Sermon Tone Analysis
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[TITLE SLIDE]
Today, we are going to finish the first section of the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians by looking at verses 3-9.
In most of your Bibles, you will see a heading over verses 1-3 that says something like, ‘Greeting’ and another heading over verses 4-9 that says something like, ‘Thanksgiving.’
Those headings were added by the Bible’s translators to help you understand the structure, but they sort of missed it here, because, in a Greek letter like this one, the Thanksgiving is part of the introduction.
It’s been said that if you’re going to criticize someone, it’s best to sandwich it in praise, and that’s what the Greeks often did.
Whatever the letter was about, no matter how difficult the topic, they wanted to say something nice up front.
They wanted to communicate good will, regardless what difficult things needed to be said later in the letter.
Today, we are going to finish the first section of the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians by looking at verses 3-9.
In most of your Bibles you will see a heading over verses 1-3 that says something like, ‘Greeting’ and another heading over verses 4-9 that says something like, ‘Thanksgiving.’
FIGURE THIS SECTION AND NEXT 2 OUT
So, do you remember being in school and learning to write a letter?
Apart from the content of the letter, what are some elements you need to have if you are going to send someone a letter?
Do you remember being in school and learning to write a letter?
Apart from the content of the letter, what are some elements you need to have if you are going to send someone a letter?
In the Greek world, the opening greeting of a letter follows a pretty strict convention.
The Apostle Paul breaks from it at times, but here in this text, he uses the Greek format precisely.
The order or structure for the letter is:
[STRUCTURE SLIDE]
But, this is all one section.
It’s all one thought.
In the Greek world, the opening greeting of a letter follows a pretty strict convention.
The Apostle Paul breaks from it at times, but here in the text, he uses the Greek format precisely.
The order and structure for the letter is:1.
Superscripto, Sender (verse 1)
Superscripto, Sender (verse 1)
1. Superscripto, Sender (verse 1)
Adscripto, Recipient (verse 2)
2. Adscripto, Recipient (verse 2)
Salutatio, Greeting (verse 3)
3. Salutatio, Greeting (verse 3)
Hygiano, Good health or good will (4-9)
4. Hygiano, Greek for good health or good will (4-9)
We’re looking at the salutatio in verse 3 and the hygiano, in verses 4-9 this morning.
I think we know what a greeting is, but the hygiano needs to be defined.
The hygiano is a wish for good health or good will—note the word similarity with our word hygiene.
It’s very cleverly written in the book of 1 Corinthians.
It’s clever what Paul does here.
Instead of providing a meaningless statement, that ‘I hope everything is well,’ he instead provides a prayer of thanksgiving for the wellbeing that the Corinthian Church has already received.
The hygiano is a wish for good health or good will—note the word similarity with our word hygiene.
It’s very cleverly written in the book of 1 Corinthians.
It’s clever what Paul does here.
Instead of providing a meaningless statement, that ‘I hope everything is well,’ he instead provides a prayer of thanksgiving for the welfare the Corinthian Church has already received.
And as we will see the thanksgiving prayer is written in such a way as to emphasize the greeting of verse 3. So, we will start there with verse 3. The Apostle Paul writes,
As we will, see the thanksgiving prayer is written in such a way as to emphasize the greeting of verse 3. So, we will start there with verse 3. The Apostle Paul writes,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
In this greeting or salutation, we see two ideas, Grace and peace.
And we see that they stem from two apparent sources, God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ.
But, there is something unique going on here and I think Paul did it on purpose, because every one of the letters Paul wrote uses this same salutation or a very similar form of it.
In this greeting or salutation, we see two ideas, Grace and peace.
And we see that they stem from two apparent sources, God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ.
But, there is something unique going on here, and I think Paul did it on purpose because every one of the letters Paul wrote uses this same salutation or a very similar form of it.
In this text, the Apostle Paul employs an ancient literary device called a chiasm to communicate a unique relationship between two ideas, grace and peace.
A chiasm is the presentation of information in an A,B,B,A format.
An example is the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
In this text, the Apostle Paul employs an ancient literary device called a chiasm to communicate a unique relationship between two ideas, grace and peace, that we are going to look at today.
A chiasm is the presentation of information in an A,B,B,A format.
In this text, the Apostle Paul employs an ancient literary device called a chiasm to communicate a unique relationship between two ideas, grace and peace.
A chiasm is the presentation of information in an A,B,B,A format.
An example is the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
In the Christian world, when we think of grace, we think of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins—although we will see it’s much more than that.
But, you can see grace and Jesus show up as the A’s in our A,B,B,A structure.
So, here’s the chiasm in our passage.
In the Christian world, when we think of grace, we think of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins—although we will see it’s much more than that.
But, you can see grace and Jesus show up as the A’s in our A,B,B,A structure.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
And, in the Hebrew mind, peace was an idea that had to do with God the Father.
So we can see our B’s for our A,B,B,A structure.
And, in the Hebrew mind, peace was an idea that had to do with God the Father.
So we can see our B’s for our A,B,B,A structure.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(, ESV)
This can be visually represented this way:
This can be visually represented this way:
[CHIASM SLIDE]
[CHIASM SLIDE]
A. Grace
A. Grace
B. peace
B. peace
B. God our Father
B. God our Father
A. Lord Jesus Christ
A. Lord Jesus Christ
Sorry, if that’ a lot of technical stuff, but it’s not technical without reason.
The chiasm demonstrates that there is a unique relationship between the grace offered in Jesus and the peace that a person has with God the Father.
Sorry, if that’ a lot of technical stuff, but it’s not technical without reason.
The chiasm demonstrates that there is a unique relationship between the grace offered in Jesus and the peace that a person has with God the Father.
We could state that relationship this way:
We could state that relationship this way:
[RELATIONSHIP SLIDE]
[RELATIONSHIP SLIDE]
A. Grace through Jesus Christ
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