Unlocking The New Testament

1 & 2 Corinthians 1

David Pawson shows from 1 & 2 Corinthians that the early church, as in every other era, was not perfect. But seeing how their problems were handled is a help for us. Corinth was a port city with its attendant sins which had to be dealt with in the church. Without these letters from Paul we would not have the song of love in chapter 13 or the record of Jesus’ earliest resurrected appearances in 15. David says the biggest two battles in any church are how to keep the church in the world and how to keep the world out of the church. The world was sadly entrenched in the church in Corinth and Paul sent 1 Corinthians in answer to practical issues such as division among the members, immorality, members suing each other, idolatry creeping in, relationships and roles for men and women, remarriage after divorce and getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper - whereas 2 Corinthians deals with personal insults which Paul had suffered at their hands. David untangles some of the misunderstandings about 1 Corinthians. He teaches that we are not so much to slavishly copy the practice, as to find the principle that Paul is employing.

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1 & 2 Corinthians 2

David Pawson points out that Corinth was a Greek city & the ancient Greeks separated the spiritual from the physical. The West has taken that & it has infiltrated the Church. Hebrew thinking is quite different, and the Corinthians needed to be helped to understand God’s way of looking at things. Greeks thought of the body 3 ways: they indulged them because they thought it wouldn’t affect their soul, they ignored them and tried to live a life free from physical desires, or idolised them and made statues of the perfect body. Paul had to say: Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? And what you do with your body will affect your soul. What you do with your body is part of your spirituality. David discusses the various forms of love – sexual, social and sacrificial. The cross was too bodily for the Greeks, and when you get away from the cross you start dividing over other things. Second Corinthians is particularly for leaders. There were leaders who were putting Paul down to raise themselves. The acid test of a man’s ministry is not his academic qualifications or his training but the kind of people he produces. Though tender with the people, Paul is tough with those who threaten them.

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