Bible in 90 Days - Day 81 (Romans 15-1 Corinthians 14)

Lord God, we wish to see Jesus.

By your Spirit’s power, give us eyes to see his glory.

Through Christ we pray. Amen.

—based on John 12:21

Paul always uses the opening sections of his letters to foreshadow what is to come. The Corinthians put too much emphasis on outward spiritual gifts, particularly speaking in tongues, as a sign of “spiritual arrival.” The focus must remain on God and his grace. “Wise” and “wisdom” also show up in this book more than anywhere else in the NT. There are hints of thes right at the outset of the letter.

This church is not growing as it should. This is particularly clear in chapter 3. The images of farming and construction come up to emphasize proper growth. In chapter 4 Paul points out that they don’t even realize the problem. They think they’ve arrived, but they don’t get it.

As we read 1 and 2 Corinthians, we hear about at least two other letters to this church that have been lost (making the letters we have more like 2 and 4 Corinthians). 5:9 is a reference to an earlier letter. We know this particular letter that we are reading was a response to both oral reports (1:11) and a letter the church wrote to Paul (7:1). The point is that all of these letters we are reading were written to real churches facing real problems, and they are now God’s gift of revelation to us.

Meat sacrificed to idols comes up from time to time in the New Testament. Sometimes this refers to meat in the marketplace that had been part of rituals, and that is really just meat. Sometimes the references are to eating the meat as part of the rituals, and these rituals often involved behaviors not fitting for Christians. This was off limits. 8:10 is an interesting verse, because it seems here that Paul isn’t so concerned with the temple practice itself, but later he will condemn it completely (10:7,14,20-22).

Chapter 10 is striking because it puts Christ in the Old Testament story of the Exodus from Egypt. Paul des that in the first few verses, and then again in verse 9. The NIV uses the word “Lord,” but the Greek text we use and the most recent NIV say, “Christ” (as do most modern translations).

The NIV footnote on 11:3 notes that “husband” and “wife” are also ways to translate what here is “man” and “woman.”