Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > The First Epistle to the Corinthians > Status Update

"Through his death and resurrection Jesus Christ marks the turning of the ages; the old is on its way out, the new has begun...He has set the future irresistibly in motion; and the new people of God, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, who belong to God by grace alone, are the people of the End, 'on whom the culmination of the ages has come' and 'toward whom all history has had ts goal" (506-7).

"...the picture intended is probably...of their corpses being 'strewn all over the dessert'...all of them had experienced...Christian 'baptism' & 'Lord's supper,' yet the vast majority of them also experienced God's judgment...[Paul's] own point...just as God did not tolerate Israel's idolatry, so that of the Corinthians will not be tolerated. We deceive ourselves if we think God will tolerate ours" (497).

"Paul's activities in curtailing his rights, yet exercising his freedom for the singular aim of 'all things for the sake of the gospel,' are his own brand of exercising self-control in all things, which now surely is intended to serve as a paradigm for them, thus bringing him back to the point of departure (8:13)" (480).

"Paul is a man of a single passion, 'the gospel of Christ'...everything he is and does is 'for the sake of the gospel.' When it becomes a choice, therefore, between his 'rights' and others' hearing of the gospel, there is no choice at all; anything that would get in the way of someone's hearing the gospel for what is is, the good news of God's redeeming grace, can be easily laid aside" (454).

"Most likely much of our letter and Paul's relationship to the church is here [1 Co 9:3] brought into focus. Any number of items - the 'divisions' in chapters -4, the combative nature of so much of the letter, their rejection of his former letter, the continuing ill will that prompted later visits and letters - all make sense when seen in light of this introductory sentence" (443).

"Love, that is, care for a believing brother or sister, determines Christian ethical life, not 'freedom.' As Paul makes clear in coming passages,...this does not mean that one's personal life with regard to food per se is absolutized, but that the first consideration in ethical conduct is not my own 'rights' but the good of the other" (430).

"For the Corinthians 'knowledge' (= insight), meant 'rights' to act in 'freedom,' which for them apparently had become the highest good, since it led to the exaltation of the individual. For Paul the opposite prevails: 'Love' means the 'free giving up' of one's 'rights' for the sake of others, and 'life together' in community is the aim of salvation" (425).

"The Corinthians have argued that there is no reality to the...idols...Paul agrees, but he qualifies his agreement in two directions. First, the...'gods' have a reality of a kind that must...inform...their relationship with other believers & their...relationship to...God...Second...the Corinthians have a relationship to...God that must finally determine both their own lives & how they relate to other believers"(415).

"The problem is primarily attitudinal. They think Christian conduct is predicated on gnosis ('knowledge') and that knowledge gives them exousia ('rights/freedom') to act as they wish in this matter. Paul has another view: The content of their knowledge is only partially correct; but more importantly, gnosis is not the primary ground of Christian behavior; agape ('love') is" (401-2).

"To be 'in the Lord' is to have one's life come under the eschatological view of existence outlined at the beginning (vv. 29-31). Such a woman lives from such a radically different perspective and value system from that of a pagan husband that a 'mixed' marriage, where the 'two become one,' is simply unthinkable" (392).