1 Corinthians 12:18-21 Yesterday we saw how Paul drew attention to the problem of inferiority complexes in the Church. In today’s verses, he centres on the problem of superiority complexes. He points out how absurd it would be for one part of the...
1 Corinthians 12:14-15 Many people struggle in life because of an inferiority complex. They are inclined to spend their lives comparing their attributes and abilities with others and convincing themselves that they are no good. This is incredibly...
1 Corinthians 12:7 I want to continue focusing on the verse that we looked at yesterday because it is so crucial. I have been a church leader for many years and people have told me regularly that they don’t know what their gift is. Nothing could...
1 Corinthians 12:7 This short verse contains three incredibly important messages. First of all, the spiritual abilities that we have are a gift from God. They are an expression of his love and generosity and so when we identify a gift, whether in...
1 Corinthians 11:23-24 These words are incredibly important. Remember, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was written some years before the earliest Gospel. This is, therefore, the first recorded account of any of the words of Jesus. Paul never met...
1 Corinthians 11:17-18 Paul loved the church in Corinth with a passion. He had founded the church and so it is not surprising that he longed for the community to thrive. It must have been particularly painful to him that they managed to get so mu...
1 Corinthians 10:31,33 Life is forever throwing up questions. Just because we have decided to follow Christ, it doesn’t mean that everything is straightforward. We often have very difficult decisions to make, and the answer isn’t immediately obvi...
1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Athletics were taken very seriously by the Greeks. The Olympic Games were established in 776 BC and were held in Olympia every four years. Corinth itself had its own games known as the Isthmian Games, which were second only...
1 Corinthians 9:19-20, 22-23 Paul had an incredibly clear focus for his life. His longing was that everyone should have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. He wanted them to know that Jesus loved them so much that he died for t...
1 Corinthians 8:1-2 In writing this letter to the Corinthians, Paul didn’t dodge any of the difficult issues. I suspect that most of us are tempted to avoid grasping nettles, but Paul took on one nettle after another with remarkable confidence. T...
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Everything seemed to be going wrong in the Corinthian church. The Christians had become arrogant and were making up their own rules. There was, for example, a case of incest in the church and no action had been taken. There...
1 Corinthians 4:16-17 When I was learning to play the cello, my teacher always told me to look carefully at other cellists. He told me that this was really important because I would learn something from all of them. It’s just the same with the Ch...
1 Corinthians 4:7 Try to take a few minutes to write a description of your life. You will need to include things like your health, family, friendships, job, house, car, bicycle and other possessions. Then look over the list and remind yourself tha...
1 Corinthians 3:18-19 Every day we are bombarded with powerful images of what it means to be successful. The advertising and entertainment industries feed us with a continual stream of pictures of wealthy, powerful, glamorous and successful peopl...
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 Every building needs firm foundations. I’ve just been reading up about the process of preparing good foundations for a self-build. As you can imagine, it’s a major task involving a careful examination of the land with the he...
