiritual good.


20. The apostle Paul did his best to serve everyone. In other words, to be whatever it was that they needed.

It pleases Jesus when we give up our comfort for the good of others; he is pleased with us when we don't think about self-fulfillment but instead do what is good for others which is always within the boundaries of Scripture. We fulfill self when we die to self, and live for Jesus and do what is pleasing to him.


21. When the apostle says that he became without law to those who are without law he wasn't saying that he threw away all moral restraint and lived in the spiritual gutter with the reprobates of the world in order to be like them so that they would think he was cool and join his church or his ministry. There are many so-called churches today that claim to be Bible believing evangelical who do that very thing. They drop their standards so low that you can't tell the difference between them and the world thinking that that's going to make the world attracted to them, and it might, but doing that won't make anybody attracted to Christ which is the real issue.

Paul did not live in the moral gutter in order to reach out to sinners who were living there. Verse 21 is saying that even though he was a Hebrew he was good to non-Jews, and he didn't try to force the Jewish rules and customs as a prerequisite for Gentiles to become Christians.


22.  In other words, when he was around those who had a sensitive conscience concerning things that are not really wrong he didn't tell them that they were foolish to be so strict. He accepted them as they were. He tried to find common ground with everyone so that he could use it as a springboard to bring them closer to Christ. That does not mean that our liberty in christ shouldn't be taught, but it does mean that we should do it gentily with patience and not try to shove it down the spiritual throtes of new Christians who have strict scrupples. 


23.  It was worth it to Paul to be a servant, to be kind and sensitive to other people because it made him happy to see some of those people turn to Christ.

If even one soul is saved from hell it's worth a lifetime of self-sacrifice on our part.


24.  In order to be a strong Christian you must be competitive! To be a strong Christian you must be a fighter!  You have to fight against your sin nature which wants you to have the atitude of the world and do what they do. You have to fight against the prevailing opinions of the ungodly and be willing to take a stand even if it means losing friends. It takes guts to be a holy Christian in the year 2016 and it's going to take more guts as time goes on! You need guts! You need to be a fighter! You have to fight against temptation and determine that it will not get the best of you even when every fiber of your flesh is screaming to be satisfied. Christianity is not for weak kneed pansies! You have to be a strong man and you have to be a strong woman if you're going to live for Jesus today because there's a lot of things that are against you.

Christianity is competitive; Paul compares it to a race with everlasting life being the prize to collect at the finish line. We mustn't quit, we mustn't wander off the track and get out of bounds. We must persevere to the finish so that we may enjoy the prize. The Bible says those whose faith endures to the end will be saved.


25.  Most athletes who do well discipline themselves. That means working out when you don't feel like working out; it means eating right and working hard and saying no to many things that everyone else is doing. If you want to be "an everyone else" than behave like everyone else but if you want to be the best than discipline yourself to do what is needed to make you the best because you're not going to get it without effort.


26,27.  He practiced what he preached. His body didn't control his spirit but rather his spirit controlled his body. And when he failed he confessed because that's part of the race as well.

Our goal is heaven. Those who quit on Jesus don't get there. Jesus said no one who puts his hand to the plow and then turns back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.


Chapter 10


1.   All the Israelites who had been saved from Egyptian slavery were led through the wilderness by God. They were also safely brought through the Red Sea by God.


2.  God's deliverance of Israel through the water of the Red Sea from the Army of Egypt is a figure of Christian baptism. Baptism is like a badge; baptism identifies you with Jesus; Christian baptism is a way for you to say I'm connected to Jesus and there's no turning back, I'm going with him all the way. And the Israelites were identified with Moses their leader as they followed him in and through the Red Sea. By following him through the Red Sea they were saying you're our leader, that's pretty obvious, and if were willing to follow you through this water then we're going to follow you all the way. 

The Israelites were identified with Moses their deliverer as they passed through the waters of the Red Sea and there was no turning back. Likewise we Christians are identified with our Savior through water baptism, and there shouldn't be any turning back with us either; there better not be or we will regret it in hell forever . 


3. The spiritual meat, or the spiritual food spoken of here refers to the manna that God gave every single morning for 40 years.


4. The Israelites needed water in the desert so God told Moses to hit a rock and water would flow and it did. Hitting that rock was a picture of the crucifixion of Jesus. The water from the rock that was struck gave the Israelites physical life and the crucified Christ who was struck for our sins gives us eternal life.


5.  The Israelites were blessed by God. They were protected and fed by God. However they did not continue walking with Him. They lost their faith and as a result died without reaching the promised land.


6.  They let their desire for sin go unchecked and that's why they died in the wilderness without reaching their goal which was the promised land. And what happened to Israel is a warning to us; do not let your desire for evil go unchecked or it is certain that bad will be the result because the Bible says that God will not be mocked. 

You better repent, you better confess, you better get a fresh start when you sin, and if you sin again repent again and confess again and get another fresh start. Whatever you do don't give up; don't throw in the towel on sin and say I quit I'm just giving in, that's is the way my life is going to be. You're headed for major trouble if that's your attitude.


7.  The Israelites worshiped the golden calf just a short time after God gave the Commandments which included you shall not have any gods beside me. Idolatry is putting anything before God in our lives. When something, even perhaps something good, becomes more important to us than God it has become an Idol and you better get rid of it and you better get rid of it fast because if you don't God will bring you more trouble than you can handle until you finally say I have had enough I'm repenting.


8.  When it talks about fornication it's talking about doing things that should only be done by people, (a man and a woman) who are married. When the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness because of their sin God destroyed 20,000 of them because of sexual immorality. God will not put up with that sin among his people or the unsaved; and if you think that just because that sort of moral trash is tolerated and even encouraged by some in the world today, if you think that matters to God than you don't know God.


9.  This is talking about the Israelites in the wilderness once again. In addition to committing sexual immorality they were doing a lot of complaining which is also something that God hates, which is also something that is a sin. The Israelites talked against God and they threatened to stone their leader Moses. They pushed God too far with their sin; consequently as punishment he sent deadly snakes and many of the Israelites died as a result. God is saying: do not push me too far, and yes he is talking to Christians here in verse nine. The "us" refers to Christians.


10.  Don't overlook the sin of complaining simply because most people do it. Don't think of it as being a small sin because it isn't. God is warning us not to complain. The sin of complaining was punished by God with death and he reserves the right to do that again because the wages of sin (any sin) is death. 

We need to understand just how much God hates the sin of complaining: complaining about your work complaining about food complaining about the weather complaining about people; you name it God hates all that stuff! 

Complaining angers God at least in part because it reveals a lack of trust in him, and it also reveals arrogance and pride in the one who complains because they are suggesting that they deserve better when in fact they deserve nothing good at all.

Anyone who complains, about anything, is forgetting one very important thing and that's that what they really deserve is physical death and eternal hell. Think about this: even if you were dead and burning in hell you would have no right to complain about your circumstances. We deserve hell! We've got that coming because we have rebelled against God! If I was in hell right now, in unspeakable torment that would go on forever and ever I would have no right to complain! So don't complain about the fact that it's raining again today or that it's too windy or that you don't like your car or that someone said something to you that you don't like or that your foot hurts or anything else because you have no right to complain as if you deserve better because you don't. Let's keep everything within a biblical perspective and if we do we won't complain about the things that we don't like. And I'm not saying we have to like everything; I'm just saying we have no right to complain as if we deserve better because we don't.


11.  God will punish sin because he is just, but he doesn't like punishing sin which is why he is taking the time to warn us here. Someone says: God is mean; he's mean and that's why he sends people to hell! When I hear people say something like that it makes my blood boil because God is anything but mean! The Bible says that God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God doesn't want you to go to hell. God became a man, suffered and died to pay for our sins so that we wouldn't have to go to hell. God doesn't want you to be punished for your sin. He warns of the consequences of sin so that we will straighten up, repent and receive forgiveness before it's too late.

There are examples all over the Scripture from start to finish of bad people who repented and found mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And there are examples all over the Bible from start to finish of what happens when people refuse to repent and it's not good. 

It's important to study Scripture and learn from others who suffered for their sin because they stand as warnings to us from God who loves us and doesn't want us to suffer the same fate they did.


12.  Eternity is too long and hell is too hot to not take God's warnings seriously. God warns us not to be overconfident about our walk with him, and our salvation. Elsewhere he says to people who were calling themselves Christians: "examine yourself to see if you are in the faith." Why? So that you can repent, receive Christ and be saved before it's too late; that's why! 

Don't deceive yourself into thinking you are saved if all indications are that you are not. The stakes are way too high to play that foolish game! If you go to the ungodly places that the world goes to and tolerate the indiscretions of moral reprobates who don't give a rip about Jesus or the word of God then why would you think that you are saved? If you enjoy entertainment that contradicts the Scriptures, that you know Jesus would not tolerate if he was here then why would you think that you are saved? If you talk the way the unsaved talk; if you have the attitude of the unsaved who scoff at the idea of repentance and enjoy things that the Bible for bids then what in the world points to the fact that you are on your way to heaven? What is it about your life that tells you that you are saved? You can't be saved if you act like the unsaved because real Christians have the Holy Spirit inside of them and are therefore different from those who don't care about Jesus. 

Christian's sin but they don't like it. Christians sin but they care about Jesus so they repent and they confess; they don't continue on like the world. Anyone who continues on like the world and it doesn't faze them is part of the world, and they are on their way to hell like the world.


13.  No Christian can say I sinned but it wasn't my fault; I sinned but it was a compulsive act that was beyond my control, or I sinned but my brain wave patterns have been changed by the sin I have committed in the past and now I'm hooked. You bet your hooked! That's exactly what God said would happen; he said that you would become a slave of sin if you played with it and he never says you're not culpable for that sin once you become hooked. 

Pharaoh was enslaved to his sin of keeping the Israelites in his country and he was punished. The Israelites were enslaved to their sins of idolatry and they were taken into captivity by Babylon because of it. Some of the Corinthian Christians were enslaved to their sin of desecrating the Lord's supper and many of them died as punishment because of it. The homosexuals in Sodom and Gomorrah were certainly enslaved to their sin which God called wickedness; they must've been enslaved because God struck them with blindness and they continued to pursue the two men in Lot's house; they were hooked and they were punished with fire and brimstone. I really don't know where Christians get the idea that once they're hooked on a sin they're no longer responsible for it because they sure don't get that from the Bible.


14.  God says flee from idolatry, run away from it. In other words, don't put anyone or anything before God.

Several years ago a popular evangelical leader told an audience of young people at a Bible conference that they should ask Christ to be their Savior immediately but not worry about making him their Lord because after all most people don't do that until they're in their 30s anyway. He in effect invited thousands of students to commit the sin of idolatry while in the process endangering their souls. That fat cat blowhard with a PhD in nonsense was doing untold damage to the lives of those young people who followed his un-biblical counsel.


15.   In other words, you are smart enough to know that it makes sense to obey God; you haven't been educated to the point where you think that it's okay to disobey the God who is not only your Creator but also your judge. You have to go to a bad theological school for a long time before you begin to think that that nonsense is wise.


16.  When the bread and the drink are blessed by the word of God and prayer they become sacred. By eating the bread and drinking the wine or the grape juice in the Lord's supper Christians partake of Christ; in a supernatural way they partake of his body and his blood and in the process are having communion with him. It looks like ordinary bread and it tastes like ordinary bread but Jesus said this is my body and this is my blood and I'm not going to contradict the words of Christ by telling you it isn't. How is it? I don't know; all I know is what Jesus said.


17.  When Christians come together for communion they are testifying to the fact that Jesus is in them and together they are members of his body; we all share in the one body of Christ.


18.  In old testament days an Israelite would bring an offering, a sacrifice. Part of it was burnt on the altar and part of it was eaten by the worshiper which was in essence Old Testament communion. It's the same with Christ and Christians today. He is our sacrifice and we who worship him, in a mystical way, through the consecrated bread and drink also consume our sacrifice through holy Communion.


19. Question: are the heathen idols real? Are they real gods? And are the sacrifices to them worth anything? Answer:


20a.  There is no God inside of an Idol like the heathen believed. However there is a spirit at work in Idol worship and it is demonic. Idol worship of any kind is a scheme of the devil to distract people away from God and get their attention on something else. It is Satan's way of getting people to look to something else for direction and security. The spirit behind all idols, which includes anything that we put before God in our lives, the spirit behind that attitude is Satan because he doesn't want you looking to Jesus, or putting him first, or worshiping him. 


20,21.  We cannot ride the fence between living for God and living in sin, or serving God and a substitute "god". Almighty God demands our devotion with confession and repentance whenever we fail. 

God will not put up with spiritual fence walkers. God will not put up with professing Christians who say that Jesus is their Lord and Savior but the moment they are attracted to some un-biblical thing they pursue it. There will be trouble for any so-called Christian who behaves that way. You can't have the blessings of God if you're seeking the ungodly, un-biblical things of this world. Fellowship with Christ is the springboard that brings the blessings of God into your life but you can't have fellowship with Christ while fellow shipping with spiritual darkness. Like Joshua said choose you this day who you will follow: Almighty God, or the false gods of this world; it can't be both. Who are you going to put first? The answer to that question will determine whether you are blessed or not.


22a.  When God's people become more devoted to someone or something other than him whatever it is becomes an Idol and God will be angry just like you would get angry if your wife got too friendly with another man.


22.  God doesn't compete with anyone or anything for the devotion of his people; he is God! If we put something before him he's going to do something about it because again he is God and he doesn't lower himself to compete with some creature or created thing.


23.  Just because something isn't specifically condemned in Scripture doesn't mean we should do it. If something is harmful to others we should not do it even though it is not strictly forbidden by the word of God.


24.  In other words, our feelings and desires should not be the most important thing to us. We are like Jesus when our goal is to be good to others rather than to ourselves, and God will reward us when we live that way.


25.  In other words, he's telling the Corinthian Christians not to hire a private investigator to trace a piece of meat in order to find out if that animal was ever, at any time, offered to an Idol. The word of God teaches: don't ask and you won't feel guilt; it's meat! It's meat!, That's all it is so just eat it without asking any questions. 

Sometimes Christians overanalyze things rather than just accepting the word of God as it is and living it.


26.  In other words,  don't be oversensitive or hyper about the possibility that something might be wrong. If it isn't condemned in the Bible and it doesn't hurt someone else don't worry about it. If something is inherently wrong than stay away from it but if not enjoy it because it is God's gift to enjoy.


27.  In other words, Corinthians: If you do not ask where the food came from then you won't risk feeling guilty about eating it.

Lesson: we should always stay away from sin, but God doesn't want us to be overly scrupulous because that sort of thing can be paralyzing. A lot of people, over scrupulous people, deprive themselves of many good and enjoyable things simply because they're afraid it might be wrong when it isn't.


28,29a. In other words, if someone tells you that your steak was offered to an Idol then it must be an issue to him or he never would've mentioned it. So Paul says, if that's the case don't eat it.

Lesson: the moment there's a hint that something may hurt another person's conscience don't do it. Don't do it even if it is something that you really enjoy doing. Sacrifice some enjoyment for the sake of Christ and he will bless you because of it, he will bless you because of your obedience and your sacrifice.


29.  Someone says: why must my actions be governed by what someone else thinks?


30.  In other words if something is not sinful and it's given by God to enjoy why can't I enjoy it simply because someone else thinks that it is wrong?


31.  Answer: because everything we do must be done to the glory of God. That means it can't hurt someone else because that certainly wouldn't glorify God. He doesn't like it when people are hurt so if we can avoid doing that then we should.


32.  Don't do anything to anyone that will drive them away from God or in any way turn them away from Christ. Living out that principle will go a long way in you having a life that is pleasing to Jesus.


33.   Here it is: try to please others, not at the expense of what is morally right. But with everything that we do our goals should be: number one to please Jesus, and number two to be helpful to others rather than pleasing ourselves. The goal shouldn't be to be self satisfied, the goal is not to be popular; the goal is to avoid anything that would turn others off to Christ or hurt others in any way. 



Chapter 11



1.  It is good to understand our Christian faith but that by itself will not convince others to turn to Christ. Christians must live out their faith in Jesus and in the word of God. The best way to teach others about the real Christ and to convince them that Jesus Christ is genuine is for us Christians to live like he lived. The Bible says let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.


2. The Corinthian Christians were loyal to the basic facts about Jesus and the apostle commends them for that. Paul is going to do some correcting but before he does he commends them for the things that they are doing right. 

Correction is important, rebuke is important, but so is commendation and encouragement. Some preachers give their congregation two or three verbal beatings a week instead of two or three feedings from the word of God. If you feed people the word of God verse by verse from Genesis through Revelation then there will be balance; there will be encouragement and rebuke and correction and whatever else is needed from the Holy Spirit but it will be the Holy Spirit who does it through his written word.


3. God the Son is not, and never has been inferior to God the Father. But God is a God of order and someone has to drive. Consequently when the Son of God became a man he yielded himself to the Father's will. 

God has created a hierarchy of leadership in the home that follows the order of the hierarchy in the Godhead. Just as the Father leads the Son so the husband is supposed to lead his wife as he allows himself to be led by Christ, and then both the father and the mother are to lead the children. Now if the chain of command is broken anywhere along the line it creates an escape clause for those under authority. For example if the husband starts behaving contrary to Scripture than the wife should not follow him and if the parents start behaving contrary to Scripture than the children should not follow. God is always at the top of the hierarchy and therefore he must be obeyed no matter what anyone else does.


4.  There was a time in America when it was a sign of respect for a man to remove his hat in the presence of a superior. It still is or at least should be disrespectful for a man to pray, or teach God's word with his hat on.


5.  "Her head" in this context refers to God and her husband. The Bible teaches that the man has a head who is God and the Bible teaches that the woman has two heads: her husband and God. In the first century decent women wore veils. And here's a timeless principle: if a Christian woman does something contrary to Scripture, like the example given in verse five of praying with her head uncovered she is an embarrassment to her husband and God. Christians (both men and women) need to dress and act decently because if they don't they dishonor their head who is God. And if a married Christian woman behaves inappropriately they dishonor God and their husband.


6.   Some women in those days were punished for committing adultery by having their heads shaved and so shaved hair on a woman in that culture became a sign of disgrace. The point is: a Christian woman should look and act like a Lady not like a harlot or a loose woman who's looking for something that she shouldn't be looking for. The point is a Christian woman should act and dress like a woman who loves Jesus because anything less is a disgrace.


7.  The man (Adam) was created in God's image. Man was created to honor God. The woman was created to be a partner for the man and together they are to honor God.


8.  The order of creation teaches that in the church, or the family, the man is to lead, and consequently is accountable to God for how he leads. He better do what's right whether his family follows or not, and he better love his wife and his children because that's the most important thing in leadership. God leads by love, which is always within the boundaries of Scripture, and men are to lead their households in love, which is always within the boundaries of Scripture. If they just flex their muscles and become domestic despots they're not leading and God will judge them.


9.  Even though Adam was sinless and enjoyed perfect fellowship with God there still was a gap in his life. God made Eve to fill that gap. Every time God created something back in Genesis  he said it was good but then after creating man he said: "it is not good that the man should be alone." It wasn't good because man was alone. It wasn't good because without a woman he was incomplete. Man needs a companion, a helper and someone who is his equal. Man can't multiply without a woman and in general man is not complete without a woman to be his companion; that's the way God has set it up to be.  


10.  Angels were present at creation and therefore they understand the roles of men and women. Angels are also present in our lives and in the church. Consequently things should be done properly because the Angels are watching and they know what is proper.


11.  In God's plan men and women need each other. That's how he designed the world to function.


12.  There are some who believe that men are more important than women simply because the woman was created from man. The problem with that type of thinking is that it forgets that every man is also born of a woman. God created everything and everyone and men and women are equal and he made us to be dependent on each other.


13-15.  The Bible doesn't tell us how many inches equals longhair in a man. It doesn't say how short short is before it equals shorthair for woman. The important thing is to maintain a clear difference between men and women. A man should not try to act and look like a woman and a woman should not try to look and act like a man.


16.  In other words, if you want to argue about the things that I've talked about so far it's not going to be worth your while because it is the way it is.


17.   Paul switches gears and talks about holy Communion. Communion obviously is a good thing; it was instituted by Jesus the night he was betrayed for the purpose of putting our focus on him and his death on the cross. But in Corinth holy Communion was causing trouble.

Sinful man often takes what God meant for good and through perversion or excess turns it into something bad. In fact that is a quick definition of sin; it is the perversion of good.


18,19.  Some people love the truth while others believe what they want to believe whether they think it is true or not. 

So why does truth have to be proclaimed? If so many people are not interested in it why proclaim it in the first place? Truth has to be proclaimed so that those who care about God can be recognized and set apart from those who do not. 

Truth cleanses the body of Christ. When clear truth isn't taught the result will be congregations consisting of a mixture of people who believe and others who do not. Truth separates the good from the bad and if it is proclaimed long enough and clearly  enough the bad will lose interest and eventually quit coming.


20.  Back in those days the church would have a common meal during their Communion service; it was supposed to be sort of a potluck, but they had some problems with that as well.


21.  The death of Christ was an unselfish act of love on behalf of unworthy sinners. Holy Communion was instituted by Jesus so we would remember that. The Corinthian's completely perverted the common meal accompanying communion and turned it into a party that was celebrated by self-indulgence.


22.   At their so-called fellowship meal the wealthy Christians were not sharing their food with the poor. The apostle tells them that if they don't want to share their food than they should just stay home and have their private dinner party.


23,24.  When Jesus said: "do this in memory of me" that didn't cancel out what he also said: "this is my body." It's interesting that no one doubted the presence of Jesus Christ in Communion until the 1600s. Luther, the Wesley's, and even Calvin believed in some form of Christ's presense in the Communion. 


25.  Sacrificial animal blood sealed and ratified the old covenant of law back in the book of Exodus. The blood of Jesus Christ seals and ratifies the new covenant between the Father, Jesus, and sinners. The blood of Christ kicks the new covenant into gear. 

The new covenant is an agreement whereby God promises to forgive the sins of all who enter it by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Again, the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross makes the new covenant work.


26.  Every time we take communion we are telling the world that we believe Jesus Christ sacrificed his body and blood for our sins. Communion is a visual way of saying we believe Jesus paid for our sins and we are trusting in his sacrifice for our salvation.


27.  It would have been sacrilegious to be irreverent in the presence of the crucifixion at Calvary. Holy Communion represents what Jesus did so there should be reverence during its celebration as well. Not appreciating what it's all about is tantamount to standing at Calvary, looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, and saying "big deal!"


28.  We need to examine ourselves before we take holy communion; ask ourselves these questions: Do you believe holy Communion is what Jesus said it is? Do you believe he died for your sins? Have you confessed all known sins? Have you repented of all known sins? Those are questions that we must ask ourselves and they should all be a part of examining our conscience before and during holy Communion.


29. Anyone who takes communion without thinking about the body of Christ and how his death paid for their sins or doesn't really believe that that is true is mocking a holy thing and is therefore guilty of sin. If you don't believe, then don't take communion.


30.  God was judging some in Corinth with sickness and others with death because they were taking communion but not really discerning the sacredness of what Jesus did on the cross. 

It seems like many if not most Christians, even Bible believing Christians have become way too familiar with Jesus. They speak of him as if he is just one of the boys, or as some people say the big man upstairs. The Bible says that we should approach the throne with fear and trembling; God is God and you better believe it.


31.  Think about what you are doing or what you are thinking about doing and if it goes against the word of God don't do it. In other words, judge yourself. If you judge yourself God will not have to judge you. If you avoid sin than God won't have to punish you for that sin. 

We escape the eternal consequences of sin by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and we escape the temporal punishments of sin by avoiding it in our lives.  


32.  If Christians do not judge themselves and thereby avoid sin then God will judge them. God judges sinning Christians in the form of divine discipline not because he's angry but because he doesn't want us to lose our faith and consequently be condemned with the rest of the world. Someone has to put the brakes on when it comes to sin so if we don't then God will. Why? Because sin that isn't confessed or repented of eats away at the fabric of a Christian's faith until there is no faith and consequently no salvation.


33. I remember riding the school bus when I was in junior high; I remember the mob of kids waiting to get on the bus after school and how everyone would push and shove and press to be in that bus before anyone else. I'm surprised no one ever got seriously hurt. 

I suppose it is natural for at least some in the world to jockey for position to try to get what they want at the expense of what someone else may want or even need but Christians are not supposed to be that way. Christians shouldn't cut in front of each other trying to get something first. Instead we are to be considerate in all things; giving each other first choice. In other words, respect and honor one another. The Bible says we are to consider others more important than ourselves.


34.  Still talking about that fellowship meal that was connected with their Communion service. Paul says, if you are starving then eat a little something at home so you don't make a mad dash for the food line leaving the slower folks in your dust; it doesn't look right and it isn't right.


Chapter 12

1.  The Christians in Corinth needed to be taught about spiritual matters such as spiritual gifts. They were unrestrained and without discernment when it came to the moving of the Holy Spirit so they needed to know what was and was not of God when concerning supernatural things.

Today many people, unfortunately untaught Christian people included, see something that appears to be supernatural and automatically conclude that it is of God when it isn't.


2.  The Corinthian's past life as Idol worshipers consisted of services that got very wild at times. There was supernatural stuff happening and of course it was all inspired by demons. They would work themselves into an altered state through chanting, extreme emotionalism and sometimes the use of drugs. Then they would say: wow, our God really moved tonight! That's how it was when they were worshiping their idols.


3.  Unbelievable but true! Some of these Corinthian Christians were claiming to have a word from God and it consisted of cursing Christ. That's how far they strayed from the truth in their so-called worship services. Why? Because they did not know the word of God; because they were not instructed properly concerning what the Scriptures say. The same thing happens today when churches are either ignorant, or ignore the the word of God. 

Jesus said we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. You can't worship God in spirit if the worship consists of things that are outside the boundaries of truth, outside the boundaries of Scripture.

Some in charismatic/Pentecostalism today are in a movement without boundaries. It's not a big mystery why it happens either: they are not taught the word of God as they should, because as one Pentecostal pastor told me: my people aren't interested in being taught the Bible they're more interested in being entertained. And that's the problem and that's why when someone says God told me this or God told me that no matter how ridiculous it is many believe it even when it contradicts the word of God. Too many times experience trumps the Bible; too many times visions and dreams trump the Bible. I'm not against experience, I'm not against visions, I'm not against dreams, but I'm against anything that contradicts the word of God because the Bible says we are to judge all things. The Corinthian church was tolerating all sorts of bizarre behavior and teachings because they were not governed by the Scriptures.


4. Every Christian has been given a spiritual gift to be used in some way to expand or strengthen the church of Jesus Christ. Every Christian is a piece of God's puzzle with respect to that.


5.  In other words, every Christian is supposed to use their spiritual gift in their own unique way. Every Christian should be themselves in the Lord and not try to copy someone else. Let Jesus be the Lord of what you do and how you do it. If someone insists that you be like them repeat the words of my dear old mother, this was about as harsh as she whatever get: tell them to go jump in a lake.


6.  God uses his people to do a variety of things in a variety of ways. It all depends on what God wants to accomplish at any given time. 

This is why it's so important to stay close to Jesus and confess the moment we sin. If we're in tune with Jesus Christ, if we're in fellowship with Jesus Christ than his Spirit will be directing everything that we say and do and we will be a blessing to God and to others.


7.  Like someone has said: we Christians are the glove and God is the hand. He gifts each one of us and works through us in order to bless his church and reach out to his world. When we are walking in the spirit with no unconfessed sins than God will automatically work in our lives to bless others through the gifts that he has given us.


8a.  The word of wisdom involves information about the future as it regards people places and things. The word of wisdom also involves a unique gift of the Holy Spirit to apply the word of God in practical ways. And don't divorce this gift from the written word of God because like any other gift this one is fine tuned and enhanced when we fill ourselves with Scripture. The more of God's word we have in us the more the Holy Spirit is enabled to work through us.


8.  The word of knowledge is a special supernatural knowledge given without study. It is knowledge that reveals information about people places or things. You say well that sounds too supernatural for me. Only when you forget that God knows everything and that it is a simple thing for him to drop a bit of that knowledge in us anytime it suits his purpose.


9a.  All Christians have faith in Christ. The "gift" of faith is the ability to trust God and do what he tells you to do even if it doesn't make sense to the natural man. The gift of faith enables you to believe God and obey him even if you don't understand all that he's trying to do and even if it scares you to think about it, or it would scare most people to think about it.


9.  All Christians can pray for healing, but (the apostles for example) had the gift of healing. 

If there is someone who has the gift of healing today like the apostles did in the early church than I've never met them or for that matter heard about them. The apostles, like Jesus, could go into any hospital today,  make a beeline for  the hospice unit, lay hands on every single person there, and every one of them would be cured immediately. 

I believe that God can give any Christian the gift of healing at any time if it suits his purpose, but the people on television who tell you to send your best offering and they will send you cloth or a special coin that will enable you to be healed of cancer or whatever are spiritual frauds and will answer to God for their evil.


10a.  Most of the time God accomplishes his will and provides for his people through his providence. That is, God arranges every minute detail of every second to work in unison with his perfect will in order to supply the needs of his people and to give them the opportunities to do what he wants them to do. God's providence works in tune with the laws of nature. 

On the other hand a miracle is a whole different ballgame, a miracle is something that goes against the normal course of nature. God invented the laws of nature and he can rearrange them anytime he wants to and when he does we see a miracle. God steps in and either pauses or changes the laws of nature so that the thing that is done defies explanation. For example: one day Joshua and the Israelites were fighting the wicked Amorites and Israel needed a little more time to finish the job so Joshua prayed that the sun would stand still and it did; now that's a miracle! Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after he had been gone for over three days defies explanation; it's a miracle! There is no science of miracles because it is impossible to reproduce them in a controlled environment. They are what they are: a supernatural act of God.


10b.  Prophecy is a gift that enables a Christian to deliver a direct word from God without any study.

One word of caution: don't believe every "prophetic message." Line it up with Scripture and even if it does not contradict Scripture don't build your life on it. "Private revelation" doesn't have the authority of holy Scripture.


10c.  The ability to discern whether a prophecy, idea, or teaching is from God or not is needed more today than ever. Too many ministries are throwing away doctrine in the name of getting along which means you're left with sentimentalism which doesn't save anyone and doesn't sanctify anyone. Again if it doesn't line up with Scripture then reject it.


10d. The gift of tongues is the ability to speak a language that you have never learned. It is the cooperation of the Holy Spirit and our human spirit to speak words given directly by God. 

By the way The gift of tongues is not something that can be manipulated. For example a few years back I heard of one fella that was trying to receive the gift of tongues so his pastor laid hands on his head and told him to say glory glory glory 12 times real fast and he did and of course he started to babble because it was nothing more than a tongue twister. 


10e.  Interpretation of tongues is the ability to receive the interpretation of a message in tongues. Now I don't see anywhere where any of these things have passed away as some will tell you, but I've been around Pentecostal churches enough to know that tongues and prophecy and interpretations of tongues don't always operate in the Holy Spirit but rather in the flesh. So again just like anything else judge everything by the word of God and reject anything that contradicts Scripture no matter how supernatural it seems to be.


11.  Out of all these gifts God picks the one which is best suited for each Christian. And when it suits his purpose God will also give us the gift that we need for a certain situation. It may be a gift you never had before and will never have again. All these things depend on what God wants to do through us at any given time.


12.  Our bodies consist of bones, skin, eyes, ears, etc. In other words our bodies have many different parts. They have many different parts but they form a single unit. Likewise In the body of Christ every Christian is one part and together we form a single unit here on earth.


13.  When a person becomes a Christian the Holy Spirit enters into them and he also places them into the body of Christ. God creates a spot for each Christian in the mystical body of his son, and again when you add all the Christians up the sum total is the mystical body of Christ here on earth. 

Jesus is in every Christian, the spirit of Jesus is in every Christian (literally), he uses each one of us in a different way, in a unique way with a unique spiritual gift, and he works out his plan by using us individually, and using us as a whole. As individual Christians we are all parts of his body and together we make up the entirety of his body here on earth. We are all individual members being led by our head who is Christ.


14.  Our bodies have many members or parts. Our bodies contain many small parts which operate in unison when everything is functioning well. We're not one big part but many small parts join together.


15,16.  The parts of our body do not look at each other and say: I wish I was you. My little finger isn't depressed because it isn't a thumb. It's too busy being a little finger to worry about that sort of thing.


17. If our bodies were just one part then we could not do nearly as much as we are able to do now. Likewise If all Christians had the same gifts and we were all exactly alike then the church would be useless as well. Our eyes are wonderful things but I wouldn't want two extra eyes were my ears are supposed to be. I need the benefit of hearing as well as seeing as well as walking and so on and so forth so God gave me all these things in addition to eyes. I wouldn't want to be one gigantic ear or one gigantic foot or one of any other part of my body. I would be useless if that were the case.


18.   God is in charge of creation. He designed every part of our body, and put them in the exact right place so that our body would function well as a whole. Taste buds would not do us any good if God had placed them on our knees. He puts them close to our teeth and right before the throat that leads to our stomach. Since we have to eat to stay alive he put them there so we can enjoy the taste of our food. God knew exactly where to put taste buds and everything else.


19.  I'm grateful for my right foot but if all I was was a 200 pound right foot I would lay there on the ground useless. If atheistic evolution was true I could imagine there being several "human beings" which had wrongly developed into one huge foot, or one big eyeball, why not? But God is the great designer as well as the great Creator and so he put everything in its proper place. Now there are genetic defects because sin has corrupted this world but as a rule everyone has all their pieces in the right place just as God designed it to be in his original creation of Adam and Eve.


20,21.  Every part of the human body has a role to play or God would not have made it. I don't know anything about medical so I don't know the reason for the appendix but several years ago I heard a man say that it has become worthless and eventually evolution will cause it to disappear. Well for starters evolution isn't true and as far as the appendix being useless; I don't believe that. Maybe that man didn't know its purpose but it has one. No part of the body can be told you are without purpose.


22. Back when former Packer Travis Williams used to run 100 yards in 9.1 seconds I never heard anyone say that he had a great little toe. His toe never got the attention that it deserved because without it he never would have been able to run as fast as he did. Like the Bible says every part of the human body is very necessary; each part has a role to play in making us the most efficient, the best that we can be..


23.  Decency demands that certain parts of our body should not be seen in public. So what do we do? At least in times past we gave them special honor by covering them.


24a.  The other parts of our body are no big deal. We don't even think about them. Who cares if anyone sees our fingernails or our wrists.


24,25.  God has designed every part of our body to be dependent upon all the other parts. You may have a great voice but without a head or a tongue that voice will not work. You may have great eyes but without a skull to carry them they would be useless. Every part of our body is needed for the harmony of the entire body. And that's also why Christians should all do their part. Every Christian needs to fulfill their purpose for God and also in the process care for one another. That's what our physical bodies do because all the members are connected and dependent on each other. Likewise Christians are all connected in the spirit and because of that we will either have a good or a bad effect on the entire body of Christ.


26.  Every Christian is connected to Jesus in the spirit. Every Christian is connected to every other Christian spiritually speaking. We are members of his body and therefore each one of us affects the other and affects the whole and affects Jesus in either a positive way or negative way depending on whether we function in the power of the Holy Spirit or in the power of our sinful nature. 

June 1968; it was the day of Bobby Kennedy's funeral. It was also the first day of summer vacation. I'm in the living room watching the funeral and the phone rings, so I get up and I run through the living room into the kitchen turn a sharp corner and head toward a little den area to pick up the phone. As I turned the corner in the kitchen my foot went wide and I rammed my small toe into a stationary door, I broke my little toe and I couldn't walk for half of the summer. The problem was confined to that tiny little part of my body but my entire body suffered for six weeks. The injury was to my toe but it affected more than just that one part.


27.  Christians make up the body of Christ with Jesus being the head. That means no one should be in charge of the church except Jesus the head. It means no one should be in charge of the church and no one should be the Lord of any Christian's life except the Lord Jesus Christ. You could say he's the brains of this outfit and Jesus communicates his will by the word of God and he leads by his spirit through his holy word.


28.  Just as certain parts of our body occupy more noticeable positions Jesus determined that some Christians, because of what they do, must occupy a more noticeable place in the church. He lists those places here in verse 28.


28-30.  The answer to all these questions is: no God would not give everyone the same spiritual gift anymore than he would make a human body to be all ears or all hands. 

Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit, live for him, praise him, read his word, be in a constant state of prayer, and allow him to work through you using the gifts that he has given you whatever they may be.


31.  Someone has a zeal for God and therefore a desire for spiritual gifts that will enable them to do more; that's great! Pray for those gifts so that you can be used by God, but there's one thing that will make you more valuable to God than any spiritual gift.


Chapter 13

1.  In other words, you may speak in many languages but if the love of Christ is not flowing through you then you're useless to God. 


2.  A loving, caring attitude is more important to God then talent. If all you have is love God can use you.  If all you have is talent you have nothing. According to God we are nothing without love.  


3. Some people's giving is selfish.  They give and make sure that everyone knows about it so that they are praised.  That's giving without love and God is not impressed. The Bible says when you give don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing; in other words don't make a big production out of it; don't give in order to be seen by man and don't give in order to receive in return. If someone gives in order to receive that is giving without love and God is not impressed. Our motives mean as much to God as our actions.


4,5.  1. Love suffers long. In other words, love doesn't get upset with others because they're not as perfect as you think they should be. God is patient with us, with all of our flaws, and if we are loving then we will be patient with others in spite of their flaws.

2.  Love is kind. Doing what we can to make someone else's life little nicer is being kind. Doing it even when we are inconvenienced is even better. It's hard for a relationship to fail when the people involved are patient with one another in spite of their flaws and are kind to one another even when it is inconvenient.

3.  Love does not envy. The sin of envy is the opposite of biblical love. The Bible says that the earth is the Lord's and everything on it. Everything on this entire planet belongs to God but because God loves us he says: I will give you what belongs to me. God blesses us by giving us what belongs to him. If you love someone you will be willing to give them what belongs to you.

Envy resents another person's good fortune and says: I want what belongs to you. If we aren't happy because another person has something nice, something we don't have then were not walking in love, and it is a relationship destroyer.

4. Love does not parade itself. In other words love does not boast. Boasting is saying: look how great I am. The attitude behind boasting is: I bet you people who I'm boasting to feel bad that you're not as good as I am, or that you don't have what I have, or you can't do what I can do; I bet you feel bad about that especially now that I keep telling you about it. And even if that's not the motive for boasting it is often the outcome and that is not kind, and that is not loving, and it is a relationship destroyer.

5.  Love is not puffed up. In other words love isn't arrogant. Arrogant people think that they are better than others. What they seem to forget is that God says everything they have, everything they are, everything that they can do, actually comes from him. Arrogance is the opposite of love. When we love someone we want to know about them; love says I want to know about you. Arrogance says I want you to know about me.

6.  Love does not behave itself rudely. Having bad manners is a way of saying I don't care about you. We all offend at times even if we don't mean to, but having bad manners is worse then the occaisional slip up.  Rude people offend and refuse to apologize or change their ways. Being crude and offensive without apology and without desiring to change is a way of saying I don't care about you, I don't care how my actions affect you, I don't care if I ruin your day by my offensive behavior. Obviously being rude is not loving and therefore puts a strain on any relationship.

7.  Love does not seek its own. In other words, love isn't selfish. When you love someone then their needs are more important than your own and so you behave accordingly by sacrificing what you want in exchange for what is best for them. 

Selfishness, seeking one's own pleasure at the expense of someone else or a relationship with someone else is a relationship killer. On the other hand unselfishness will enhance any relationship and when the two people involved in that relationship are both unselfish God's love will bind them together like a knot.

8.  Love is not provoked. In other words, a loving person doesn't have a chip on their shoulder. They are not waiting for someone to say or do something that they don't like so that they can let them have it. That is unloving; that is the opposite of the very first facet of God's love which is: love is patient and the second: love is kind.

9.  Love thinks no evil.. That means love is not resentful. If you love someone then you will not keep track of the bad things that they have done; you will not keep score concerning the things they've done that you don't like. When we love the way God wants us to we won't hold a grudge or look for opportunities to get revenge. It is God's business to keep track of wrongs; not ours. Resentment and bitterness are the opposite of love and are relationship killers. Forgiving and not holding a grudge will strengthen any relationship.


6,7.  10. Love doesn't rejoice in iniquity. In other words, when you love someone then you are not happy when something bad happens to them. It is wrong to be happy when others are hurting. God says that he isn't happy when something bad happens to someone even if they have done something terrible and therefore have it coming. So to say: good I'm glad something bad has happened to someone or I'm glad that they are sad for whatever reason is the exact opposite of God and is very unloving.

11. Love rejoices in the truth. Real love only exists within the boundaries of truth; talking about the boundaries of holy Scripture because as Jesus says, God's word is truth. When we love someone we will tell them the truth, we will do it with gentleness because God commands that, but we will do it. We will speak the truth even if it may be unpleasant. 

EG: Your little child wants to play in the middle of a busy street, but you love them so you tell them no. They get upset, they may start crying, they may think you are mean, because you don't let them do what they want to do, but you know better and you love them so even though they get upset you act in love and in accordance with truth. 

Love rejoices in truth. Which means if you love someone then you will never treat them in a way that is contrary to holy Scripture, you won't behave contrary to God's moral law if you love them, and that's because when we get outside the boundaries of God's word we are not acting in love.

12.  Love bears all things. Meaning this: when you love someone you're loyal even when it's not easy. When you love someone you will stand by them, and help them even when it would be easier to walk away. 

Love bears all things; it is loyal; it is kind even when it is hard to be kind. When you love someone you help them and you don't make them feel like they are a burden during those times when it takes extra effort to be good to them. When you love someone you're good to them even when it's difficult and you try to hide any feelings that would make them feel like they were being a burden because you don't want them to feel bad.

13.  Love believes all things. That doesn't mean that we have to be gullible. But if you love someone then you will believe the best about them until the evidence against them is clear and overwhelming and cannot be denied. In other words, you're not quick to take sides against the one you love; you give them the benefit of the doubt until it gets to the point where your proven wrong.

14.  Love hopes all things. When you love someone you hope that their bad situation will get better. And if someone you love has done something wrong you will hope for good explanation. And if there is no good explanation you hope that they will never do it again because love hopes for the best; love hopes all things. 

15. Love endures all things. In other words if you love someone you don't give up hope. Maybe the person you love doesn't have a good explanation for the bad that they have done. Maybe they aren't interested in repenting. But if you love them you will not quit hoping that someday they will change their ways and start living for Jesus the way they should.


8.  Times, and seasons change but love will go on forever. Many spiritual gifts will pass away once eternity comes, but love will go on forever. Society will always need love in order to exist and flourish.


9.  Right now we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit because we don't know things as well as we should. The gifts of the Holy Spirit help us to learn about God and what is right.


10.  Until were living in the presence of God on the new Earth in our raised and perfected bodies we need all the help that we can get. There won't be any need for all the gifts of the spirit when we're perfect because we will be in the presence of God himself, but for now we need the connection with the Lord that the spiritual gifts provide.


11. No matter how spiritually mature we may be today compared to what we will be in eternity we are like little children and little children need a lot of help and they need patients from their father and fortunately our heavenly Father tries to help us and is patient with us when we don't behave correctly.

By the way, just as a footnote read this verse again and notice that no one should expect children to think and reason like adults because they are incapable of doing that. They are at the level they are at and it is wrong to expect them to be different. That would be like beating a dog because it likes meat. You can't beat a dog for liking me because that's how a dog is. Parents make a huge mistake when they allow their children to make decisions that they're  incapable of making correctly. I sometimes see parents asking their child what they should do instead of telling them what they should do.


12.  Back then people would use polished bronze for mirrors which at best gave a distorted reflection. Here's the point: right now our knowledge, and our relationship with God is like the marded reflection of a bronze mirror. In eternity our knowledge and our relationship with God will be as sharp as the best HD television.

People often ask questions like: will I know my family in heaven? You will know them, you will know them better than you have ever known them; your knowledge about everything will be increased.


13.  Someday we will not need faith because we will have everything that we need and we will know everything that we need to know exactly when we need to know it. Someday we will not need hope because all of our hopes will be realized. But love will never be outdated. That's why the greatest of these three is love. Love will be the norm not just the standard in eternity.


Chapter 14


1.  To love should be our highest goal because it's the most important thing and without it we are nothing. However love does not exist in a vacuum; it serves.


1.  When the Bible talks about prophecy it's talking about proclaiming the word of God. I told you love doesn't exist in a vacuum because it serves and your love is never more loving than when it is giving out the word of God or helping to get out the word of God in some way because in spite of what people think that is the most important thing; everyone needs the word of God for direction in this life and to show the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ the Savior.


2.   It doesn't matter if speaking in tongues occurs in public or when you're alone it is still a private thing between you and God, actually between God's spirit and your spirit because no one else including you knows what is being said. Of course any kind of prayer, and any type of communication between you and God, which is what prayer is, is going to be edifying to the one who's doing it and so when one speaks in tongues there is communication between them and God and therefore, if nothing else, it is edifying to the one praying.

By the way, notice that speaking in tongues is man speaking to God not God's message to man. Prophecy is God speaking to man; speaking in tongues is man speaking to God.


3.  There it is that's what I just said about prophecy; it is God's message to man. The entire Bible, every single word, is prophecy given by God to man.

By the way notice that God does not speak in order to drag his people down. God's word will challenge, and correct, but it will also encourage, inspire, and give hope.


4.  You cannot give what you don't have so if you can speak in tongues do it because you can't edify others unless you're edified yourself. Reading the Bible will edify you; praying with understanding will edify you and so will praying in tongues. 

I've heard people blast the gift of tongues as being a terrible thing; they say it's selfish because it edifies oneself and not others. But it has always amazed me that those people never blast the Bible and people who read it as being selfish because the word of God edifies those who read it also. You can't give what you don't have so if you want edify other Christians then you have to edify yourself first or you have nothing to give. That means pray, that means read the word, that means praise, that means draw closer to Jesus so that he can flow through you and bless others.

The degree that some people will go to explain away parts of the word of God that make them feel uncomfortable never ceases to amaze me; why not just accept the word of God as it is and learn to live with it and learn to take advantage of it.


5.  Prophecy isn't only God telling the future as some people might think. Prophecy is the proclamation of God's word. Teaching, preaching, reading, and communicating God's word in any way is a form of prophecy. Communicating God's word is the most important thing that can be done. That's why those who do it are doing something greater than speaking in tongues. God isn't knocking tongues He's just saying that proclaiming His word is more beneficial to more people. 


6.  Listening to God's word being spoken in a foreign language is like listening to someone ring the doorbell over and over; it's a waste of time because there's no instruction, the noise doesn't make sense and it doesn't edify.


7.  Listening to someone plunk on the piano or blow a trumpet who doesn't know what they're doing is worse than useless, it's like listening to somebody scratch their fingernails on a blackboard. Listening to someone speak in tongues is just as useless. God doesn't expect us to enjoy or be edified by something we don't understand.


8.  A bugler needs to know how to play so he can communicate the right message to the rest of the troops. One song means the day is starting, another means it's over, a different one means charge, etc. But in order to make sense to those who hear there has to be order in the bugle playing.

Order communicates something, disorder does not. EG: Order in creation communicates the fact that there is a wise God who designed and created it. God is not the author of confusion. If something is confusing and without orderliness it is not of God.


9.  The Corinthian church went overboard on the gift of tongues. Everyone was trying to do it and no one knew what anyone was saying, and the whole church service was a waste of time; nothing but chaos. The Corinthian Christians were acting like immature spiritual babies playing with a new toy.


10,11.  When I hear two people speaking in a foreign language to each other it is meaningless to me, even though I know they are communicating with each other. Any language is great if you understand it. However it is pointless for us to sit around listening to words which we don't understand especially if we can go somewhere else where words can be understood and that is especially true when you're talking about the word of God. People should come to church to learn about God not to listen to babble.


12. In other words, try to do whatever you can to help other people be better Christians. Work at doing the most good for the most people for whatever time you have left here on earth, and do it all for the glory of Christ; that's a life that is pleasing to the Lord..


13.  It is impossible for a Christian to be built up in their faith and drawn closer to Jesus unless they understand what the word of God says. That's why the Lord instructs Christians to pray for the gift of interpretation so that what was spoken in an unknown language can be made known. 

The word of God is not assimulated by magic; it has to be understood.


14.  Praying in tongues is great because it's a direct connection between your spirit and God in prayer, but you don't learn anything about God from doing it and neither does anyone else because no one understands what is being said.


15. Paul said he prayed in the spirit so don't let anybody tell you that it's wrong. Praying in tongues or praying in the spirit is effective prayer because again it is direct communication between you and God between your spirit and God's spirit. So pray in the spirit if God gives you the gift of tongues but still pray with your mind. God wants us to tell him what's on our mind. The Bible says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. It's important to talk to God about the things that are on your mind so there's no substitute for that.


16.  Praise worship and Thanksgiving to God are contagious. One person praising the Lord will stir up the spirit of another who hears them and they often start praising also. So yes, says Paul, praise in tongues, but praise with understanding also because you can start a positive spiritual chain reaction by talking about Jesus and praising Him in public.


16,17. God wants all Christians to be edified. God loves it when you bless him and that can be done through private prayer and worship but he is also interested in you being a blessing to others. In fact if you really want to bless God then be a blessing to others, because whether you are blessing God directly or blessing his people it all gets channeled up to him.


18,19.  In other words, in a church setting it is much better to speak a known language because communicating the word of God so that people can hear, understand, be edified, and praise and worship Jesus as a result is the main purpose for getting together in the first place.

I've always believed (and I think this was Paul's point) I've always believed that a church's time together is so limited that it's important to make the most of it. The time on Sunday morning is short and valuable and should be spent in communicating the word of God in a clear, simple understandable way so that the people who listen are edified and drawn closer to Jesus.


20.  The Corinthian's were very immature in their attitude concerning the gift of tongues. They were going wild over it; it was unrestrained and un-biblical. You say why were they doing that? Because that's what they were used to experiencing in their pagan religion before they became Christians. Their idolatrous worship services were filled with emotional ecstatic speech. 

What they were doing in their "church" services was no doubt exciting; it gave them a quick emotional buzz, but emotion is no substitute for walking with the Lord, and emotion is no substitute for a solid encounter with God through his word.


21.  This passage actually refers back to the Old Testament when the people of Israel refused to listen to the prophet Isaiah who was speaking for the Lord commanding them to repent. Because they refused to listen to the word of God that was given them in their own language, and because they refused to repent the prophet predicted that Israel would receive another message of a different sort. It would be delivered to them in a foreign language. That foreign language would be a sign of God's rejection of them. 

Israel rebelled and wouldn't repent therefore foreigners, namely the Assyrians and the Babylonians who spoke a different language conquered Israel. They wouldn't listen to the word of God in their own language so as judgment they heard the people who invaded and conquered them speaking in a foreign language that they didn't understand.


22a.  God's rejection of Israel in the Old Testament came equipped with them hearing a foreign language in their homeland. 2000 years later, after Israel rejected the Lord Jesus Christ God's Son, God rejected them again he also rejected their religion. And like in old testament days God's rejection of them was accompanied by people speaking in a foreign language. Only this time it was supernaturally inspired by the Holy Spirit in the apostles as they spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost. God was saying I reject you Israel, and I'm building my church instead.


22. Once again prophecy is in essence delivering the word of God. And whether it's a direct word of prophecy, or the holy Scriptures it is something that Christians need to hear. The word should be front and center in any church service.

When I teach the word of God I'm not talking to the unsaved I'm talking to the saved. The only message that God has for the unsaved is repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When I talk about what the Bible says you should do in your daily life and what the Bible says you should not do I'm not talking to the unsaved, I'm not trying to tell them to live according to the Bible. The Bible is God's letter to Christians not to the unsaved. The unsaved need to get saved by receiving Christ as Lord and Savior and then open the book and learn how to live as a Christian. I don't try to shove Christian principles down the throats of those who reject Christ as Lord and Savior; that's not what God has called us to do.


23. Going to church in Corinth was a waste of time. Christian after Christian was speaking in a language that no one understood and no one was getting anything out of it. And any unbelievers who happened to wander in thought everyone there was crazy. One thing is for sure, Christ was not being honored because it was a mess.

If living for Christ causes unbelievers to think we are crazy then so be it. But if acting foolishly causes unbelievers to think we are crazy shame on us for doing that to Jesus.


24.  The word of God is mostly for Christians but the message of salvation through Jesus Christ is for lost souls on the way to hell. And If the truth of that message sinks into the mind of a lost soul they are unlikely to forget what they heard and where they're headed if they don't repent and receive forgiveness through Christ.


25.  The word of God reveals the secret thoughts that are in the minds of people. No one knows a person's thoughts including the bad ones, and their secret sins except them and God. That's why sometimes when a sinner gets into the presence of the word of God it's like they're laying on a bed of nails. You proclaim the pure word of God to a sinner who is harboring secret sins and they will wince, squirm, sometimes get angry, and many times think: how does that preacher knows so much about me? The answer is he doesn't but God knows everything and he's telling the sinner that he knows all about him, and what he has done and believe me when a person comes face to face with God like that they're not going to feel very well until they repent and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior so that their sins are forgiven and they are right with God.


26. And all these things mentioned in verse 26 have to do with getting out the word of God which is what this verse says will result in edification. The word of God is the important thing especially in a church service where time is limited as I said earlier. People are busy, all week they work and they take care of their families and they come to church on Sunday morning because they need to be built up in their faith before they get back into the world again. And the only thing that can strengthen our faith and draw us closer to Jesus so that we can make it through the chaotic weeks that we all experience is the word of God. The word of God has to be taught. It has to be proclaimed, and nothing else but the word.


27.  In other words, they have to stop winging it through their worship services in a chaotic, un-orderly way.

God is not glorified in a church service that is unorderly because God is not a God of disorder. Christians are here to represent Jesus, but chaos in church misrepresents him.


28.  Even if something is biblical, like speaking in tongues, it is not of God if it operates outside of biblical boundaries. At that point it becomes a fleshly counterfeit and has to be rejected. In other words, as Christians we should stay away from anything that contradicts the Scripture, and we shouldn't do anything that is scriptural in an un-biblical way.


29. Paul isn't just picking on those who were abusing the gift of speaking in tongues. He did his share of that but the directions for the gift of prophecy were the same as for the gift of tongues: order! Two or three prophets could speak at each service, but everything they said was to be carefully examined. Those with the gift of discernment were to listen carefully and then determine if the message was from God or not. Today, since we have the completed Bible we should judge all things by the written word of God. The Bible gives us the discernment to determine if  things are true or false.


30-32.  Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, and every Christian has control over that gift. The gift never takes control over the Christian. If a Christian ever says: the Holy Spirit took control of me, and I couldn't stop, or I couldn't help but do this or that then they are either lying or they were under the influence of an evil spirit because that's not the way the Holy Spirit operates.

 If it is out of control, disorderly, confusing, or forced than it is not of God because the Holy Spirit gives you the power to turn off his gifts anytime you want to do it. 


34,35.   This is not a cultural command; and there's nothing in the text that suggests that it was a command for the Corinthian church alone. First Timothy 2:12 says "But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have authority over the man, but to be in silence." So this command is not limited to any one church.


While the church service is going on women are to remain silent; meaning they are not to teach men, or take the lead. You say: why? I'll give you the why that God gives: first Timothy 2: 11-14 "But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

It's the Lord's church and it's his business and it's his word and his command is clear, concise, and precise; there's no way we can miss it. And by the way God doesn't have to explain himself to 21st century Americans. 


36.  Their church wasn't any different from any other church so the Lord did not cut them any slack. He didn't make any exceptions for them. They had to submit to God's truth just like any other church. They had to conform to God's standard of conduct just like any other church. These principles and commands are for the entire church and that includes every single local church across the globe.


37. Paul says anyone with discernment will know that what I'm saying is from God. That's not Paul being arrogant; that's Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit. The only people who would disagree with what Paul just said about anything or with anything else that is written in the Bible are those who have their own personal agenda and therefore seek to explain away the clear teaching of God's word.

When we speak the word of God we don't have to be timid about it. It's God's word, and it's nothing to the ashamed of.


38.  In other words, if anyone continues to disagree with the word of God then they will continue in their ignorance. 

There comes a point when we must just leave people alone. If they know the word but they choose not to believe it then let them be. Anyone who ignores God's word will themselves be ignored by God when it comes to either salvation through Jesus Christ, or eternal rewards or both.


39.  It's not wrong to use the gift of tongues as long as it's being done within scriptural parameters. If any spiritual gift, tongues included, prophecy included, any thing else included is functioning contrary to Scripture it's not of God and should be rejected.


40.  The church is not the place for chaos. God is glorified through order. He works through people who prayerfully plan and then follow that plan. I'm not saying there's never any time for spontaneity, all I'm saying is at the idea that anything that is planned out can't be of the Holy Spirit is 100% wrong. God is obviously concerned about orderliness because he keeps talking about it.


Chapter 15

1.  God is going to remind us what the gospel of salvation is, and that reminder is needed as much today as it ever has been. Charlatans, false teachers and false prophets have been twisting the message of salvation for over 2000 years but there's only one true message concerning how to be saved from hell and we have it right here.


2. What does it mean to believe in vain? Many people say they believe in something but if they don't act in accordance with what they say they believe they are phonies, they believe in vain; their "beliefs" are useless. Likewise for a person to believe the facts about Jesus Christ without repenting and asking him to be their Lord and Savior is to believe, but it is to believe in vain because their "beliefs" are useless.

The Bible says that faith without good works that coincide with what one says they believe cannot save. The faith that changes one's eternal destiny also changes the way they live here on earth. According to Jesus Himself a person must take that next step which is to turn away from sin and with all sincerity ask Him to be the Lord of their life and forgive them. 


3a.  Paul was a good teacher because he delivered what he received. He believed in fasting, prayer, and study which are ways to stay close to God and if you're close to God you're more likely to hear from him. So he did that and then he delivered what he heard from God to the people without watering it down.

Some preachers and teachers do not deliver what they have received; they deliver what they have conceived. They think of things in their own mind, and they are very often things that will benefit them, that will make them popular,  and then they teach those things as facts. 

Good Bible teachers study the word and then from that word draw out commands, promises, and principles which come from God. That's what Paul did and that's what we should do today.


3. God warned Adam that in the day that he sinned he would die; the Bible says that the wages of sin is death so people die because of their own sins every day and it doesn't do them or anyone else any good because man's death is a consequence of sin. What we need is someone who doesn't have any sins of their own and who is willing to die in our place for our sins. Jesus did that for us. He was sinless and he volunteered to die and pay for our sins. That is the central truth of the gospel. Jesus paid for our sins.


3,4.  The death of Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God. 

God's justice had to be satisfied; someone had to pay for our sins because he could not just overlook them; he was incapable of simply overlooking them  because part of his essential nature is that he is just and he does not, actually he cannot deny himself. So Jesus took the punishment that our just God had to dish out.

His death on the cross paid for our sins and His resurrection proved that he was sinless and therefore qualified to pay for our sins. If the wages of sin is death, and it is, then if Jesus had sinned he would've stayed dead like the rest of us after he was crucified. But he didn't stay dead because he never sinned; he was simply offered as a sacrifice to pay for our sins. So when Jesus came back from the dead as he said he would that proved that he was qualified to pay for our sins because he had none of his own to pay for.


5-7.  As I have just stated the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just a nice thing that happened to Jesus; it is absolutely essential to prove that his sacrifice on the cross paid for our sins. Again let me reiterate it took the sinless son of God to die as a substitute in payment for our sins. If Jesus ever sinned, even one time, he never would've been raised from the dead because the wages of sin is death. But he did come back, proving that he was sinless, proving that his death was able to pay for our sins. Consequently to prove that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was real Paul in effect is saying: I can give you the names of nearly 500 witnesses who saw him after he came back from the dead and they will tell you that they saw him. 

Now, you might find a couple of people who would agree to lie about the resurrection of Christ and stick with it. I doubt that you could get 11, like the 11 apostles, and there is no way on earth that you could get 500; no way at all especially when these eyewitnesses were brutally tortured and put to death because they proclaimed the resurrection of Christ. If it was a lie they would've bailed out rather than be tortured. If they were not eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ, if for some unknown reason they made the whole thing up, their false testimony would come to a screeching halt when their head was on the chopping block for saying that they saw Jesus alive after he had been murdered.


8.   Long after the other eyewitnesses saw the risen Christ Paul did as well. He says that he was born out of due time, which may mean that he didn't believe in Christ before the Lord's death burial and resurrection. 

While the other 11 apostles and the rest of the eyewitnesses were preaching Christ Paul was killing Christians so he was very fortunate, number one that Jesus saved him from hell, and number two that he didn't completely miss out on  seeing the risen Christ. 


9.  You can tell that Paul's former life haunted him even long after he repented and received Jesus Christ. This is in part what God is talking about when he says that he's not mocked; sin has consequences and his holiness will not be mocked by allowing people to get away with their evil.

The memory of what Paul did to Christians did not send him to hell, but those memories plagued him until his death. One of the temporary consequences of our sins is that we remember them after we have confessed and they are a source of grief to us who love Christ.


10.  When you really know deep down in your soul that you don't deserve eternal life but that Jesus saved you from hell by paying for your sins then you will go all out in living for him out of appreciation and thankfulness. If you really understand what he did for you then no price is too high to pay in order to please your Savior. That's why Paul was willing to suffer so much for Jesus. And he didn't take any credit for his dedication either; he gave all the credit to God. God's grace enabled him to be sold out for Jesus. 

Anything bad we do is our fault; anything good we do is by God's grace and enablement.


11.  It didn't matter which apostle did what or maybe suffered the most to bring the word of God to Corinth. The important thing for the Corinthian's is that they welcomed it, and responded by receiving Christ as Lord and Savior, and were saved as a result.

Every Christian should want to do the most that they can possibly do for Jesus and live the best life that they possibly can, not for their own glory, but rather for the glory of Jesus. Who does what in the church doesn't matter. The important thing is for each one of us to stay close to Jesus so that God's will can be done through us and in our lives. If that happens Christ will be pleased (which is the only thing that matters), and the result will be good.


12.  You can say that you don't think there will be a resurrection from the dead because it's impossible; once you're dead you're dead. You can say that if you want  but the evidence is overwhelming that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead bodily, physically, three days after he died just as he said he would be. There is enough evidence to prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ in any court of law and so believe it or not resurrection has happened and will happen again. You say, but I can't wrap my mind around that; resurrection is something I can't fathom. Well, God's not limited by your mind or your imagination; the Bible says that all things are possible with God.

That same Jesus who said he would be raised after three days also said that he would raise us from the dead on the last day so you're coming back whether you believe it or not. The thing is if you don't repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior you will be raised from the dead and then thrown into hell with your brand-new physical body that will never die . Having a physical body in hell that cannot die  means you will feel every ounce of pain that hell dishes out for ever and ever. 

On the other hand those who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and choose to follow him will come back from the dead as well but it's going to be great because they will come back to live in glory, to live in peace, to live in joy, and happiness on this planet, and in fact in the entire universe. So the choice is yours; you can believe it; you can disbelieve it, you can reject Christ and pay the consequences, you can receive Christ and follow him and enjoy the consequences.


13.  Some people refuse to believe in the supernatural and whether they realize it or not it takes a lot of effort to get to that point because it's not natural. The supernatural is natural for man because God has said that he has placed eternity within the heart of man. Meaning we are more than just our physical bodies; we are spirits, in our essence we are soul and spirit and therefore we inherently understand that there is more to us than just our physical bodies. So to say, as some do, that there is no resurrection of the dead is to deny the clear testimony of two witnesses: the first witness is the overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ was physically, literally, bodily brought back from the dead. The second witness: is the inherent belief of every human being that we are more than physical, that there is an eternity for us, that there is a God that we must answer to, and that life will go on forever.


14.  If Jesus Christ hasn't been raised from the dead than Christianity is a waste of time. If Jesus Christ hasn't been raised from the dead than preachers are fools for studying the word of God and proclaiming it. If Jesus Christ hasn't been raised from the dead than Christians are fools for committing their life to a dead Savior who can't keep himself alive, or bring himself back from the dead after saying he would. The whole thing would be a waste.


15.   Paul says if there is no resurrection from the dead as some false teachers claim then all of us apostles are liars because that's what we've been preaching beginning with the resurrection of Jesus. Evidently some of the Corinthian's were believing that a few false teachers had it right and all of the apostles had it wrong.

Never go against traditional, orthodox, Bible teaching that has been taught from the very beginning in favor of some "new revelation" that contradicts the consensus of solid Bible teachers who have taught from the days of the apostles.


16. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection of the saved. Meaning Christians are coming back just like their Lord and Savior came back: physically, bodily, to live forever on the new earth. We' re coming back the way he came back so if he didn't come back then none of us are coming back either, but he did come back so we' re coming back.


17.  If Jesus Christ wasn't raised from the dead than Christians are going to go to hell just like everyone else because their sins aren't forgiven. Our sins needed to be paid for by a perfect human/divine person and if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead then he wasn't that person and our situation would be hopeless if that were the case, but it isn't because he did come back.


18.  If Jesus didn't come back from the dead then living Christians are on the way to hell and dead Christians are already there.


19.  If Jesus is just something to believe in during this life but doesn't do us any good for eternity then it's foolish to waste our life believing in him because in reality it is believing in nothing. I don't want to waste my life living for someone and believing in something that's not even real, and I'm sure not going to waste my time pretending that faith in Christ will keep me out of hell when it won't. If Jesus can't do it and there's no alternative and there isn't, then I guess the thing to do would be to live it up in this life as much as you possibly can because this is it, after this it's all bad.


20.  Enough of this foolish negativity; the fact is Jesus did come back from the dead and he is just the first fruits of the resurrection. 

The first fruits was a religious ceremony in the Old Testament where the Israelites would take a sample of the harvest, the very first part of the harvest, and offer it to God. After that they could harvest the entire crop for themselves. And the thing about the first fruits is that it was exactly the same as what followed. 

So when you see that Jesus is called the first fruits of the resurrection then you know that Christians will be raised just as he was. Which again refers to the fact that we will come back physically just as he did, in the same body that we die in just like he did, able to eat in our resurrected bodies just like he did, able to talk just like he did, able to be touched and to touch just like he did, and able to walk just like Jesus did.


21.   Adam and Eve passed their sin, and their sin nature, and along with that death, to the rest of mankind their offspring. Jesus however took our punishment. 

Adam gave us sin and death as a result. Jesus frees us from our sin. Our sin brings death, but in Christ we will rise from the dead because our sin has been removed.


22a.  Adam was a sinner with a sin nature that he passed on to the rest of us. Adam died just like God said he would if he chose to sin. We die because we all sin as well. We die because we partake of Adam's sin which is passed on to us and we die because we sin personally just like he did.


22.  We die because we are a part of Adam and his sin nature. We have his chromosomes, genes, and sin nature so we die. But those of us who follow Jesus Christ are related to him as well. And Jesus's righteousness trumps Adam sin so that's why we will rise from the dead just like Christ did.


23. When the Bible says that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection that doesn't mean he was the first person to rise from the dead. Several people were raised from the dead in the Old Testament and Jesus himself raised at least three before he died on the cross. But Jesus is the first person to rise in a body that will never die again. All the other people who were raised from the dead in the Bible eventually died again but Christ rose in his glorified body and we Christians are next in line.


24.  After we are raised and see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory and see each other in our new bodies Christ will still have an unpleasant, but important job to do. He will put an end to all evil and cast all the wicked who refused to repent and receive God's mercy through Christ into hell. After that he will make everything new, and then everything will function the way God wants it to function.


25,26.  The death penalty was pronounced upon death at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He proved that he was stronger than death not just for himself but for all who would receive him as their Lord and Savior. 

On the last day Jesus will destroy death, and then the final phase of his work of salvation will be done. From that point on everything will be right forever for those who have chosen to follow Christ. No more hospitals, no more funeral homes, no more hunger, no more thirst, no more pressures, no more sadness, no more tears, no more frustrations, nothing but good, nothing but happiness, nothing but joy, nothing but satisfaction, nothing but everything you could possibly want and more and all because of everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross.


26.  How anyone can not love and appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ is beyond me. He's getting rid of death for those of us who receive and follow him! Death will never be an issue again. You will never think about it or worry about it again! You will never again miss someone who is currently in it . Like I said how could anyone not appreciate Jesus or take advantage of what he has done for them in promising to eliminate death. Jesus destroying death is the greatest thing that God has done for this world and specifically his people since he created it.


27.  God the Father has given his eternal son the right to rule over everything except, of course, God the Father. But that's okay because being one they are always in perfect harmony anyway. The important thing to see is that Jesus is in charge. 

Buddha, Allah, Hare Krishna, etc. Are blind guides leading the blind; they are all worthless idols. And by the way, they along with everyone else who has rejected Christ as Lord and Savior will bow before him and give an account to him for their sins.


28.  God gave his Son authority, and a job to do. When the job is finished, and evil and death have been wiped out forever then Christ will return that authority to the Father. That doesn't mean Jesus won't continue to rule because the Bible teaches that his reign is forever (Revelation 11:15) but Jesus will reign in perfect submission to God the Father within the Trinity.


29. Many pagans back in those days believed in resurrection and because they did they were baptized in the place of their dead friends. They felt if they were vicariously baptized for their dead friends they would be raised from the dead. That's not a Christian idea, that's not a biblical idea, but it does prove that even among the ungodly there is often a belief in resurrection. Their idea was correct but their method of obtaining resurrection was wrong because they felt it could be obtained outside of Christ and thats not going to happen.


30.  The apostle Paul along with the other apostles were constantly living on the edge of death because of their faith in Christ and their willingness to proclaim Jesus as the only way to heaven. By preaching the word and living for Jesus Paul was constantly placing his life on the line. Why did he do it? He saw the risen Christ and he knew that Jesus would raise him as well.

When a Christian lives in the reality that death isn't the end of the road for them  they will go all out for Christ even if it means suffering. You won't sacrifice and suffer for Jesus if all christianity is is another way to live on earth. If Jesus isn't the Savior of our soul and deliverer from hell and death then forget it.


31.  The apostle faced death every day because of his work for Christ, but it was worth it. All he had to do was look at how Jesus was saving people like himself from hell and he knew that it was worth it. All he had to do was remember seeing the risen Christ and remember His promise to raise those who faithfully follow him and he knew that it was worth it. 


32.  Many people today live by the rule: let's eat, drink, and be merry because soon we will die. However the devil loves to blind the minds of the spiritually dead to one thing: God says after death comes the judgment. 

Every minute of your life is a game of Russian roulette with your immortal soul if you have not repented and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because this could be the last second that you are alive and without Christ you would immediately enter into the lake of fire. So if you want to live by the philosophy lets eat drink and live it up because we're going to die go ahead just don't forget that after you are dead you will be judged by a holy God.


33.  If you hang out with bad people you will become a bad person. If you hang out with a sinner who has no regard for Jesus Christ or the word of God then eventually,slowly but surely they will influence you and you will become just like them with terrible consequences. 

In other words, don't be influenced by people who say: let's live it up before we die. If you listen to people like that and hang around people like that they will rub off on you and one of these days you'll find yourself in hell along with them and neither of you will ever get out. 



34.  God warns, wake-up if you call yourself a Christian, but you continue to live in sin.

Anyone who continues to sin with no repentance and no confession is not a Christian according to first John. People like that are fooling themselves with deadly consequences.


35.  Skeptics of a ressurection may ask how? How can it happen? Don't worry about the how when God is involved in doing something because He can do it no matter how impossible it would be for man to do. 

Just because you cannot figure out how something works doesn't mean you cannot take advantage of it; we do it every day. I do not understand how a camera works but I use them. I do not know how a car operates but that does not stop me from driving.  And no one should discount the reality of the resurrection  simply because they cannot figure out how God will do it. 


36.  In other words, foolish question, says Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How can the dead live again? Well think about your garden and how it works. A tomato seed dies in the ground, but out of that dead seed springs a tomato plant which is much better than the little seed that preceded it. Every farmer and gardener counts on resurrection to get a crop; resurrection is not a far fetched idea. 


37.   The seed you plant and the plant that grows from it are similar, but not exactly the same. A tomato seed does not produce an apple tree and it doesn't just produce more tomato seeds either. It produces tomatoes that contain tomato seeds. Likewise our resurrected bodies will be similar and related to the one that died only different and better. In the same way that a tomatoe seed doesn't just produce more tomato seeds our body that goes into the grave will not  produce another sickly, corrupted, pain ridden body after it is raised. Your resurrected body will be as much an upgrade over your current one as a tomato is over a tomato seed. So yes you're coming back and it will be the body that went into the grave but immensely improved and capable of much more.


37,38.   God isn't going to make us brand-new bodies but he will make our old bodies new and better. Exactly what they will be like down to the smallest detail only God knows. The Bible says that he will make them as he pleases and I trust him; they will be good.


39.  Someone says: there can't be  different types of bodies; our bodies are our bodies. Well you are wrong and if you think about it for a few seconds you'll know it; there already are different types of bodies. God made a great variety of bodies, and He made them exactly how he wants them to be.


40.  God made certain things or beings like us to live on earth. He made other things to exist in outer space. He is God of variety and so some things that he has made are more impressive than others. For example Saturn with its amazing rings are more impressive than a speck of space dust but God made both. Haley's Comet with its 62,000,000 mile tail is more impressive than a small asteroid and yet God has made them both and has made everything that exists.


41.   Every body is different, and each one has its own purpose. 


42.  Our present bodies will die; they will decay, but out of that corruption God will raise up a new body. That new body will never die, decay, or be corrupted.


43.   The weakness of our physical body is present because of sin. Sin is why it gets sick, sin is why it grows old, and eventually dies and returns to dust. There is no honor in these bodies of dust. 

Our new bodies will have no sin, and therefore no sickness, weakness, corruption, or death. We will feel great, look great, and function like we could never imagine. What a wonderful testimony we will be to the creative power of God.


44.  Our new bodies will be spiritual. That doesn't mean we won't have flesh and bones because we will. Spiritual means that were going to be more like God. We will not become a God or anything close to him. However we will be spiritual in the sense that we will never sin or even desire to sin. We will be more spiritually minded.


45.  The first Adam (the one God created in the Garden of Eden) the first Adam became a living being; he became one because he wasn't always one. The first Adam had to receive life from God because he was just dust and did not have any inherent life of his own. 

The second Adam: Jesus, is a life giver. We inherit our physical bodies from Adam; we receive our resurrection and our spiritual bodies through Jesus Christ. That's why: no Jesus equals no resurrection unto life. There Can't be a resurrection unto life if you don't know the life giver who is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only one who can give us ressurrection and eternal life.


46.  First we live in these natural bodies and then later Jesus will give us a supernatural physical body. With Christians it is always: bad now, good later. For Christ rejectors it's the exact opposite becauuse this life is as good as it will ever get for them. A person who rejects the Savior rejects their only hope for anything good after death. 


47.  Adam was dirt; he was made from the earth and so are we. Normally people sweep up dirt and throw it away because it's a nuisance. God could've swept us up and thrown us away into the lake of fire being the sinful dirt that we all are. Instead he died for us. Jesus came from heaven to die for us.


48,49.  Right now we are all similar to Adam and Eve. We are similar in that we are made of dust, we get sick, tired, eventually die and decay back into dust. However the good news is that one of these days we who follow Jesus will be like him as he is now in his raised body. That means we will experience laughter with no sadness, living with no dying, health with no sickness, and energy with no fatigue.


50.  I remember as a little kid in grade school using fountain pens, everyone had fountain pens which had soft handles that we would squeeze in order to create a vacuum and draw ink from a bottle. Eventually we'd have to get a new bottle of  ink but we would always keep our pen. Then at some point while still in grade school Bic invented their throwaway pen, I remember they cost $.19 apiece. You never bought a refill of ink you just threw the whole pen away because they were so inexpensive and you bought a new pen.
Our present bodies are like Bic pens, they are throwaway models. Like everything else on earth our bodies fall apart. But nothing will ever fall apart on the new earth. Nothing that rots or dies will ever be allowed on the new earth because there will be no sickness and there will be no death and there will be no corruption. 
God says in the book of Revelation "behold I make all things new." And they're going to stay new because nothing will ever grow old. Correction: things will grow old chronologically because there will be the passage of time but there will be no aging process. Everyone who chooses to follow Christ in this life be fountain pens continually renewed with a fresh supply of life and health.


51.  God is saying: I'm letting you in on a secret: not every Christian is going to die.


52.  In less time than it will take for you to say, "did you hear that trumpet" you will be with Christ. You will change from your present body to your new body so fast that you won't even know what hit you. Instantaneously it will be health, strength, and reunion with the people in your life who followed Christ.


53.  In other words, we're getting out of this body that gets sick and dies and were getting into a new one that will never get sick and that will never die. 

Just as a side note I have a feeling that we're going to make the Devil misrable by being in a body that won't get sick or die because Jesus says that Satan loves to kill, steal, and destroy. The Devil will burn in hell forever, plus he will be frustraited thinking about his failure to destroy us; it'll really cut him to know how happy God and Christians are because his life long goal has always been to make us misarable. 


54.  There is coming a time when death will no longer have any power over life. I know it's hard for us to imagine but on that day and from that day forward we will never once think about getting sick, growing old, or dying. We will never worry about having to attend the funeral of someone that we love. 

I like what God says here in the last part of verse 54 "death has been swallowed up in victory." Death has been swallowed; you put food in your mouth and you swallow it and it is gone and you never see it again. God says he's going to swallow death.  It's as if he's going to roll it up in a ball, put it in his Devine mouth swallow and as a result no one will ever see it again. 


55.  Because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross God will be able to say that his people have gotten the last word on death. It will be gone! 

Eventually, if not immediately all the pain and sadness that death has dished out over the centuries will be forgotten. In other words, death is going to lose and it's not even going to be close.


56.   A bee sting results in pain, and sin causes a sting that results in spiritual, physical, and eternal death. No bees equals no sting equals no pain from a sting. No sin equals no sting equals no death. What I am saying is that our sin is the thing that gives death leverage over us. But Jesus paid for the sins that we commit in this body so they won't be an issue, and we will not sin with our new resurrected body so death is going to be history because sin will never be an issue again. 

No sin equals no sting equals no death and that's why we' re not going to die after we are raised. It's going to be a completely different existence. 

Were going to keep our identity; you will always be you, and I will always be me, and we' re even going to be in these bodies except they're going to be raised, glorified and spiritual. It's going to be all the good with none of the bad. All of the peace without any of the pain. All of the joy without any of the worries. All of the feeling healthy without ever feeling sick.


57. Right before Jesus died he said "it is finished." In other words, death has been defeated because I just paid for sin.


58.  In other words God tells us: don't hold back. Do not compromise. Be stubborn for Jesus Christ. Be stubborn for the truth. Be relentless in your drive for holiness. Do everything Jesus wants you to do. 

Jesus is going to raise you from the dead. No one else could possibly do that. He deserves an all out effort from us. Live for him. Serve him. Please him. He deserves it.


Chapter 16

1.  The Corinthians were putting together a relief offering for the suffering Christians in Jerusalem.

God wants Christians to take care of each other. Everything we have belongs to Jesus so it should be used in a way that pleases him. And you know how Jesus is? He's always there for us and he would like us to be there for each other in his name.


2.  Paul did not manipulate, or strong arm anyone into giving. He is simply saying: put aside some money for the Lord when you get paid. He's also saying, do it according to how much you have. Christians are to give in proportion to how God blesses them. 

Tithing has always been the benchmark for my giving as a christian but I've always done it as a love offering not a law keeping. 


3,4.  The apostle was always cautious to avoid anything that might look bad.

It is important for Christians to avoid situations that might compromise their Christian testimony. It's important to do God's will but we should always do it carefully. We should try to avoid anything that might provide someone an opportunity to accuse us. We should represent Jesus Christ cautiously and circumspectly.


5,6.  The Corinthians will be blessed by God with a visit from the apostle Paul, but they will have to wait in line because God has other things for the apostle to do first.

Sometimes we have to wait our turn. God will bless, but sometimes he has other things that need to happen first.


7.  He's saying that he could swing by Corinth right away, but then he couldn't stay very long. It would be better to wait, take care of his business, and then go to Corinth and be able to stay longer.

It's always better to wait and do things right. The blessing that we experience after patiently doing things God's way will be much better than jumping the gun and doing things our way.


8,9.   When you go all out for Jesus you are punching the devil and he doesn't like it. That's why Paul had a great open door to minister, but he also had a lot of opposition. So what did the Apostle do? He kept serving Christ, he kept preaching the word in spite of all the trouble it was causing him.

When trouble, or opposition comes do not quit on Jesus, don't stop doing what is right, don't stop going all out for Christ. When opposition comes pray more, praise more, fast more and keep living to make Jesus happy; don't back down in the face of opposition instead double your efforts to do what is right and try to please Christ even more.


10.  The apostle has said some rough things in this book. He has done a lot of correcting and he is sending Timothy to enforce those corrections, and that might mean trouble. The Corinthians were full of pride and prideful people usually don't like to be corrected. Instead they often respond with anger. Consequently Paul warns the Corinthians that they must treat Timothy with respect because he is his representative.

Christians should accept and even be thankful for the rebukes they receive from Scripture and they should not give the Bible teacher who delivers the word a hard time for doing it.


11.  In other words, do not oppose Timothy for doing his job. 

Anyone who dislikes a faithful preacher of God's word for doing his job needs to repent and get right with Christ and they better do it quickly while they still have time. The Corinthians may not like Timothy, or everything he says, or his style of ministry, but they better respect him for his position and the work that he is doing.


12.  Apollo's was a good Christian man, one who certainly respected the authority of the apostle Paul, but not to the point where he would do what Paul wanted instead of what he believed God wanted, and the apostle understood that.

We must always obey God and we must always let others obey God without giving them a hard time about it. Never try to squeeze someone into your box; allow them to follow the Holy Spirit for themselves even if it isn't what you would choose to do.


13a.  In other words be mentally and spiritually alert. And in order to be mentally and spiritually alert we need to pray and be in the word of God as much as possible because that's what will keep us sharp. Never let down your spiritual guard. Be aware of anything that will endanger your soul, and avoid it. 

Prayer and the Bible sharpen our spiritual senses and make us sensitive to spiritual dangers.


13b.   A Christian man needs to be strong. When things are not good he needs to stand firm and not buckle under the pressure. A Christian man needs to be willing to  take a hit, and find strength to persevere with God through prayer. 

A Christian man needs to be true to God no matter what; that's what it means to be a man. I don't care if no one else is being true to God you stand for Jesus even if you stand alone; that's what it means to be a man. Men who are true to God only when they have the moral support of other people are not men. Who cares what other people are or are not doing? To be courageous means to do what is right even if you must do it alone  even if it cost you money, friends, position or even your life. My life is not the most important thing in the world; being true to Jesus is much more important than  my life.


14.  In other words, always be kind, always be a giver, always do what you can to be good to others. Be zealous for Jesus but never in a mean-spirited way. The Bible says: "The wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God."


15,16. Stephanas was a servant. Paul says be like him.

It is never an accident when we cross paths with a humble servant. God brings those people into our life to remind us of how we should be. Sometimes they come into our lives through the pages of Scripture, and sometimes in person, but when it happens it is never an accident.


17,18.  These three guys made up for the absence of the Corinthians by blessing Paul.
God still does that sort of thing today. When someone who should be good to you isn't then Jesus will often bring a blessing to you from an unexpected source. God takes care of his people.


19-22.  And they are cursed. Anyone who doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ gives evidence that they are under a curse; specifically they are under the curse of sin. If they don't repent and receive Christ as their Lord and Savior and follow him then they're not getting into heaven because their sin has cursed them to hell. 

By the way if someone refuses to repent it is good that they won't go to heaven. You say, that's a terrible thing to say. No it's not  because they would be miserable in heaven. If someone doesn't want to be around Jesus today, if they don't want to praise him, if they don't want to pray to him, if they don't want to hear from him through the word of God and enjoy His company at this present time then they would be absolutely miserable in heaven because that's the main focus of life there. Not only that but also if heaven was filled with impenitent sinners then it would be as bad as the earth is today. Consequently, it's good that impenitent sinners won't be in heaven, because if a person doesnt feel shame or regret about their actions or attitudes then they will keep misbehaving and cause all sorts of trouble for everyone. It is good that those who refuse to repent and receive mercy through Jesus Christ won't make it.


23.   This is a prayer that the Corinthians would continue to experience the grace of God, meaning his undeserved favor. Paul is saying you don't deserve God's favor; you don't deserve his blessing; you don't deserve his kindness; you don't deserve his goodness, but I pray that God continues to give you these things anyway.

You know it's very easy to pick on the Corinthians for their sin, and they had plenty of sins to pick on. However every Christian is messed up in some way. We all have our sins it's just that most of the time they're not as public as those belonging to the Corinthians; our sins were not included in the Bible and printed for people to read about for 2000 years. But one thing is for sure and that's that we all need God's undeserved favor or we're hell bound with no hope.


24.  Notice how Paul loved all the Corinthian Christians mainly because they belonged to Christ. He didn't have mushy, sentimental type feelings toward them. In fact sometimes he didn't have good feelings toward them at all. But he cared about them, and he showed it by telling them the truth. You are never more loving than when you tell someone the truth of God's word, even if they don't want to hear it, even if they get upset when they do hear it; if you love them you will speak the truth.