1st Corinthians 2-4 Notes

1st Corinthians 2-4
Review:
Paul gives the Corinthians a D in Spirituality
1-4 Division
5-6 Discipline
7-14 Difficulties the Corinthians wrote Paul about
15-16 Disbelief in the resurrection after death

Reasons Division is wrong
1. You miss the focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified
2. The things (people) the Corinthians were dividing over were silly - fools
3. Because of all the things God has for us - we have the Spirit that tells us that God has good things in store for us and that walking with the Lord is wonderful. Division hurts the divided and the dividers.
4. It's carnality.
The bible says there are three places we can be
1. Natural man - no thought of the spiritual, no thought about sin, no understanding
2. Spirituality - walking and growing with the Lord, communicating with God
3. Carnality - saved but still acting like the natural man - tied up with worldly things

Paul says carnality shows by what you eat - spiritually (immature - not growing in the word)
also by your behavior - acting worldly

Paul tells the church at Corinth that he is building a foundation and the church is building on that foundation. Their lives and works will count as will ours.

There are two judgment seats - the Great White Throne where God will judge if you think you don't need Jesus and are to be judged by your works alone - (doesn't work out to good)

The second is the bema seat or judgment seat of Christ where the saved will be rewarded by what they have done for the Lord. Paul is saying that the things that were all about us will be burned up - gone but the things we did for God we will be rewarded for (referenced in 2nd Corinthians 5:10)

I googled this and there seems to be some disagreement about this - interesting to do further research since I had never heard of this before.

Paul then tells the Corinthians about what he goes through to serve the Lord and that they should imitate him and just serve no matter the circumstances.

question "what would my church be like if everyone prayed like I pray, gave like I gave, and served like I serve?" Food for thought.