Reverse Engineering 1 Corinthians

Good afternoon to all of you. It was really delightful to see the Hood River gang file in, see Pat and Heather, and then watch Lisa and Sonia, and said, where's Carol? And then she came in, saw everybody here, but surely. Apparently she can't make it today, but it's good to see all of us together for this first day of Unleavened Bread. You know, I was thinking as the acapella choir was finishing, in a perfect world, I'm defining a perfect world here as one where you have unlimited resources and unlimited authority. With those two, I was thinking as they were finishing, I'd pack up that entire gang, take them to Cincinnati in about a month, and when the GCE meeting is televised for all the world, I'd have them sing special music between the split sermons.

Absolutely a delight every time the acapella choir performs, and this was no exception.

Each year at this season, all of us go through exactly the same experience. As Mr. Sexton was saying, this is an annual reminder, and one of the pieces of annual reminder comes at the very beginning of the Passover service, and it's the reading of a Scripture from 1 Corinthians.

Every year I think of the anomaly that exists when we read 1 Corinthians, because this Epistle's time setting is almost universally ignored by Christian commentators.

The setting for 1 Corinthians is the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

It's acknowledged by Paul that they're keeping these days, that they understand the symbolism, and he uses those facts to deal with problems within the congregation and intertwines that with rehearsing with them the meaning of these days.

These facts are completely overlooked by most churchgoers, and I fully understand that. Having prior to God's calling been one of those churchgoers. I would not have understood the terminology or the conversation between Paul and the Corinthian members prior to having been introduced to the Days of Unleavened Bread. So I fully understand why the average churchgoer would have absolutely no comprehension of what's happening here. But what's more interesting is that almost universally commentators ignore these facts. And these are men of learning and men who should know better. But back to what we know. We read in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 23 and 26 every year. That's, in fact, that was the first Scripture that was read at Barberton Grange, and I'm assuming it may have been the first that was read down in the Milwaukee also. Have you ever stopped to consider that the snippet, because it's only three verses, that the snippet of the 11th chapter that we read is just the end thought of what has been on Paul's mind for every chapter proceeding all the way to the beginning of the book?

He's instructing a congregation using the meaning of these days as his instrument of education.

Today we're going to do something unorthodox. We're going to start at the end of his thinking and work back toward the beginning.

I learned in the beginning years of the United Church of God, after answering hundreds of emails and letters, a simple reality. I don't know how many hundreds of people I've engaged in conversation and every so often you find out after you've engaged that you're not on the same railroad track.

And I've mentioned it before here in Portland, but there came a place, and now it literally is habit, there came a place when a naked question is asked. There's no context or surrounding. Would you please answer this? Before I do, I'll write back to a person and I'll say, tell me where you're coming from so I'll know where I'm going to. Until I know where you're coming from with your question, I don't know where to go with my answer. Today we're going to explore where Paul was coming from. We're literally going to apply that principle. We're going to look at where Paul was coming from step by step as he wrote this Passover season letter to the Church of God in Corinth.

With that in mind, let's go back to where we always read during the Passover, 1 Corinthians 11 verses 23 through 26. This is that snippet that I referred to, just three verses. And then we're back to the Gospels, to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, reading other corollary scriptures. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 23 through 26, this is what we read, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Paul tells this Gentile church that Christ himself revealed to him the meaning of the Passover symbols. In the first chapter of Galatians, when you piece things together, where Christ says, Look, I was not taught by other apostles. I was taught by Christ personally. And he says something that commentators can't figure out. In other words, they know it's there, but they don't know where to plug it in. He said he was three years in Arabia.

We've often thought that when he said in the same chapter that he was taught personally by Christ, not by the other apostles, and that he was out of the scene for three years in Arabia, that maybe that was the time in which that education took place. But he said very simply, This is what Christ taught me. Not what Paul taught, not what Peter taught me, not what John taught me, not what James taught me. This is what Christ taught me. And it was exactly the same thing that he taught the other apostles. As I said, we read this each year at Passover service, and then appropriately so we go on to other readings. But what we read here was generated by an earlier thought. So I simply ask you, when you read verses 23 through 26, where is Paul coming from? And the answer to that is chapter 10, verses 14 through 17. Because it's here that Paul earlier talked about the bread, and it is here that he earlier talked about the wine. So what he had to say to them in chapter 11 sprang from what was already on his mind in chapter 10, verses 14 through 17.

Here he said, Therefore, my beloved flee from idolatry.

I speak as a wise man, judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Now it may seem a little strange, and if your Bible is broken up in the same way as mine, the thought does begin, the subject break does begin with a statement of flee from idolatry. And when you read the next few verses, you may say, well, where's the connection? It won't take us long to make that particular connection.

And we'll make that connection by asking a question. I want you to listen carefully, and I want you to look carefully. What does he call the bread and wine? You're free to look. What does he call the bread and wine? He calls it the communion.

A cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? We don't commonly hear the word communion except in the context of a formal official service in the Catholic Church. But he's not talking here about a service. He hears focusing on the intended result of taking the bread and the wine. Communion is not a normal part of our vocabulary. But let me make it a word that we all understand. Communion means the same thing as partnership. Those who enter into that partnership. When you enter into that partnership, you own a share of the venture. You're taking two symbols of having entered into a partnership with Jesus Christ and all of his followers. All of them invested in the same goal. All shareholders, stakeholders, all committed to the well-being of the enterprise. All focused on the same end result.

So as we take the bread and wine, we often think of taking the blood and the body of Christ, which is fine. But to make his particular point to the Corinthians, he wanted them to understand that you have entered a partnership with all that that means. I'm fully invested. I'm fully in. I'm fully committed. I have the same goals as all the rest of the shareholders. And as the owners of the company, I'm looking for the same end result. I'm looking for the same destination. You may not have thought about it from that particular standpoint, but Passover evening, even Jesus Christ was read to you from Matthew chapter 26 saying exactly the same thing.

If you turn back to the words of Christ himself in Matthew 26 as he was sitting with his disciples, you will see only a change of the word, but not a change of the meaning. In Matthew chapter 26, read to every congregation before we took the symbol of the wine. Christ said in verse 28 of Matthew 26, for this is my blood of the contract. If you read the margin, some translations omit the word new. So just for the sake of giving them the benefit of the doubt, because it doesn't really make a difference to where we are right now, this is my blood of the covenant. It's the blood of the contract. It's the blood that makes you a partaker, a shareholder, a co-owner invested in the destiny.

With that in mind, do you understand why the section in 1 Corinthians began with flea idolatry?

There is no room for competition. There is no room for divided interest. There are no fences to straddle to say, let me put some of my interests on this side of the fence and some of my interests on this side of the fence.

You see, if you happen to be part of a retirement program, as many companies offer, a 401k or something of that, they may tell you, diversify. Put some of it here and some of it there and some of it here and some of it there. So no matter which way the economy goes, while one is not doing well, the other may be thriving. You and I are invested 100% in one investment.

That as a result, there is no room for any other. So he told the Corinthians, flea idolatry. You know, when God said in the very first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me, I've said to you before, and probably will again if the occasion arises, the word before is all-inclusive. It means there is no room for any other God in my presence. Before doesn't mean simply in higher rank or in front of my eyes. It means anywhere. It means there is no room, period, for any competition.

And so he said to them, in the context of these days of Unleavened Bread, when you take the bread, where's your head? Your head is in the partnership, the covenant, the contract. When you take the wine, where is your head? It's in the commitment with the destination of the owners of the program that I have espoused and I have agreed to be part of. Therefore, flea idolatry. Paul's thoughts here in these verses sprang. As I said, we're going to ask at each place. Tell me where you're coming from, so I know why you said what you said. What he said right here sprang from the beginning of this chapter. Again, Paul's mind was in these days. As he began the 10th chapter, his mind was where you and I are. Now, you and I, meaning that you and I who are not retired, you and I should be making widgets today. You're in the wrong place. Except you've got a superior partnership, and widgets have to wait until tomorrow because today your partnership is with God Almighty and with His Holy Days. Paul began by saying, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. When did that take place? Days of Unleavened Bread. Days of Unleavened Bread.

Happened to be on the last day of Unleavened Bread that they walked through the Red Sea and came out on the other side and sang, rejoicing at their deliverance. So as Paul is talking to this Gentile church, he once again has his feet firmly anchored within the days of Unleavened Bread as he's giving them instruction. He continued on with an analogy that has been the heart and core of our Passover service. They all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock, capital R, and one of the statement or one of the choices of words is unfortunate in this regard that followed them. If you look at the Hebrew, a better choice of words here would be a company. It has not to do with whether in front of or behind, but in the company with and within the presence of. They all ate the same spiritual food. We did that Passover evening, didn't we?

They all drank the same spiritual drink. We did that Passover night, didn't we?

And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

We drank of the same thing. We ate of the same thing.

But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things became our example to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted, and do not become idolaters as were some of them. So you see what he said when he talked to them about the bread and the wine in the middle of the chapter was, and he said, flee idolatry. His mind was back in the first days of Unleavened Bread and the days and weeks that followed after it. And he said, they became idolaters. They sat down to eat and drank and rose up to play. He rose up to play as a euphemism. We will see as his mind continues to go back, it will eventually arrive at sexual immorality. This is the first time that he enters that. Play was not basketball, volleyball, tennis. It was something dark and immoral. Now let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Nor murmur, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonation, on whom the ends of the age have come. And so he said to them, these lessons that were embedded at that time in a Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread season, and the subsequent weeks are here within the Word of God because the lesson is timeless. It's ageless. It will apply to every generation of the people of God until Jesus Christ returns. So again, Paul's mind was on the Days of Unleavened Bread as he started with an event that took place on the last day of Unleavened Bread. His mind was fully on communion, partnership with Christ, when he said they all drank the same rock, they all ate of the same bread. He wanted them to see that idolatry, meaning competing partnerships, had destroyed ancient Israel.

He wanted them to see that sexual immorality had been their gateway.

That sexual immorality had been their gateway and had effectively severed their partnership. It wasn't within the purview of his story with them because it wasn't within the Days of Unleavened Bread, but Balaam used exactly the same tool. If I am not allowed to curse Israel, then let me teach Israel how to curse itself through sexual immorality.

Paul wanted them to know that no age was immune from either divided allegiances or immorality, and he wanted them to know that all too often they traveled together as companions.

Well, what have we seen? See, we've only taken two steps, haven't we? We've only taken two steps from 1 Corinthians 11 in the Scripture that we read Passover evening, but in those two steps, we've covered a lot of ground. We have come to see, focused, the fact that we are in a partnership, a company, a communion, if you will, with Jesus Christ, and have entered into contract with Him, as signified by the taking of the bread and the wine. We have been reminded that he accepts no divided allegiances, no having anything before Him, because anything that is before Him. You know, we can look at the old, stark, traditional, a stone statue, a wooden statue, or some form of carving, but idolatry is any divided allegiance.

You know, in the world of criminality, we have crime, and then we have white-collar crime, and for some reason, because a person doesn't get his hands dirty, and because he doesn't shoot somebody, and because he doesn't take a life, and because what he takes is only possessions and things, that this constitutes a different level of crime. You know what? You end up in prison for it, the same as you do for the ones where you get your hands dirty. There are no white-collar crimes. Add Paul's further cautions that sexual immorality is similar to a gateway drug leading to idolatry, or if you wish to look at it another way, drawing us away from full allegiance to our partnership with him. So where was he coming from? I had quite a bit to say here in chapter 10, but where was he coming from? Well, he had already addressed head-on, and his mind was fully on the fact that a few chapters earlier, he had to deal not with the theoretical, he had to deal with the actual. And as we go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we find the Apostle Paul saddened, disgusted, pleading, all the emotions wrapped in together, hoping for the best response to his exhortation so that he didn't have to go beyond exhortation. But his mind was fully on the fact that he had to deal with a real case of immorality, and sadly, during the days of Unleavened Bread.

You know it's impossible for anyone who understands these days, anyone who understands these days, to miss the fact that this Gentile church was observing the Passover on the days of Unleavened Bread. My favorite place to go when I go through the commentaries to see if anyone will tip his hand is 1 Corinthians 5, to see if anyone will acknowledge, hey, this is a Gentile church that was keeping the Holy Days.

To his credit, the oldest, stuffiest, stodgiest of all of those who comment on this came the closest to giving a full nod, and that was Connie Baron Housen's Life and Times of the Epistle of Paul. But you can walk through a dozen commentaries, and it's, they've got the blinkers on, and will not look at the prospect of Gentiles keeping, as they say pejoratively, Jewish Holy Days.

1 Corinthians 5, verses 1 through 8, pure, pure days of Unleavened Bread. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

When I go back to my childhood religion, I would not have known what puffed up signified. It would have, I would have seen it from the physical standpoint of somebody who's arrogant. But I would not have known why Paul would have chosen that word until I began keeping these days. Now the antenna goes up, and I say, hmm, congregation accepting standards that are completely unacceptable, and that attitude is puffed up.

He must be talking about days of unleavened bread. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I, indeed, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged as though I was present concerning him who has done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit, may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

To fully understand verse 5, you need to read 2 Corinthians. And I'm not going there today, but if you read 2 Corinthians, you know where Paul is coming from. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? When do we have that conversation?

Well, we have it as we're cleaning out our car, as we're cleaning out our kitchen, as we're cleaning out our garage, as we're cleaning out. Our heads are in that conversation. As we judge, when's the last garbage pickup before the sun goes down on Monday night of Days of Unleavened Bread? I told my wife two weeks in advance. I said, Dear, garbage pickup is on the first day of Unleavened Bread this year.

We have to go to plan B. We will have to pare down earlier, and we will not have to wait on the traditional, put everything in the garbage, and let the garbage man pull it away, because garbage man is going to have all my leavening sitting on my front sidewalk on the first day of Unleavened Bread, and that's not acceptable. Well, you know, their minds were in the same place as ours. When he said, Don't you know that a little leavened leavens the whole lump? Their mind was in the Days of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened.

I appreciate Connie Baron-Housen saying, the average commentator has a metaphor defining a metaphor, and he says, metaphors don't define metaphors. Metaphors define realities. His way of saying was simply that they were physically unleavened. And therefore, thinking at the spiritual level was something easy to do because physically they were already there. If I'm here physically, I can think that way metaphorically at a different level. Therefore, let us keep the feast. How much simpler in English can you get than that? I can't simplify that.

That's irreducible complexity. I can't make that statement any simpler. Therefore, let us keep the feast.

Not with all leaven, or with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

While Paul carried the issue of sexual morality forward for five chapters of this book, his focus, when the discussion began here in 1 Corinthians 5, was far broader. You see, he had a case that he had to deal with. It was an explicit case, a case that word had come to him, and that sooner or later either they were going to respond to a letter or he was going to have to come there personally, but he had to deal with it. But you know what? When you're a teacher and an instructor of a congregation of God who are keeping the days of unleavened bread, you don't miss the teaching opportunity to go beyond the simple problem that's facing the congregation, as it was here. And so he took the teaching opportunity to enter a panorama, and it begins to unfold in verse 9. He said, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters. Since then, you'd have to go out of the world. I love the absurdity of his comment, the obviousness and the absurdity.

You want to be totally, completely untouched by all these qualities?

Find out when the next rocket leaves for the moon and hope nobody follows you.

Because as soon as the next rocket lands and another person, you're right back where you started from. So he said, look, I wasn't talking about the society. You live in it, you deal with it. But now I write to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is. And what he did, brethren, here was now expand the picture of what constitutes leaven.

So as he was talking about internal problems in Corinth, he did a beautiful job of giving a broader view of what it is that constitutes leaven. Fornication was already on the table, so we don't have to go over that. I think as we look at these things, I can't help but try to mentally put my feet in your shoes, since I know how my feet feel in my shoes. And we are indicted by most of what he said should not be if we take the rheostat and we run it up and down.

For instance, anyone here who's never coveted?

I'm looking for hands.

Oh, man, not one single hand. Okay. Should we be thrown out of the Church of God? No. The point Paul was making here as he talked — I'll use the term I used earlier — white-collar crimes. What he was talking about is obsessive. What he was talking about is living there.

You know, a person who spends their whole life miserably saying, I deserve better. I got cheated. I should have what he has. He spends his life scheming and planning how I can get what he has. Doesn't belong here. The fact that all of us, at times, can look at something and say, wow, I'd enjoy that. My wife reminds me occasionally of about three years ago when we went to the only auto show that I've ever attended. And I went up to the luxury cars and I looked at this $300,000 Lamborghini and she saw a look on my face that she'd never seen before. And I said, dear, dear, I understand $300,000 cars are not in my garage, but I said I can admire an absolutely stunningly beautiful vehicle. And I said, you know, that's what it is. If somebody said, I'll give that to you and I'll pay all the maintenance and the taxes, I'd say, sure, I'll take it. Did I lose one night's sleep over the fact that I didn't have it? No, no. It's a matter of saying that was beautiful. That was a phenomenally powerful vehicle. And now let's get on to other things. And so here we are. And he says, look, here are qualities that we don't need. They're qualities we don't want. We don't want covetousness. We don't want idolatry.

Do you like to spend time with a reviler?

I don't know anybody. I don't know anyone except someone who really is a reviler who likes to be in the company of someone who's incessantly a reviler.

I see cranky, ornery, mean-spirited, foul-mouthed people who love the same company, but I don't see that here. Do you say things once in a while about others that you shouldn't say?

Yeah, I'm sure you do. I'm sure all of us do. I'm sure all of us have to say, God, forgive me.

The tongue, and we go back to the Scripture about what the tongue is. It's a fire, and it ignites things that it shouldn't ignite. We all have to ask for forgiveness for our tongues.

But I've been with this congregation long enough. I can't close my eyes and say, so-and-so is a reviler. It goes on to drunkards. It goes on to extortioners. So Paul broadened the scope. While he had everyone there in his letter, and he was dealing with a problem that was specifically laid in his lap, he said, you're keeping the days of unleavened bread. You are physically unleavened. Let's talk about how getting the spiritual leavening out looks like. Deal with your congregational problem that got sent to me from the House of Chloe, but while we're at it, here are some white-collar crimes, if we can call it that, that it would be good to look at and make sure that these do not rule in our lives. You know, Corinth was the economic metropolis of the day for that part of the world. It was a Roman province. It was superior to Athens and other areas in terms of its economy, and so it was rich, and it had all the normal sins of excessive wealth as a part of the community. And the people were not immune from the problems of the community.

At this particular point that I've just read to you, 1 Corinthians 5, Paul was transitioning. He was transitioning. He was in that transitional point where he was wanting the congregation to understand that the sins of the body spring from the sins of the heart.

And that's why he went from some of those that are body sins to mind sins. You don't touch another human being in any form of violence by reviling or coveting.

But they're sins of the head. They're sins of the heart.

And he was transitioning here. We all know the same thing as we go through an annual self-inspection.

11 is seen in deeds, but it is rooted in attitudes.

So if you're going to visually see it, if I'm going to see my 11 or my wife's, or she's going to see mine or hers, or if you're going to see yours or your spouse's, or your spouse's or your family's, you're going to see a deed. You're going to see an action.

But all deeds and actions are rooted in attitudes.

And Paul's teaching about what to do with certain forms of disobedience to God, as he was dealing with them here, sprang from an earlier section where his focus was on their thinking. So as we move backward, asking of Paul, where are you coming from? Where are you coming from? And each step we take back, we find out that where he was coming from had a basis in logic. In other words, it was logical that he would say what he did in chapter 11, considering what he was thinking in chapter 10. It was very logical that he should say in chapter 10 what he was saying when you look at where he was in chapter 5. And as we look at chapter 5, we've got our toe in the water, and we're about to explore Paul's comments to them about certain conducts that needed to be removed because they constituted leavening were focused in their thinking. Let's go back one chapter to 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Corinthians 4 is the first place in this chapter where Paul gives a tell. You know, when people play games, poker, card games, they talk about a tell, meaning maybe a person has a good hand and they involuntarily blink, or they involuntarily do something that is an identifier to the watcher that he's saying, I've got something here and I can't contain my blank face.

1 Corinthians 4 contains the first tell regarding this book and the days of Unleavened Bread.

Notice in verses 18 through 21 of chapter 4.

Now, some are puffed up. First time in this book, Paul gives a tell about the days of Unleavened Bread.

Some of you are puffed up as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills, and I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.

He said, put your money where your mouth is. You've got a big mouth. You've made a lot of boastful statements. When I come, look me square in the face and see if you've got the backbone to do it to my face. But here's where he gives the tell. Until this point in time, he hasn't tipped his hand that this congregation is in the days of Unleavened Bread. And that he's using the days of Unleavened Bread as a teaching opportunity, and so that he can deal both with their problems, but he can also deal with general instruction and general guidance.

So here in chapter 4, Paul begins to use the days of Unleavened Bread vocabulary to teach them about wrong thinking. Three times in this chapter, he talks about being puffed up. And everyone who observes these days knows that Unleavened bread arises or is puffed up, and that this physical process is used to describe what? Attitude. It's used to describe a frame of mind. When you talk about being puffed up, you talk about the mindset and acknowledge that the mindset then leads to actions. And so as he introduces puffed up into the vocabulary of the book, he is dealing with a frame of mind. We've seen here in verses 17 to 21, he warns them about being cocky. You have a major problem in your congregation, and you mentally—and I'll put something on the table that we haven't seen so far—because he said he'd send Timothy.

Timothy was a much younger man and a much more mild-mannered man. And so he was saying to them in essence right here, you may mentally pat mild-mannered Timothy on the head and dismiss him.

But if you do, then I come next, and you will not pat me on the head, and you will not dismiss me.

I will deal with your arrogance. Though Timothy has neither the rank, the stature, or the experience that I do, he comes with the same pleadings and the same admonition. If you listen to him, we're finished. If you don't, then I will have to come, and you will not dismiss me.

What are the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians about?

We've all read the book.

I remember a short way of saying something from many, many years ago, and it really describes the first four chapters of Corinthians. When I ask, what is the first four chapters of Corinthians about, if you were to sum it up, I can sum it up with two words. Stinking thinking.

That's what the first four chapters of Corinthians are about. Stinking thinking. Everything Paul has to say from the introduction all the way up to where we are right now is all about stinking thinking. You know, when a person is weak, you can address their specific problem and deal with it. All of us in the ministry. If you give any of us in the ministry a choice between dealing with a bad attitude and a physical sin, I think across the board we'd choose the physical sin. A bad attitude can manifest itself in a dozen different ways.

A physical sin is a problem. A problem to deal with, a problem to address, a problem to encourage your person with, a problem to help somebody with, to do everything you can to restore and rebuild. But a foul attitude has no boundaries. It'll crawl through any crack.

Not only can you not corral and harness a bad attitude, a bad attitude can leaven anything. Anything it touches, it can leaven. Everything it touches, it can leaven. Anyone around it, it can leaven. In these first four chapters, attitude is virtually the only topic of discussion, and the leavened attitude is manifested in two primary ways.

It's easy to do a summary of the first four chapters. You can always read it during the days of unleavened bread for yourself to get into the nitty-gritty. But the overall is very easy to deal with. The first four chapters dealt with two attitudes, two leavened attitudes that existed within the church at Corinth, an over-inflated view of their own wisdom. And I would use the term sophistication as a wisdom slash sophistication.

And the other was party spirit.

The problem here is that when the attitude is wrong, leavening, as I said, can come from a dozen different directions because the thing isn't the issue the attitude is. And so he didn't deal so much with concretes as he dealt with look. Here's the attitude that exists within Corinth.

I'll not take you section by section through those chapters, but I think we can capture all that we need to capture with a simple overview. And with that overview, you can walk back through those chapters, place that overview on it as a template, and it will make total sense. Barnes notes on 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 17, which introduces the problem of Corinth, which is a problem with the wisdom of words.

Verse 17 says, "...for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." Barnes notes says, the expression here is a Hebraism, so it was the way a Jew would describe a Corinthian Greek. And it means not in wise words or discourse. The wisdom mentioned here refers doubtless to that which was common among the Greeks and which was so highly valued, and it includes the following things. Their subtle and learned mode of disputation.

A graceful and winning eloquence. And thirdly, that which is elegant and finished in literature, in style, and composition.

They were very proud of these things.

My wife and I somehow ended up with two volumes. They're just little paperbacks, and I've recommended them occasionally when somebody has asked a question relevant. It's a little paperback called A Touch of Wonder, and it's from a fellow that has little short stories about the South, and he has a couple about the graciousness that is a part of Southern culture. I know of no place in America where people can be more gracious in demeanor and word than what I would call the true Southern gentleman.

And he mentions a particular case where he goes to church and he's met with all of this graciousness, and he feels about this high off the ground with specialness until, as he walks in the church door, he hears the greeter give the same level of effusive graciousness to the person behind, and then he stops and smiles and says, it wasn't about me, it was about the graciousness of the region. The Greeks were in love with this their own quality. So that it makes sense, and I'll give you a modern illustration of what Barnes was trying to say. During my days in Ambassador College, I was in school with two men of aristocratic background. One of them was in line to inherit a lordship when his father, who was currently a lord, died, and the other, not of the same line, was nonetheless less of aristocratic breeding. Both of these men were schooled from childhood in English manners and learning, much like high-bred Greeks would have been in Paul's day. The pleasure from our standpoint was, as converted men, these graces were a phenomenal asset, served them well, and served the college well. And so, within the confines of a converted heart and a converted spirit, they were beautiful traits. And I can close my eyes and see a truly converted Corinthian being a tremendous ambassador for Jesus Christ with those gifts. But any of you who have watched any amount of PBS English period drama have had the opportunity to witness the insufferableness of someone of aristocratic background who uses it condescendingly and used condescendingly, it is withering. It is demeaning. It is insulting. It is withering.

Paul was talking about the latter illustration I just gave you.

He was talking about the wisdom of your society when used the way that your society uses it is total foolishness. It has no connection with the wisdom of God. It has no family, no community with the wisdom of God. That the way of God, the mind of God, the direction of God is so totally opposite of that kind of wisdom slash sophistication that they can't even live within the same parameters. So, as you read about wisdom from the early part of chapter 1 to chapter 4, think of it through the lens that I've just given you. Since you and I have to rest upon a commentary like Barnes to give us a look at Corinth, just bring it up to date to aristocratic England and the difference between a gentleman who uses all of those traits in a way that show their greatest value and beauty and one who uses it simply to put down to demean and to destroy.

Probably the part of these first four chapters that we know the best is summarized in one verse in chapter 1 where he says in verse 12, Now I say this that each of you says, I am of Paul or I am of Apollos or I am of Cephas or I am of Christ.

And he said to them, is Christ divided? Does Christ have a Paul compartment and Apollos compartment? A Cephas, which is Peter, apartment and a special Christ apartment? He says, nonsense, absurd, ridiculous. Christ is not divided. And so these first four chapters deal concurrently with the arrogance of sophistication and wisdom in the most elegant and rich city of that part of the world and about a tendency within the church to say, well, this is my man. This is my man. Oh, no, this is my man. Well, mine's up here. He's not a man.

And Paul said, you're all wrong. You're all wrong. Even the one that wants to trump everyone else by saying, I am of Christ, you're all wrong. You know what? On this subject, I don't need to seek an outside illustration. It's funny, sometimes some of the most powerful lessons we learn in life we learn by living life. It was multiple years ago I stood in front of this congregation and pleaded with it that it didn't need to listen to the party spirit that was filtering in from the east and south of the United States. And we had a beautiful congregation. It worked well together. It had lovely members. It was a delight to pastor. But because of some are of this and some are of that, over 50 of our congregation left.

So when you see the word party spirit, you don't have to look for some obtuse or obscure example. We've experienced the deadliness of party spirit. We've worked backward through the entire days of 11 bread coming all the way down to this place. I was sitting as Mr. Sexton was preparing, reading through the text, preparing for the ordination. And I thought, you know, I thoroughly, as a retired elder, I thoroughly enjoy being in this congregation. And I look at that, I am of this, I am of this, I am this, and I say, you know what? We have in this room right now, I would have to go ask each fellow. I was doing the crude and conservative estimate. We have in this room over 230 years of pastoral experience, not elder experience, pastoral experience. There are two in this room with more than 50 years. There are two in this room with upward of 40 years, and there is even more. And one of the joys of being in this congregation is not having to listen to, sadly, what Paul had to listen with in Corinth, but to be able to truly live the Christ is not divided.

I enjoyed, before I stepped down as pastor, the loyalty and support of those men who had already retired, and I take delight in being able to offer the same thing to Mr. Sexton. And I feel sorry for Corinth. And I feel sorry for Paul. In closing, brethren, I'd like to make a statement that you have here a phenomenal body of wise counsel for the next seven days to ponder on. One of the things that we hear every so often when we hear evaluations of ministerial preaching is that we're long on description and short on prescription. In other words, you tell us all the problems, but what do we do about it? Sometimes the prescription doesn't need to be that long to be effective. Because even though we've walked from chapter 11 all the way back to chapter 1, asking, okay, we looked at this, where was he coming from? And we looked at where he was coming from. And when we finished, we say, okay, well, then where was he coming from? Where was he coming from here? We stepped back and back and back and back. When we're finished with all of those, Paul didn't leave it dangling. There's one last usage of our Days of Unleavened Bread tell. Okay? And that last use of our Days of Unleavened Bread tell come where Paul was finished talking about all the problems, and he wanted to give them a solution. So in closing, let's look at the solution. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the last time Paul uses to his Corinthian congregation a Days of Unleavened Bread word. 1 Corinthians 13.4, love puts up with things. It's kind. It doesn't spend all of its time being jealous of what somebody else have. It doesn't strut around. It's not puffed up. It doesn't act rudely. It doesn't look after only me. It's not thin skinned so that you provoke it easily. It doesn't spend its time squinty-eyed looking around trying to find something bad to say about someone else. It doesn't take any pleasure at all in things that are wrong. It is absolutely delighted when truth prevails. It's willing to carry a lot of load. It's willing to believe the best and let somebody take that away if they're going to, but unless it's taken away to give benefit of the doubt and to believe the best. It's willing to hope in every way for the best, and it's willing to hang in there to the very end.

That was the solution to all of Corinth's problems. The last time he talked to them about leavening.