1 Corinthians 1

     Cf. Acts 18:1-19:1; 20:1-3.  (See notes at 2 Cor. intro.)

     1:1.  Sosthenes; see Acts 18:17! Perhaps the same man, now a Christian brother.

     1:2-9.  Paul reminds the Corinthian church of God’s grace and peace to them in their calling into Christ; in his abundant provision in the present; and in the assurance of a blameless verdict in the coming judgment.  Note how many times the Lordship of Jesus Christ is stressed.  All is mediated through him to those who have been sanctified in him (2).

     1: 11.  Chloe; no one knows who Chloe or her people were, but probably she was a wealthy convert who sent servants to inform Paul of the problems arising in Corinth.  (Chloe was the common name of the goddess Demeter [the Roman Ceres] who had a temple in Corinth, as well as in many other Greek cities.   She was the goddess of harvest wealth, a pure deity, and purity was nearly as rare among the gods as it was in the wide open Roman free city of Corinth.)

     1:14.  Crispus; see Acts 18:8.  Gaius; Acts 19:29; Rom. 16:23.

     1:10-17.  Our union and oneness in our fellowship with each other depends on our union and oneness with our Lord.  If Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) all preach the same Christ, how is it that Christ is divided?  Even those who claim to heed none but Christ form a party to exclude others (12).  Does the effectiveness of baptism depend on the minister of it?  Or rather, on the power of the life, death, and resurrection of the one in whose name we are baptized?

     The Greeks admired clever speech and sharp reasoning (cf. v.5).  But Paul preached a plain simple gospel of the death of Christ on a cross for sinners (17).

     1:18-25.  Just as the Jews relied on the Law and their own righteousness, the Greeks relied on debate, logic, and the wisdom of man (philosophy and science) to discover the highest good.  The Jews demanded evidence of spiritual power (cf. Matt.12:38-40; 27:40-43), and Greeks search for wisdom (22).  Christ crucified, how weak, how foolish (23), say those who are perishing (18).  But to those who are being saved, Christ on the cross and in the grave becomes wisdom and power beyond comprehension (cf. 2 Cor.13:4; Rom.11:33-36).

     1:26-31.  Neither among the Jews nor among the Greeks were many of the wise and mighty of the world saved, but rather the poor, the foolish, and the weak were chosen, and all the more to the glory of God alone (30).  Cf. Luke 14:15-24, “Go out…and compel them to come in” (23).