Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, ‘The two shall be one flesh.’ But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. (1Corinthians 6: 15-18)

Some have argued that the spiritual and physical are in opposition. Not Paul. He teaches it is as whole persons that we enter into relationship with Christ.

Our bodies are members - the Greek is melos - of Christ. A more literal translation is that we are the limbs - hands, feet, arms and legs - of Christ.

Another very common meaning of melos is suggested by the English derivative: melody. Melos is the movement of the limbs in response to rhythm.

What rhythm will we choose? With whom shall we dance? When and how will we find our ultimate groove? Will we join together with Christ or with another?

For Paul intimacy with Christ is our only true fulfillment. Union with Christ - physical and spiritual - exceeds and includes every other possibility.

‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? (1Corinthians 6:12-15)

Our bodies - the Greek is soma - are part of Christ. Our substance is of the same essence as Christ. In the self-giving and resurrection of Jesus we have been brought into full union with the Christ.

Within this holy union - this marriage of human and divine - all is lawful. The old prohibitions have been superceded by a new covenant of liberty, empowerment, and love. The law has been replaced by our experience of and faith in the Christ.

But do not be led into temptation by this radical liberty. Not everything is "profitable" the translator offers. Paul's Greek is sumphero which is literally "carry with" or "bring together." Not everything can be combined may be closer to the original meaning.

Paul's Greek is clearly chosen to have an aphoristic ring: Pas exesti pas sumphero. Pas exesti exousiazso tis. All is available, not all can be combined. All is available, nothing overpowers.

In Christ and with Christ we can come to know God's intention for all things. In our shared nature with Christ - both physical and spiritual - we are meant to live consistently and coherently within God's intention.

Above is the Crucified Christ as the Tree of Life.

In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers at that. Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1Cortinthians 6: 7-11)

Paul's six sins of separation have grown to ten. The four additional are:

Adulterers - moichos - unfaithfulness in a committed relationship.

Male prostitutes - malakos - in my judgment the translator has this wrong, this is not a male prostitute (pornos) but an effeminate male or perhaps a sexually active younger boy.

Sodomites - arsenokoites - man lying with man as with a woman in the specific context of Leviticus 18:22.

Thieves - kleptes - this is distinct from the swindlers of the early list.

The list now consists of four sins where sex is probably involved, three temptations broadly related to property, and three - idolatry, drunkeness, and mischief making - that often run together but do not strike me as a coherent category.

I wonder if we should be less concerned with understanding each and more concerned with how all reflect a broader issue. Paul's sudden expansion from six to ten examples in the space of a few lines suggests something less than careful definition.

Whether focused on the six or the ten we can perceive in Paul's examples objects of obsession and sources of addiction. Are these all forms of potential idolatry? Distractions from God? Illusory preoccupations?

With the Galatians Paul was concerned that overzealous concern for the law might lead away from God's intention. At Corinth the concern may have been excessive freedom. The focus must be our relationship with God. Anything that obscures this focus is an abomination. Anything that contributes to this fundamental relationship is grace.

When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer—and before unbelievers at that? (1Corinthians 6:1-6)

The gathering at Corinth was troubled. Among the troubles were cliques that argued over the predominance of their preferred teacher, a scandalous relationship, self-indulgent sexuality, greed, drunkeness, idolatry, and more.

Paul indicates that these divisive characteristics have led to legal action. Members of the emergent church at Corinth were suing each other in the public courts.

All of this is the sour fruit of the same evil root. Pride, arrogance, and self-assertion cause us to ignore, dismiss, and even despise others. We seek our own advantage by putting others at a disadvantage.

Paul now encourages judgment - the Greek is krino - and claims that the whole world and even God's angels are liable to our judgment. But this is wise, discreet, and objective judgment within a community of shared values and self-giving love.

Krino suggests a separating of the self from the object of judgment. It is a way of judging where the sense-of-self is subordinated or even abandoned. Wise judgment is selfless.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons— not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? God will judge those outside. ‘Drive out the wicked person from among you.’ (1Corinthians 5: 9-13)

Earlier Paul counseled that we avoid judging and allow God to judge. Now he quotes from Deuteronomy's treatment of capital crimes in directing harsh judgment on a range of behavior.

Paul specifies six behaviors that should result in expulsion from the community of faith:

Pornos - Prostitution, especially a male prostitute, fornication.

Pleonektes - Greedy, covetous of others.

Eidololatres - worshipper of false gods.

Loidorus - mischief maker, reviler.

Muthusos - drunkard.

Harpax - extortioner, robber.

What each of these behaviors may share is a self-indulgence that dismisses or misuses one's relationship with others, including with God.

Trying to resolve the apparent contradiction, Paul's argument may be that we should be realistic when someone has already chosen to not be a member of the community.

Above is the Harrowing of Hell from a medieval manuscript.

Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1Corinthians 5:6-8)

The Jewish Passover is celebrated with unleavened bread. This commemorates the urgency with which the people of Moses left Egypt in accordance with God's direction.

Not only do the faithful avoid eating yeast for the festival, but before Passover eve all yeast is removed from their homes. The old yeast is thrown out.

Just as a little yeast causes the dough to puff up, boasting, pride, and arrogance are the source of spiritual puffery.

The Passover festival reminds participants of their dependence on God, the love of God, and the need to obey God.

Just a little - just a smidgen - of pride is enough to transform our whole batch. Throw out every source of boasting other than confidence in Christ.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgement in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. (1Corinthians 5: 3-5)

In my Bible there is less than a page separating this from, "do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart." (4:5)

Paul is not - yet - clear on why stern judgment is appropriate here while judgment is premature in the prior context.

If we are to refrain from judgment on profound spiritual matters, why is judgment appropriate on other matters? Why is sexual immorality an urgent issue, when spiritual disagreements are to be decided at another time?

The only clue Paul gives us here is in the outcome of the judgment. Through the destruction (olethros) of the flesh (sarx) the spirit (pneuma) of the man may be saved. For Paul the physical and spiritual are linked.

Is it Paul's contention that while we cannot - and should not - judge what cannot be seen - that which is hidden in the heart - we are compelled to judge behavior we can see?

But if this is the case, how is it appropriate for Paul to judge when, as he clearly states, he is "absent in body?" There is an inconsistency to be resolved.

Or... I am just being arrogant.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? (1Corinthians 5:1-2)

With the possible exception of Romans, all the letters of Paul are written in reaction to specific concerns and crises.

Corinth was a hothouse of concerns and crises.

At the beginning of the fifth chapter Paul addresses a specific concern. The Greek reads: tis echo pater gume. "Someone has his father's wife."

For Paul this is porneia - prostitution, harlotry, illicit sex. This is a term common to the translation of the Hebrew Bible used by Greek-speaking Jews throughout the ancient world. In this translation sex as a form of idol worship, sexual promiscuity, and acting as a whore in relationship to God are all condemned as porneia.

Some of those at Corinth - those who Paul perceives as arrogant, prideful, and puffed-up - have not condemned a sexual relationship between someone and his father's wife.

Given the language Paul has chosen, the relationship was probably not between a father's son and his biological mother. This was likely a marriage between a dead father's heir and a step-mother. In some Eastern Mediterranean cultures this was an occasional - if still unusual - means of preserving an estate. Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions would have found such unions scandalous, as does Paul.

Above is Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4:14-18). I am trying to identify the artist.

I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? (1Corinthians 4: 16-21)

Paul contrasts arrogance - phusioo - with power - dunamis.

This is innate power: the capability that comes from significant resources, deep understanding, and profound purpose.

Phusioo is to be puffed up, proud, and - often - to be windy with words.

The cliques at Corinth were keen to argue over insignificant differences. Their preoccupation with argument distracted from the innate power they share in Christ.

Say less. Do more.

I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (1Corinthians 4: 14-15)

Irony depends on shame - or at least embarrassment - to bring the individual to self-awareness.

Paul contrasts himself and Apollos with their followers in Corinth:

You have become filled, satisfied, even satiated. We are hungry, thirsty, and needy.

You are as kings, we toil working with our own hands and are reviled.

We are fools, you are phronimos or mindful of one's interests.

We are without honor - the Greek implies being outside time - while you are held in public esteem.

The important difference is not Paul or Apollos.

What is important is whether we bring pride or humility into our relationship with God and our community of faith.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day. (1Corinthians 4: 8-12)

There are basically three ways of communicating. The explicit depends on our ability to know and say precisely what we mean. This is usually the best form of communication. But when offering critique the explicit can provoke defensiveness and ensuing argument.

The implicit depends on a readiness of the listener to hear our meaning. This is often the most effective way to offer criticism of another. But if the other is not listening carefully or not inclined to self-criticism what is implicit can be missed or easily ignored.

The ironic offers the opposite of what we mean in such a way that our meaning is felt even more than heard. It is a powerful mixture of implicit and explicit. Irony can be especially effective in puncturing an inflated sense of self: our own as well as another's.

Is the crucifixion a profound irony? Above is a 14th Century Russian Orthodox icon.

I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, ‘Nothing beyond what is written’, so that none of you will be puffed up in favour of one against another. For who sees anything different in you?What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? (1Corinthians 4: 6-7)

The differences between Paul and Apollos (and Cephas?) are insignificant. To focus on the differences is a distraction.

What Paul and Apollos share in Christ - what we all share in Christ - is where we should be attentive.

Pride in meaningless distinctions is to take what is natural - phusis - and to inflate it - phusioo -beyond recognition.

God delights in diversity. The natural world abounds in differences. But each and all remain expressions of God's nature.

When we argue over whether a goose is better than a turkey (Apollos is better than Paul) we have missed the important point.

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God. (1Corinthians 4:1-5)

Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are all intimately related to Christ and through Christ with God. The apostles are emissaries of Christ.

Trustworthy emissaries will speak and act as directed by their master, not on their own account.

With earthly emissaries it is reasonable to assess how much trust to extend them. But in regard to the other emissaries active at Corinth Paul urges holding such judgment until the Lord comes.

Considering the prior verses this is reasonably clear and graciously conciliatory. Paul is claiming common cause - and shared commendation - with those who others treat as his competitors.

But looking ahead this admonition to avoid judgment is quickly followed by decisive judgment. How do we determine when it is appropriate to judge and when to avoid judgment?

So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1Corinthians 3: 21-23)

It is a powerful translation: all things are yours - life or death or present or the future - all belong to you.

That may be exactly what an English-speaking Paul would choose. But the Greek is more ambiguous.

In the original text the verb eimi is used once, in verse 21, and implied in the other two verses. This is what is translated above as "belong."

A much more common translation is to treat eimi as a verb of existence, such as I am or to be.

All exists: Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or present or future, you and Christ, Christ and God.

Do not be distracted by petty differences, attend to the profound unity that you share with Christ in God.

The Greek may - better than the English - highlight what we share rather than what belongs to us.

Above is an illumination by Hildegard von Bingen.

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’, and again,‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’ (1Corinthians 3: 18-20)

My reading of Corinthians is influenced by Plato, especially his Protogoras, Sophist and Phaedrus.

I tend to perceive Plato and Paul as allies in idealism against utilitarianism. Both are sure that Truth exists. Each counsel against relativistic and self-indulgent intellectualism.

Sophisticated Greek thought could see some value in nearly every argument, even as it was skeptical of any ultimate value.

There is a sophisticated crowd at Corinth. Paul is respectful of their insights. But he is concerned about their potential influence on others and their pridefulness.

Plato was confident the ultimate exists, but is difficult to know. Paul is sure that Jesus Christ is the ultimate and can be experienced. For Paul, however, humility - not wisdom - is the best path to the ultimate.

Above Paul is quoting from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11. Both suggest the danger of arrogant, self-deceiving, and truth-avoiding words.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1Corinthians 3:16-17)

The children's song, "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together" captures Paul's intent. The you is plural, as in y'all.

Each of us and all of us are able to build with the foundation materials provided by Jesus Christ. How we arrange the foundation and what we erect on the foundation is up to us.

I understand Paul to mean that any structure - grand or simple - is fully acceptable to God. It is the spirit of joy and thankfulness that matter, more than how that spirit is expressed.

But the absense of joy and thankfulness is of grave concern. The translator chooses to speak of destruction. The original Greek is closer to corruption.

Phtheiro is a corruption that results from a wasting away or pining after. Miss Haversham in Great Expectations is the personification of Phtheiro.

In the experience of Pip and Estella we may see our choices - and even a bit of God's intent, known by Paul, translated by Charles Dickens.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. (1Corinthians 3:10-15)

The foundation is Jesus Christ. Not just the teachings of Jesus. Nor even - alone - the resurrection of the Christ. The foundation on which we must build is the wholeness of human and divine in full partnership.

For Paul the suffering Jesus is self-giving God. The creator God and the human Jesus are fully reconciled. In this reconciliation is the promise and effective means for a reconciliation of all creation.

In this relationship we may reclaim our origins and find our destiny. By renewing our original relationship with God we restore the wholeness that God intended. On this foundation the universe may be redeemed.

Paul writes that he has laid (tithemi) a foundation. This is to put in place, to set, or to fix. "For no one can lay (tithemi) any foundation other than the one that has been laid (keimai); that foundation is Jesus Christ." Keimai is the material of which a foundation is made.

Above is a Russian Orthodox icon depicting Christ traveling to hell.

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1Corinthians 3:6-9)

Apollos was a Jew, originally from Alexandria, who was a disciple of John the Baptist before being introduced to the teachings of Jesus. He came of age about twenty years after the death of both John the Baptist and Jesus. In Acts of the Apostles he is described as an "eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures." (Acts 18:24)

Apollos first encountered the story of Jesus at Ephesus through the teaching-team of Aquila and Priscilla. He went on to become an important influence on the gathering at Corinth and, presumably, elsewhere. Martin Luther believed Apollos to be the true author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Saint Jerome writes that after the divisions at Corinth were finally healed Apollos became the local bishop.

Given his background Apollos may have offered a more sophisticated approach to faith than Paul or others. During this period Alexandria was the intellectual capital of Greek culture and the Jewish community in Alexandria had been much influenced by this context. But Paul is clearly reaching out to the followers of Apollos. The problem is not with what Apollos has taught, but what is sometimes being done with the teaching.

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human? (1Corinthians 3: 1-4)

There is one reality and one God. But this reality can be obscured. It is not easy to discern.

The contours of reality are observable from a distance. Like a range of mountains far off most of us will point to the same peaks and valleys.

But as we draw closer the mountains are covered by forests of prejudice, glaciers of hatred, clouds of wishful thinking, and vast cities of pride built along the slopes.

How do we come to see the roots of the mountains, the foundations of reality, the true face of God?

Where we look, how we observe, and what we interpret must be spirtually animated.

Paul says we must become pneumatikos: spiritually oriented and motivated. Creatures directed by the Spirit of God, not of any earthly leader.

We should be predisposed to seek the unifying foundations of reality.

Pneumatikos tonos was an element of Stoic philosophy -contemporary with Paul - asserting cosmic unity and coherence.

Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ. (1Corinthians 2: 15-16)

If we choose to be in Christ, to receive the Spirit, and accept the will of God our animal inclinations are transformed.

When we discern, appraise, examine and judge using spiritual criteria we have achieved the full freedom intended by God.

Even with our limitations we can engage reality with the mind of Christ: insightful, empathetic, loving, forgiving, courageous, and in accordance with God's intention.

Above is Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. (1Corinthians 2:11-14)

Paul seems to be making a careful distinction. In verse 11 he writes of pneuma ho Theos - the spirit of God - using the the genitive or possessive case.

In verse 12 he writes of "the Spirit that is from God" using the accusative case. What is the distinction? Why the distinction?

It is not yet clear. But a guess: We are invited to be "in Christ." This is a key aspect of Paul's understanding of redemption. To be in Christ is also to be in God and to be of the Spirit.

The Spirit comes from God. We may receive it. But we may also dismiss or ignore it.

Above the translator has Paul refer to the "unspiritual." A more literal translation would be "animal man." Traditionally this has been translated as "natural man."

We are born with a readiness - even a need - for the spiritual. But full spirituality is an option and a choice.

Christ is available to all. But to be in Christ we must make a decision to accept the invitation. To fully abide in Christ we must continue in active friendship with Christ.

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived,what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. (1Corinthians 2:6-10)

What we can understand of God's reality is demonstrated in the crucifixion and understood through the Spirit.

The quote is Isaiah 64: 4. It is taken from the beginning of a prayer in which the prophet admits to acts of iniquity, recalls the covenant, and asks for mercy. (See Isaiah 64)

It is possible that Paul is recommending the stance taken by Isaiah as the origin of Spiritual wisdom.

This wisdom does not begin in pride, but in humility. Spiritual wisdom recognizes our absolute dependence on God in the past, now, and in the future.

This is the wisdom of clay in the hands of a potter.

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. (1Corinthians 2: 1-5)

Paul has been explicit that there are divisions within the gathering of believers in Corinth.

His opening chapter implies that one source of division relates to the nature of wisdom.

God's wisdom and human wisdom are not the same. The reality of God goes far beyond our wisdom.

The full reality of God is not within our capacity to know - not now, not within our current limitations.

It is possible for us to know Jesus, to know that Jesus is our redeemer, and that in the crucifixion we can perceive the spirit and power of God.

We come to know this much of reality when it is demonstrated - the Greek is apodeixis - made manifest, made alive, apprehended by all the senses.

Holy wisdom is experienced more than explained.

Above is Christ as Holy Wisdom in a mosaic from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ (1Corinthians 1: 26-31)

Wisdom - the Greek is sophia - is the knowledge, insight, and ability to deal effectively with reality. The human standard of wisdom is often self-serving.

How do I advance my objectives? How do I claim the advantage? How do I discourage my competitors? How do I cause others to support me?

But in the message of the cross God has demonstrated that our perception of reality - our purposes and goals - can be fundamentally mistaken.

God's reality - is there another? - is a perpetual state of self-giving creativity. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a crystalization of this reality.

To abide in this wisdom is to be foolish by the measure of the world. To engage ultimate reality is to seem profoundly unrealistic by typical human standards.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. (1Corinthians 1: 21-25)

The death of God on the cross was incoherent with received wisdom.

For many Jews the death of Jesus on the cross confirmed he was not messiah. God would not allow his annointed such a shameful death.

Several early Christian movements - eventually designated heretical - argued that one way or another God had not died on the cross. Either Jesus was not divine or Jesus did not die.

Islam considers Jesus a great prophet and the ultimate redeemer of the world. But Islam finds it scandalous to suggest Jesus was God and God had died.

Paul insists that it is precisely in Christ crucified - the self-giving of God to torture and death - that we can apprehend the true character of our ultimate reality.

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1Corinthians 1: 18-20)

Paul is quoting from the 29th chapter of Isaiah. Here Isaiah envisions the destruction of Jerusalem. In a more complete context:

"The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote: So I will do amazing things with this people - shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden."

On what authority shall we enter into relationship with Christ? Shall we because our patron does so? Shall we for practical reasons? Shall we because we are intellectually persuaded? Shall we because we are born into a tradition?

Elsewhere Paul has preached the power of pistis - faith, confidence, conviction - in the redemptive purpose and role of Christ. How do we achieve this state of faithfulness? What is the message of the cross?

Above is the Raising of the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens.

Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. (1Corinthians 1:13-17)

Through baptism each has assumed a new identity and entered into a new social order.

Baptism was - and is - seen as a new birth in Christ. Cephas, Apollos, Paul and others served as messengers of Christ. These and others had baptized the members of the Corinthian church. But baptism was the public confirmation of a relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not with the baptizer.

Each and all - baptizer and baptized - are transformed by the self-giving of Jesus.

The power of the cross of Christ made meaningless the former identities: patron and client, master and slave, Greek and Jew, rich and poor, male and female. In Christ, through Christ, and with Christ each and all are restored as true children of God, brothers and sisters of each other, equal participants in the love and grace of God.

Do not be distracted by earthly loyalties. All is harmonized through our relationship with Christ.

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ (1Corinthians 1:10-12)

Corinth was very much a Roman city in Greece. The original Greek city had been destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. A century later it was resettled mostly by veterans of Pompey's and Julius Caesar's legions.

At the core of Roman social order - amplified within military families - was the patron-client relationship. Economic opportunity, political protection, and social welfare were largely dependent on a web of mutual dependence and deference.

At its best the system was a very practical means for sharing risk and reward. It was, however, an innately unequal and exploitive social order. By the time of Julius Caesar these webs of relationships had degenerated into ongoing divisiveness and civil unrest.

Much of Corinthians can be read as Paul struggling to deal with this preexisting worldview.

He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1Corinthians 1: 8-9)

In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, and in many of his sermons Pope Benedict XVI has insisted, "in the end your happiness and mine depend on our intimate friendship with Jesus."

We are invited into fellowship - the Greek is koinonia - with Jesus. This is certainly friendship. But the Greek gives particular emphasis to shared experience and common property. We are called into partnership with Jesus.

This is an engaged, active, vulnerable, ongoing, and self-giving relationship. It is a mutual friendship, each giving to the other. It is a partnership in extending friendship to others, even to all.

Above is Jesus in the home of his friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus by JanVermeer.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Corinthians 1: 4-7)

In Christ Jesus - by adopting the self-giving attitude and action of Jesus - we may participate in the grace of God.

The grace of God - charis in the Greek - is the origin of the spiritual gift - charisma - that is available to all.

Four hundred years before Paul, Aristotle wrote: "Let charis be that quality by which he who has it is said to render favor (charin) to one who is in need, not in return for anything, nor that anything be given to him who renders it, but that something be given to that one in need" (Rhetoric 2.7).

Charis is something delightful, pleasureable, joyful, gratifying, and beautiful. It is received from the abundance of another to fulfill a need.

Charis is an expression of unearned generosity for which there is no expectation - even no possibility - of repayment.