This Term's Study Series:

Life in the Local Church
(Studies in 1 Corinthians 12-16)

Week beginning 14^th September
1. Unity and Diversity                  1 Corinthians 12:1-11                 

 Week beginning 28^th September
2. Body Beautiful                         1 Corinthians 12:12-31 

Week beginning 12^th October
3. The Most Excellent way            1 Corinthians 13:1-13 

Week beginning 26^th October
          Something different…

 Week beginning 9^th November
4. Gifts that Build                        1 Corinthians 14:1-40 

Week beginning 23^rd November
5. The Resurrection of Christ                   1 Corinthians 15:1-34 

Week beginning 30^th November
6. What a Body!                                     1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Week beginning 14^th December
          Reserved for Socials

Introduction

This term we return to study the final chapters of 1 Corinthians and there are several issues here which are as important for the church today as they were for the church in Paul’s day. 

The first is spiritual gifts, which Paul addresses in chapters 12-14 in response to something the Corinthians have asked. The Corinthians were clearly proud of their gifts and considered themselves superior to other believers as a result. They judged their fellow-believers spirituality according to whether or not they exercised particular spiritual gifts. 

Paul’s response is to tell the Corinthians that they have lost sight of the key truth of unity in diversity – although they all have different gifts, the church is one. They have also lost sight of the way that gifts should be exercised – which is why Paul wrote the wonderful 1 Corinthians 13 about love; he isn’t giving us a piece which can be read at weddings, he’s writing a stinging rebuke of a church which is characterised by its lack of love. And they have also lost sight of the purpose of spiritual gifts – they aren’t given to make me feel or seem good, they are given to build up the church to maturity.  

The second important theme in these chapters is the resurrection. Unlike many people today, the Corinthians probably didn’t deny the resurrection of Christ. They believed, as we can, that Christ was raised bodily on the third day – that’s why the tomb was empty and Jesus could appear to his disciples. But the Corinthians may well have been affected by the Greek idea that matter is intrinsically evil and spirit is good. Consequently they denied the bodily resurrection of Christians. 

In response to this view, Paul restates the Jewish and Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. The Bible doesn’t teach that we shall spend eternity as spirits in heaven. It promises instead that, when Christ appears at the End, we shall be raised with transformed, new bodies and inhabit a new earth. Our new bodies may be different to our present bodies, which are animated by the normal life all humans share, but they will still be bodies, albeit bodies animated by God’s Spirit. 

Does it really matter? Paul certainly believed it does – as he says, it affects the way we live now and the value we place on our life and work here in the present.

Life in the Local Church
16. The Resurrection of Christ - 1 Corinthians 15:1-34

Paul moves to a new subject in chapter 15 – the resurrection of the dead. The problem was that some in Corinth were denying the bodily resurrection of believers. The Greek mind saw matter as evil and wanted to be rid of it; to them, what counted were the mind and the spirit. The Corinthian Christians had been infected with this idea and thought that they would be set free from their bodies at death to become disembodied spirits for eternity.  

It‘s not clear whether they thought that Jesus was raised as a spirit while his body remained in the grave or whether they believed that he was raised bodily as they had been taught in the gospel. But they didn’t believe that we shall be raised with new bodies. But the word ‘resurrection’ – to the Jewish mind – could only mean a bodily, physical resurrection. Anything less than that would never have convinced the first Christians that Jesus was alive. And Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee and model of our resurrection as Paul makes clear in this chapter. 

1. What one piece of advice were you given as a child that you have never forgotten? 

2. Read verses 1-11. What are the essential elements of the gospel message Paul preached? How would you explain the importance of Christ’s resurrection to an unbeliever? Why do you think Paul gives such a detailed list of those who saw Jesus after the resurrection? 

3. Read verses 12-19. What false teaching was being spread among the Corinthians (v12)? From these verses, what does Paul say would be true if there were no resurrection from the dead?  

4. Read verses 20-34. What are the implications of Christ’s resurrection for us (v20)? How will Christ’s resurrection overcome the effects of Adam’s sin (v21-28)?  

5. What difference has Christ’s resurrection and your resulting victory over death made to you in terms of hope and courage? In terms of purpose for your life? 

[Note on v29: Don’t worry about Paul’s apparent endorsement of baptism-by-proxy – we don’t know to what he was referring and he may simply be talking about something which was common in Corinth without approving of the practice.] 

15. Gifts that build - 1 Corinthians 14:1-40

Having looked at the fact that we all have different gifts as parts of the one body, and that without love those gifts are worthless, Paul now addresses the Corinthians’ attachment to speaking in tongues. While Paul doesn’t disparage tongues – he himself speaks in tongues more than any of the Corinthians, so he clearly valued the gift – he sees it primarily as a gift for personal rather than public use. The need when God’s people come together is for gifts that will build up the church to maturity, and for this reason prophecy is of greater value in public worship, although he does give guidelines for the exercise of this gift. 

1. If you could play any musical instrument, what would it be? 

2. What is Paul’s attitude to spiritual gifts in general in this chapter (see especially v1 and vv39-40)? What should be our primary goal, whatever our gifts may be (see v12 and vv18-19)? 

3. What do you understand by ‘speaking in tongues’? (If someone in the group has experience of the gift, they may be willing to talk about how they received it and how and when they use it.) What does Paul tell us about tongues in vv1-25? What are the problems with speaking in tongues (without an interpretation) in a public meeting? Does that mean that Paul sees no place for tongues in a Christian’s life? 

4. What do you understand by prophecy? (Be open to different possible understandings within the group and recognise that they may complement rather than contradict one another.) What does Paul tell us about prophecy in these verses? Why does he see prophecy as preferable to tongues in public worship? 

5. From verses 20-25, what does it mean to be adult in the faith? What gift will be most useful if unbelievers are present in public worship? Why? 

6. From verses 26-40, what principles should govern public worship? How can we apply those to our housegroup meetings, Open to God and Sunday worship?  

[For the very brave – do you see Paul’s words in vv 33b-35 as a blanket prohibition on women taking part in public worship or do you think Paul is dealing with a particular situation in Corinth (even if we can’t be sure what that is)? You may wish to bear in mind 1 Corinthians 11:5 where Paul envisages women praying and prophesying in public meetings.] 

14. The Most Excellent Way - 1 Corinthians 13

This chapter is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible and is frequently read at weddings and funerals, but Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for their lack of love for one another within the church. From what we know of the church through reading Paul’s letters to them, their attitudes were the direct opposite of many of the qualities which Paul lists as characterising love.  

As we read the passage, we need to be very honest with ourselves about the ways in which our service of God is lacking in love. We need to examine our own relationships at All Saints’ in the light of Paul’s description of love. We need to remember what it is which has eternal value. This chapter should drive us to our knees in confession and prayer for grace to change.   

1. What was your favourite love song when you were a teenager? 

2. Read verses 1-3 about the importance of love. What did the Corinthians consider to be most important in church life? What does Paul say in reply? What might you be tempted to put before love or to do without love?  

3. Read verses 4-7 about the nature of love. How would you define each of the qualities that Paul mentions here?  How would that speak to the situation in the Corinthian church? How does it speak to your experience of church life?  

4. In which of these descriptions are you strongest? In which are you weakest? 

5. Read verses 8-13 about the permanence of love. What does Paul say about the gifts that mattered so much to the Corinthian Christians? What does he say here about love? Does that mean that spiritual gifts have no place in the life of the church today? (E.g. when does Paul think that ‘perfection comes’ and ‘we shall see face to face’?) What does it mean to have a rightly balanced view of spiritual gifts? 

6. What do you think is the best way to develop the ability to love one another? 

13. Body Beautiful - 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Paul is still addressing the Corinthians misunderstanding about spiritual gifts. Some members of the church seem to have thought that, because they spoke in tongues, they were more spiritual than the rest and didn’t need to receive the ministry of others in the church. Paul uses the body metaphor in order to show how we all need each other if we are going to grow to maturity.

This speaks to the contemporary church – there’s no place for passive Christians who leave all the work to a few gifted individuals, but there is no room either for a church where a few people do everything and exclude others from active ministry.  

1. What talent do you possess that others probably don’t know about?

2. Read verses 12-13. What does Paul tell us about the church in these two key verses? How should that affect the way we view one another at All Saints’? 

3. What might make some members of All Saints’ feel useless or envious of other parts of the body? Has this ever been true of you? How does Paul respond to the problem of feeling dispensable (vv14-20)? 

4. What might make some members of All Saints’ feel self-sufficient or superior? According to Paul, how can we make every member of the body feel special and cared for (vv21-26)?  

5. According to vv27-31, should we all expect to have the same spiritual gifts? Why or why not? What can you do to help others in your group to discover their gifts? What do you think will happen to your own gifts when you do this?

12. Unity and Diversity - 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

In these verses, Paul begins his response to the Corinthians’ warped understanding of what it means to be ‘spiritual’. Some of them believed that they were superior to the others because they had received certain spiritual gifts and they were in danger of ruining the unity of the church and its work. Paul gives them a test of what true spirituality is all about, and then speaks of unity and diversity – we all have different gifts, but they come from the same God, for the same purpose and at his will and command. 

1. What was the most enjoyable part of the summer holiday for you? 

2. Read verses 1-3. Paul is responding to the Corinthians’ questions about ‘spiritual things’ or ‘spiritual people’ – i.e. what is spiritual and what (or who) isn’t. How are we tempted to think that any ‘spiritual’ or ‘supernatural’ experience must be from God? What should we be looking for as evidence of the Spirit’s work? 

3. What do verses 4-6 say about unity and diversity in the Christian church? What does that mean in practice for us at All Saints’? When have you felt part of a unit where each part worked together for a common goal?  

4. According to verse 7, through whom does the Spirit manifest his presence? For what purpose? How might the Holy Spirit want to manifest his presence though you? (You may want to spend some time on this question, helping each other to recognise the ways God is working through each member of the group for the common good.) 

5. Read verses 8-10. What do you understand by each of these gifts? Which have you experienced? What other spiritual gifts does God give that aren’t included here or in any of the other lists in the New Testament? 

6. Who decides who gets which gifts? How does that help you to be content with the gifts God has given you? Spend some time giving thanks to God for your particular God-given gift and asking him to help you use it to help and strengthen others.