Corinth was a major seaport and trade center, the capital of Achaia (present day Greece). The city was very prosperous with great cultural and religious diversity. It was ripe for corruption, filled with immorality. Idolatry flourished with more than a dozen pagan temples employing more than a thousand prostitutes. The temple of the love goddess Aphrodite was there. Sex was a part of the worship ritual.

The church at Corinth had been established by Paul on his second missionary journey, made up largely of Gentiles. The Christians there were struggling with the corruption all around them and felt the pressure to adapt. Paul wrote this letter to offer solutions to the many concerns and to answer the questions that had been raised.

“Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift…”
The body of Christ as a whole does not lack any spiritual gift. In any body of Christ, truly seeking Him, there will be no lack of gifts. It may be that one spiritual gift may be enhanced over another if there is a need for that particular gift in that particular body.

Paul didn’t seem all that too concerned about baptism. He said Christ didn’t send him to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with his own words. Be baptized (immersed) in the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells the Corinthian church that he did not come to them with eloquence or superior wisdom, but with a personal testimony of the Spirit’s power. He was demonstrating a characteristic of the gift of evangelism. Paul was thoroughly educated in the scriptures and could have spoken with superior wisdom, yet he spoke from personal experience.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him…”
In our wildest imaginations, we can never imagine what God has prepared for us!

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”
Paul told them of salvation through Jesus. Apollos nurtured, educated, and encouraged them. But when all is said and done, it is up to God to produce the growth. We can do what we have been gifted to do, then leave it in the Lord’s very capable hands.

If we are “servants of Christ” then as servants we must do what the Master tells us to do. We are servants who have been “entrusted with the secret things of God”. It is up to us to prove faithful and share those “secret” things with others. As we learn more and more about Him, through Bible study, prayer, devotions, we must witness for Him. We must be faithful to His word and be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

“Therefore I urge you to imitate me…”
This appears on the surface and taken out of context to be arrogant on the part of Paul. We must read the previous passages to understand what Paul is referring to in this instance. He just told the Corinthians that he and his companions in the gospel were hungry, thirsty, in rags, brutally treated, homeless, cursed, persecuted, and slandered. And that his response to this was to bless, endure, and answer kindly.
In other words, Paul is saying that everything we do as Christians is the opposite of human logic when it comes to dealing with the enemy.

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
Talk is cheap! Do all of us as Christians walk the talk?

Paul wrote this second letter less than a year after writing the first one. There was some confusion among the people concerning the second coming. Many thought it was imminent and so were just waiting without doing much. He wrote this letter to clear up the confusion concerning Jesus’ second coming. Read I Thes 4:16-17 and then read II Thes 2:1-12. Paul made it very clear what things MUST take place BEFORE Jesus returns.

The events before the second coming include a “falling away” and the man of lawlessness revealed:
1. falling away
2. anti-Christ is revealed,
3. anti-Christ will declare he’s God in a temple not yet built.

The lawless one will display counterfeit signs, wonders, and miracles and deceive many people. People will perish because they do not love the truth. If we love the truth we will study and search for it. If we don’t know the truth we will be deceived.

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
We should have no fear of the evil one or the powerful forces of evil because we will be protected from spiritual harm if we trust in Him. We do need to stand firm with all the armor of God in place. (see Ephesians 6)

We must understand that spiritual warfare is real. We must take spiritual attacks seriously. How do we know when something is a spiritual attack? We must know our enemy the devil, his tactics and his style. How do we know our enemy? We must study, memorize, and apply scripture. We must be in communication with the Lord through prayer. We must be in fellowship with other believers.

As humans we think of attacks as something that hurts. In reality the attacks from Satan may feel good. He whispers in the ear such things as, “you don’t really need to go to church today, or you’re too tired to read your Bible, or you’re running late this morning so you don’t have time to pray, etc.” He helps us rationalize away spiritual disciplines, (devotions, prayer, Bible study, worship and praise, fellowship with other believers) things that draw us closer to God.

Some of the devil’s deadly “Ds”:
Doubt, when unchecked leads to disbelief. Disappointment leads to discouragement, which leads to despair. Distraction, delay, discord, deceit, all lead to division.

If the things that happen to us push us away from God, then it’s from Satan. If things pulls us to God and gives glory to Him, then it’s from God no matter what it feels like to us, even if it’s painful.

What is Paul’s distinguishing mark? Could it be the large letters he uses as he writes because his vision is poor?

Apollos “was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.”

Apollos knew about Jesus but didn’t know Jesus. He, along with the Old Testament people believed in the Messiah, the Redeemer, in advance of His coming. Apollos was teaching about the Messiah.

A similar thing occurred with Paul and some followers in Ephesus. They received only the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. Paul baptized them in the name of Jesus and they received the Holy Spirit.

Why were the seven sons of Sceva not able to drive out the evil spirit? Could it be that they were just saying words and weren’t given the power or authority to drive out demons? Notice what happened when the people heard about it. They were seized with fear and openly confessed their sins. Many who practiced sorcery brought their scrolls and burned them publicly. These scrolls were very valuable, just for the paper itself, not to mention what was inscribed on them. The parchment itself was expensive. The scripture tells us that the scrolls were worth about 50,000 days wages. That’s the equivalent of about 137 years wages. Talk about selling out!

Thessalonica was the capital and largest city in Macedonia, a Roman province. It was one of the wealthiest and most flourishing trade centers, due mostly because of its location on the highway from Rome to the Orient. There was also a thriving seaport located there. The city was exempt from most restrictions placed by the Romans because they were allowed self rule there. It was the site of many pagan religions.

Paul tells us that faith comes first, and then works. From our faith we are motivated to do good works. Work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, endurance inspired by hope. Work is a deed or act, labor is work involving pain. We make a progression from a deed to real work that involves some sacrifice or pain, leading to endurance which is cheerful waiting.

“We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts…”
We can please men by saying what they want to hear and be a Christian, but we can’t be content to just please men, saying what they want to hear and be a servant of Christ. To be a servant of Christ we are compelled to bind or knit ourselves to Christ.

“…let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet…”
Again we have the faith, love, and hope as Paul gave us at the beginning of this letter. The helmet and breastplate defend the two vital parts, the head and the heart respectively. The head needs to he kept from error, the heart from sin.
Work and labor paired with faith and love. Cheerful waiting paired with salvation – the hope of eternal rest.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Remember, God is the perfect parent! It’s appropriate for us to say, “This is God’s will so it must be good for me.” We may never know how we’ve witnessed to others simply by the way we react to difficult circumstances. Look at what happened with Paul and Silas and the jailer. The saved ones are the product of our witness – our glory and joy – great is our reward!

Paul circumcises Timothy. This appears to be a contradiction. Paul had just established at the Jerusalem Conference the importance of not imposing circumcision upon the Gentile converts. He even had the decrees of the council at Jerusalem with him. Yet he circumcised Timothy. Possibly Paul thought that if Timothy remained uncircumcised he would be considered unclean by the Jews to which he would minister and that they might be prejudiced against him and his message. Paul was using circumcision in Timothy’s case, not as necessary to salvation, but conducive to the building up of the church. Timothy was to be Paul’s assistant and constant companion and might not be accepted if he were uncircumcised. (“to the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews”)

The slave girl in today’s passages was inhabited by a spirit. Paul commanded the spirit to leave the girl. Even though the things she was saying were true, they were not from God. This is an example of Satan’s deceit and craftiness. He will tell just a little bit of truth so that some will believe and be drawn to a particular person or group. That’s the hook. Then he will be able to teach falsehoods and so deceive people. He tells just enough truth so that people are easily fooled.

The owners of the slave girl were angry that Paul and Silas had stopped their intake of money from the girl fortune teller. That’s why they had Paul seized claiming he and Paul were advocating unlawful customs. The magistrate ordered them to be stripped and beaten. KJV says the magistrates rent off their clothes, ordering the lectors to tear them off, expressing the roughness done to prisoners, preparatory to whipping.

They were severely flogged and then placed in prison in stocks. This was the inner prison (pestilential cells) damp, dark, and cold where chains rusted on the prisoners. During the time of Paul’s journeys, many died from flogging. Many died from the stocks.

The stocks were instruments of torture, made of wood bound with iron, with holes for the feet, which were stretched apart according to the severity of the punishment or torture. Yet the response to this persecution??? Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God. The Greek words here mean “as they prayed they kept singing praises unto God”. The word for hymn is the one used for the Paschal hymn (Psalm 113 - 118) which might have been the hymn sung by Jesus and the disciples after their last supper together.

The prisoners kept listening to Paul and Silas instead of sleeping. They were awake and listening. A violent earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, the prison doors opened; all the prisoner’s chains were loosed. But no one escaped. What a great witness to the jailer! It was so great a witness that the jailer and his whole household were saved. When the magistrates sent for their release, Paul responded with. “No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.” WAY TO GO PAUL!!!

Paul and Silas went to Lydia’s house and encouraged the brothers. Interestingly it was Paul and Silas, the ones who were tortured and imprisoned that encouraged the brothers, not the other way around.

In Athens the people had many gods and objects of worship, even an altar “To An Unknown God” just in case they had missed one. KJV says the city was wholly given to idolatry (covered with idols).

Epicureans were a well-known school of atheistic materialists, who maintained that the universe is the product of chance, and that pleasure was the chief end of human existence. Sounds a bit like humanism among other false religions today.

When they called Paul a babbler they were insulting him. It was a general term of contempt for any pretend teacher.

When Paul came to Corinth he devoted himself exclusively to preaching to the Jews. After Paul left the synagogue he left the Jews and went to the Gentiles. Then the Lord spoke to him in a vision. He was told to stay in the area and to continue speaking and that he would be protected. “So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.” It’s as if God were giving Paul a much needed time of rest, relief, and rejuvenation. Preaching vs. teaching. Paul was preaching to the perishing, teaching to the believers.

Paul writes to the church at Galatia giving his credentials to be called an apostle. He defends his position in several of the other letters as well. He wanted people to know that his revelations from God didn’t stop at his “flash bulb” experience on the road to Damascus. He let them know that he spent other time with Jesus.

“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.”
Paul didn’t beat around the bush!

“What is the purpose of the law?”
The law was given as an illustration that a sacrifice must be paid for sin. Sacrifice of the animals was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that Jesus would make for the remission of sins. The provisions of the old law were never enough. Sacrifices had to be continually made. Complete remission of sins was never satisfied. That can only come through Jesus alone. We don’t receive eternal life through strict adherence to the law. Until Jesus came people were held in bondage to the law.

“Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
Now that Jesus has come, we aren’t bound to the strict observance of all the laws. Being given an understanding of all the laws give us better insight into the good news of salvation through Jesus, and not salvation through the law.

Paul speaks about an “illness” when he first preached the gospel and that it was a trial to them.
“…you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me…”

Is Paul’s vision not completely restored? Did the blinding light on that road to Damascus still have lingering affects? Did the beatings and stoning have residual affects? Did the marks on his body include a visual reminder?
“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.”

“…for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus…”
Paul was experiencing the many persecutions that he himself had inflicted on Jesus’ followers.

Paul and Barnabas were “sent on their way by the Holy Spirit…” What does it mean to be sent by the Holy Spirit?

“…all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
This is the foreknowledge of God, not predestination. God knew ahead of time whose names were written in the Book of Life.

Persecution was stirred up against Paul and Barnabas, “So they shook the dust from their feet…”
Often the Jews would shake the dust off their feet when leaving a Gentile town, so this was a familiar phrase. It symbolized cleansing themselves from the contamination of those who did not worship God. Jesus told his disciples to do this if any town would not accept them or listen to them. What does that mean for us as Christians today? If we have faithfully, carefully, and sensitively presented the message of Jesus Christ we are not held responsible for the decision the other person may make. Being filled with joy is a great indicator of being in God’s will and knowing when to “shake the dust”.

Paul was stoned and dragged outside the city where he was left for dead. After the disciples gathered around him, Paul not only got up and went back into the city but he preached the good news and won a large number of disciples. The stoning itself could have killed Paul, the dragging certainly could have. Yet he was able to return to his mission, almost immediately. What happened when the disciples gathered around him????

“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” Previous to that they were called “Followers of The Way”.

Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman world. The first Gentile church was founded there. It was also the center of worship for several pagan cults that promoted sexual immorality. Antioch was a vital commercial center. Paul used Antioch as his home base during his missionary journeys.

Fascinating story of Peter’s rescue from prison by the angel. Someone once said, “Prayer moves angels.”

Notice the way that Herod died. Usually flesh is eaten by worms after death. In this case Herod was eaten by worms first, and then he died. As our granddaughter, Kylie might say, “Gross!”