Day 328 Reading Schedule: 1 Corinthians 5-8

1 Corinthians 5: Paul’s Teachings on the Fornicator 

[Overview] 

This chapter specifically mentions the sexual immorality of the Corinthian church. At the time, the city of Corinth was a place more corrupt than today’s moral standards, and was famous for sexual immorality and debauchery. This trend in the Corinthian region even infiltrated the church, resulting in the incident of incest. Therefore, Paul resolutely rebukes the sin of incest and the indifference and silence of the Corinthian church regarding it, and demands that they follow Christ and maintain a pure life. This chapter especially shows the deadly sin of sexual immorality and its pervasive influence, the immaturity of faith and human pride leading to physical indulgence and immorality, and the fact that moral purity is an essential element in forming a faith community. This chapter consists of a section that records a rebuke for sexual immorality (verses 1-5), a section that compares the pure life that the saints should lead to the unleavened bread eaten during the Passover feast (verses 6-8), and a section that teaches that the church should protect its members by punishing sexual immorality, but that it does not mean that it should not associate with unbelievers at all (verses 9-13). 

1 Corinthians 6: Rebuke for the Injustice of the Corinthian Church 

[Overview] 

This chapter discusses the attitude of the saints regarding lawsuits and sexual issues. It clearly reveals the injustice of lawsuits between saints and the moral corruption caused by those who abuse their freedom as Christians. These sins are a direct manifestation of the mutual distrust inherent in the Christian community, and they are ingratitude toward the love of God and the grace of Christ, and furthermore, they diminish the holiness of the church to the world. In this chapter, rather than providing a specific answer to a question, Paul presents the basic principles of the life of believers. That is, since the Lord died and rose again for our bodies, we must also use our bodies for the Lord. Also, God will raise us up just as He raised Christ up, not discarding the body and raising only the spirit, so just as our spirit must be clean, our bodies must also be clean. The content of this chapter consists of the first half (verses 1-11) that deals with litigation issues between believers and the second half (verses 12-20) that deals with warnings about sexual immorality. 

1 Corinthians 7: The Attitude of the Saints Living in the End Times

[Overview]

This chapter begins with Paul's answers to various religious questions that the Corinthians asked him in their letters. This chapter records Paul's own thoughts and words of advice on marriage. Some in the Corinthian church taught that they should completely suppress all physical instincts and desires, but Paul advised that although it is better to remain single than to be married, both are gifts from God, and so single life is not a necessary condition for Christians. This chapter consists of exhortations on marriage (vv. 1-16), exhortations to act as called (vv. 17-25), instructions on virgin marriage (vv. 26-38), and instructions on widow remarriage (vv. 39-40).

1 Corinthians 8: Instruction on Idol-Sacrificed Food

[Summary]

This chapter discusses the attitude of the saints toward idols. Corinth, the capital of Achaia in Greece, was a city where idolatry was rampant. At that time, people’s gatherings in Corinth were mainly held at temples, and an essential part of their religious life was offering sacrifices to the gods. If anyone did not participate in this, he was socially isolated and his livelihood was threatened. Christians could live without having to appeal to pagan courts, but in a city like Corinth, they could not escape the pagan lifestyle. All the meat sold in the market was from various pagan temples, so Christians had no choice but to buy and eat it. The principle of life that Paul raises in this situation is love. It urges those with strong faith and those with weak faith to bear each other's weaknesses with love. The content of this chapter consists of references to the act of eating food sacrificed to idols (verses 1-6) and Christian freedom (verses 7-13).