Study on First Corinthians - Week 3

  1. BODY OF THE LETTER: 1:10-16:18 (cont.)
  1. Immorality, especially sexual immorality, renders the body impure, thereby ignoring and undoing the transformation brought about by Christ. 5:1-6:20.
  1. A case of flagrant sexual immorality and its implications: 5:1-13.
  1. How can the Corinthians boast when they are tolerating a case of sexual immorality not even found among pagans? 5:1-2.
  2. The Corinthians should cast out such a sinner: 5:3-5.
  3. Christ has already been sacrificed as the paschal lamb, so the Corinthians should be who they are – a community not leavened by evil: 5:6-8.
  4. The Corinthians can have dealings with people in the world who are immoral, but they should be able to judge those in the Christian community and cast out those who do evil: 5:9-13.
  1. The Corinthians are taking each other to the secular courts over trivial matters: 6:1-11.
  1. The Corinthians should be ashamed of themselves, since they cannot even mediate relatively minor disputes among themselves, but must have recourse to the secular courts: 6:1-6.
  2. Indeed, it is better to be wronged than to have disputes among themselves: 6:7-8.
  3. Again, the Corinthians should live up to the sanctification they have in Christ and put away all wrongdoing: 6:9-11.
  1. The body is for God and should be kept from sin, especially fornication: 6:12-20.
  1. Paul first undermines attempts to justify immorality in the name of freedom: 6:12-14.
  2. Individual bodies are members of Christ, and thus a person's body must never be united to a prostitute or commit sexual immorality: 6:15-18.
  3. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: 6:19-20.
  1. Concerning marriage and sexual relations in marriage: 7:1-40.
  1. Paul, though preferring chastity, concedes that husbands and wives should not deprive one another of marital relations except for specified times set aside for intense devotion to the Lord: 7:1-7
  2. As for those not married, Paul prefers them to remain so, but he would have them marry if they cannot control themselves: 7:8-9.
  3. The married should not separate; if they do, they should either remain unmarried or reunite: 7:10-11.
  4. Paul advises that believers who are married to unbelievers should remain as they are, unless the unbeliever wishes to separate: 7:12-16.
  5. Paul explains his reasoning: believers should remain in the condition in which they were called, for again, they were bought by God and should belong to God under any circumstances: 7:17-24.
  6. Paul returns to the topic of virgins and those unmarried: 7:25-40.
  1. Again, Paul maintains that it is best to remain as one is: 7:25-28a.
  2. Paul further explains his reasoning: he does not want the Corinthians to be troubled or anxious about worldly things, for the world's present form is about to pass away: 7:28b-35.
  3. It is better for an engaged couple to remain unmarried, unless they cannot control themselves, in which case they should marry: 7:36-38.
  4. If a woman's husband dies, she may marry another believer, but she would do better not to remarry: 7:39-40.