In a culture that prized individual autonomy above almost all else, the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians stood as one of the most provocative texts of the New Testament era. While Paul’s instructions regarding marriage and intimacy might have appeared at first glance to be a list of ancient regulations, a revolutionary concept lay beneath the surface: the total, mutual surrender of self.Paul’s cen...  Read More

In our American culture, we’ve grown custom to our “rights”. We’re reminded of them every day via screens, billboards, etc., sending the message that we are the masters of our own destiny, the owners of our own bodies, and the sole judges of our own desires.  Read More

If you follow the recipe perfectly you’ll get exactly what you want: victory and justice. You’ll also get a whole lot more than you bargained for: damaged reputations and friendships, broken trust and potentially a big wide church split. This is why many in the world, who are in need of reconciliation (the forgiveness of their sins), see zero need to be added to the Lord’s church…because the church seems no different than the fractious world they live in!  Read More

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