Overview of 1 Corinthians (1)

Overview of 1 Corinthians (1) Before we begin to study 1 Corinthians, let’s first ask ourselves whether 1 Corinthians is still applicable to the current church. Of course it is.The church is God’s church, but it is a church where people gather.Therefore, there is always tension between a perfect church and an imperfect church.The church that people are muttering about today is a church that is far from the original church of the Bible.They talk about a healthy church and rush to say that people can reform the church.There is no adjective in the world that can describe a church.Just a church is enough.Even if you add all sorts of adjectives like love, peace, and beauty to the word church, they are all just rags.Since the church is a body attached to Christ, the head, it can only be called a church with confidence when the image of a spiritual institution where believing and knowing become one and grow up to the head in the Spirit of truth is clear and powerfully extended to people. The reason why 1 Corinthians is called a political letter is because the church was organized because of the problems of the Corinthian church.In order to reduce human problems that arise in gatherings, organizations were formed and systems and laws were created for the organizations, and Catholic Church appeared in the land.Their organization and system are the political system of Rome.In fact, the law does not eliminate the natural and structural errors of humans.If that were true, the Jews who received the law would have monopolized salvation and the Gentiles would have just watched.Since the church found it difficult to govern with only the Word of God, they created systems and laws, and eventually the current church became powerful through organization and systems.Although we are studying 1 Corinthians, which is a political letter, we must not forget that we can only become holy in the truth.However, many pastors tend to shout out that anything that is right words is the truth.I see people abusing the word truth, saying they have received the Spirit of Jesus, but without talking about Christ or knowing about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which makes one become one bread, one body, and one spirit with Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.If they knew the truth, they would know that God's will is being done within them, so they would not be able to talk about building a tabernacle on the earth. When a problem arises in the church, it is not solved by tracing the problem, judging it, and punishing it. Rather, there is a risk of causing a bigger problem.Right now, due to the politics of presbytery and general assembly, one side and another is divided and fighting, right?For example, children cause problems when they grow up.However, you cannot hit a baby.So it's like we need to wait until the children are old enough to be spanked.We should not look at 1 Corinthians only from a legal perspective, but try to rediscover it from a perspective of grace.The law kills people, but grace gives life.From that perspective, we plan to overview the entire book of 1 Corinthians and then explain each chapter in order to find out how Paul heals the church through 1 Corinthians by inserting prescriptions into each chapter, as if searching for hidden pictures. 1 Corinthians 1 begins with greetings.Although the church in Corinth was lacking, we should not overlook the fact that the Bible calls it the church of God and the saints (1 Corinthians 1:2).Therefore, we should be able to see both the positive and negative aspects of the church through the Word.The church in Corinth was in turmoil due to external problems, and Paul’s diagnosis was that internal poverty was manifested externally.In fact, the law of nature is that if the kernel is faithful, the shell will naturally form.Then, if you ask the question, Isn’t there a bean because there is a bean hull? it would be good to think about the principle that all plants have a kernel and shell that are entangled at first, and then later, when the kernel is completed, they separate.The problem with the church today is not a matter of form, but rather a matter of whether the gospel is properly preached and explained and applied. Therefore, calling the Corinthian church the church of God and saints refers to future possibilities, but does not mean that it has become a complete church at present.I don’t want to think so, but if the Korean church is at the level of the Corinthian church, this is a serious story. I can’t shake off that suspicion.When I listen to the cries to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it sounds like some movement that started in the United States.There are many cymbals that clang without love.When people are full, they don’t make a sound.The church must change society and the nation silently. Like leaven and mustard seeds.Nevertheless, these days, instead of cymbals, they shout about the baptism of the Holy Spirit by turning up the volume of speakers. A pastor returned after receiving training from a missionary organization for a year and declared that he would not speak of anything except the Holy Spirit, but ended up staying in the movement of the Holy Spirit where the epi (on) Holy Spirit, the Spirit of ministry, appears, so he never knew the Spirit of existence, the Spirit of truth, and the work of the Spirit of life in the Gospel of John or the Book of Romans, and he even passed away from illness.His usual sermons are still posted on YouTube, and when you listen to them, you feel very sad and anxious.In other words, he only emphasized the appearance of the Holy Spirit, which was no different from the level of the Corinthian church, and eventually stopped without knowledge of the Spirit of truth in the Gospel of John and the Spirit of life in the Book of Romans.That is the level of the Korean church's movement of the Holy Spirit.That is why it is called American neo-apostolicism.I asked James Kennedy, an American conservative theologian and pastor, a question.“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), but when I asked what position this gift of eternal life has in the American church, he could not answer.When we think of gifts, we only think about external phenomena and what helps us in ministry.Since this is the level of the United States, it is only natural that the Korean church's pneumatology is influenced by American theology.But all crane their necks to see God's children through the redemption of their bodies, the salvation of their being, into the glorious freedom of the Son of God through the gift of eternal life in Christ.People who go to church or have stopped going are eagerly waiting for the signs of God's existence and Christ's present salvation to be revealed through the actions of Christians (Rom. 8:19-21). Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.Translated by  Nancy Chung COME AND SEE WORLD MISSION To God be the glory.