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A Commentary on the Book of First Corinthians (Volume 1) (Audio Version)

In the first four chapters of his letter to the Corinthian church, which was obviously not originally divided into four easy-to-read chapters, Paul talked about a division in the church that he had learned about from either Chloe or from a person in Chloe's household. Then in the next four chapters of this first volume of a commentary on the book of First Corinthians, he talked about fornication in the church, taking a brother or sister in the Lord to court, to marry or not to marry, and the Christian position on eating meats that had been offered to idols. But in looking at his organization or structure of the first eight chapters, two fascinating things stand out.The first is the amount of ink that he used to talk about the division in the church. He used four chapters worth of ink to talk about division in the church. But he only used one chapter of ink, each, to talk about fornication in the church, taking a brother or sister in the Lord to court, to marry or not to marry, and the Christian position on eating meats that had been offered to idols.So that shows how important he thought unity is in a local church. Clearly fornication is very, very wrong. Illicit sex among God's people, among those who have truly been born again, is a reproach to the Lord and a betrayal to the cross of Jesus. Similarly, taking a brother or sister to court has some importance, as does marrying or not marrying. So while they may not be as significant as fornication, Paul still weighed in on both. He also thought that eating meats offered to idols was important enough to mention, too. But he still put divisions in the church at the top of the list as the most significant problem to avoid.The second fascinating thing about Paul's organization or structure of the opening chapters of First Corinthians is that he put the division in the church at the front of his letter. That is actually fascinating for two reasons. The first is that it again shows how important he thought unity is in a local church. People who cannot get along or who a

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