1 Corinthians 1-4

== 1 Corinthians 1==
=== 1 Cor 1:1 ===
1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
  Paul begins his letter affirming his office as apostle and indicates he is with a brother in Christ named Sosthenes.  The only other time that name is used in the New Testament is in Acts 18 where Paul is in Corinth.  Paul spent a year and half there dwelling first with Aquila and Priscila, then later with a man named Justus whose house was physically touching the synagogue.  While there, he converted the chief of the synagogue, a man named Crispus.  After this, a man names Sosthenes took over the job as chief.  At that time, the Jews took Paul before the Roman deputy of Achaia, Gallio.  Gallio dismissed them saying their complaint against Paul had nothing to do with Roman law.  The Greeks then took Sosthenes, a Jew and chief of the synagogue, out in front of the judgment seat where Gallio was officiating and beat him.
What I draw from this is that Sosthenes, after he took over from Crispus who had converted, stirred up trouble for Paul and it backfired.  He got beat up by the Greeks for causing a stir and went home licking his wounds.  Paul dwelt in Corinth for a while after that incident (beyond the year and a half he had already been there).  If he remained with Justus next to the synagogue, and if this is the same Sosthenes, it is not too much to understand that eventually Paul won him over as well and eventually came to call him brother.
This also helps us place the time of the writing of 1 Corinthians somewhere on Paul's second missionary journey, possibly after he left and made his way to Ephesus as recorded in Acts 18.  By that time, the church of Christ would have been around for roughly twenty years.
Paul is a powerhouse when it comes to reasoning from scripture and I find it truly heartening that he was able to convert even his enemies to Christ.
=== 1 Cor 1:2 ===
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:
Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and describes these Christians with several labels.
1)  They are sanctified in Christ Jesus.  To be sanctified is to be set apart, to be made pure and holy.
2)  They are called to be saints.  All Christians are saints.  The word hagios just means purified one.  So by being sanctified, they are made into saints, which is in contrast to sinners.  See my article I Am Not a Sinner for more details.
3)  They are saints with all Christians everywhere so part of the church universal.
Those who 'call upon the name of Jesus Christ' are not just people who are verbally calling out "Jesus", but are invoking His authority for all that they preach and do.
=== 1 Cor 1:3 ===
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe this is general favor coupled with peace, and is a typical greeting from Paul.  It is not contextually the specific grace that saves.  As Paul does in most of his letters, he brings these greetings from the Father and Son but leaves out the Holy Ghost.  I believe that this is an indication that the Holy Ghost is there writing through Paul.  If Mark goes to visit grandma and brings greetings from those who didn't get to come, they would not say "I bring greetings from Bob, Lucy, and Mark."  Mark is right there.  He has no need to mention himself.  So, the Holy Spirit, involved in the writing of the letter, brings greetings from the other two persons of the Godhead.
=== 1 Cor 1:4 ===
4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
Paul, who spent so much time in Corinth, has a special place in his heart and in his prayers for the congregation there.  He is thankful for them in his prayers all the time.  Imagine, throughout all the travels Paul did, all the congregations he worked with and friends he made during this time, that Paul takes time daily to pray for every one of them.  Would that I had the kind of faith and love to emulate this.
His prayer of thankfulness is for the grace - here the specific grace that saves - that had been given to the church at Corinth.  Were it not for that plan of salvation delivered to them, they would not be saved, they would not be his brethren.  This grace, as I talk about in my article "What is Grace?" of course includes Jesus Himself and His teachings, the gospel or New Testament.
=== 1 Cor 1:5 ===
5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
This is further indication that Paul is now talking about the specific saving grace of the gospel.  It is the gospel that enriches our faith.  It is the gospel that they were to speak.  It is the gospel that provided them with all knowledge.  As we will see later in the text, this was a time when they needed miracles to impart this knowledge of the gospel because it hadn't all been written down yet.  We, today, have the completed New Testament and therefore have no need of miracles.
=== 1 Cor 1:6-7a ===
6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift…
Paul here alludes to those gifts by writing about how the truth was confirmed there.  Miracles were used in the first century to confirm that the speakers were speaking the Truth from God rather than from themselves.  (Mark 16:20; Heb. 2:4).  These gifts were temporary as we will see in chapter 13, but for this time period, they were necessary.
=== 1 Cor 7b-8 ===
… waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul speaking of the church at Corinth "'waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ'". This coming is in judgment against the Jews, and not the end of time.  What in this context, though, indicates this "coming" is in Judgment against the Jews rather than at the end of time? Two things:
A. The most powerful indication that this coming relates to the coming in judgment against the Jews is that this coming that they waited for is directly tied to miracles, which means that the coming is also limited to the first century, just like the miracles were. We know that the gifts of verse 7 are miracles because the gifts were what confirmed the word in Corinth and that's what miracles did (Mark 16:20). We know that miracles are limited to the first century because of a number of passages, the most powerful of which is 1 Cor. 13.
B. The second indicator that this coming is related to the Jews is that Paul writes that those people that were his immediate audience in the letter were the ones that were waiting. The way the introduction is phrased, it is the current state of the congregation that they are faithful, enriched, and so on. It is therefore the current congregation, not some potential congregation thousands of years later that is waiting. They did not wait in vain.
The second point here is like the first.
A. The confirmation (through miracles) would be through the end. This end is the end of the age, which contained the end of Judaism and completed when the last book of the Bible was revealed and penned, when miracles would cease.
B. The confirmation unto the end was so that "'ye' may be blameless" in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is still directly addressing a specific congregation and it is the people of that congregation at that time who would be found blameless. "The day" is the same "day of the Lord", "that day", or any other similar reference like we have touched on countless times before in these articles. It is the day of judgment when Christ would come with His messengers to judge the nations, the physical nation of the Jews and the spiritual nation of the church. Only one would be left standing after that judgment.
=== 1 Cor 1:9 ===
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is faithful to complete that which He promised in terms of coming in judgment against the Jews who persecuted the church.  From the account in Acts 18, we know how much trouble the church in Corinth faced.  Here Paul is comforting them by saying that all that nonsense they were facing with the Jews would soon be dealt with.
This is according to the good news which is how they were called into fellowship with Jesus, made saints.  This verse ends the greeting that Paul gives to this congregation.
=== 1 Cor 1:10-13 ===
10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.  12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.  13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
Pulling no punches, Paul dives right into some problems that the church there is having.  Paul is not the only traveling preacher to have worked in Corinth and during the past couple of decades, these different preachers had immersed many into Christ.  This had become a point of pride and division at Corinth and certain members of the house of the respected Christian woman, Chloe, have communicated to Paul about the problem.
Paul writes to them and commands them to all speak the same thing, speak with one voice and condemns very strongly the idea of division.  To be divided is destructive for the church.  How silly is it to be divided over such a thing as a name.  Yet today, the idea of division is celebrated.  The denominations of the world have phrases like "choose the church of your choice" and "agree to disagree".  They are all distinct organizations with distinct names and doctrines.  Thus, by embracing division, they have violated what Paul, by Christ, has commanded here.  This indicates that these churches are trees God has not planted (Matthew 15:13).
Paul admonishes them for dividing up based on the men that converted them by asking if Christ Himself divided like this?  It wasn't Paul who died on the cross and it wasn't by Paul's authority they were immersed.  It's not Paul's church!  It's the church of Christ.  He only built one (Matthew 16:18; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4).
=== 1 Cor 1:14-17 ===
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; 15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. 16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Paul is saying that, because of their division over who immersed them, he is thankful he immersed only a very few.  Crispus (the former leader of the synagogue mentioned above) and a few others.  Why, because he didn’t want anyone thinking he was immersing people according to his own, personal authority for he had none.  The focus of Paul’s ministry was not to be an immerser, not even a philosopher speaking the wisdom of men, but only that which he had learned from Christ, only the gospel.
In other words, none of what Paul was doing was from him, and he is claiming that he is not important.  Who does the immersing is not important.  In fact, who immersed the first sinner into Christ after the cross?  The answer is, it logically must have been a non-Christian because there were no Christians around yet to immerse the first person into Christ who then became the first Christian.  Humans do not need to be immersed by a preacher or an elder or even another Christian.  If you are studying and you come to the conclusion that you need to obey the gospel and be immersed in water to put Christ on, grab someone off the street and ask them to immerse you!  Who holds you so you don’t slip while going under the water, who hears your confession, isn’t the point.  Obeying the gospel and being immersed in water into Christ is what’s important.  It’s the Holy Spirit that is doing the real immersing anyway (1 Cor. 12:13) by the Word.
So, to summarize, being immersed into Christ is of absolute importance.  What human immerses you is utterly irrelevant.
=== 1 Cor 1:18 ===
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
Those who are pershing are those who reject the gospel.  To those who are saved, the gospel is the power of God. (Rom. 1:16)  Two points to consider here:
1)  The power of God to save men is the gospel and only the gospel.  It isn’t the Old Testament.  It isn’t miracles.  It isn’t anything else but the teachings of Christ.  If a person relies on anything else to be saved, they are attempting to be saved by an insufficient power.  The Old Testament (law of Moses) isn’t powerful enough to save, only condemn.  An individual isn’t powerful enough to save themself through merit.  Satan won’t save you.  Only God can save you and He has chosen the gospel, operating through obedient faith, to save you.
2)  Paul identifies some at this time as saved.  It’s not a pseudo-salvation waiting for a real salvation.  It’s not a proleptic salvation.  It’s a simple state of having had their sins remitted and their relationship to God restored.  Those who teach that one could not really be saved before AD 70 are wrong.
=== 1 Cor 1:19 ===
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
It is written:
Isaiah 29:14 -  Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
God takes the philosophies of men and makes them worthless.  How much of what men teach in regard to sin, error, and evil and how to deal with it is meaningless.  How do men teach we are to deal with murdering someone?  You cannot bring that person back to life so no matter what you do, there is nothing man can invent that makes sense to atone.  But the gospel deals with all sin and provides an answer.  It has to do with our relationship with God, our understanding of what sin actually is and how it applies.  In that the gospel provides real answers, real solutions, it brings to nothing all the imaginings of men, which fall short.
=== 1 Cor 1:20-21 ===
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
I’m reminded here of the book of Job.  Job is faced with personal devastation in his life and his three ‘friends’ come to question him and challenge him about it.  Perhaps they even cause him to doubt himself, though not God even though Job questions God.  After his friends are done, Job does question God and God lays out an argument that makes Job’s friends seem foolish.
Too, here, is the argument from presupposition.  What can man reason without God?  What arguments can we make without recourse to God as a foundation for even that reasoning?  Those who try to argue against God must borrow from God to even begin to make an argument.
So while by man’s thinking, the contents of the gospel message are silly, even seem stupid, the reality is that the most effective method of restoring man’s relationship to God is seeking to understand God through His communications to us, particularly the gospel which is the end conclusion of His revelation to us.
=== 1 Cor 1:22-23 ===
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:  23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
The Jews were always looking for some physical manifestation of God working among them, even to the point that they began to look into pagan religions for those supernatural messages.  Ironically, God sent them a powerful sign, His Son, and they missed it.
The Greeks were philosophers always seeking to reason from the world and their own thoughts to understand the world, but they lacked a connection to God in their reasoning.  This is what prompts the conversation Paul has on Mars Hill concerning the Unknown God.  I have to wonder if Paul has that encounter in mind as he dictates this passage.
A crucified Messiah, the perfect sacrifice able to permanently remove sin is Truth, is what saves men.  Yet the Jews didn’t get it.  They were looking for a physical king, a conqueror to take out all the nations around them, subjugate them, and rule over them.  When Jesus claimed to be what they looked for, but wasn’t what they expected, instead of changing their perception, they clung to it and acted sinfully.  To the gentiles, the preaching of the gospel made no sense to their way of things for they believed in great deeds to atone for sin, in earning ones way into the afterlife.  Grace, Bibilcal Grace, was a foreign concept.
=== 1 Cor 1:24 ===
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
To Christians, whether they were of Jewish or Gentile heritage, Christ is the power of God.  Note here the interchangeableness of Christ and the gospel.  This is what Grace means.  God’s gift is Christ.  God’s gift is the gospel.  God’s gift is the Word.  God’s gift is the New Testament.  Jesus is the gospel.  Jesus is the Word.  Jesus is the New Testament.  They aren’t meaningfully separatable.
Christ’s coming is God’s wise choice, the only real way that man could be reconciled to God because of God’s nature, His Justice, His Righteousness, as well as His Mercy and His Love.  If there were a better way to reconcile man, God would have chosen that instead.  Mankind is utterly incapable of conceiving of a better way to satisfy all the attributes of God and reconcile himself to God.
=== 1 Cor 1:25 ===
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
God’s perspective is eternal.  He sees and knows everything.  This gives Him the capacity to make perfect choices.  Our perspective is limited because we are finite beings, thus our choices are also limited and cannot be perfect outside of obedience to God.
=== 1 Cor 1:26-28 ===
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:  27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
A number of people will go to a passage like this and talk about such things as Limited Atonement and Election of individuals.  That’s not the point Paul makes here.
Paul asks them to look around at themselves, at their own conversions.  They would notice that only a few of those who are wise in the ways of men, the physically powerful, the rich, choose to obey the gospel and become Christians.  This isn’t because God didn’t choose them, or doesn’t want them to be saved.  God wants all men to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4).  The reason that so few who are like these are called (hear the call; feel the call) by the gospel is because their own pride gets in the way.  One trusts in his own intellect to get to Heaven, another his own physical might.
But God uses the things that men rejects to teach truth and bring people to Christ, to reconcile them with Himself.  Only the humble, those who choose to give up self and seek after God will understand the futility of the mighty things of the world.  All physical things will eventually become nothing.  The universe is growing old, entropy is real, and one way or another the physical universe will be done away with.  How then can men put their trust in such things?
=== 1 Cor 1:29 ===
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
No man, by physical things, can climb to Heaven and say to God “see?  Here I am.  I didn’t need you!”
=== 1 Cor 1:30-31 ===
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:  31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Christ is that which is all these things to us.  It’s amazing that all the things men value and seek after, those of real value are actually found in Jesus.  You want real power?  God is all powerful.  You want real wisdom?  God is eternal in perspective and has shown you.  You want to overcome your enemies?  God has already overcome the world.
If you would glory, glory not in your finite self.  Glory in the eternal Lord Jesus Christ.
== 1 Corinthians 2 ==
=== 1 Cor. 2:1-8 ===
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And' I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.' 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet 'not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought': 7 But we speak the wisdom of God 'in a mystery', 'even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world' unto our glory: 8 'Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' 
Paul speaks of the wisdom of the cross and the gospel. In so doing, he says that was with them in weakness, fear, and trembling. These are indicators of the corruption and persecution the church faced at the hands of the Judaizers and Jewish zealots, of who Paul is intimately familiar. He continues to say that he preached the wisdom not with enticing words of man's wisdom, true wisdom that is "not the wisdom of this age [aion] nor of the princes of this age [aion] that come to nothing". This is not just a general reference to the whole of society in the first century AD. It's not even a reference to spatial location like an empire or a planet. It's again the time unit, aion, the age. Contrast it with the word kosmos as found in verse 12 of this chapter. A little further down, Paul makes reference to "the princes of this world" and says that if they understood the wisdom of the gospel, they would not have crucified Christ. This is a direct relationship to the Jews. 
# Jews = princes of this age
# this age = the Jewish age 
The princes of this age, the "kings of the earth", the Jews are they "that come to nought" or nothing. They were ending, ceasing to be. What really seals this, is the idea that the wisdom of God Paul preached was a mystery to the princes of this age, hidden from them, but it was 'ordained before the age!' These are things set in motion before there was an Israel, before Moses was born. They were ordained in the promises to the patriarchs like Abraham, Noah, and even Adam (Gen. 3:15). The Jewish leaders (generally speaking) rejected Jesus because they did not understand and could not see past their self-righteousness, their bigotry, and their attachment to physical things. 
== 1 Corinthians 3 ==
=== 1 Cor. 3:1-11 ===
1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
 Referring back to his words in chapter 1, Paul admonishes them about their focus on the physical. He says that they are like children because of their division over these physical things. From there, he offers a contrast to their division by showing the unity of the church, how each member functions within the singular whole. The first metaphor is workers in a vineyard who are simultaneously the vineyard itself. As workers they plant, water, and do all they can to tend the vineyard, yet it is God that grants the increase, it is God that adds to the church. That is where they are simultaneously part of the vine, as Christians added to the church themselves. The second, though, is where I would like to focus. Remember that Paul is speaking of the church as a whole working together. In this second metaphor he speaks of the Corinthians (and all Christians) as God's building (singular, not plural). This is extraordinarily important for two reasons: 
# it relates to the overall picture of the apocalyptic material and the picture of the Temple, 
# it helps when we get to chapter 6 which is often misunderstood and misused to teach that there are multiple temples of God in the New Testament. This is wrong. There is only one, the church as a whole. 
Read the specifics of what Paul says about the Christians at Corinth: 
=== 1 Cor. 3:12-17 ===
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 'Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.' 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 
 Like the metaphor of the workers/vineyard, Paul speaks of Christians (himself, Apollos, and the Corinthians) as those who have a part in building the building. In this next section, though, Paul also refers to the materials used to build that building and indicates those converted to Christ. Some are good material, some not. The quality of the material would be shown, though, in "the day". This is "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" from 1:8. 
The fire is the coming judgment against the nations, not the end of time. The reward is the same as that of Matthew 25 and the parable of the stewards. This building, then, is revealed to be the temple of God. In speaking to the Corinthians of this singular building Paul says "know you [plural] not that you [plural] are the temple [singular] of God?" This is the foundational understanding of the temple that Paul provides for them in this letter. Christians are all parts of the building together, not individual temples. This is paralleling what we see in the Old Testament with the physical temple. First there was a Tabernacle, but that was then replaced by Solomon's Temple. There was never multiple temples of God. There still is not. More on this in chapter 6. 
=== 1 Cor. 3:18-23 ===
18 Let no man deceive himself. 'If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world', let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, 'or things present, or things to come'; all are yours; 23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. 
This thought of wisdom of the age wraps up by Paul saying that if you seem to be wise in this age (with specific regard to the Jewish state), its better to become a fool with regard to this age, which allows one to be really wise. The wisdom of the age that was coming to an end led to foolish things, the rejection and crucifixion of the Savior, the persecution of the church, rebellion against Jehovah, and ultimately death. He quotes Job 5:13 here and I am reminded of Romans 10:1-2 where the Jews were zealous, but it was a self-righteous jealousy. Paul then says don't put your stock in temporal things, especially in men (which the Jews were very guilty of, putting stock in themselves as descendants of Abraham). God had delivered all things into their hands, things present (this age) or things to come (the age that followed after Judaism ended - see my post on 2 Pet. 3). 
== 1 Corinthians 4 ==
=== 1 Cor. 4:1-5 ===
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 'Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. ' 
Just pointing out some more timing issues for broader study of this letter. These timing issues give a deeper meaning to the passage. We know that in a couple of chapters Paul will say that Christians are to judge the world so we know that he isn't providing a general teaching here. What he is referring to is them judging the things he has written about imminent events. We see again the references to light and darkness (1 Thess. 5; John 1:5 ; 2 Pet. 1:19) , knowledge and ignorance. In this context, the ignorance of placing faith in temporal/physical things (like men, even messengers such as Paul and Apollos) rather than in spiritual things. The same message of Romans 7-8. 
=== 1 Cor. 4:6-13 ===
6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? 8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, 'ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.' 9 For I think that 'God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. 11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; 12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. '
 The reigning is of the same type referenced throughout Revelation, the idea of reigning as children of God, a royal priesthood, dispensing the law of Christ throughout the world. It's why we have the authority and the duty to judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2-3). Then we see that the Apostles suffered the greatest persecution. A lot of this was to draw the focus away from the young congregations, to insulate them for a time. Remember, a third of the 12 stars of the woman's crown in Revelation 12 fell. The apostles saw the worst of the persecution at the hands of the Jews.
In Truth and Love.
== NavigationCategory:Apocalyptic ==
1 Corinthians 1-4
1 Corinthians 5-6
1 Corinthians 7
1 Corinthians 8-9
1 Corinthians 10-11
1 Corinthians 12-14
1 Corinthians 15-16