Will Vaus

Today we begin Part 2 of our series entitled   To Corinth with Love.  We began the first part of this series at the beginning of this year, and we looked at 1 Corinthians. Today we begin our study of 2 Corinthians which may contain more than one letter from Paul which has been edited and put together by some unknown later redactor.   We learn from Acts 18 that Paul first visited Corinth in the early 50s of the first century, while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, that is the region encompassing the southern part of Greece. Gallio was rather a famous figure in the first century, being the brother of the philosopher Seneca who was the tutor of Emperor Nero.   Paul’s first letter (perhaps lost, perhaps preserved in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1) 1 Corinthians may have been written as early as 54. And 2 Corinthians, or at least chapters 1 through 9, may have been written as early as AD 55. With that introduction in mind, let us begin our study by reading 2 Corinthians 1:1-11. Li...

This final chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth is so typical of him. In chapter 15 he waxes eloquent about the resurrection, but immediately in chapter 16 he moves on to more mundane matters. That is Paul. His mind is in the heavenly clouds, but his feet are planted firmly in first century earthly soil.   More than anything else, this final chapter of this letter is about people, because that is what the church is all about. The church is not primarily a building, or an institution, or even a movement. The church is people. Paul calls them saints, which the NIV translates as “the Lord’s People”. The word literally means “holy ones”. This word designates not perfect people but rather ones set apart to belong to Jesus. In this final chapter Paul has a word about The Collection for the Saints, a word of Commendation of the Saints, a word of Courage for the Saints, and a final word of Final Greeting to the Saints. Listen for God’s word to you from 1 Corinthians 16… ...

For the last two Sundays we have been focusing on the resurrection chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15. Two weeks ago, we looked at Jesus’ resurrection and Paul’s three reasons for us to anticipate a great future. Then last week we looked at the resistance to the idea of resurrection both in the ancient world and today. Now, this week I want to address the question: What will our resurrection bodies be like? Listen for God’s word to you from 1 Corinthians 15:35-54… But someone will ask,   “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”   How foolish!   What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.   When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.   But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.   Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.   There are a...