Lesson 2 – 1 Corinthians Chapter 1:6-9
As we were introduced to the letter to the Corinthian church, Paul established his spiritual authority with them, so that moving forward, the Corinthian believers would know what they hear from Paul will be coming from a firm biblical foundation.
We left off last week being shown that God “enriches” His children with what they need to be a functioning part of the body of Christ. In our service to God, we can take comfort in the fact that even though we might feel like a speck of sand in a vast universe, our Father in heaven is laser focused on us, and He will provide all of our spiritual needs.
God not only knows our needs, but also all of our wants. We can rest assured that He will never give us something that would be bad for us. Paul says that the believers were enriched “in all speech and all knowledge,” so when it comes to speech, we’re reminded to not be shy about our faith, to be willing to share our faith in Christ with the unsaved world.
When it comes to “knowledge,” God has given each one of us enough revelation about Himself, and He will also add understanding to knowledge, so that we might speak His truth to the world, even if it’s us just saying, “You need Jesus in your life.”
When Jesus ascended into heaven, He didn’t leave us alone to fend for ourselves, He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, as our great Comforter and Helper.
John 14:16:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;”
John 14:26:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
John 15:26:
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,”
It is the Holy Spirit in us who helps us in all speech and all knowledge… teaching us the truth of God’s Word.
We pick up in verse 6…
1 Cor. 1:6:
“Even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you,”
It might not seem like it at the time when you speak to someone about Christ, or you’re able to show that you have knowledge when it comes to the things of God, but speech and knowledge are gifts from God, and it thus becomes a testimony concerning Christ. In other words, Paul is saying, “This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.”
When you’re not afraid to open your mouth for God, it’s seen as a confirmation that God is in you. This is all an indication of God’s grace. When it comes to the gifts of the Spirit, it is not dependent upon us attaining a certain level of spirituality,it’s a matter of us being the recipients of God’s amazing grace. By giving us certain gifts, it shows that God wants to use you, and when He uses you, He will then supply what you need.
For instance, you might find yourself in a counseling situation, and you’ve never been trained in biblical counseling. So you have a conversation with a person, and it turns out that what you said to them actually helped. Later, when someone asks you, “what is it you said to that person that helped them,” and you think about it, and you’re not quite sure what you said… that was the Holy Spirit working in and through you. That’s God’s grace… we receive God’s grace when the testimony of Christ is confirmed in us… that it is settled, made steadfast and solid in us.
1 Cor. 1:7:
“So that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Again, God knows exactly what you need, so that you are not lacking in any gift. On the flip-side, for the believer who finds himself stagnate, not growing in Christ, and not doing anything to get closer to God… what kind of gifts can that person expect to receive from God? I would say, don’t expect much.
The phrase “not lacking” is in the present tense and is therefore still referring to present benefits of believing. This was a little strange for Paul to state this because the Corinthian believers came in low on the scale when it came to spiritual maturity and moral purity. Paul was speaking of God’s provisions, and not their use of His provisions. The Corinthians didn’t lack gifts, only the willingness to use them.
Has God given us gifts? Of course He has!
1 Peter 4:10:
“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Let’s learn from the Corinthian believers not to waste what God has graciously given us, that we would have a willingness to us our spiritual gifts.
Awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
I love when I get to read Scriptures like this! We are indeed waiting eagerly for Jesus to come back. We are confident of His return, and we also know it could be very soon. Prophetically speaking, nothing needs to take place for Jesus to come for his church. The last prophetic event that was to take place was when Israel became a nation for the second time.
Ezechiel 37:21-22:
“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.”
Ultimately, the anticipation of Jesus’ return encourages believers to live faithfully, love one another, and be prepared for His coming.
What do we do in the mean time?
Phil. 1:27:
“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.” (NLT)
The Greek phrase “apekdechoma,” awaiting eagerly, means to “wait with eager anticipation” and also “with activity.”
Romans 8:24-25:
“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
We’ve never seen Jesus, but by faith, we believe in who He is, what He’s done for us, and we believe He’s coming back again; but awaiting eagerly also includes, as it says, “with activity.” It isn’t us being idle, or passively waiting like someone does waiting for a train or bus to pick them up.
As we await Christ’s return, there’s more to it than just sitting around waiting to hear the shout from heaven. Here are three ways to live in anticipation:
1. Be Watchful: Keep an eye out for His return. Just as a servant waits for his master, we should be alert and ready for Jesus’ coming.
2. Be Ever-Ready: Prepare yourself spiritually. Pursue holiness, putting on the armor of faith, hope, and love, being Christlike in everything we do. Remember, the delay in His return highlights God’s patience and encourages repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
3. Work-While-We-Wait: Engage in meaningful action. Jesus has redeemed us, and we’re called to actively serve Him and impact others, we do this by being a witness for Christ.
So, rather than idly waiting, let’s live purposefully, eagerly anticipating His glorious return!
2 Tim. 1:12b:
“For I know the One in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until the day of His return.”
Quite literally, this is how we are to live, trusting Jesus, and then being like the five virgins who were prepared, who had their lamps filled with oil, ready to go at any moment.
The revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ… is such an important phrase for us to focus on. The revelation refers to His appearance without the veil of humanity Jesus wore prior to His resurrection.
Eph. 1:17:
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
What Paul is talking about in Ephesians is for the here and now, but in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians, Paul is speaking of our future. To be sure, when Jesus returns, he will come in blazing splendor.
As believers, we’re looking forward to Christ’s return for various reasons.
One of the main reasons is, it will be the end of evil as we know it… satan will no longer enjoy being the prince of the power of the air. He will no longer He be able to influence the minds and hearts of those who rebel against God. When Jesus returns, satan will be bound for a thousand years, and then released for a very short time, where for the last time, satan will be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire for all eternity.
When Jesus comes back, He will come as a conquering King, and God will bring retribution for all the Tribulation saints, those who were martyred for their faith in Christ.
Vengeance belongs to the Lord… it’s been long deserved and has been delayed for quite some time. The evil we see that seems to be flourishing all around us will have its day. The rich, the powerful, the deplorable and privileged persons who think they have everything in hand, will one day have to give an account to God for all their wickedness.
While they have breath on this earth, they can deny that God even exists, but the time is coming for them when there will be no escaping from God’s judgment.
Rev. 21:8:
“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
2 Thess. 1:6-8 [Paul speaks of God’s retribution]:
“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
At the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ many things will take place, are you ready for His return?
1 Cor. 1:8:
“Who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When the day of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He’s going to present to His Father the church in all her glory.
Eph. 5:27:
“That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
When we are with Jesus in heaven, we will be leaving behind all of our sins and all our failings… and they will not all flash before us for all to see, as we sometimes hear some preach about.
When all the “evil dust” on earth is settled and extinguished, Jesus will present to the Father His church, confirming that she is blameless. Just as God has intended for us, we will be secured in our blamelessness for all eternity. Jesus will affirm before the eternal throne of God that we are now counted as blameless… Hallelujah!! (We’ll talk more about this when we get to chapter 15)
1 Cor. 1:9:
“God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
To keep in context, it’s grace we’re taking about. We can be sure of God’s grace always… past, present, and in the future. Why? Because God is faithful.
One of the attributes of God is His faithfulness. When we say God is faithful, it means He is totally trustworthy… He is perfectly faithful.
The prophet Isaiah wrote;
“O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.” (Isaiah 25:1)
By Paul saying God is faithful, he is glorifying God for the spiritual blessings and gifts bestowed upon the church of Corinth (verse 7) and affirms his trust in God to uphold them steadfastly until the end. This speaks volumes to all believers in that, God is the solid foundation for all who have given their hearts to Christ.
The Greek word translated as “faithful” is pistos, which also conveys the concept of being trustworthy. Therefore, when Scripture declares that God is faithful, it signifies His trustworthiness. God’s trustworthiness is just as firm as His love, justice, and holiness.
Looking back to the Old Testament, God gave a promise to Abraham. This is God’s faithfulness that is still being fulfilled.
Gen. 26:4:
“I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,”
2 Sam. 7:16 [The promise to David is fulfilled in Christ, the Messiah]:
“Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”
Luke 1:32-33:
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
It is due to God’s faithfulness that Paul is assured that “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 8) God keeping us “firm” means that He will never let us go.
John 10:28:
“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”
The church at Corinth faced numerous issues, including sexual immorality, divisions, misunderstandings concerning the resurrection, possible misuse of spiritual gifts, and spiritual immaturity. In short, the church was a real mess, but Paul handled these issues, sometimes with stern rebukes, but he never questioned the salvation of the church, and he believed God would sustain them until the end. This is God’s faithfulness in action.
Our take away is, we are included in this. God will sustain each one of us till we take our last breath, that is unless He comes for us first… I know we’re all hoping for the latter. Wonderfully, to trust in God’s faithfulness requires faith on our part… the faith which God has blessed us with.
Romans 8:38-39:
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow… not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NLT)
Guys, we’re going to make, it might not seem like it at times, but we’re going to make it. Why? It’s not because of anything within ourselves, but because God is always faithful.
Psalm 73:23, 26:
“Nevertheless I am continually with You; you have taken hold of my right hand.”
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord…
Through whom you were called… When God calls someone to salvation, He is faithful to that call. This is a fact that we can take to the bank, as they say.
Romans 8:30-31:
“And these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
It’s important to note that in Paul’s letters, when he speaks of God calling us, it is always seen as an effective call that produces salvation.
John MacArthur writes, “We are saved because God wanted us saved, and we stay saved because God does not change His mind about that desire. We had no part in God’s original desire to call us, and we can do nothing to change it. If He called us when we were lost and wretched, He surely will not cease to be faithful to that call now that we have come into fellowship with His Son.”
The Greek word translated “fellowship” in the New Testament is koinonia, meaning “partnership, sharing in common, or communion,” and the essence of partnership is agreement or unity of purpose.
Fellowship with God is, at its core, an agreement with Him in all things. The New Testament assures believers of this partnership, this koinonia. Not only do we have fellowship with God the Father, but we also have fellowship with His Son and the Holy Spirit.
1 John 1:3:
“What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
To have fellowship with others, there must be a “oneness” of the heart, something that links them together. This is what we have here, we have fellowship of believers… and the common denominator is Jesus Christ. If it wasn’t for Jesus, we probably would have never met each other.
To have fellowship with Jesus means we are secured to glory, by being one with God’s beloved Son.
John 17:22-23:
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
Being “perfected in unity,” as Jesus is saying, is a picture of our fellowship with God and with each other. Without Christ there is no fellowship with God or other believers. Fellowship with God is only possible through the blood of Christ.
1 John 5:20:
“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
It kind of goes without saying, that fellowship with God comes exclusively through Jesus Christ. Like Jesus told Peter before washing his feet in John 13:8; “Peter said to Jesus, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Being washed in the blood qualifies us to have fellowship with God. God created us with a void in our hearts that can only be satisfied by having a relationship with God… Jesus is the only One who satisfies!
What can hinder fellowship with God?
Romans 8:5:
“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.” (NLT)
James puts this issue front and center…
James 4:4:
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1 John 1:6-7:
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Those in fellowship with God are trusting in Christ. Their sins are forgiven. They are filled with the Spirit. They believe that in all things God deserves to be glorified.
To enrich our fellowship with God, we should spend more time with the things of God, and less time involved in the things of the world. An obvious way to do that is to study God’s Word and spend more time in prayer with Him.
God has a great desire to have fellowship with us. We see this in the beginning with Adam.
In Genesis 3:8 it says:
“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Sadly, this was after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, they found themselves ashamed of their nakedness and were trying to hide because sin had entered them. Where it says, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” this was God desiring to have fellowship with the husband and wife… it could no longer take place because sin had disrupted everything.
When it comes to fellowship with God, may we follow the example of Enoch, a man who, throughout his long life, was known for “walking in close fellowship with God.”
Gen. 5:22-24:
“Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”
Instead of saying, “Whoop, there he is,” we say, “Whoop, where’d he go?”
I wish we could know in great detail about the fellowship that Enoch enjoyed with God. It had to have been so very close, because one day God just took him. Maybe God said to Enoch, “You know, I’m really enjoying this time with you, why don’t you come up here and we’ll continue our conversation.” The good news is, that once we go on to be with God, whether we die or get raptured, we are going to have a perfect never-ending fellowship with God… it will be a fellowship beyond our imagination… as God intended all along.
We were called into fellowship with Jesus, that means we were predestined to be close with Jesus, to be of one mind and one heart. You didn’t know this before you were saved, but it’s been God’s will all along.
One thing is for sure, we entered into salvation through God’s grace, and we’ll be kept in His salvation by the same grace.
We’ll close with a prayer from Paul…
1 Thess 5:23-24:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”