Paul, The Church and the GospelFriday, September 30th, 2011 | Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians | Comments | |
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Paul, The Church and the Gospel In this letter, Paul dealt with many problems that were happening in the Corinthian church such as a sexual immorality and the idol worship. And at the end of this letter in chapter 15, Paul wrote specifically about the “Gospel”. So what did he teach the Corinthian church about it? What was the connection between Paul, the Gospel and the church?
God’s Calling for Paul The word “gospel” was first used in chapter 1 verse 17 in the context about the purpose that God’s calling for Paul. “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”. In this verse, Paul made clear that the reason that God sent him to the Corinthian church was to preach the preach the gospel to them. Paul also had to make clear that God did not sent him to baptize. Because there were some issues in the church about baptism.
The Issues about the Baptism Some people boasted about who baptised them, and it became the point of controversy among some people in the church. Some people boasted that they were baptised by Paul, some boasted about Cephas or Apollos, and some said that they follow Christ. As you can tell from their issues, those who boasted forgot the real purpose of baptism. So Paul had to write this letter to remind them the reason that God sent him to the church, and also to teach them what the gospel is.
The Support for the Preachers Paul wrote about the gospel especially in chapter 9 and chapter 15. In chapter 9, Paul wrote about the rights of the people that preach the gospel. As it’s written in chapter 9 verse 14, God also commanded that those who preach the gospel should get their living by the gospel. So Paul gave an example of a soldier that no soldier will server the army at his own expense. It seems that Paul himself was not receiving anything for his service. Paul believed that the preaching of the Gospel is the work that God gave him, so he said that he does everything for the sake of gospel. In order to reach out to many people. Paul made himself a servant to all, and became as a jew to reach to jews and became as one under the law to reach out to those who is under the law. He even became weak to win the weak.
What is the Gospel? So what is the gospel that Paul preached? What was it about? The answer for these questions can be found in chapter 15. After writing about the gospel and the support for living of those who preach the gospel, Paul used the word “gospel” once again in chapter 15 to write about it. This chapter begins with the phrase “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you…”. The gospel is about Christ Himself and it is something that will save you if you believe in it. The Story of the Gospel As Paul explained about it in chapter 15, the gospel is the story. This story begins with the death of Jesus Christ for our sins and Paul ended this story about the time that Chris appeared to him. Paul used the phrase “according to the scripture” twice in this sections, and it makes clear that what was written in the Bible that fulfilled by Christ is the gospel. But as you can read from chapter 15 verse 12, there were people in the church who denied the truth of gospel. So Paul had to write this letter to teach the church the truth, so that they will not be deceived by the false teaching. So that they will be saved by believing in the true gospel.
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