Sermon Tone Analysis

The Church

We need to keep in mind the nature of this letter to the Corinthian church.

They were a congregation in crisis.

There were warring factions within the church.

There was the issue of winking at the very public sin situation with one of the brothers.

And, there were two issues very pertinent to understanding chapters 12 through 14 - misuse of spiritual gifts, and the influence of pagan worship among the gentile Christians.

1 cor

Many of these Gentile believers were new to the faith, had come out of pagan worship and were guilty of syncretism - mixing pagan and Christian worship.

with that in mind, let’s read verses one through three....

1 Corinthians 12.1-3

1 cor 12.

Paul uses a Greek idiom at the beginning of this passage, (περὶ δέ, peri de), translated - “ Now concerning,” or “And now.”

It is used but eight times in Scripture, six times in 1 Corinthians and twice in 1 Thessalonians.

The debate for translators and commentators is whether Paul is merely introducing a new topic, or introducing a topic in response to a letter from the Corinthian church.

If the division within the church led to debates about doctrine, and those debates could not be resolved among themselves, it would seem natural for the congregation to send Paul a letter asking for his authoritative response.

If this is so in this case, then Paul is responding to a debate likely influenced by the issues I outlined before - misuse of spiritual gifts because of the influence by previous pagan practices.

The Holy Spirit

1. Get rid of your baggage.

Your world works differently now.

2. Life is either in the Spirit, or it is not.

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What is Paul trying to get across here?

Unity.

As the Trinity is One, so the Church ought to be one in gifts, services and activities.

Your gift(s) are not for you, but for all.

You get what you get because the Holy Spirit says so.