Daily Lesson for Thursday 2nd of July 2026
Read 1 Corinthians 1:11-13; 1 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 7:1; and 1 Corinthians 14:37,40. Also read 2 Corinthians 1:12, 2 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Corinthians 11:3, and 2 Corinthians 13:10. How do these passages help us understand why Paul wrote letters to the Corinthians?
Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:5-9). The family of Chloe went to him with the report that things were not going too well back in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:11). In 1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20, Paul addresses the issues brought by Chloe’s household. The problems include factionalism, sexual immorality, lawsuits, and prostitution. Paul also received a letter with specific questions (1 Corinthians 7:1). His response fills the space from chapter 7 onward. The questions were related to marriage, divorce, celibacy, food sacrificed to idols, conduct in worship, the use of spiritual gifts, and incorrect understanding of the resurrection. The church of Corinth was very problematic and immature. Perhaps your local church has many problems. Yet the church at Corinth was probably worse.
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Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is very relevant to our time, as well. After all, don’t we, to some degree, face some of the same issues in many of our churches today? This letter has much to say to us. It is “one of the richest, most instructive, most powerful of all his letters.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 301.
Paul may have written three or four letters to the Corinthians (compare with 2 Corinthians 10:9). He wrote an initial letter before 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 5:9), but it is lost. Before 2 Corinthians, he wrote a letter referred to by scholars as the “severe letter” (2 Corinthians 2:3-4,9; 2 Corinthians 7:8), but it is lost, too. Some think he is referring to 1 Corinthians, or that this letter is partly preserved in 2 Corinthians.
From 2 Corinthians, we realize that the members of Corinth were influenced by the surrounding culture. They valued such things as competition, power, and wealth, all things that can challenge our church today, as well. Conversely, Paul sought to create a Christ-focused culture, a way of seeing the world through the lens of the gospel. How crucial that we, too, see our present world through the lens of the gospel.
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Read 2 Corinthians 2:4 again. What does this verse tell you about how much Paul cared for these people? In contrast, how much love is in your heart for others? |
