NEW TESTAMENT

SOME people just seem to be problems waiting to happen. So do some churches, and Corinth was one. Paul tells the Corinthians about his mysterious “thorn in the flesh” (11.12:1-10) but if we had not known that it was some personal ailment, we might have thought it was them.

The two letters to the Corinthians deal with a variety of teething problems which might confront a church without the benefit of mature leadership and a library of books. They may not be all our problems, but the principles Paul enunciates in dealing with them are permanently important in a variety of contexts. Whilst he is seen to rebuke church members for their divisions, selfishness, and indulgence, he also offers encouragement to hard-pressed Christians. His advocacy of personal restraint as a mark of discipleship is implicit.

They let us see, too, a little of Paul’s personal emotions and ministry. At times he is desperately anxious, struggling to communicate and finally appeals to his apostolic authority. He tells us of the suffering he endured for Christ, and we are humbled by the great faith which kept his spirit afloat.

Written in the heat of the Corinthian troubles, these letters include teachings which have remained controversial. They include Paul’s comments on women’s ministry and on relationships not exclusively between a man and a woman. We should remind ourselves of both the spiritual and cultural context in which he was writing as we seek to interpret them and compare his teachings with other New Testament passages.

Some writers claim that their best work is produced when they are under pressure. Paul might have said the same thing. For in the middle of his pleas and threats is his immortal prose poem about the nature of love. And much else that is memorable, instructive, and uncontroversial is here too.

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Words of witness need wisdom of God

– A narrative on 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16; 3:18-22

SOME places of worship have as their motto, “We preach Christ crucified” (1:23). Apart from the fact that this is only part of the gospel, it can become a coded message about the style of ministry being used. Such a motto distinctly signals the cross lacking its full meaning apart from the resurrection.

It may also mean ‘we never employ “modern” methods of communication’ such as drama or projected images. Paul, however, is not writing about preaching as a method, but about the approach he adopted: not that of philosophical argument (beloved of Greeks generally), but of a straight presentation of the historical facts and their practical relevance.

Indeed, to turn this text into a catchphrase is to fall into the trap Paul was warning his readers against. It is a form of pride: We do this, believe that; others don’t, therefore we are right, and they are not. Paul is stressing that reliance on any form of human “wisdom” is unsafe. What counts is that we allow God the Holy Spirit to guide our ministry, inform our thinking and empower our evangelism.

He is not decrying “apologetics” (reasoned argument for Christian truths) nor fresh methods (he sought to “enculturate” the gospel in terms relevant to the different communities he visited, 9:19-22). But he does want the Corinthians humbly to depend on God and to seek his wisdom in all they do.

Above all he wants them, and us, to understand that the gospel can never be “heard” by anyone unless the Holy Spirit takes the scales from their eyes and illuminates them. That is why neither preaching nor pictures can communicate anything unless God is at work in people’s lives. That really does call for wisdom; our witness must be in the right place at the right time.