making the scriptures plain

Notes

In this letter to the new Christian church in Corinth, Paul spoke to the believers affectionately as his spiritual children in Christ, which they were. He begins by asserting his authority as a preacher personally appointed by Jesus; his only message - Christ crucified.

According to Paul the Corinthian church was not lacking in any spiritual endowment or Christian grace. Every believer had a special work to do, as individual members of the Body of Christ. The Lord would give them strength to accomplish this so that He would find them without fault when He comes to judge the world. But clearly there were serious problems in the church at Corinth - confusion about the resurrection, disagreements amongst members, sexual immorality, lack of humility and discontentment. Paul sought to appeal to its members by reminding them on the one hand of their special calling as Christians and on the other hand of their spiritual immaturity.

Then Paul laid down Christian principles which are relevant to all believers in Christ everywhere. No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. A member practising sexual immorality has to be expelled from the church so that Christ's church remains pure. An unmarried person can devote their full attention to the Lord and His work. We should accept the circumstances in which the Lord finds us. We should not cause to sin a fellow member who is weak in the faith. This is in effect sinning against Christ. Don't judge anything in advance, until the Lord comes, who will expose secrets and reveal our private motives.

'I do not discard the law of God,' Paul explained, 'but I also obey the law of Christ.' Do not try Christ's patience, he urged, as some of the Israelites did in the wilderness. For just as they all drank the same spiritual drink from the Rock that was Christ, we drink from the same cup of blessing, sharing in the blood of Christ. And we share in the body of Christ too when we eat the bread. The Lord Jesus had revealed to Paul the details and significance of the Lord's Supper on the night of His betrayal and Paul here shares these precious insights not only to the Corinthian church but to all believers for all time. Whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are thinking about Jesus and what He has done for you, proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes again. So then we should carefully prepare ourselves before we participate, making sure that we have repented of all our misdeeds and confessed them in Jesus' name. Otherwise we will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.

Paul affirmed that God alone made it possible for us to be in Christ Jesus. Christ is the one through whom we become acceptable to God, making us pure and holy, having given Himself to purchase our freedom. God gives us victory over our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. Although no one understands the mind of the Lord, Christ shares with us the thoughts of His heart.

Lastly, in the letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us that Christ, who came from heaven, had been raised from the dead and had become a life-giving Spirit, the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. Yes when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised. Anyone who does not love the Lord will then be judged. Then sin will be no more and God will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth

1Cor.1.1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
1Cor.1.2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

1Cor.1.3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Cor.1.4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

Blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ

1Cor.1.5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

1Cor.1.6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Cor.1.7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Cor.1.8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful

1Cor.1.9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Cor.1.10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Christ the power of God

1Cor.1.12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1Cor.1.13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
1Cor.1.17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
1Cor.1.23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
1Cor.1.24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

1Cor.1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1Cor.2.2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1Cor.2.16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Babes in Christ

1Cor.3.1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Cor.3.5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1Cor.3.11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Cor.3.20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come

1Cor.3.23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
1Cor.4.1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1Cor.4.4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

1Cor.4.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

We are fools for Christ's sake

1Cor.4.10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
1Cor.4.15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

1Cor.4.17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.
1Cor.4.19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.

Christ our passover is sacrificed for us

1Cor.5.4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Cor.5.5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Cor.5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

The body is not for fornication

1Cor.6.11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

1Cor.6.13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
1Cor.6.14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

God forbid

1Cor.6.15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
1Cor.6.17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
1Cor.7.10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 1Cor.7.12 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
1Cor.7.17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.

1Cor.7.22 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.

The wife is bound by the law

1Cor.7.25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
1Cor.7.32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

1Cor.7.34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

The wife is bound by the law

1Cor.7.35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

1Cor.7.39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

I preach the gospel

1Cor.8.6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Cor.8.11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
1Cor.8.12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

1Cor.9.1 Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?

Preach the gospel

1Cor.9.2 If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
1Cor.9.12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

1Cor.9.14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
1Cor.9.18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

That Rock was Christ

1Cor.9.21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

1Cor.10.4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
1Cor.10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

The head of the woman is the man

1Cor.10.16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

1Cor.11.1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
1Cor.11.3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
1Cor.11.11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

Take, eat: this is my body

1Cor.11.23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1Cor.11.24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1Cor.11.25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1Cor.11.26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.

1Cor.11.27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a man examine himself

1Cor.11.28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Cor.11.29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

No man can say that Jesus is the Lord

1Cor.12.3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
1Cor.12.12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Cor.12.27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

He rose again the third day

1Cor.15.3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Cor.15.4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Cor.15.10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1Cor.15.12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1Cor.15.13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

1Cor.15.14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised

1Cor.15.15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
1Cor.15.16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Cor.15.17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

1Cor.15.18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Cor.15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Cor.15.20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

In Christ shall all be made alive

1Cor.15.21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Cor.15.22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Cor.15.23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
1Cor.15.24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Cor.15.25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Cor.15.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

1Cor.15.27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Cor.15.28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
1Cor.15.31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Adam was made a living soul

1Cor.15.45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Cor.15.46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Cor.15.47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Cor.15.57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Cor.16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

1Cor.16.23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1Cor.16.24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.