1 Corinthians by Ryan Lowery (2023)

Despite the highly immoral culture of Corinth, a church was able to be planted there. A few years after leaving them, Paul writes to the Corinthians to set them straight on a multitude of moral issues and encourage them back towards the main message of Christ.

Out of all the moral issues in Corinth, Paul first prioritizes and targets the disunity in the Corinthian church. Instead of forming cliques and harboring bitterness, Paul urges the church to actively seek unity in Christ.

Apologetics alone is not enough to understand the mind of God; God wants to communicate to us through the Holy Spirit.

Paul admonishes the corinthians on the basis of his love for them. While they are forming factions within the church, Paul points them back to unity under God.

Paul calls the church's attention back to Jesus as the foundation for spiritual growth. Despite the good or bad work we do as humans, God is the one who causes the growth.

Paul calls the Corinthian church to discipline a specific member out of the church, with the hopes of future redemption. Explained in this passage, church discipline should be used rarely and only in response to serious, unrepentant sin committed by believing Christians.

Paul lays out God's design for sex and the implications of this view on both single and married people's lives.

Paul writes to the Corinthians about eating meat sacrificed to idols. He urged them to practice their freedom in Christ and eat the meat if they feel okay to do so, but to not eat the meat if it will stumble other Christians. The application in our lives is that we should have a willingness to sacrifice our own freedoms in morally gray areas in order to show love others.

Paul calls for believers to set aside our personal freedoms and strong opinions for the sake of the gospel and showing God's love to others.

Paul calls for us to dedicate our lives to God instead of the world, because it will reap an eternal reward instead of a temporary one. Creating spiritual goals is a good way to be strategic about our dedication to God.

Paul takes a look back at Israel's history and issues a warning to Christians to fight against temptation and follow God with our lives.

In this passage, Paul lists out some of the spiritual gifts with an emphasis on the ways these gifts can be used to serve others.

Paul talks about what Godly love is, the fact that love defines maturity in Christ, and how love should be at the center of every Christian walk.

Paul lays out what concepts in the scriptures are essential doctrine, such as being saved by faith alone, or believing in the resurrection of Christ. We do not need to believe in non-essential doctrine in order to be a Christian, but Lowery posits that there is still benefit in wrestling with God through these non-essential concepts.

In this commonly controversial passage, Ryan Lowery takes a look at the historical context and its current implication on our lives as modern Christians.