Bible Study 6/25

Proverbs 17:1-14

v.14 - "The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out."

1 Corinthians 1:1-17

Speaking of quarreling... already in these first 14 verses we know a little bit about the situation at Corinth. We know that while Paul was there, he preached the gospel and it was received by some there. As they received it, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which manifested itself in various spiritual gifts of speech and spiritual knowledge in the church. Paul gives thanks for this.

But there is a problem. There seem to be disagreements, and serious enough to the point where factions are forming, the rallying point being the teachings of the men they follow - Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. Paul begins his refutation of this by appealing for unity and pointing out the ridiculousness of such factions - all of us follow Christ as Lord. He then talks about his own specific role in the formation of their church (preaching the gospel) and begins to make a transition to talking about the manner in which he preached, which was not with "words of wisdom".

Some inferences that could be made from this already is that a basis for these factions is the eloquence of the teaching of the various leaders and that one way Paul might speak to this is talking about the various important roles that all of these leaders play in the formation of the church.