It is easy to have opinions about the world. We see brokenness everywhere—immorality, greed, pride, confusion—and something in us wants to respond. We analyze it, critique it, sometimes even condemn it. But in 1 Corinthians 5:12–13, Paul redirects that instinct with piercing clarity: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges ...  Read More

When Paul says, “imitate me,” he is inviting them to reflect him as he reflected the character of Christ. He wasn’t the origin of the light; he served as a mirror.   Read More

In First Epistle to the Corinthians 4:13, Paul makes a statement that should stop every comfortable Christian in their tracks: “We have become the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.”This is not poetic exaggeration. It is spiritual reality.Paul is exposing a dangerous gap between how the Corinthians saw themselves and what it truly meant to follow Christ. They believed they were elevated—...  Read More

In the grand, bustling theater of the First-Century church in Corinth, a dangerous trend had emerged that mirrors our own modern obsession with status and “celebrity” influence. The believers there were measuring their leaders by the world’s yardstick—eloquence, social standing, and intellectual pedigree. To shatter this glasshouse of human pride, the Apostle Paul reached into the dark, salt-stain...  Read More

The weight of the ministry rests entirely on the fact that God gives the increase. All laborers in the kingdom are one in purpose and will receive rewards for their toil, but they remain “unprofitable servants”, simply doing their duty (Luke 17:10).  Read More

There is a way to sit in church, read Scripture, and even admire Jesus — yet still think entirely like the world. In the first letter to the Corinthians 2:14, Paul writes, “The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” That phrase, the natural man, should stop us. Paul...  Read More

At the heart of the gospel lies a Great Divide: “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. This is not merely a difference of opinion; it is a collision of worldviews.   Read More

The divisions Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians did not come from unbelief. They came from believers who shared the same Savior but organized their identity around different loyalties. The Corinthians believed in Christ—yet they were fractured by pride, preference, and misplaced allegiance.Though Paul doesn’t explicitly frame the problem as Jew versus Gentile in this passage, that reality sat beneat...  Read More

Several years ago, I stopped at our neighborhood grocery store to grab a few things we needed.  I noticed as I was walking into the store there was a woman sitting at a picnic table right outside the store.  She was crying.  I walked right past her and went about my shopping.  When I came out of the store, she was still sitting there crying.  I loaded my groceries in the car, got in the car and dr...  Read More

This week is significant for our congregation. Two of our own are traveling abroad to encourage and check on the men we support in the mission field, and we are blessed to host a missionary who will share about the work God is doing through his ministry. These events remind us that gospel work is never isolated. It is the shared mission of Christ’s church.Scripture teaches that the work of evangel...  Read More

When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Corinth, he was writing to a church with problems—real ones. They were divided, prideful, confused about spiritual gifts, and struggling to live differently from the culture around them. Yet Paul begins his letter in a way that might surprise us. He doesn’t open with criticism. He opens with identity.Instead of saying, “You need to do better,” Paul says,...  Read More

Let’s approach this year with expectation. As we open every verse together, may God bless us to increasingly see Jesus as His perfect wisdom for our decisions and His mighty power for our transformation. By year’s end, may we echo Paul: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).  Read More