Paul turns his attention to a second question from the Corinthians—about the lawfulness of eating meat that had previously been sacrificed to idols. Before he tackles that issue, however, he first warns of a venom that often poisons those who possess knowledge, namely, pride. “Knowledge puffs up,” he says (8:1). The antidote for knowledge-born pride is not ignorance, but love, consisting of humility, forbearance and concern for those who lack the same knowledge. Those who are growing in the true knowledge of the Lord are also growing in their realization of how little they know, and thus humility should proportionately increase with knowledge. Daily Bible readers, take note!

Paul plants himself squarely on the side of those believers in Corinth who believed that it was not sinful to eat meat that had been previously sacrificed to idols. Certainly God is offended by people’s devotion to idols, a devotion that rightfully belongs to Him. The one who eats meat that was sacrificed to an idol by someone else, however, does not participate in his sin. Yet it is quite easy to see how some, who love God with all their hearts, might think otherwise. This is just what had happened at Corinth.

Paul was concerned that some, who like himself, knew that eating meat sacrificed to idols was not wrong, might cause those who believed otherwise to stumble into doing what they considered sinful. He offered an example:

For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? (8:10)

That is, if a believer (who thinks that eating meat sacrificed to idols is wrong) might see a fellow believer (who knows otherwise) eating at a restaurant connected to an idol’s temple, he might be tempted to join his brother, and in so doing, violate his conscience. Although he isn’t actually sinning by his act of eating meat sacrificed to idols, because he thinks he is sinning, he is sinning, because he is making a decision in his heart to do what he thinks is sin. So his heart rightfully condemns him as he eats.

Paul addressed this same issue in his letter to the Romans, writing:

But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin (Rom. 14:23).

Because of this, not only is the believer with the weak conscience guilty of sin for doing what he thinks is sin, the one who caused him to stumble into violating his conscience is also guilty of sin against his brother and Christ (8:12). For this reason, we should be sensitive towards fellow believers with “weak consciences,” being careful to do nothing to lead them into doing what they might think is sin. There is nothing wrong, however, with trying to help a believer with a weak conscience overcome his doubts by enlightening him with truth, as proven by Paul’s declarations in this very chapter of the lawfulness of eating meat sacrificed to idols.

Sadly, some have twisted what Paul wrote about “Christian liberty,” promoting liberty from God’s commandments. But standards have been set in God’s Word. Although Paul did not condemn Christians eating meats that were sacrificed to idols, he condemned idolatry as an eternally damning sin, according to what he wrote two chapters earlier (6:9-10). Similarly, when professing believers disagree over the lawfulness of viewing sexually-explicit movies, for example, there is no application found in what we read today. Scripture condemns all forms of immorality, including immorality of the mind.

From this chapter we again see how important it was to the early church to obey the Lord and keep a clear conscience, as well as help others in Christ’s body to keep a clear conscience. If we are unsure about the lawfulness of something, we ought to avoid it until we are sure. According to what we read today, one whose weak conscience is “wounded” might end up “ruined” (8:11-12), or alternately interpreted, “destroyed,” another difficult scripture to reconcile with the idea of unconditional eternal security.

Many of us have thought that it is wrong to make a moral appraisal of anyone since Jesus told His followers not to judge. Yet we’re learning that we’ve been quite unbalanced in that regard. Jesus once told a crowd, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Why doesn’t anyone ever quote that commandment? In the previous chapter of 1 Corinthians, we learned that it is entirely appropriate for devoted followers of Jesus to judge unrighteous people within the church in order that the church might remain pure.

Granted, this idea has been pushed to extremes by some Pharisaical pastors, who set human standards, such as hair lengths and tithing quotas, in order to keep their trembling little flocks “pure” or submissive to them. That is not, however, what Scripture advocates. Paul wrote about judging people who claim to be Christ’s followers, yet who are guilty of obvious sins that are clearly very grievous to God according to Scripture, such as sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, drunkenness, thievery, and so on.

Today the theme of judgment within the church continues, and we learn that “the saints will judge the world” as well as angels (6:2-3). I wish we had other scriptures to give us more insight on that, but what Paul wrote certainly ought to motivate us to sharpen our judgment skills. We’ll be participating in some very significant judgments in the future, and our appraisals of men and angels will of course be based on God’s standards of right and wrong. Thus it would be tragic for us to abdicate our responsibility to judge during the present time in smaller matters within the church.

In the Corinthian church, some believers were taking each other to court in order to let unbelievers judge between them. Paul questions why there isn’t at least one wise person in the church who could arbitrate disputes, just as Jesus prescribed (Matt. 18:15-17). One might win his lawsuit against a brother in Christ, but the loss of reputation suffered by the church before the watching world would more than offset the gains.

The appropriate thing to do if one is defrauded by another in the church is to follow Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18:15-17, which keeps all judgment between believers in the church. If the person who defrauded another does not ultimately repent, he should be excommunicated, as Paul warns that not only will no idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, and so on inherit God’s kingdom, but neither will any swindlers. Such people, when unrepentant, are not true believers in the Lord Jesus.

Do Paul’s words, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable” (6:12), mean that Christians have no laws to obey since we are “under grace,” as some teach? Clearly not, as just three verses earlier Paul solemnly warned that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom (6:9-10). So what did He mean when he said that all things were lawful? Paul could have been referring only to the believer’s relationship to the Law of Moses, and that will become more clear later in this letter as he elaborates on this theme. In fact, in the tenth chapter, he repeats that same phrase about all things being lawful. For now, let it suffice to say that Paul knew he was free from all the distinctive requirements of the Mosaic Law, such as the dietary laws and so on, yet he still found it wise to obey some of them, primarily out of love for Jewish believers.

Paul next turns his attention to the subject of sexual immorality, of which Corinth reeked. Residents and visitors indulged in sex with temple prostitutes as part of the “religious” experience. Paul lists a number of reasons why such immorality is wrong for Christians, the foremost being that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. As we keep that fact in mind it motivates us to avoid many other things that grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants no part in anything unholy. That includes not only acts of immorality, but images and thoughts of the same. Flee every form of immorality! All immoral acts begin as immoral thoughts.

Obviously referring to males and females who were not married to each other, the Corinthians had written to ask Paul, “Is it good for a man not to touch a woman?” Paul answered in the affirmative. That is the safe standard to prevent any sexual immorality, at least from a physical standpoint. One touch might lead to another. When magnets get too close, the attraction becomes unstoppable.

Sexual desire is God-given, thus it is not something that is evil in itself. Because it is God-given, we should follow the instructions of its inventor—who understands it best. He knows how it is stimulated, and He knows how strong a desire it becomes if stimulated. It is a desire, however, meant to be stimulated and fulfilled only in marriage. Additionally, a healthy sexual relationship in marriage is also a preventative against immorality. Thus Paul admonishes husbands and wives not to neglect their “duties” to each other in this regard (which seems to be an odd way to describe something so pleasurable). One is less tempted to steal the Ford parked across the street when one has a Mercedes parked in the garage.

Often overlooked in this chapter is the insight we gain into what is supposed to be normal Christian devotion. Husbands and wives may agree to abstain from sex temporarily in order to devote themselves more fully to prayer. Single people are advised to remain single so that they will not be distracted from devotion to the Lord due to trying to please a marriage partner. These are not far-fetched concepts for those who love God supremely, with all their heart, mind and strength, and who understand that anyone who loves father, mother, son or daughter more than Jesus is not worthy of Him (Matt. 10:37).

Although Paul recommended singleness, he fully understood that celibacy is a gift from God which not many have. He also understood the power of sexual desire, thus recommending marriage for those who would otherwise “burn with passion” (7:9). Paul told it like it is.

His instructions concerning marriage, divorce and remarriage are straightforward, logical, and harmonize well with the rest of Scripture. Christian married couples are not to divorce. In the event that they do, however, they should remain single or reconcile (7:10-11). Christians married to unbelievers should not divorce their unbelieving spouses due to the negative effects it would have on spouse and children (7:14). Although Paul’s words in this regard are not as clear as we’d like, it is easy to understand how a divorce initiated by a Christian could well ensure that the spouse and children would permanently harden their hearts towards Christ.

On the other hand, it is amazing to me how some pastors and Christian counselors, “sticklers for the Word,” yet lacking much sense, will counsel a woman in an abusive relationship to “obey the Bible” and not divorce her ruthless husband. It seems to me that Paul covers all those kinds of unusual cases in his final statement, “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk” (7:17). That leaves room for evaluating every case by its own merit. Remember, “The Lord Thy God hath given thee a brain!”

Although Paul recommended singleness for Christians who had been previously divorced, he plainly stated that they would not sin if they remarried (7:27-28). The only way to reconcile this with Jesus’ words that “everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,” is if Jesus was speaking about those who divorce in order to remarry someone they’ve already targeted, and Paul was speaking about those who divorce because they cannot get along. If that is the case, it is easy to understand why Jesus condemned divorce and remarriage as being equivalent to the sin of adultery, and why Paul did not.

“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God” (1 Cor. 7:9). The first half of that verse would have been considered heresy by Jews. Sadly, the second half of that verse is heresy for many modern false-grace preachers who downplay obedience.

Why didn’t Paul instruct the Corinthian believers to follow Jesus’ three steps of church discipline—which we read in Matthew 18—regarding the man in their midst who was living in a sexual relationship with his stepmother? The reason is because those are three steps that are to be taken with believers, but Paul rightfully judged that this perverted man was not a true believer. Paul had previously instructed the Corinthians “not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (5:11). Those who claim to be believers in Christ who are sexually immoral are not believers at all. This is also true for professing believers who are covetous, idolatrous, drunks and cheats. We will read in the very next chapter of Corinthians:

Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

Paul warned, “Do not be deceived.” How tragic it is that so many within evangelical Christianity have believed the lie that such people can be classed as “carnal Christians,” fully saved but walking after the flesh, indistinguishable from unbelievers. The Corinthians had adopted a similar attitude, accepting the immoral man’s profession of faith as being genuine, proud of their tolerance, when they should have been mourning that they had permitted such a blight in Christ’s body (5:2). It is obvious that this immoral man was not a true Christian. Paul referred to him as being guilty of immorality “of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles” (5:1), as “a so-called brother” (5:11), as one who was worthy to be excommunicated and delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, as a man who was not currently saved (5:5), and as a “wicked man” (5:13).

Without apology, Paul stated that he had already “judged” the immoral man (5:3). Obviously, there is nothing wrong with making such judgments. In fact, there is everything right about them. Paul unequivocally stated that those within the church have an obligation to judge those within the church (5:12). What a refreshing balance this brings to the common misunderstanding regarding passing judgment on others. Jesus’ prohibition against passing judgment revolved around finding faults with others by those who possess greater faults (Matt. 7:1-5). But moral people in the church have every right to judge immoral people within their midst.

Clearly, the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a holy, self-cleansing body. And the responsibility for that self-cleansing does not just fall on the shoulders of pastors. Paul wasn’t writing just to pastors. He was writing to the entire body in Corinth. We should all be devoted to keeping Christ’s church a light that shines in the world’s darkness, pure and holy, obedient to our Lord. This most basic quality of the church is virtually impossible to attain within common modern church structure, where the church is a group of people who know very little about each other and who gather for a weekly production under the leadership of a pastor who knows very little about them. The body of Christ cannot remain pure before the world apart from biblical churches that are small, where people actually know each other.

By excommunicating the immoral man in Corinth, the Corinthian believers sent a message to the watching world: “If you want to be one of us, you must be sexually pure.” They additionally sent a message to the immoral man: “We do not accept your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus as genuine. However, we do not excommunicate out of hatred, but rather out of love, hoping our actions will wake you from your self-deception so that you may repent, be truly born again, and be ‘saved in the day of the Lord Jesus'” (5:5). Apparently, the Corinthian believers formally delivered the immoral man “to Satan for the destruction of his flesh” (5:5). Finding himself ill and perhaps even dying, hopefully he would be saved. Serious stuff indeed!

What began as a relatively benign letter now grows somewhat passionate. Obviously, if there were factions in the Corinthian church, there were leaders of those factions. And those that were claiming to be “of Peter” or “of Apollos” rather than “of Paul” (1:12) were likely pitting themselves, not only against those who are “of Paul,” but against Paul himself. So Paul had his work cut out to win back the affections of everyone in the Corinthian church, and to unify them once again. In this chapter, he goes right to work.

He first reminds the Corinthians that it is not their judgment of him that matters, or even his own judgment of himself. It is only the Lord’s judgment of him that matters (4:3). This is something that is true for all of us, and it ought to help us when we are the victims of other people’s judgments.

Paul slips in the fact that he does, in fact, judge himself, and by his own judgment he is not conscious of anything wrong that he is doing. (How many of us could make the same claim?) That was a subtle way of telling the Corinthian believers that if they have found a flaw in him, they were likely mistaken. And in regard to their judgment of his hidden motives, that is something that should be left to God alone. They can rest assured that He will one day reveal what is hidden in people’s hearts, and then “each man’s praise will come to him from God” (4:5).

Keep in mind that some people’s hidden motives are not so hidden, and thus we are safe to judge them. In Paul’s case, however, there was no evidence against him, and thus no rightful basis for forming judgments about his motives.

Pride is the root of most strife, so Paul attacks the root. He again reminds the Corinthians that he and Apollos are only Christ’s servants and their servants, and nothing more. How foolish it was for any of the Corinthian believers to become arrogant over their favorite nobodies!

Moreover, the Corinthian believers had no right to be arrogant about anything or anybody, possessing only what God had given them (4:7). They had been blessed by God to a degree that far superseded what Paul and the other apostles, by virtue of their calling, had enjoyed. They were kings by comparison. To make his point, Paul elaborated on his lifestyle as it compared with theirs. He and his fellow apostles were a spectacle to the world, looked upon as fools. Even as he wrote his letter to the Corinthians, he and his band were hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, and homeless. Being reviled, persecuted and slandered was their regular fare. And they were the men who originally brought to the Corinthians all the blessings they now enjoyed in Christ. Yet some in the Corinthian church were speaking against them!

I’m sure Paul’s Corinthian readers were ashamed as they read. Paul obviously realized that, writing, “I do not write these things to shame you” and then affectionately adding, “but to admonish you as my beloved children” (4:14). He then reminded them of their special relationship with him. Others might be their tutors, but he was their “father through the gospel” (4:15). Such words should have melted their hearts and vanquished any suspicion of his having wrong motives.

Finally, notice Paul’s admonition, “Be imitators of me” (4:16). Every minister’s goal should be to be able to honestly say that to his or her disciples. Yet such a statement is meaningless if a minister gives people nothing more to imitate than how he acts when he is in the pulpit. Paul was able to say that Timothy would remind the Corinthians, not of his sermons, but of His ways “which are in Christ” (4:17). Paul discipled Timothy, and so Timothy was very familiar, not just with Paul’s sermons, but his lifestyle. That is what true discipleship is all about. Keep in mind that making disciples is not just the task of ministers, but a commandment that is given to us all.

It is from this chapter that the modern doctrine of the “carnal Christian” has been extracted, which promotes the idea that one can be a true Christian but be “carnal” (or “fleshly” as the NASB translates it), and thus be completely indistinguishable from unbelievers. This idea is taken largely from Paul’s words in 3:3, where he asks, “Are you not walking [living] like mere men?”

As with most all false doctrine, this one has its basis in ignoring context. A quick survey of everything Paul wrote to the Corinthians reveals that they were not indistinguishable from the world. Describing some of them, Paul wrote that they had previously been fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards and swindlers, but were no longer (6:9-10). Paul also instructed the Corinthian Christians “not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (5:11). Obviously, the Corinthian believers were not guilty of these things themselves, otherwise Paul would have been telling them not to associate with themselves.

This first Corinthian letter was, in part, Paul’s response to a letter he had received from them concerning several issues. They had asked him questions regarding what was right and wrong, indicating their own desire to do what was right.

The Corinthian Christians regularly partook of the Lord’s Supper and gathered together for Christian worship (1 Cor. 12, 14), something not done by unbelievers in their day. They were also zealous of spiritual gifts (14:12). They had been collecting money for poor believers in Jerusalem (16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8:10, 9:1-2), displaying their love for the brethren, exactly what Jesus said would mark His true disciples (John 13:35). Paul wrote in 11:2: “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.”

The conclusion? When Paul wrote that the Corinthian Christians were “walking like mere men,” he obviously did not mean that they were completely indistinguishable from unbelievers in every respect. They were acting just like non-Christians do in one way, yielding to jealousy and strife, but in many other ways they were acting like devoted disciples of Christ.

Hoping to eliminate that strife among them over their favorite leaders, Paul painted those leaders as they really were—servants who were nothing in comparison to God. Paul had laid a spiritual foundation in Corinth that Apollos, a teacher, built upon. They were one, working for the same cause (3:8). Yet, each would receive his own reward “according to his own labor” (3:8). Paul then figuratively represented their labor with six different types of building materials, gold, silver and precious stones—which are costly and inflammable—and wood, hay and straw, which are relatively inexpensive and burn easily. One day the works of God’s servants will be put through a fire to test their quality.

Obviously, those who built with wood, hay and straw will see their works consumed in the fire, and they will go unrewarded, yet still be saved (3:15). Ministers who are not wolves in sheep’s clothing, yet who still compromise truth, water down or alter the gospel, or who mislead goats into thinking that they are sheep, will be blessed to suffer nothing more than to watch their works burn in the fire and lose their subsequent rewards. False teachers, on the other hand, will find themselves, not just their works, in God’s fire.

Paul issues a solemn warning to those who engender strife. They actually destroy God’s temple, the church, and God will destroy them (3:16-17). Wow. Paul then concludes with an admonition not to divide over their favorite leaders, but to recognize that every God-sent leader belongs to them all. Those leaders are just one small expression of God’s great love for them, and are representative of His greatest blessing, namely, Christ Himself.

In a sense, the believers in Corinth were like little children of a rich king arguing over small coins. The small issues that divide us vanish when we focus on what is truly important.

You may recall that when Paul first visited Corinth, he had just come from Athens where he’d spent time reasoning with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, experiencing mixed results (Acts 17:16-34). I suspect Paul had endured his fill of human wisdom—of which Greeks were so fond—making him even more appreciative of the divine revelation of the gospel. Perhaps that is why, as he recounted his ministry in Corinth, he wrote:

I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified….and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (2:1-5).

The message of the cross has generally always been spurned by intellectuals, as they judge it to be below their brilliance. The truth is, however, that it is far above their brilliance, having its origin in heaven. Among believers there may not be “many wise according to the flesh” (1:26), yet they comprise the wisest group of people on earth, having partaken of God’s wisdom. The wisdom of the world is foolishness, not only to God, but also to those of us who know God. Moreover, we are not intimidated, impressed or enamored by the intellectual, philosophical and religious elite of the world. Rather, we feel sorry for them, knowing they are groping in darkness, blind leaders of the blind.

Having received God’s Spirit, we now possess a wisdom that is hidden from the world, a wisdom that “God predestined before the ages to our glory” (2:7). Obviously, that predestined wisdom revolves around God’s plan to redeem us through the sacrifice of Christ. The Spirit has revealed to us “all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (2:9), which includes forgiveness of our sins, our spiritual rebirth as God’s sons, and a home in heaven, to name a few.

But have we been sovereignly selected to possess this wonderful wisdom from the Spirit? No. Scripture tells us that “with the humble is wisdom” (Prov. 11:2). Those who humble themselves put themselves in the position to receive God’s wisdom. Pride is always the enemy of true wisdom, and always the comrade of worldly wisdom.

Paul wrote that, had “the rulers of this age” understood that predestined wisdom, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (2:8). Who are those “rulers” of whom he speaks? Some think it unlikely that Paul would refer to a few regional political leaders, namely, Pilate and Herod, along with a group of local religious leaders, the Jewish Sanhedrin, as being “rulers of this age” (2:6). For that reason, it is thought that Paul was referring to the demonic rulers who influenced everyone who had anything to do with Jesus’ death, starting with Judas, whom Scripture says “Satan entered” (Luke 22:3). Paul wrote of demonic spiritual rulers in his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians (Eph. 3:10, 6:12; Col. 1:16, 2:15). Those evil spiritual rulers were indeed outwitted by God. As they influenced men to crucify Christ, they unwittingly helped redeem millions of people from Satan’s dominion!

Some think that Paul’s statement, “Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit” (2:13) is a reference to speaking in other tongues, something the Corinthians were doing a lot of, and a subject that surfaces later in Paul’s letter. No one knows for sure, as Paul doesn’t say. Certainly speaking with other tongues could be considered to be speaking words “taught by the Spirit.” Yet proclaiming the gospel could also be considered speaking words “taught by the Spirit.” Neither are accepted by “the natural man” (those who are not born again), as they are “foolishness to him” (2:14). So I’m unsure of what Paul was speaking about. When I see Paul in heaven I’m going to ask him why he didn’t write more clearly!

We’ve started reading 1 Corinthians now because Paul wrote it during his three-year sojourn in Ephesus. Concerning his ministry there, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “A wide door for effective service has opened to me” (16:8). Having just read about his very fruitful ministry in Ephesus, we know what Paul was talking about!

The date of this letter is around 55 A.D., 25 years after the day of Pentecost. Therefore, after 25 years of the church’s existence, the New Testament epistles were five in all: James, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and 1 Corinthians. Four of those letters were written to specific churches for specific reasons. All of this is to say, once again, that the central focus of the early New Testament churches was obviously not the epistles, but the teaching of Christ. The epistles were supplementary, and were often corrective in nature, and that is certainly true of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.

About four years after he founded the church in Corinth, Paul learned that divisions had surfaced—divisions that foreshadowed splits that would characterize the Church for the next 2,000 years. The Corinthian believers were breaking into factions based on their favorite church leaders. The difference between then and now is this: Then, the teachers over whom they were dividing were in doctrinal agreement, and each would have been horrified to learn of the divisions that were occurring in Corinth over them; now, however, church leaders lead the divisions.

Claiming to be “of Christ” can be just as carnal as claiming to be “of Peter” or “of Paul” (1:12), if one’s label is designed to distinguish himself from others in the body of Christ. As soon as one adopts a title other than Christian, one sets himself apart from other members of the body of Christ. How tragic it is that we continually advertise our lack of unity to the world by the labels permanently planted in front of our church buildings.

Those of us who want to please Christ should work to build unity in His body, even with those who have adopted distinctive denominational and doctrinal labels, lest we be guilty of being little one-church (or worse yet, one-person) denominations. Pray that the labels of all true believers will be discarded!

According to Paul (1:17), it is possible to void the cross of Christ by means of speech that is clever, or more literally, wise (Greek: sophia). How so? If the simple message of the gospel, what Paul calls “the word of the cross,” is enhanced to make it more appealing, softened to make it more acceptable, or altered in any way, it is effectively voided. We should proclaim “Christ crucified” (1:23) even if it seems foolish to some.

Indeed, as Paul said, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1:18). This was especially true in ancient Greece, of which Corinth was a part, where the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were held in high esteem. Yet human philosophy and its partner, pride, cannot hold a candle to God’s truth, as Paul so eloquently stated. And God, who humbles the proud but exalts the humble is well-pleased to choose “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” (1:27), “so that no man may boast before God” (1:29).

Those of us who have believed the gospel are not shamed by the world’s condescension, because we have experienced transforming and saving power. To us, all the world’s wisdom, religions and philosophies amount to nothing by comparison. We have found “the treasure hidden in a field” (Matt. 13:44)! Jesus has become our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, and we boast in Him (1:30-31).

Tragically, the modern gospel has indeed voided the cross. The message of “Christ crucified” has become the message of “Christ falsified,” altered to make it more appealing to those who would otherwise reject it.

Let us then, with Paul, not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). I believe it!

It is nice to be back into the book of Acts, even if only for one day. I almost wish I had designed our chronological study so that we would not be interrupted by one of the Gospels each quarter, but I wanted to space them throughout the year rather than reading them one right after another.

After staying in Corinth for at least eighteen months (18:11), Paul headed back to Antioch, from where he originally began, concluding his second missionary journey in about two years. He didn’t stay long, however, heading out on his third missionary journey that would keep him traveling for five years until his imprisonment in Jerusalem.

Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

In Ephesus, Paul found 12 baptized disciples. Take note of his initial question to them: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Paul’s question reveals two things: (1) He believed those 12 disciples had believed in Jesus. And (2) he believed there was a possibility that they had not received the Holy Spirit when they believed.

Paul also obviously suspected that those 12 disciples had not received the Holy Spirit, otherwise he would not have asked his question.

In response to Paul’s question, those 12 baptized believers indicated that they didn’t even know that there was a Holy Spirit (19:2). So Paul then asked, “Into what then were you baptized?” If they had been baptized “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” as Jesus instructed in His Great Commission, they would have heard of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

Finally the truth was revealed. They had been baptized into “John’s baptism,” perhaps by Apollos before he was more enlightened to the truth (18:24-28).

So Paul told them the good news that Jesus had come (25 years earlier). He then baptized them in the name of the Lord. I can’t imagine anyone would claim that those 12 men were not thoroughly saved after that! By that time they were certainly all born again and thus indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Yet we next read that “Paul laid his hands upon them” and “the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying” (19:6).

So, once again, we see Scripture plainly teaches that one may have the Holy Spirit within him, but not yet upon him. Those 12 disciples were no different than the believers in Samaria whom we read about in Acts 8. You may recall that Peter and John were sent to Samaria to pray for the new believers there “that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen upon any of them” (Acts 8:15-16).

Once again the initial evidence of this Holy Spirit baptism was speaking with other tongues, and in the case of those 12 men, also prophecy. Millions of believers since then can testify of the same experience. If you have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, you are just a prayer away!

Paul’s daily teaching for two years in the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus resulted in everyone in Asia, or modern western Turkey, hearing the gospel (19:10). I can only think that was accomplished, not as a result of everyone in Asia traveling to the school of Tyrannus over a two-year period to listen to Paul, but as a result of Paul’s students, whom he discipled at Tyrannus’ school, traveling throughout Asia to proclaim the gospel. That is a beautiful picture of the power of discipleship. And with the many extraordinary miracles that God was doing, Paul enjoyed a very fruitful time in a region where the Holy Spirit once forbade him to preach (Acts 16:6). It was a true revival characterized by public repentance (19:18-19) and a public riot (19:23-41)!

Take note that in Ephesus, “Paul purposed in the spirit [not in his head] to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome'” (19:21). That decision, made with the Spirit’s leading, set the course of Paul’s ministry for years, as we will see as we continue reading Acts.

Although Jesus repeatedly told His disciples that He would be killed and rise from the dead after three days (see Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:34), they never got it. Even when Mary Magdalene reported to them on Sunday morning that Jesus was alive and that she had seen Him, they still didn’t believe (16:11). And that evening, when two men, whom Jesus appeared to on the road to Emmaus, reported an encounter with Jesus, they still refused to believe (Luke 24:12-16). I always feel better about myself when I read about those future church leaders. With Jesus, there is hope even for me!

On Sunday evening, while they were still “mourning and weeping” (Mark 16:10) over Jesus’ death and hiding “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19), the eleven found that there was one Jew from whom they couldn’t hide, namely Jesus. According to Luke’s account, just as they were expressing their disbelief at the report of the two Emmaus road disciples, Jesus appeared in their midst. Excellent timing on His part, and I imagine they almost jumped out of their skins. The first thing He did was reproach them “for their unbelief and hardness of heart” (16:14). He didn’t say, however, “That was the last straw, and I’m through with you!” Rather, after He rebuked them, He commissioned them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Jesus gives jobs to bone-heads, which again makes me feel better.

Jesus also told them about some supernatural signs that would follow those who believe. In the book of Acts, we see that those signs were fairly common. On at least three occasions, we read in Acts of believers speaking in tongues, which was the most common of the five signs. We also read of demons being cast out and people being healed through the laying on of hands.

The only example of “picking up serpents” we have in the book of Acts is when Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake on the island of Malta (Acts 28:1-5). It should have killed him, but he shook it off and suffered no harm. A few folks have interpreted Jesus’ words about picking up serpents to mean that God wants us to have snake-handling services in our churches. That, however, would fall into the category of tempting God. You won’t find any snake-handling services in the book of Acts!

Similarly, there is no record of anyone drinking poison and not suffering any harm. Certainly we should not intentionally drink poison to prove our faith, thus tempting God. If someone intentionally poisons us, we then have the right to claim it won’t hurt us.

Some have challenged the inspiration of Mark 16:9-20, claiming it was added later to Mark’s original Gospel by an over-zealous scribe (a Pentecostal one, no doubt!). Although Mark 16:9-20 is not included in some early manuscripts, 16:9 was cited by Iranaeus, and 16:20 was referred to by Justin Martyr, both well-known second-century Christian apologists and church fathers.

You’ve probably heard the story of the mother who excitedly called her son, who was studying at a seminary, to tell him some good news. She had just visited a Pentecostal church, and the pastor’s sermon had been on the various supernatural signs that would accompany believers found in Mark 16:17-18. At the end of the service, she had gone forward to receive prayer, and found herself speaking in a language she had never learned. She was ecstatic, and thought her son would be just as overjoyed.

He, however, explained to her that, according to some of his seminary professors, Mark 16:9-20 was not found in some ancient manuscripts, and was thus considered to be uninspired. She was, however, undaunted by his dousing, enthusiastically responding, “Wow! If God can do all that with uninspired verses, imagine what He can do with inspired ones!”

The fact is, even if we do away with Mark 16:9-20, we still have the entire book of Acts, not to mention Jesus’ words, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do” (John 14:12). So let them remove those “uninspired verses” if they want to!