Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 9; 6:17; 10:16
In this message we shall consider four crucial matters covered in the first ten chapters of 1 Corinthians. In 1:2 Paul says, “To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, theirs and ours.” I do not believe that most readers of this Epistle pay adequate attention to all the points mentioned in this verse. A crucial matter in 1:2 is Paul’s expression “theirs and ours.” In verse 9 Paul goes on to say, “God is faithful, through Whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” In this verse the crucial matter is the fellowship of the Son of God. In the sequence of experience, this follows the vital point in verse 2. A third important matter is found in 6:17. Here Paul says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” In our experience, the matter of being one spirit with the Lord follows being called by God into the fellowship of His Son. The fourth crucial matter is related to the fellowship of the blood of Christ and of the body of Christ. In 10:16 Paul speaks of this: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a fellowship of the body of Christ?” This verse refers to the Lord’s table. Thus, in these verses the four crucial matters are Christ being theirs and ours, the fellowship of the Son of God, being one spirit with the Lord, and the Lord’s table.
As a help to understanding these matters, we need to consider the way Paul deals with the problems among the believers at Corinth. The way a person handles a problem invariably depends on what kind of person he is. The same problem will be dealt with in different ways by different persons. For example, one who holds a high office in the government will handle a problem differently from one who is a thief or a robber. Likewise, a learned professor will deal with a problem differently from a person with very limited education. To be sure, a government official, a thief, a professor, and an uneducated person will each deal with the same problem in a different way. In each case, the way the problem is handled will depend entirely on the person taking care of the problem. In keeping with this principle, the way Paul deals with the problems among the Corinthians is based on the kind of person he is. Therefore, to understand how Paul deals with the problems we must first know what kind of person he was and what was within him.
In reading 1 Corinthians we need to get into Paul’s spirit and touch the burden in his spirit. To touch Paul’s spirit in this way is to touch the reality of his being. A person’s spirit is the reality of his being. This means that your spirit is the real you, the true person. The reality of our being is not our mind or emotion, much less any aspect of our physical body. The reality of our being as persons is our spirit. For this reason, a person is often the most genuine when he loses his temper, because at such a time his spirit comes forth. However, when we behave ourselves carefully and act in a certain way, we may cover up our real being and not express our real person. Only when our spirit comes forth do we manifest the reality of our being. Many times this occurs when we are angry and lose our temper. The point here is that only when we touch a person’s spirit do we contact the reality of his being.
In reading the Bible it is very important that we touch the spirit of the writer. Otherwise, we shall not understand the meaning of what he says. We shall know his writings only on the surface and according to letters in black and white. But when we get into a writer’s spirit, we touch the depth of his writings.
When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, he was a person infused with the Triune God. He had been filled, permeated, and saturated with the Father, Son, and Spirit. Moreover, in a full way Paul had seen the vision concerning God’s economy. He realized that the intention of the Triune God is to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people. As one of God’s redeemed people, Paul had experienced this dispensation. Paul certainly knew that God the Father is the source, that God the Son is the course, and that God the Spirit is the flow. He also had a clear realization that the Triune God had been dispensed into him for a goal and that this goal is the corporate expression of God. All these things were not only clear to Paul, but they were also in him and part of his very being. Thus, Paul was a person infused with the Triune God and His economy. This should help us see what kind of person Paul was, what were the basic elements in his being.
Since Paul was a person saturated with the Triune God and His economy, he dealt with the problems among the believers at Corinth according to the kind of person he was. If we understand this, we shall be able to understand why Paul dealt with the church in Corinth the way he did.
In dealing with the problems in the church at Corinth, Paul includes the verses we quoted at the beginning of this message. Even 1:2 is an aspect of Paul’s handling of the problems. In this verse Paul refers to those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours. It may seem to most readers of this book that this verse has nothing to do with the problems Paul confronts later in this Epistle. Furthermore, it may appear that nothing in this verse is helpful in solving these problems. When I studied this book many years ago, making a detailed outline of the whole Epistle and writing many notes, I did not pay much attention to this verse. I wondered what a statement about calling on the name of the Lord Jesus in every place had to do with the problems among the believers at Corinth. If I had been the writer, I probably would not have included this verse. Nevertheless, 1:2 contains an important tool used by Paul in dealing with the problems among the Corinthians.
First Corinthians 1:9 seems to be more directly related to the problems among the Corinthians. Paul begins this verse by saying, “God is faithful.” Then he goes on to say that through this faithful God we have been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. I do not think that the Corinthian believers understood what Paul meant by the fellowship of the Son of God. But why would he use an expression that his readers could not understand? What was his aim in pointing out that they had been called into the fellowship of God’s Son? What help could this render to the divisive Corinthians, to those who were saying that they were of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or of a narrow Christ? To the Corinthians this must have sounded like a foreign language. As this Epistle was read among them, some may have said to themselves, “Paul, why do you tell us that we have been called into the fellowship of the Son of God? What do you mean by this?”
In 6:12-20 Paul deals with the abuse of freedom in foods and in the body. Suddenly, he inserts the words, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We may wonder what this sentence has to do with the abuse of eating and of the body. Of course, we may gain some understanding by reading this verse in its context. But if we do not have Paul’s vision, we shall not understand why this verse is inserted. We shall not appreciate that it is a very useful tool in dealing with the Corinthians and their problems.
In 10:1-13 Paul takes the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament as a type of the New Testament believers (v. 6). Actually, here Paul specifically uses the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness as a type to warn the Corinthians. Paul tells them that God’s people passed through the sea and “all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (10:2). Furthermore, they “all ate the same spiritual food” and “all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (vv. 3-4). Then in verse 5 Paul speaks a serious word, saying, “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn along in the wilderness.” Then Paul says explicitly “these things occurred as types of us.” If we read this portion of 1 Corinthians in a thoughtful way, we may wonder what was Paul’s main purpose in giving this warning.
This warning is related to the enjoyment of Christ as the good land. Here Paul seems to be saying, “You Corinthians must be careful. The good land lay ahead of the children of Israel as God’s promise. But most of them did not enter the land. Rather, with most of the children of Israel God was not well pleased; they died and were strewn in the wilderness. They did not receive the good land as their inheritance promised by God. You must be careful lest your situation become the same. You believers at Corinth also have a goal promised by God, and this goal is to enter into Christ as the good land. However, there is the definite possibility that you will not reach Christ as the land, but instead be scattered in the wilderness and thereby fail to receive the promise of reaching Christ as the land.” This thought regarding the good land is definitely implied in these verses.
After issuing the warning based on the type of the children of Israel, Paul goes on to speak about the Lord’s table. He says in 10:16, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a fellowship of the body of Christ?” If we have the proper realization of Paul’s purpose in writing, we shall see that this word is a continuation of the warning about losing the enjoyment of the good land, the full enjoyment of the rich Christ promised by God. Furthermore, the enjoyment of this rich Christ is the very fellowship of His body and blood. In other words, this enjoyment refers to the table.
Let us now put these four matters together and see what kind of picture they present. In 1:2 we see that, based on His economy, God has given Christ to us to be our portion. As our portion, Christ is both theirs and ours. We may enjoy Christ as our unique portion simply by calling on His name. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we get His Person, and then this Person becomes our portion.
According to 1:9, God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. This means that He has called us into the enjoyment and participation of the very Person of Christ as our portion. Because God has called us into the enjoyment of such a Person, we now should be those who call on His name. The word called in verse 9 is a repetition of the same word in verse 2, where Paul speaks of called saints. Through the faithful God we, the called saints, have been called into the fellowship, the participation, the enjoyment, of His Son. By calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we enjoy Him as the One who is both theirs and ours. This is the connection and continuation between verses 2 and 9.
Knowing that we have been called into the fellowship of Christ and that we should now call on Him to enjoy Him as our portion, we may wonder how we can have this experience of Christ in a practical way. We may experience Christ through the Spirit as the heavenly electricity. We have pointed out again and again that in 6:17 Paul says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. The word joined in this verse is a synonym for fellowship in 1:9. Fellowship and being joined refer to the same matter. For example, if you are joined to a saint, you have fellowship with him. The joining is actually the fellowship. This enables us to see the connection between 1:2 and 9 and 6:17. The word called in 1:9 connects that verse with 1:2, and the word joined in 6:17 connects that verse with 1:9.
The way to enjoy the Lord experientially is through Him as the Spirit in our spirit. Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and we have a regenerated human spirit. When we are joined to Him, we become one spirit with Him. Whenever we are one spirit with the Lord, we are in the fellowship of Christ. Furthermore, when we exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we apply this fellowship and enjoy Christ. What a rich enjoyment this is!
This enjoyment is signified by the Lord’s table in chapter ten. The table is a symbol of enjoyment, for the table is a feast. Of course, the word fellowship is used twice in 10:16 with reference to the fellowship of the body and blood of the Lord. In 1:9 the fellowship is that in the Son of God, but in 10:16 this fellowship becomes the fellowship of the Lord’s body and blood. This indicates that Christ has been processed through death and resurrection to become the food on the table for our enjoyment.
The process Christ has gone through can be illustrated by the process of preparing a chicken to become our food. Before a living chicken can become food for us, the chicken must be slain, prepared, and cooked. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, has also been slain, prepared, processed, “cooked,” to be the body and blood on the table, ready for us to eat. In this way He is available for our enjoyment.
When we put these four matters together, we have the full enjoyment of the processed, “cooked,” Son of God. He has become the Spirit, we have a regenerated spirit, and now these two spirits have become one. When we exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we enjoy Him as our portion and experience the fellowship of Christ in a practical way.
The four matters covered by Paul in these verses are tools used to deal with the problems among the Corinthians. Because these matters were deep in Paul’s spirit, they came out of his being as he faced the problems. However, Christians who read this Epistle superficially do not have any understanding of these matters. But if we consider these matters and understand them, we shall have a deep and more comprehensive view of the Lord’s table. Furthermore, if we have this view when we come to the table, it will make a difference as far as the enjoyment of Christ is concerned. Also, if we are those who enjoy the Son of God in this way, all problems will be solved. Praise the Lord for Paul’s way of dealing with the problems among Christians! We need to consider the connection between these four verses until our view becomes very clear. Then we shall touch the depths of the first ten chapters of 1 Corinthians. It is crucial that we all touch the depths of this book.
