Corinthian Controversies: Hair, Respect, and Value
The first line of a NASCAR race opening ceremony is, “Would you please rise and remove your hats.” In our culture, it is a sign of respect for what follows:…
Category: Series
Corinthian Controversies: Freedom’s Restraint
The Christian controversy of freedom versus restraint is nothing new. The early church struggled to find the right balance. As we’ve seen in the past few weeks on these pages,…
Corinthian Controversies: Big Little Sins
There’s a Midwestern idiom about people’s chickens coming home to roost. Basically, it means those moments when people receive the deserved results of their wrongful actions or attitudes. Some call…
Corinthian Controversies – Paul’s Mission
There is a strange twist in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. In both letters, Paul defends his way of ministry to them. It seems the Corinthians were offended that Paul…
Corinthian Controversies: Matters of Conscience
How we handle matters of conscience is our next Corinthian Controversy. Believers have struggled with this problem since the earliest days of the church. While there have been church splits…
Corinthian Controversies: Singles and Married
Our next Corinthian Controversy begins with a bit of a mystery. The Corinthian church had sent some questions to Paul. While we have Paul’s answer, we do not know the…
Corinthian Controversies: Fleeing Sexual Sin
There are times when it is good to read the Bible backward. By that, I mean that we begin at the conclusion and work towards the beginning of the section.…
Corinthian Controversies – Inherit the Kingdom
In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul uses a perplexing phrase. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9a, NASB 2020) What…
Corinthian Controversies – One Hot Mess
Talk about controversy. The next few verses are a hot mess of controversy. People have been arrested for reading them out loud. Folks have had their social media accounts banned…
Corinthian Controversy – Lawsuits
In the first part of this Corinthian Controversy, Paul dealt with believers judging those in the world and those in the church. He next turns his attention to believers who…
Corinthian Controversies – Paul Clarifies
Everyone has areas of responsibility. Let’s use our workplace as an example. In my job, I have certain areas that I am responsible for. Tasks that I need to do,…
Corinthian Controversies – Sincerity and Truth
In the first few chapters of 1st Corinthians, Paul calls the readers to unity where there is division. We explored that controversy and Paul’s remedy in the previous articles. And…